The earnings planner

The earnings planner answers "if I sell this much, what will I be paid?" It works out your commission using your real plan, quota, rates and bonuses, so the answer reflects how your plan actually pays. It only shows estimates: nothing you do in the planner changes your pay or anyone else's. This guide takes about five minutes.

Open the planner

Click Planner in the top menu, or click Open Planner → on the Plan your earnings card on your dashboard. The page is headed Earnings Planner and has three modes along the top: Attainment, Close more and Deal builder.

See what you'd earn at a given attainment

Attainment means how much of your quota you reach: 100% is exactly on quota.

1. Click Attainment (it's selected when the page opens).
2. Next to Show:, pick a time span: This period, This quarter or Full year. Full year is selected to start with.
3. Drag the slider under "If I hit 100% of quota" to any level from 0% to 200%. It starts at your current pace.
4. Or click a shortcut under the slider: Current pace, Quota (100%), or a Tier button that jumps to a level where your rate goes up.
5. Read the results:
   • Projected this year (or this quarter, or this period): your estimated commission for the span you picked.
   • % of OTE variable: that estimate as a share of your on-target variable pay, the commission your plan is designed to pay at 100% of quota.
   • Actual so far: what published periods in the span already paid you.
   • Remaining (projected): the estimate for the periods that aren't published yet.

The Earnings timeline chart shows one bar per pay period. Published periods show what you were actually paid. The rest are estimated at the attainment you picked. A line marks your OTE variable for each period, so you can see which months land above or below target.

What "Full year" covers

Full year is the calendar year, January to December of this year. It is not your company's financial year or the year since you started.

• A period that has been published counts at the amount you were paid. The slider doesn't change it.
• Every other period, including a past month that hasn't been published yet, is estimated at the slider's attainment.
• Months before you started or after your position ended count as $0, because you had no position then.

This quarter works the same way for the current calendar quarter. This period is the current month, or the current quarter if you're paid quarterly.

See what more sales would add this period

1. Click Close more.
2. Under "If I close this much more this period", type the extra revenue you expect (or the extra units, on a plan that counts something else).
3. Read Commission now, Projected and Extra commission.

Extra commission is what that extra revenue adds on top of what you've already earned. It isn't always your basic rate: revenue that pushes you past quota can earn a higher rate, and revenue above a cap earns nothing more.

Test some deals

1. Click Deal builder.
2. Under "Hypothetical deals this period", enter a deal size and how many deals of that size.
3. Click Add deal to add another row with a different size.
4. Read Adding, Commission now, Projected and Extra commission.

Close more and Deal builder only look at the current period.

For managers

Managers have the planner in two places:

• Planner in the top menu plans your own earnings, as described above.
• The Planner tab on the Team Dashboard has two views: My earnings (your own) and My team.

In My team, drag the slider under "If the team averages 100% of quota". Every report is estimated at that same level. You see Team commission for the span you picked and a Per-rep projection table, in your company's main currency. Periods when someone wasn't on your team are left out of their row. If they joined or left partway through a period, that period counts in full and their row says so. You can't plan for a single report on their own. See The manager's guide.

Check it worked

• Moving the slider changes the projected figure. Published periods stay the same.
• The Earnings timeline shows your published months matching what you were paid.

Common problems

Go deeper

• Your dashboard
• Reading your commission statement
• Comp plan reference
• Glossary