Add your team

A team is a group of people paid on the same comp plan. Each person on it has a title, which sets their default quota (the sales target they're measured against). In this guide you create a team, attach the plan you built in Create your first comp plan, and add your people. For a team of ten, it takes about 15 minutes.

Before you start

• You need at least one comp plan. If the Teams page shows Create a plan first, build one before you continue.
• For each person who earns commission, have their work email, annual quota, base salary and OTE (on-target earnings: base salary plus the commission they earn at 100% of quota).
• Add managers before their reps. The Manager list only offers people who already hold the Manager role.

Create a team

1. Go to Organization → Teams and click Create Team.
2. On the Team step, enter a Team Name (for example "Enterprise Sales") and an optional Description.
3. In Comp Plan, choose the plan this team is paid on. Everyone on the team is paid on it.
4. Leave Seasonality at 0.25 for each quarter unless your quotas are deliberately heavier in some quarters. The four weights must add up to 1.00. Click Next.
5. On the Titles step, click Add Title once for each job title. Enter a Title Name and an Annual Quota. Keep Quota Source on Own Quota for reps. For a manager whose quota should be the total of their reps' quotas, choose Sum of Reports. Click Next.
6. Check the Review step, then click Create Team.

A typical setup looks like this:

Add people one at a time

1. Go to Organization → People and click Invite User.
2. Fill in the form:

3. Click Invite User (the button reads Add User if you unticked the setup link).
4. When you see "Success! User invited.", click Invite Another for the next person, or Close.

Earnest derives the commission rate: variable pay (OTE minus base) divided by annual quota.

If you'd rather enter a rate, add the person first, then open their row menu (⋯) and choose Edit Position. Switch Comp Mode to Commission Rate and type the Rate (%). Earnest sets OTE to base salary plus rate × quota.

Add many people from a spreadsheet

1. Go to Organization → People and click Bulk Upload.
2. Choose OTE Mode or Commission Rate Mode.
3. Upload a CSV or Excel (.xlsx) file, up to 1,000 rows. Only email and name are required. Most teams also fill in role, teamName, titleName, managerEmail, quota, baseSalary, ote (or commissionRate as a decimal, so 0.08 means 8%) and startDate (YYYY-MM-DD).
4. Check the column mapping and the preview, then click Import N Users.

email,name,role,teamName,titleName,managerEmail,quota,baseSalary,ote,startDate
dana@yourco.com,Dana Lee,MANAGER,Enterprise Sales,Sales Manager,,,120000,180000,2026-11-01
sam@yourco.com,Sam Ortiz,REP,Enterprise Sales,Account Executive,dana@yourco.com,1200000,80000,160000,2026-11-01

Titles must already exist on the team. A new teamName creates a team with no plan, so assign one afterwards. The upload never changes people already in Earnest. Every column is listed in Imports and API reference.

Who uses a seat

Seats count active people with the Sales Rep or Manager role; admins are free. The free Starter plan covers 5. A future start date takes its seat from the day you add the person, and deactivating someone frees theirs. See Billing and plans.

What the person receives

If you sent a setup link, they get an email titled "Welcome to Earnest — your account is ready" with a Set Password & Login button. The link works for 24 hours. They choose a password, or click Sign in with Google if their work email is a Google account. Reps and managers land on their Dashboard.

If the link expires, open their row menu and click Send invite. This sends a fresh link, and any older one stops working. They can also use Forgot password? on the sign-in page.

Check it worked

• On Organization → Teams, the team shows its plan in the Comp Plan column, not an Assign plan button.
• On Organization → People, each person appears with their role, team and title.
• Settings → Billing → Usage shows the seats you're using.

Common problems

• "Your plan supports up to 5 reps and managers. Admins are free. This change would bring you to 6. Please upgrade to a paid plan." You've reached your seat limit. Upgrade under Settings → Billing, or deactivate someone who has left. Paid plans show "Your current plan supports up to…" with your plan's number.
• "Invited email must match your company domain (@yourco.com)." Use the person's work address. In a bulk upload the row says "Email domain @… does not match your company domain". To add another domain, contact support.
• "A user with this email already exists in your organization." (In a bulk upload: "User already exists".) They're already in Earnest. If they never set a password, use Send invite from their row menu. To change their team, quota or pay, use Edit Position.
• The manager isn't in the Manager list. Add them as a Manager first, or change their role with Edit Position.
• "OTE must be at least the base salary — the difference is the variable pay." OTE includes base.
• Saving is refused for a missing quota. Variable pay needs one: pick a title with an annual quota, or fill in Custom Quota.

Go deeper

• People and teams reference: roles, Edit Position, mid-month moves, roll-up managers, offboarding and seats.
• Comp plan reference: seasonality, plan mixes and how quotas are used.
• Imports and API reference: every bulk upload column.
• Import your deals: the next setup step.