Create and Assign LO Compensation Schedules

This article describes how to create, manage and assign LO compensation schedules. Use Optimal Blue to create and manage compensation schedules for your loan officers.  You can assign multiple LO compensation schedules for each user based product type (such as conforming vs. FHA) and on effective date (application date, disclosure date, or search date). 

Please note that a Release to Production is required for new or changes to a schedule to become effective in Production. The LO Compensation Selective Release to Production option allows you to release only the changes you have made to schedules without having to release all pending changes to production.

Log In

  1. Enter your User Name and Password at the top of the Optimal Blue website, and click Customer Login.

  1. Select the Configuration button on the home screen.

Create New Loan Officer (LO) Compensation Schedules

Use Optimal Blue to create and manage compensation schedules for your loan officers. You can assign multiple LO compensation schedules for each user based product type (such as conforming vs. FHA) and on effective date (application date, disclosure date, or search date). 

To create and apply LO compensation schedules, perform the following tasks:

  • Add New LO Compensation Schedules

  • Assign LO Compensation Schedules

  • Configure the Compensation Schedule Trigger Date

Add New LO Compensation Schedules

You create LO compensation schedules on the Manage LO Compensation Schedules screen in Optimal Blue. You can configure LO compensation in basis points and dollars, create minimum and/or maximum dollar amounts (caps), and include/exclude the compensation as a markup for price calculation and reporting purposes.

  1. Select Manage LO Compensation Schedules from the Activity Selection menu.

  2. Click Add New Schedule.

  3. Configure the new LO Compensation Schedule to include the following values:

  • Name

  • Compensation%

  • Compensation $

  • Minimum Compensation $ Cap (if any)

  • Maximum Compensation $ Cap (if any)

  • Include in Pricing indicator

NOTE:  Check the Include in Pricing indicator to include LO compensation as a markup for price calculation and reporting purposes. If you want to allow originators to choose whether the LO Compensation should be paid by the lender (Include in Pricing) or by the borrower, contact your Optimal Blue Account Manager to add a field to the Product Search form.

  1. Click Save.

    A message displays when the system successfully adds the compensation schedule.

Assign LO Compensation Schedules

To apply one or more LO Compensation schedules to selected user(s) by product type and effective date, use the following procedure.

  1. Select User Compensation Schedule Assignment from the Activity Selection menu.

  2. Find users to assign to the compensation schedule by clicking on of the following buttons:

  • To find a single user, click the Select one User button, enter search criteria in at least one field, and click the Find User button.

  • To find a group of users, click the Select a Group of Users button, check the appropriate filter criteria check boxes, and click the Apply Filter button.You can search for users by one or more of the following categories:entity, broker company/branch, access level, assigned schedule, or product category.

  • To find users that have not been assigned a compensation schedule, click the Forgot Someone? button. To select these users so that you can assign them to an LO compensation schedule, click the Pre-select users for assignment button.

  1. Make sure that any user that you want to assign to the schedule is selected.

NOTE:  By default, the system selects all the users matching your search criteria. You can deselect users, if needed.

NOTE:   If you want to see the LO compensation schedules assigned to a user, click on the username in the results. You can view all assigned schedules or schedules effective for a particular date. For more information, see LO Comp Schedules Assigned to a User.

  1.  Select the appropriate schedule from the Schedule drop-down list.  

  2. In the Effective Date field, enter the date when you want the compensation schedule to begin to be applied.

NOTE:  Example: You may assign schedules on a quarterly basis. The schedules would have “Effective Dates” of January 1, April 1, July 1, and October 1. Optimal Blue allows you to apply LO compensation based on a particular “trigger date”, such as an “application date”, “disclosure date”, or “search date”. The system applies the compensation schedule to loans that was effective on the trigger date. For more information on configuring a trigger date, see the Configure the Compensation Schedule Trigger Datesection.

  1. Choose the product categories to which the schedule should be applied, and click Apply.  

  2. The system displays a confirmation pop-up message. Click OK to apply the schedule, or click Cancel to quit without applying the schedule.

  
Configure the Compensation Schedule Trigger Date

Optimal Blue allows you to apply LO compensation based on a particular “trigger date”, such as an “application date”, “disclosure date”, or “search date”. The system applies the compensation schedule to loans that was effective on the trigger date.

For example, if you have chosen “application date” as the trigger date, and a loan has application date of January 31, Optimal Blue uses the schedule that was effective on January 31, even if the loan was priced on April 1 or beyond. If your compensation schedules change quarterly, the compensation schedule that the system uses has an effective date of January 1.

  1. Select Hierarchy Preferences from the Activity Selection menu.

  2. For the “What date do you want compensation schedules to trigger from?” field, select the appropriate date from the drop-down list:

  • Search Date – The date the last search was run on the loan. This date is calculated when the user clicks “Submit” on the Optimal Blue Product Search form.

  • Disclosure Date – This field can be placed on the Optimal Blue Product Search form for input by the Originator. Contact Client Services for details.

  • Application Date – This field can be placed on the Optimal Blue Product Search form for input by the Originator and/or pulled from the LOS if using Optimal Blue supported integration. Contact Client Services for details.

  1. Select the Update Properties button.

Manage Existing Compensation Schedules

Search for a LO Compensation Schedule

  1. Select Manage LO Compensation Schedules from the Activity Selection menu.

  2. Search for existing LO Compensation schedules by typing a full or partial schedule name in the Search text box and clicking the Search button.

  3. If necessary, sort existing LO compensation schedules by the values in the Schedule Name or Include in Pricing columns.To change the sort order, click the arrow next to the corresponding column header. You can sort the values in ascending or descending.

Edit LO Compensation Schedules

You can edit LO compensation schedules before you assign them to users. Once they have been assigned, you cannot edit them.

  1. Select the edit icon next to the LO compensation schedule you want to change.

  2. Update the appropriate fields:

  3. Click Update Schedule. 

A message displays when the system successfully updates the compensation schedule.

Delete LO Compensation Schedules

You can only delete LO compensation schedules that have not been assigned to users.

  1. Select the Delete icon next to the LO compensation schedule that you want to delete. 

  2. Click OK to delete the schedule, or click Cancel to exit the confirmation dialog box without deleting. 

Find Users Assigned to a Compensation Schedule

  1. Select User Compensation Schedule Assignment from the Activity Selection menu.

  2. Click the Select a Group of Users button, select the checkbox next to the appropriate compensation schedule, and click the Apply Filter button.

The system displays the list of users assigned to the selected compensation schedule.

Find Users Not Assigned to a Compensation Schedule

  1. Select User Compensation Schedule Assignment from the Activity Selection menu.

  2. Click the Forgot Someone? button.

The system displays the list of users that have never been assigned to a compensation schedule.

  1. Perform one of the following actions:

  • To export the list of unassigned users to an Excel spreadsheet, click the Export to Excel button.

  • To return to the main user compensation schedule assignment screen, click the Return to Assignment button.

  • To select the users so that you can assign them to a compensation schedule, click the Pre-select users for assignment button.  

LO Compensation Reports

Optimal Blue provides reports to assist you in determining information about LO compensation schedules, including which users are assigned to specific LO compensation schedules and the amount of compensation received by loan officers (by month and loan number).

LO Comp Schedules Assigned to a User

Use this report to view which LO compensation schedules have been assigned to a user. You can view the schedules for a user for a selected date (including the current date) or all schedules. If you need to view compensation simultaneously for multiple users or need additional information, such as which user made the schedule change, use the configuration reports described in LO Compensation Change History/Assigned Compensation Schedules 

  1. Select User Compensation Schedule Assignment from the Activity Selection menu.

  2. Find users by clicking on of the following buttons:

  • To find a single user, click the Select one User button, enter search criteria in at least one field, and click the Find User button.

  • To find a group of users, click the Select a Group of Users button, check the appropriate filter criteria check-boxes, and click the Apply Filter button.You can search for users by one or more of the following categories:entity, broker company/branch, access level, assigned schedule, or product category.

  1. Click the user name in the search results who LO compensation schedules you want to view.

  2. By default, the system shows LO comp schedules that are effective for the current date.To view which LO comp schedule was assigned to the selected user on a particular date, enter the date into the text box, and click View Schedules for Selected Date.To view the schedules assigned to the user for all dates, click View all Schedules.

  3. To export the results to a spreadsheet, click the Excel icon. 

LO Compensation Change History/Assigned Compensation Schedules

You can access the LO Compensation Change History and the Assigned Compensation Schedules reports from the Configuration site. These reports show the history of the compensation schedules assignments for users and the currently assigned schedules, respectively.

  1. Select Configuration Reports from the Activity Selection menu.

  2. Choose the appropriate entity from the Entity drop-down list.

  3. From the views drop-down list, choose one of the following reports:

  • LO Compensation Change History—Displays the history of the compensation schedules assignments for the users in your system.

  • Assigned Compensation Schedules—Displays the currently assigned schedules for each user.

  1. You can sort the results by clicking the column headers. Click once to sort the column in ascending order. Click again to sort the column in descending order.

  2. To export the data into an Excel spreadsheet, and click the Export button. Click “Open” to review the file immediately, or click Save to save it on your computer.  

LO Compensation Totals

You can use the reporting feature in Optimal Blue to display compensation totals for loan officers by month or for each loan within a selected month.

  1. Access the Optimal Lender site from the website selection screen by clicking the Optimal Lender button.

  2. From Secondary Queue tab, click the Reporting option.

  3. From the LO Compensation Reports section, choose LO Compensation by Loan. This report displays LO Compensation for each by loan officer. You can view total compensation, compensation by month, and compensation for specific loans.

  4. You can run the report by Entity or by Broker Company by choosing the corresponding radio button.

  5. Select the Entity or Broker Company for the report (or choose all entities/broker companies).

  6. Click Run Report.

  7. The report displays the compensation totals for each of your loan officers matching the selected criteria. You can expand the report by clicking the (+) sign to show compensation totals by month or to show the compensation for each loan within the selected month. To collapse the report, click the (-) sign.

  8. To filter the report, choose the appropriate start/end dates and enter the appropriate search criteria, and click View Report. You can search by loan number or loan officer.

  9. To export the results, click the Save icon, and choose the format for your report.

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