Month to month your commission spreadsheets might change. If the provider of the spreadsheet changes the format even a little, it could cause RPM to throw an error at you when you're trying to import your monthly commissions. Being that commissions are usually a time sensitive endeavor, if there are any urgent errors preventing you from importing your spreadsheet or any errors that aren't listed here please contact us at support@rpmtelco.com and we'll reply promptly. Please include your Spreadsheet(s) and Supplier name(s) that are having issues in the email.


Listed here are some of the error messages that can occur when you're importing your commissions into RPM.


An Import Matrix for this supplier is required


This error is due to there being no import matrix (What maps spreadsheets to RPM). To fix this error read about the Import Matrix Setup. 


It is possible that you've created a matrix for said supplier and are getting this error anyways. Make sure that when you go check the setup that the matrix you created is the Primary Matrix (the first one it lists). If it is not you'll need to edit the Primary Matrix and place the columns in there.



Columns are missing or incorrect


There are a lot of causes of this error, what it means is that RPM cannot match up the columns you choose in the matrix to the ones on the spreadsheet. 


Required columns list out what the import is missing separated by commas. "Product - Product name" for example, the value on the left is the spelling of the column that RPM is looking for on import, while the value on the right is what it is called in RPM. 


Common causes/fixes for this issue:

  • The column headers in the spreadsheet are not on the first row. Ensure the column headers are on the first row.
  • The worksheet with the data you want imported is not the first worksheet on the spreadsheet. Ensure that the first worksheet of the spreadsheet is the one you want to import. 
  • Column headers are spelled differently than what's in the matrix. Update the matrix or the spreadsheet, ensure that the spelling is the same for both.
  • Formatting of the column headers are different than expected. Clear all formatting on the top row.



Unable to open Excel 95 workbooks


The import wizard only accepts Excel sheets from 97 and up. If a specific file type doesn't work for you try saving it as the newest version you can and try again.



Account does not exist and the customer was no specified at 


This error is a rare one, it happens most often when there is no customer name filled out for a commission item in the spreadsheet. The error message list out the account number that RPM cannot match to a customer name using the singular quotation marks. The solution to this is to either fill out the customer name on the spreadsheet, or create the customer and account in RPM manually. 


Another note to keep in mind is that RPM will automatically assign the same account numbers to the same customer. So if a spreadsheet next month has the same account number in a different customer RPM will still place that account number in the older customer, presuming the Supplier is that same. 



Cell in required column is empty / Missing Product


This error list out that a required cell (Product, and Account) for a specific row is missing. The error message list out the column header name and then the row the importer stopped at. This doesn't list out every case where this column might be missing data so you could get this error again after fixing the initial missing value.  


If RPM had a hand in your implementation a lot of your spreadsheets might have a column called Product, this is just our default products column for when the supplier/master agent doesn't provide one. We usually just default fill it with Residual and fill in every row with it, you are free however to fill it in with whatever you wish to call the products for this supplier. 



Example of valid money values


This error is due to a row or many in the spreadsheet having a value that is something other than a number for certain money columns. Net Billed and Gross Commission being the most common victims of this error. Some spreadsheets will sometimes use symbols such as -, $, % etc instead of properly formatting it as a number, money, or percentage. You will have to either leave the field blank or fix the formatting.



Multi Supplier Import errors

There's a lot of moving parts when it comes to multi supplier imports which means a lot of different things can go wrong. One of the worse things would be if the provider changed the spelling of the column headers, as you would have to update each supplier and respective matrix. If this is your first time hearing about multi-supplier imports you can read more about it here. 


A multi-supplier spreadsheet usually comes from a Master Agent that works with multiple Suppliers. This means that you'll want to keep every supplier matrix from the same Master Agent consistent throughout. 


This section will cover the most common errors we've seen while import commissions.


Supplier or alias specified for column 'x' does not exist


This error can state that there's a supplier in the spreadsheet that can't be matched to an existing supplier in RPM. This can be the case if say a new Supplier is coming in under this spreadsheet, or if the spelling has changed due to a merge of companies or any other reasons. 


To fix this error you have to find a match for the Supplier name. Check the row that the error is prompting and see if that Supplier name exist in your RPM as a Supplier yet, if it does not, you will need to create it and map the matrix to it. If you've done all of those steps and you're still getting an error it might be due to your Supplier name in the spreadsheet not matching the Supplier name you've created in RPM or the alias. You can copy the Supplier name directly from the spreadsheet and enter it in as the Supplier name in RPM or as an alias.


Please check this link to see how to setup Aliases. 



Columns are missing or incorrect: The Import Matrix for supplier 'x' does not indicate a matching column for the required field: 'y'


This error arises when the Matrix for the Supplier listed doesn't have all the required fields for a import. If you run into this error, it's most likely that the matrix hasn't been setup yet or is setup incorrectly.