Introduction

StrataVAR PqW estimates your Cisco 360 LAND rebate directly inside the quoting workflow, so you can see potential incentive value without leaving the quote. This article explains what goes into the calculation, how the system determines your rebate, and when it recalculates automatically or on demand.

Key Terms Used

Why Do We Estimate CPI

When a partner builds a quote for a customer, they need to understand the total value of the deal — not just the margin on the sale, but also the incentive rebates they stand to earn from Cisco. Without visibility into rebate estimates at the quoting stage, partners are pricing deals without knowing their true earnings, unable to factor rebate revenue into competitive pricing decisions, and left guessing until Cisco settles the rebate weeks or months after the purchase order is placed.

Where It Fits in the Cisco 360 LAND Rebate Journey
The Cisco 360 LAND rebate program is built around a partner's ability to earn rebates on eligible Cisco products they sell. The journey begins upstream: Cisco publishes an Eligible Offers workbook each Incentive Period, listing which SKUs qualify and the corresponding rebate percentage. Your PqW Administrator then ingests this file into PqW and configures your PVI scores per Business Entity and portfolio — establishing your partner tier and the rebate column that applies to your quotes.

CPI estimation is where all of that upstream setup pays off. Once the Eligible Offers data and PVI scores are in place, PqW can calculate — directly on the quote — how much LAND rebate you are likely to earn on each eligible Cisco item. This gives your sales team real-time visibility into incentive value while the deal is still being shaped, rather than after it is already closed.

When a quote is eventually won, the CPI Effective Date locks to the current date (approximating when the purchase order will be placed with Cisco), and the estimate is finalized. The actual rebate is later calculated and settled by Cisco based on their own records — the PqW estimate is informational, but it gives partners a reliable working figure throughout the quoting process.

Why It Matters to Your Business

• Informed pricing: Partners can offer more competitive pricing when they can see their rebate cushion in real time.
• Revenue forecasting: Aggregating CPI estimates across quotes gives finance teams early visibility into potential incentive revenue for the quarter.
• Portfolio strategy: Seeing which portfolios yield higher rebates helps partners prioritize where to grow their PVI and invest in certifications.

Prerequisites

1. Eligible Offers file ingested: The current Incentive Period's Eligible Offers Excel workbook must be uploaded and processed in PqW.
2. Business Entities configured: At least one Business Entity (BE GEO ID) must exist on the CPI Configuration page with the correct Partner association.
3. PVI score entered: A PVI value (0.00–10.00) must be recorded for the relevant Business Entity + Portfolio + Fiscal Month combination. If no PVI exists for the applicable period, the system cannot determine a tier.
4. CPI Effective Date populated: The quote must have a CPI Effective Date (defaults to quote creation date). If this field is empty, no rebate is calculated.
5. Cisco items on the quote: At least one quote item must have a Manufacturer containing "Cisco" or "Meraki," a valid Part Number, and a Total VAR Cost greater than zero.

The Three Inputs Behind Every Estimate
Every CPI rebate estimate depends on exactly three inputs:

The Core Formula Used for Calculation
The calculation is straightforward:

Estimated LAND Rebate = Total VAR Cost × Applicable Rebate Percentage

The complexity lies in selecting the correct rebate percentage, which depends on the CPI Effective Date, your PVI tier for the relevant portfolio, and whether the SKU appears in the Eligible Offers List.

The CPI Effective Date
The CPI Effective Date on the quote anchors the entire calculation to a specific point in time. It determines which PVI snapshot and which Eligible Offers List version are used.

Why this matters: Your PVI may change over time (e.g., 5 in March, then 7 in June). By tying the calculation to a specific date, PqW uses the PVI that was in effect on that date - ensuring that if you recalculate a quote from 3 months ago, it still uses the score that applied then, not today's score.

Which Rebate Column Applies (PVI Tiers)
Your PVI score determines your partner tier, which in turn determines which rebate percentage column from the Eligible Offers List is used:

The PVI is evaluated per portfolio. This means you could be a Preferred Partner in Networking (PVI of 8.2) but receive no rebate in Collaboration (PVI of 3.1) - each portfolio is assessed independently.

How the Best Rebate is Chosen (Multi-Portfolio SKUs)
Some SKUs belong to more than one portfolio. When this happens, the system selects the best rebate using this priority:

1. Highest rebate percentage first - The portfolio offering the greatest rebate percentage wins.
2. Highest designation - If percentages are equal, the portfolio where you hold the higher partner designation (Preferred over Partner) is chosen.
3. Portfolio order - If still tied, the system uses the standard portfolio ordering as a tiebreaker.

This ensures you always receive the most favorable estimate when a single SKU qualifies under multiple portfolios.

Step-By-Step Process to Estimate CPI LAND Rebate

Once your Admin has configured PVI scores and the Eligible Offers file is ingested, you can run a CPI estimate directly from the quote page.

Before You Begin
Make sure the quote you want to calculate is open and in an editable state. The quote must have at least one Cisco item with a valid Part Number, a Manufacturer containing "Cisco" or "Meraki," and a Total VAR Cost greater than zero. The CPI Effective Date on the quote must also be populated — if it is blank, no estimate will run.

Step 1: Open the quote you want to calculate.

1. From the Quotes tab in your org, locate the quote for which you want to estimate the LAND rebate.
2. Click on the quote hyperlink to navigate to the Quote Details page.

   

Step 2: Estimate CPI

1. On the quote page, locate the action menu — the dropdown arrow next to the primary action buttons (Export Quote / Submit for Approval / Delete) in the top-right area of the page.
   
2. Click the dropdown arrow to expand the menu.
3. Select Estimate CPI from the list.
   

The system begins calculating:

• For quotes with fewer than 100 items, the calculation runs immediately on-screen. The results appear in the Estimated CPI Information section once complete.
• For quotes with 100 or more items, you are given two options:
  • Wait on screen — A progress counter shows how many items have been processed (e.g., "300 items processed"). Stay on the tab until it finishes; closing the tab mid-process will interrupt the calculation and mark the CPI status as Invalid.
  • Notify me by email — The calculation runs in the background. You can navigate away or close the tab. You will receive an email notification when the job is complete.

Once complete, you get the message “ CPI Estimate calculation completed”. 

The Estimated CPI Information section on the quote updates with the rebate breakdown per item and the overall estimated LAND rebate total. The CPI Estimation Status shows Valid.

Automatic Recalculation Triggers

When Enable Automatic Rebate Calculation is turned on (set by your PqW Administrator on the CPI Configuration page), the system automatically recalculates CPI in the following situations:

If automatic calculation is disabled, none of these triggers will invoke a recalculation. You must use the Estimate CPI button (described below) to manually calculate or update the rebate estimate.

Manual Recalculation with the Estimate CPI Button

You can manually trigger a CPI calculation at any time using the Estimate CPI button, available from the quote's action menu (the dropdown arrow next to Export Quote / Submit for Approval / Delete).

When the button is visible

The Estimate CPI button is available on all standard quotes except:

• Won quotes - Once a quote is won, the CPI estimate is locked in and the button is hidden.
• MSDR Aggregated Mode quotes - The button is not displayed for quotes in MSDR Aggregated Mode.

Who can use it

Any user with access to the quote can click Estimate CPI. It is not restricted to administrators.

What happens when you click it

1. A pop-up confirms that the calculation is starting.
2. If the quote has fewer than 100 items: The calculation runs immediately on-screen. You will see the results when it completes.
3. If the quote has 100 or more items: The system asks whether you want to:
   • Wait on screen - The calculation runs in the foreground with a progress indicator (e.g., "300 items processed"). Note: if you close the tab, the process stops midway and the CPI status is marked Invalid.
   • Notify by email - The calculation runs in the background. You can continue working in other tabs, and you will receive an email notification when the calculation is complete.

CPI Estimation Status

After calculation, the quote displays a status in the Estimated CPI Information section:

Eligibility: Only Cisco Items Are Counted

The CPI calculation only applies to quote items where the Manufacturer is Cisco. Specifically:

• The system checks the Manufacturer Account field first.
• If the Manufacturer Account is empty, it falls back to the Manufacturer Text Name field.
• The item qualifies if the manufacturer name contains the word "Cisco" or "Meraki" (Meraki is a Cisco subsidiary, and some suppliers still list the manufacturer as Meraki rather than Cisco).
• Items from other manufacturers (e.g., Ingram Micro, Red Hat) are skipped entirely - they will not appear in the CPI breakdown.

Large Quotes Run in the Background
For quotes with a large number of items (100+), the calculation processes items in batches (100 at a time). If you choose to wait on-screen, you will see a progress counter. The estimated time remaining is a rough approximation based on initial processing speed and does not update dynamically.

• If the process is interrupted partway through (e.g., the browser tab is closed), the items already processed will have their totals partially reflected, but the overall CPI status will be marked Invalid. You must re-run the Estimate CPI to get a complete, valid result.
• When the background (email notification) option is selected, the system sends you an email with the CPI Estimate Summary once the job finishes - whether it succeeds, partially fails, or fails entirely.

Summary

CPI rebate estimation in StrataVAR PqW brings Cisco 360 LAND rebate visibility directly into your quoting workflow. Rather than waiting for Cisco to settle rebates after a deal closes, you can see estimated incentive values on every eligible Cisco item while the quote is still being built.

The calculation draws on three inputs, the Cisco Eligible Offers list, your PVI score per portfolio, and the Total VAR Cost of each quote item, and applies the formula: Estimated LAND Rebate = Total VAR Cost × Applicable Rebate Percentage. The CPI Effective Date on the quote anchors everything to the right point in time, ensuring the correct PVI snapshot and Eligible Offers version are used.

Estimates can run automatically as you build the quote, or on demand using the Estimate CPI button. For large quotes, the system processes items in the background and notifies you by email when complete. Once a quote is won, the CPI Effective Date locks to the current date and the estimate is finalized — ready to serve as your working reference until Cisco settles the actual rebate.

What's Next

With your CPI estimate in place, the next step is to review the rebate breakdown per item in the Estimated CPI Information section on the quote and confirm the values look correct before moving the deal forward.

If any estimates appear incorrect or outdated, for example, because your PVI was recently updated or the Eligible Offers file was refreshed, you can re-run the Estimate CPI to get a current calculation. For quotes where the CPI status shows Invalid, this should be done before submitting the quote for approval or sharing it with the customer.

Once the quote is ready and marked as Won, the CPI Effective Date automatically moves to the current date, locking in the estimate that will serve as your reference until Cisco settles the actual rebate.