Overview
The Mercury Network® platform allows you to create and manage fee plans aka fee sheets through the Fees Module. Vendor fees are automatically calculated based on data points such as product type, geographic area, and property value. This module enables customers to self-manage fee schedules through a user-friendly interface. These plans apply to UAD 3.6 products.
How to Add a New Vendor Fee Plan
Fee plans allow you to pre-set the recommended fees to be paid to the vendor for any product in any geographic area.
Navigate to the top navigation bar and select Preferences.
Select Fees in the dropdown menu.
Click the double arrow icon at the top of the sidebar to open the left navigation, then select Vendor Fee Plans.
Note: These plans apply to UAD 3.6 products.
On the Vendor Fee Plans page, select Create New Plan.
Note: You must configure value tiers before creating fee plans. Tiers are determined by the property’s Sales Price or the Owner’s Estimate of Value. For detailed instructions, refer to the article: How to Add & Manage Fee Plan Value Tiers.
Select Bulk Upload. The bulk spreadsheet method is the primary way to create fee plans.
Enter a name in the Fee Plan Name field.
Select Default Plan if this will be your default. You must always have one default plan, which is your "catch-all" fee schedule. It applies to orders for all clients, client groups, and vendors. To ensure seamless processing, this schedule should encompass all products and regions within your service area.
Choose your Base Fees methodology for the plan:
Use vendor default fees - Uses the assigned provider’s standard rates as configured in their vendor profile.
Set fees as a percentage of the client price - Calculates fees based on a percentage of the client fee that is calculated for the order. To utilize this approach, you must establish a Client Price Plan.
Manually add fees - Allows the user to specify custom fees for different kinds of orders. User will need to enter base fees and add-on fees for all applicable products and geographies.
Click Next.
In the Upload Plan Details section, click on the Instructions to view the file requirements.
Download the appropriate template for either Clients or Client Groups. If this is your default fee plan, you may use either template.
If this is not your default plan and you are creating an additional plan to specify different fees for specific Clients or Client Groups, select the template that aligns with your objective. Please note:
You may create as many additional fee plans as necessary to specify different fees for specific Clients or Client Groups.
Each fee plan applies strictly to either Clients or Client Groups, not both.
Each Client or Client Group can exist in only one fee plan outside the default plan.
Populate the fee plan spreadsheet
On the Plan tab:
List every combination of products and geographic areas your fee schedule requires.
For each product, include a base fee for each configured Value Tier. This is only applicable if you chose the Manually Add Fees option.
Specify add-on fees for any order data points that, when true for the order, increase the fee. The total vendor fee for an order is calculated by adding the base fee + any applicable add-on fees. This is only applicable if you chose the Manually Add Fees option.
Note: Required fields on the spreadsheet template have column headers highlighted in Red, while optional fields have column headers highlighted in Green. You must populate both the Plan and the List tab. Add-on fees are optional.
On the List tab:
If this is your default fee plan, add an * in each required column on the List tab to ensure the fee plan applies to all Clients and Client Groups.
If this is not your default plan, list the specific Clients or Client Groups this plan applies to. These fees will override the default plan for the specified Clients or Client Groups.
Upload your fee plan spreadsheet.
Click Browse file to upload the completed template back into the system. You may assign any name to your file; the system does not require a specific naming convention.
Click Save Fee Plan.
On the Vendor Fee Plans page, monitor your spreadsheet upload status and confirm the plan passed validation.
If the plan validation fails, the user who uploaded the spreadsheet will receive an email notification.
In the Fee Plans section, a failed icon 🚫 will display in Status column. .
Note: You can click the “History Log” button to the left of the “Create New Plan” button to see every successful and attempted upload in your current profile. If there was a validation error during your upload, the reason will be outlined here.
If plan validation fails.
Click Delete to remove the plan, then update the spreadsheet template to resolve the errors.
Create a new plan using the corrected spreadsheet template.
Note: If you need to specify different fees for specific vendors, refer to the article How to Create & Manage Vendor Exception Fee Plans in Mercury Network®.
How to View, Edit and Delete a Vendor Fee Plan
Navigate to the Fee Plans section.
Locate a plan using the Search field or by filtering by Plan Name, Status, # of Clients, or # of Client Groups.
To view or edit an existing plan, click View Fees. To remove a plan, click Delete.
Note: To delete a plan currently set as the default, you must first designate a different plan as the default.
From the existing fee plan page, click the Edit (pencil) icon to rename the Vendor Fee Plan if necessary.
Note: To uncheck a plan as default, navigate to the preferred plan and select the Default checkbox.
Use the Product and Locations filters to narrow your search for items.
To edit an existing fee plan, click Export, and update the data in the spreadsheet as required.
Click Update Fee Plan to upload your updated spreadsheet and replace the existing fee plan.
Click Browse file to upload the spreadsheet into the system.
Click Save Fee Plan.
Monitor your fee plan to ensure it does not encounter any validation errors.
Outcome
You have now configured fee plans that automatically calculate the correct total vendor fee for an order using base fees and add-on fees. You can differentiate fees between products like the Traditional Appraisal - Single Family and the Traditional Appraisal - Single Family requiring a rent schedule by configuring add-on fees. If you need to specify different fees for specific vendors, refer to the article How to Create Vendor Exception Fee Plans in Mercury Network®.