25+ comp plans. 9 departments. One source of truth.

CV Library needed a way to streamline sales compensation out of multiple complex spreadsheets, with 9 sales rep departments running 10+ spreadsheets each, to save time and give sales reps more visibility. CV Library chose Visdum's sales compensation automation to unify those spreadsheets into a single automated system with a single source of truth.

01 · The company

CV Library, the UK's largest independent job recruiting solutions company

CV Library was founded in 2000 and is headquartered in Hampshire, UK. It hosts more than 130,000 jobs and more than 21 million CVs for recruiters to scout, and each month it helps thousands of candidates find the job they want while helping some of the biggest companies in the world find the talent they need.

CV Library's website receives 500,000+ visits every month, which has cemented its position as a leader in the UK job search and careers industry. The company has 900 employees.

02 · The trigger

Why 25+ comp plans on spreadsheets stopped working

CV Library ran a large sales organization with diverse compensation structures: 85+ sales reps across 9 departments, 25+ comp plans, and 10+ spreadsheets in each department. Over 25 distinct plan variations on spreadsheets created an administrative burden that took multiple hours and a separate calculation for every single rep.

The scale of what the team was managing:

The calculations were also interdependent. Reps earned monthly sales commissions and a quarterly bonus, and the bonus depended on those monthly commissions, so the final payout could not be worked out in isolation. Everything was done by hand on spreadsheets, with data re-uploaded for each of the 25+ plan variations across the 85+ reps. The plans themselves were data-heavy, which made manual processing both inefficient and error-prone.

The visibility problems ran in both directions. Reps had very limited information on how their paychecks were computed, which led to a steady stream of inquiries and disputes for the administration to handle. Leaders had no centralized system, so they lacked a unified view of compensation data across departments and hierarchical levels, and that held up decision making. Even a small change was risky: offering a one-time bonus or altering an individual transaction required workarounds that could disrupt the entire spreadsheet structure.

03 · The evaluation

What CV Library needed from a commission system

V Library's reasons for choosing Visdum map directly to the problems above.

04 · The decision

The verdict

05 · The implementation

One data entry point instead of 25+ spreadsheets

CV Library implemented Visdum's sales compensation automation in December 2024, automating commission calculations for its 85+ reps.

The change to the process was structural. Data uploads dropped from multiple instances to a single entry point, and computations now run once instead of once per rep. Together, those two changes removed most of the administrative burden the spreadsheet process carried.

The compensation data vault: Visdum's data vault now holds CV Library's compensation data and plans, and serves as the single source of truth for sales compensation across the business.

06 · What success looks like

Automated calculations and visibility across 9 departments

Replacing 25+ separate spreadsheets and their manual calculations gave CV Library substantial time savings, and the administration saves multiple hours every month in the comp process. Complex, interdependent monthly and quarterly calculations across multiple departments and comp plans now run automatically, which removed human error and made the results more reliable.

Reps get clear, accurate statements, which eliminated the discrepancies and disputes that used to reach the administration. Leaders have a hierarchical dashboard with visibility into compensation outcomes across all departments, and CV Library can now adjust individual transactions or offer one-time bonuses without disrupting the overall compensation structure.

CV Library's vision of an automated, efficient sales compensation system is now in place with Visdum.