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Cost split markups are an important compliance tool in Total Expert. Using these markups, you can dictate the proportions of cost that must be assumed by each party when charges are incurred for printing shared marketing materials. This works by marking which areas of a template each party is responsible for and letting Total Expert calculate the respective shares.
To work correctly, a cost split markup must be set up on a template before it is used to place a print order. When an order is placed, Total Expert calculates the actual cost assigned to each party and notifies them of the payment due. The order is then only sent to the printer when all parties have submitted payment. Total Expert keeps a record of all parts of the transaction for reporting purposes.
Create a cost split markup
Creating a cost split markup is intuitive. You simply indicate which areas of a template should be paid for by each party.
Navigate to Manage Marketing > Manage Templates.
Locate the piece of content you want to create the markup for and select Actions > Media Markups.
Any existing markups for this piece are listed. To create a new one, select the +Calculate New Cost Split button in the upper-left corner of the page.
On this page, you will draw rectangles to represent each payer's share of the piece. These are referred to as the Loan Officer Share (red) and the Co-Marketer Share (blue). The Markup Settings panel is on the left side of the page, and a preview of the piece of content is on the right. Above the preview, a color-coded label indicates which share you will add to with the next rectangle drawn. When you first load the page, the Loan Officer share is selected by default.
Enter a name in the Markup Name field in the Markup Settings panel. This should be descriptive to help you locate the saved markup if multiple markups exist for a template. This field is required.
Use the mouse pointer to drag a rectangle over a portion of the piece that should be paid for by the loan officer. This area is highlighted in red. Repeat until all loan officer responsibilities are highlighted. Overlapping areas of the same color are not counted twice.
Select the Draw Co-Marketer Share button in the Markup Settings panel.
Drag rectangles over any portions of the piece that should be paid for by the co-marketing partner. These areas are highlighted in blue.
You can switch back to drawing red areas at any time by selecting the Draw Loan Officer Share button. You can switch between shares as many times as needed.
💡 Tip: A new rectangle "covers" any previous color in its area, replacing it. For example, if a red rectangle is drawn overlapping an area already marked blue, the overlapped area changes to red. To make a piece nearly all blue with a small red portion, cover the entire piece with blue first, then add red rectangles to define the smaller area.
Select the Calculate button in the Markup Settings panel.
The Loan Officer Share % and Co-Marketer Share % fields are automatically filled according to the relative areas covered in red and blue on the preview, respectively.
- Shares are calculated to the nearest whole percent.
- Any areas not covered with either red or blue are treated as a 50/50 split. For example, if 90% is covered red and the remaining 10% is uncovered, the loan officer share will be 95% and the co-marketer share will be 5%.
- You can redraw the colored areas and recalculate shares as many times as needed.
💡 Tip: At any time, select the Reset button to start over. This clears all colored areas and the share % fields.
It is also possible to enter percentage values directly into the Loan Officer Share % and Co-Marketer Share % fields.
- If the numbers do not add up to 100%, you will not be able to save the cost split.
- You must clear any colored markup on the preview by selecting Reset before manually entering values, or the cost split will not save.
Check the Set this markup as the active markup for this template checkbox.
Once the area breakdown and share values are acceptable, select the Save Cost Split Markup button.
Read the confirmation message and select Ok.
When the success message appears, select Back > to return to the list of markups.
Edit an existing markup
Navigate to Manage Marketing > Manage Templates.
Locate the piece of content you want to edit a markup for and select Actions > Media Markups.
Any existing markups for this piece are listed. For the one you want to edit, select Actions > Edit.
Select Redraw Markup in the Markup Settings panel. All existing colored markup is cleared.
Draw, calculate, and save shares as you would when creating a new markup.
Delete a markup
You cannot delete the active markup for a template. If you want to delete a markup, you must first create a new markup and set it as the active markup. Then, for the inactive markup you want to remove, select Actions > Delete.