What Tern is
Tern is a CRM and trip-planning platform for advisors and agencies, priced per seat, with commission tracking and reconciliation included on agency plans of three or more seats. In August 2026 it added supplier invoicing and follow-up emails for unpaid commission. Nexion and Ensemble have partnered with it. tern.travel/pricing
Side by side
| Aspect | Tern | MarginShield |
|---|---|---|
| What it is | CRM with reconciliation inside it | Reconciliation over any export, including Tern’s |
| Who books | Advisors working in Tern | Anyone; the booking system does not matter |
| Pricing | $35 to $49 a seat a month; reconciliation on 3+ seat plans | By booking volume, not by seat |
| Per-booking shortfall | Yes, with partial payments shown | Yes, to the cent, per currency |
| Follow-up | Templated supplier emails from the CRM | Cases you work, with the claim figures ready to send |
| Bookings not in the CRM | Imported by template | Any CSV, mapped once |
| Multi-brand or multi-system agencies | One Tern workspace | One export per system, one reconciliation |
Choose Tern if
- Every advisor in your agency books and manages clients in Tern already.
- You want reconciliation, CRM and trip proposals in one subscription.
- You are a solo advisor: per-seat pricing suits you and MarginShield’s plans are sized for agencies.
Choose MarginShield if
- Your bookings live in Trams, ClientBase, TravelWorks, a GDS back office or a spreadsheet, and you are not moving them.
- You run more than one brand or system and want one shortfall list.
- You want an audit layer that a bookkeeper or controller runs, separate from what advisors use day to day.
Or both
MarginShield reads an export, so it sits beside whatever you use to book. Several agencies will keep their CRM or their sheet for the day-to-day and run the audit separately, monthly, from an export. The other comparisons: Sion and a spreadsheet. The guide explains the method whichever you pick.