70+ definitions across 8 categories. Searchable and filterable.
The total compensation a salesperson is expected to earn at 100% of quota, combining base salary and target variable pay.
The fixed, guaranteed portion of compensation paid regardless of sales performance.
The performance-based portion of compensation tied to selling activities, quota attainment, or specific KPIs.
The ratio of base salary to target variable pay, written base/variable. Drives risk-tolerance for the role.
A payment to a salesperson computed as a function of revenue, gross profit, units, or another performance metric.
A fixed payment earned for hitting a discrete goal - quarterly quota, retention milestone, or a strategic objective (MBO).
The percentage of a transaction (or per-unit amount) paid to the rep when a sale is credited.
The discipline and software category that designs, calculates, and pays variable rewards to drive sales behavior.
An umbrella for territory, quota, crediting, ICM, and analytics - the full lifecycle that turns selling motion into paid outcomes.
The ratio of variable pay to base salary - a 50/50 mix is 1.0x leverage; a 70/30 mix is ~0.43x.
The earnings a rep can make above OTE when they exceed quota - usually unlocked by accelerators.
A plan with multiple commission rates that change as the rep crosses attainment thresholds.
When a rep crosses a tier threshold, the higher rate is applied retroactively to all prior dollars in the period.
Each tier rate applies only to the revenue inside that tier band - the standard approach in most ICM software.
An elevated commission rate that kicks in once a rep crosses a milestone (typically 100% of quota) to reward overperformance.
A reduced commission rate that applies below a minimum attainment threshold to focus reps on full-quota performance.
The minimum attainment a rep must reach before any commission is paid for the period.
A binary attainment gate where falling short of the threshold pays $0 - a steep version of a threshold.
A one-time bonus or rate boost layered on top of a normal plan to drive a specific behavior or close a strategic sale.
A short-term, narrowly scoped contest or bonus to drive a specific outcome (new product launch, end-of-quarter pipeline, etc.).
A maximum on commissionable earnings, attainment, or per-deal payout - controversial because it can demotivate top performers.
A factor (often based on attainment) applied to a base commission or bonus pool - common in plans built around a target incentive.
The dollar amount paid when a rep delivers exactly 100% on the metric - used in plans that pay in attainment bands rather than per-deal rates.
A table of commission rates by product, deal type, or strategic priority - used to steer reps toward higher-margin sales.
A time-bound competition that pays specific reps based on rank rather than absolute attainment.
The performance target a rep must hit - usually expressed in revenue, units, or another core metric, over a period.
A rep's performance vs. quota, expressed as a percentage. The single most-watched commission metric.
A reduced or phased-in quota for new hires while they get up to speed.
A formal reduction in a rep's quota due to a territory change, leave of absence, or major plan change mid-period.
The set of accounts, geographies, or segments assigned to a rep - defines where commissions accrue.
The number of OTEs a rep must produce to hit quota - a fast diagnostic for whether plans are viable.
The process of allocating a top-down corporate revenue plan into rep-level quotas - typically done annually or semi-annually.
The process of attributing revenue (or another KPI) to the right rep, role, and territory for commission purposes.
When two or more reps share credit for a deal - usually summing to 100% but sometimes weighted.
A specialist or supporting role that earns commission alongside the primary AE without reducing the AE's credit.
An account that pays no individual commission - usually a strategic, legacy, or regulator-mandated account.
A specific company explicitly assigned to a rep - used in account-based plans rather than territory plans.
The rule that determines which version of the plan or territory applies to a specific transaction - based on close date, booking date, or another reference.
The cadence on which earned commissions are released - usually monthly, but quarterly and semi-monthly are common.
Holding a portion of earned commission until a future event (cash collected, customer retained for X months, etc.).
Recovering already-paid commissions when an underlying deal cancels, refunds, or churns inside a defined window.
A guaranteed minimum advance against future commissions. Recoverable draws are repaid from later earnings; non-recoverable are not.
An early payout of expected commissions, typically reconciled against actuals at the end of the period.
A reconciliation that adjusts prior-period commissions to reflect new information - late deals, retroactive credit, or attainment cliffs.
A manual or rule-based modification to a payout - credit, debit, or correction - recorded against the rep's statement.
The time between deal close and commission payment - often 30 days for monthly cadences.
The defined trigger that earns commission - closed-won, contract signed, invoice issued, cash collected, etc.
Revenue-recognition standards that require companies to capitalize incremental commission costs and amortize them over the customer benefit period.
A commission recorded as a balance-sheet asset under ASC 606 because it is incremental to obtaining a customer contract.
The straight-line (or pattern-of-benefit) expense of a capitalized commission over the customer relationship.
A U.S. law requiring public companies to maintain documented internal controls - including over commission calculation and payout.
An immutable record of every change to plans, credits, attainment, and payouts - required for SOX, ASC 606, and dispute resolution.
A commission that the rep has irrevocable legal right to - usually defined by the plan as a specific milestone or condition.
A commission whose payment is conditional on future events (cash collection, retention, employment) - often used to limit clawback exposure.
A common-law doctrine that may entitle a rep to commission on deals they substantially originated, even after termination, unless the plan clearly says otherwise.
Commissions owed (or not) after a rep separates from the company - governed by the plan, state law, and the procuring-cause doctrine.
A platform that automates plan design, crediting, calculation, and rep-facing statements - replacing spreadsheets.
The unofficial spreadsheet a rep keeps to estimate or audit their own commission - a strong signal that trust in the official process is broken.
A periodic, rep-facing document showing earnings, deals credited, attainment, adjustments, and projected payout.
A formal rep sign-off on the monthly/quarterly statement - protects the company from disputes and surfaces issues early.
A formal request from a rep to investigate a statement line item - credit, attainment, rate, or missing deal.
The documented policy that resolves who-gets-credit edge cases - channel conflicts, cross-territory deals, dual ownership.
The formal, signed agreement that defines each rep's role, quota, rates, terms, clawbacks, and dispute process.
Internal service-level agreement on how quickly statements ship, disputes resolve, and corrections post.
The data-engineering flow that pulls bookings, account, hierarchy, and adjustment data into the calculation engine.
The system that is authoritative for a given data domain - CRM for bookings, HRIS for employment status, ICM for paid amounts.
The primary closing role - quota-carrying, owns the buying-cycle from qualified pipeline to closed-won.
Sales Development / Business Development Reps - pipeline generators paid mostly on meetings booked, qualified opportunities, or pipeline created.
Post-sale role focused on retention and expansion - usually 80/20 mix with NRR or expansion targets.
Technical pre-sales overlay role; typically paid on a team or pooled basis with optional individual deal credit.
Manages partner-sourced revenue; commissions credited from partner-attached or partner-sourced deals.
A manager whose plan is mostly tied to team attainment, sometimes with a small individual or override component.
The cross-functional team that owns systems, data, and processes for revenue - including commission operations.
A specialized RevOps/Finance role responsible for plan calculation, statements, disputes, and analysis.
A bonus structure tied to specific, measurable strategic objectives separate from revenue - onboarding milestones, retention, training, etc.
A commission paid to a manager (or upline) on the production of their direct reports, on top of the rep's own commission.
A pooled bonus distributed among team members based on aggregate attainment - common for SE teams or pods.
A commission paid on customer-renewal revenue - often at a lower rate than new logos to reflect lower difficulty.
Commission paid on net-new ARR added to an existing customer (upsell, cross-sell, seat expansion).
A guaranteed payment that must be earned back through future commissions - effectively a loan against future earnings.
A guaranteed payment the rep keeps regardless of future commission performance - common during ramp.
The P&L line item recognizing commissions, typically through ASC 606 amortization rather than the cash payout.
Annual Contract Value (size of an annual SaaS deal) and Annual Recurring Revenue (steady-state run-rate). Most SaaS plans pay on ACV of new contracts.
The total dollar value across the entire contract term - used in some plans to reward longer-term deals.
A commission calculated on gross profit instead of revenue - protects margins by penalizing discounts.
The amount that counts toward a rep's quota - sometimes different from commissionable revenue.
The dollars on which commission is paid - may exclude services, taxes, refunds, or specific product lines.
ARR added in a period minus churned and downgraded ARR - often the metric for AE quotas.
Commission overpayments due to errors, mis-credits, missed clawbacks, or undocumented exceptions - typically 3-5% of variable spend.
The strategic principles guiding plan design: pay for performance, simplicity, fairness, retention, and behavior alignment.
The financial modeling that simulates rep payouts under proposed plans against historical and projected attainment.
Total fully-loaded selling cost as a percent of revenue - commission is one input. Healthy SaaS CoS for sales is ~25-35%.
The exercise of sizing the sales team to meet a revenue plan - quotas, productive ramps, expected attainment, and headcount.
A management override that limits commission on outsized deals to avoid runaway payouts on once-in-a-career events - controversial.
A discretionary, one-time bonus outside the comp plan - used for unforeseen wins, hero efforts, or strategic recognition.
A contract spanning more than one year - plan must define quota credit (year 1 ACV vs. TCV) and renewal commission treatment.
The mechanism (separate from clawback) for reversing commission credits when underlying data is corrected.
Variable compensation tied to leading indicators - meetings, demos, MEDDIC fields complete - used to drive activity.
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