Aqua Technology Solutions Corporate Financials Glossary of Terms
Active Rep: An individual is considered an active marketing rep when he/she obtains their first application or marketing rep referral.
Affiliate Commission: Aqua will receive a commission based on a certain percentage of the total charge activity of our cardholders on our affiliate partner’s websites.
App: Abbreviation for “Credit Card Application”
Approval Commission: One of Aqua’s most significant sources of revenue is the commission we receive from our card issuing (co-branding) partner for each application we send to them that is approved.
Attrition Matrix: A table of values constructed by Aqua that illustrates our loss per week of a certain entity. Examples include cardholder and marketing rep losses (attrition) per week. See also “Cardholder Attrition” and “Rep Attrition”.
Cardholder Attrition: Represents the number of cardholders Aqua loses to attrition each week. Examples of cardholder attrition events include charge-offs and voluntary account closures by the cardholder.
Debit Activation: Occurs when a cardholder has his/her first charge activity event associated with a newly established credit card account. Once this event occurs, the issuer deems the account officially active.
Default Rep: All of our cardholders are given a rep code by default when they apply for Aqua’s credit card. Although this code can be used by the student for a number of purposes, it serves as an important tool to market new Aqua cardholders through our online referral program. Aqua’s entire cardholder base will be empowered with the ability to refer other students to apply by having a rep code assigned to them by default. They will receive a commission for each referral.
G: Abbreviation for “Generation”
Gen: Abbreviation for “Generation”
Generation: With respect to Default Reps, a Generation #1 rep is a cardholder who becomes a Default Rep by using the Rep ID Aqua provides them. A Generation #2 Default Rep is referred to Aqua as a new rep from a Generation #1 Default Rep. A Generation #3 Default Rep is referred to Aqua as a new rep from a Generation #2 Default Rep. With respect to Online Referral Reps, a Generation #1 rep is an individual who is referred to Aqua as a new rep from an Unreferred Online Rep. A Generation #2 Online Referral Rep is referred to Aqua as a new rep from a Generation #1 Online Referral Rep. A Generation #3 Online Referral Rep is referred to Aqua as a new rep from a Generation #2 Online Referral Rep. For forecasting purposes, Aqua’s models ceases to make calculations beyond Generation #3.
High Range Reps: Reps that produce the highest volume of applications and rep referrals.
Inactive Rep: An individual is considered an inactive marketing rep when he/she has an assigned rep ID code, but hasn’t obtained their first application or marketing rep referral. A rep is also considered inactive if they haven’t obtained any new application or marketing rep referrals for a period of one year.
Laptop Rep: A type of rep that manages a setup and gets students to apply for Aqua’s credit card on laptops running our digital application. Aqua Financial Services will utilize college students, through paid internship and co-op programs, as the majority of our laptop marketing representatives. They are compensated with an hourly wage plus commission based on the number of applications they obtain. Eligible laptop reps will be reimbursed for some travel expenses including, hotel, mileage, and parking.
Low-Range Reps: Reps that produce the lowest volume of applications and rep referrals.
Middle Range Reps: Reps that produce a moderate volume of applications and rep referrals.
Online Rep: A type of rep that is paid on a commission only basis for each applicant they refer to our website. There are numerous methods by which Online reps can market students to Aqua’s website including distributing marketing materials containing their individual rep identification code. This rep code is represented to the student as an invitation code. Once the student is referred to our website and completes the online application, they are prompted to enter the invitation code which is linked to the rep that marketed them to our website. The student is compensated with a premium after they provide the invitation code and successfully complete the application. In this manner the application is linked to the referring rep and he/she is paid a commission for the referral.
Orphan Application: An application referred to Aqua by one of its reps where the applicant does not provide an invitation code when submitting their application online. Therefore the application can not be linked to the referring rep and no commission will be paid.
Premium: A free gift given to a person in return for applying for a credit card.
Rep: Abbreviation for “Marketing Representative”
Rep Attrition: Represents the number of marketing representatives Aqua loses to attrition each week. Examples of rep attrition events include rep resignation and rep dismissal.
Rep ID code: A unique code assigned to each of Aqua’s marketing reps used for identification, tracking, and compensation.
Rep Referral: When an existing Aqua rep gets another individual to become a new Aqua rep. The referring rep is eligible for an extra commission based on all the applications obtained by his/her rep referral(s).
Set-up: A promotion managed by a marketing representative (laptop rep) at a predetermined authorized location on-site, or in the field, for the purpose of acquiring new credit card applications and promoting Aqua’s brand. A typical Aqua set-up occurs on or near a college campus and usually includes three laptops to capture applicant information, tables, signage, credit education literature, and all other marketing materials.
Transaction Commission: Aqua will receive a commission based on a certain percentage of the total charge activity of our cardholders.
Unreferred Rep: An individual who signs up to become a new Aqua rep and is not linked to any other existing rep. This type of rep is recruited by Aqua directly or by an existing rep, but doesn’t provide the referring rep’s rep ID code.
Vendor Set-up Fee: A vendor set-up fee is charged to Aqua by universities and businesses to set up our on-site marketing promotions on their premises. The vendor set-up fee is an expense associated only with our laptop reps.
The attrition matrix begins by taking the value from the first week of the column it refers to from the worksheet “Master”, and placing it in the first cell of the attrition matrix at week 1, week 1. The top weekly row of the attrition matrix represents the week number from which the value is inputted into the matrix from the worksheet “Master”. The left-hand weekly column represents the actual week number. For example, in the
‘Laptop Attrition” matrix the value of the cell from week 2 (column), week 2 (row) represents the value from the second week of the column “Total Cardholders…” from the worksheet “Master” when it is in its second week of attrition. In this case, attrition is calculated by multiplying “Total Cardholders…” by a certain percentage of attrition per year (the credit card industry average is 27% cardholder attrition per year) and then dividing this value by 52 weeks. The equation follows:
=(Cardholder/Default Reps Usage – Total Cardholder Attrition per Week) + previous week’s Cardholder/Default Reps Usage with Cardholder Attrition (Cumulative)