Every commission number should be able to explain itself

What is an eligible commission event?

An eligible commission event is a source record — a sale, order, policy, booking or other transaction — that meets the conditions the organisation’s compensation plan sets for earning commission: the state it has to be in, who it is credited to, which period it falls in, and which rule covers it. The system applies those configured conditions. It does not decide on its own that a transaction is commissionable.

Does a closed deal automatically mean commission is owed?

No. A closed deal is the input to the decision, not the decision. Whether it earns commission depends on the plan the business configured — and separately, what an earner is legally entitled to is a matter of their contract and local employment law, not something software determines.

Can different teams have different commission rules?

Yes. Plans are configured per population — a team, a role, a channel, a product category, a partner tier — and an event is matched to the plan that covers its earner and period. Which distinctions exist is defined during scope, around how the organisation actually pays.

Can commission rules change by effective date?

Yes, and this is the part spreadsheets handle worst. Each rule version carries an effective period, and an earning line is calculated against the version that was in force on the source event’s own date. Editing today’s rate does not silently recalculate last quarter.

What happens to historical commission when a plan changes?

Nothing, by default. Past lines keep the rule version they were calculated under, so an approved statement stays explainable. If the business genuinely needs to restate a past period, that is an explicit recalculation with its own review — never a side effect of editing a rate.

Can the system handle slabs, tiers or accelerators?

Flat rates, fixed amounts, slabs, thresholds and accelerators are all rule shapes that can be configured. Which of them a build includes is scoped against the plans the organisation actually runs, rather than claimed as a complete library of every compensation structure.

What is the difference between calculated and approved commission?

Calculated commission is the figure the rule produces from an eligible event. Approved commission is that figure after a person with authority has accepted it onto a statement. Keeping them separate is what stops an unreviewed number being treated as a promise, and what makes it obvious when a correct figure is stuck waiting for a decision nobody owns.

Does approved commission mean it has been paid?

No. Approved means ready to be handed to whoever runs payment — payroll, finance, or an accounts process. This system records the handoff. Payment itself is confirmed by the system that makes it, and where that connection is built the payment status can come back onto the line.

What should a commission statement show?

Enough for the earner to reconstruct the number without asking: which source event created each line, which rule version applied, the eligible value it was calculated on, the resulting amount, any adjustment, and the state each line is in. A total on its own is the reason people rebuild their commission in a spreadsheet.

Is a commission statement a payslip?

No. It explains how a variable earning was derived and approved. The payslip is produced by payroll, which combines approved pay components and applies whatever statutory treatment applies. The two connect at the handoff and stay separate documents.

How are commission adjustments and clawbacks handled?

As explicit, reviewable events rather than silent edits. When a source record changes after a line was approved, the original line stays as it was and an adjustment is raised against it for review. Silently rewriting an approved figure is precisely what makes earners stop trusting the system and start keeping their own records.

Can commission be split between two people?

Where the plan splits credit, yes — the allocation is recorded against the source event and has to resolve to the configured basis before the lines calculate. Whether splitting applies at all, and on what basis, is a compensation policy the business sets.

Can old commission spreadsheets be migrated?

The rules can be rebuilt and validated against periods you have already paid, and historical lines can be loaded where they are worth keeping. What we check first is what your current sources can actually export — the workbook, the CRM or POS reports it reads, and the plan documents behind it — because the plan usually lives partly in the sheet and partly in somebody’s head.

What can it connect to?

Wherever the eligible event already lives and wherever the approved statement needs to go. We confirm what each existing system can expose, how a qualifying event is represented in it, and what the receiving payroll or finance process can accept, before defining any connection.

Does every business need commission software?

No. One flat rule, a handful of earners and a low transaction volume is a spreadsheet and a review habit, and that is a reasonable answer. It becomes worth building when plans differ between teams, rules change over time, eligible events arrive from more than one system, exceptions are routine, or people are checking their own pay because the number does not explain itself.

Custom or off-the-shelf commission software?

Established commission and incentive products cover standard plans well, and if your plans fit one of them, buying is faster and cheaper than building — we would say so. Custom earns its place when eligible events come from systems those products do not read, when the compensation logic is specific to how your business actually sells, when several models run side by side, or when the approval workflow is yours rather than the vendor’s.

Who owns the system and the data?

You do. The compensation rules, the earning records, the statements, any code written for you and the accounts it runs on are handed over as agreed in scope.

Does AI decide the commission?

No. The earning calculation is explicit, deterministic logic — the same inputs always produce the same figure, and the figure can be traced to the rule that produced it. Where AI helps is around that: extracting a draft of the rules from a plan document for a person to check, or explaining a line in plain language. It does not set rates, judge eligibility, resolve disputes or approve anything.