Payout pipeline reference
Who this is for: admins who run payouts and want the full rules. If this is your first payout run, read Run your first payout first.
This page covers drafting, regenerating and deleting drafts, the checks and holds at publish time, the three ways to publish, quarterly and early publishing, and the exports. Fixing a payout that is already published is covered in Corrections and clawbacks.
The payout lifecycle
Each rep moves through three states for each pay period:
| Status | What it means |
|---|---|
| No Payout | Nothing is saved yet. The row shows a live calculation that changes as data changes. |
| DRAFT | A payout is saved with its numbers, plan snapshot and exchange rates. Admins can regenerate, adjust or delete it. Reps can't see it. |
| PUBLISHED | Final. The rep is notified and the amount, plan snapshot and exchange rates are frozen. |
A draft can also carry an Out of date badge (see When to regenerate). The strip above the table counts Total Reps, No Payout, Draft, Published and Total Payout for the month.
There is no unpublish. The Publish dialog says it plainly: "Publishing is final — published payouts can't be edited or unpublished; fixes post as corrections to a later period."
The Payouts page
- Month picker. There is only a month picker. Quarterly reps appear only when the quarter's last month is selected (see Quarterly payouts).
- Filters. Team, Role, Plan, Title, Manager and a name search narrow the table. They do not narrow the month-wide buttons: "Draft All, Publish All, Regenerate Drafts and Delete Drafts act on every rep for [the month], not only the rows the filters show. To act on the rows shown, tick them and use the Selected buttons."
- Row click. Opens the commission breakdown for that rep, with a PDF button for a preview statement and, once the rep has a payout, Open payout for its detail page.
- Adjust. Adds an adjustment for that rep and month (see Adjustments before publishing).
- Status icons. A check beside a published payout means the rep acknowledged the statement. A person icon beside a draft means a manager marked it reviewed; hover to see who and when.
Rows that can't be calculated
Instead of Adjust, these rows show a red button. Click it for the explanation and a link to the fix. No payout is generated for the rep until it is fixed.
| Button | Cause |
|---|---|
| Changed mid-period | A position change inside the month that can't be priced as one period or split by close date. |
| No position | The rep has no position covering the month. |
| Cadence changed | The rep moved onto a quarterly plan partway through the quarter. |
| No exchange rate | No rate could be found between the rep's currencies for the month. |
| Couldn't calculate | Any other calculation failure. |
Generating drafts
Draft All Payouts (N) creates a draft for every rep with no payout for the month. Tick rows and Draft Selected (N) does the same for those reps only. For a future month both are disabled, with the banner "You are viewing a future month. Payout drafting opens when the period starts."
Drafting never touches a rep who already has a payout. Draft Selected never recomputes an existing draft. If every ticked rep already has one you see "No new drafts — the selected rep already has a payout for this month." with the hint "Draft Selected only creates missing payouts. To recompute existing drafts, use Regenerate Selected."
Each draft stores the gross and final amounts, a snapshot of the plan (tiers, ramp, cap, floor and the resolved quota), the exchange rates used, links to the month's approved adjustments, the FTE figure for ratio plans, and any recoverable balance carried in from the previous period.
Warnings during generation
Some reps are skipped with a warning that starts "[Name]: Skipped —":
| Warning | What to do |
|---|---|
| "the title's plan pays [frequency] but the team's plan pays [frequency]" | Align the two plans' pay frequency. |
| "preceding month (YYYY-MM) payout is still in DRAFT status." | Quarter-to-date plans only. Publish the earlier month first. |
| "a later month of this quarter … already has a payout that trued up from this one." | Delete the later month's draft and regenerate forward. |
| "a later period carries a recoverable balance that chains from this one." | Delete the later period(s) and regenerate from this period forward. |
"[Name]: no commission plan assigned" is a warning, not a skip. The draft is still created, priced at a flat rate worked out from the rep's OTE, base salary and quota, with no tiers, cap or floor. Assign a plan and regenerate if that is not what you intended.
"[Name]: no commission rate (OTE isn't above base salary)" (or "(no quota)") is also a warning, not a skip: the rep's deals earn no commission. Their row shows No rate, and the breakdown says why. On a plan mix or a split month the warning names the plan. Fix the rep's OTE or quota in Edit Position, then regenerate.
Regenerating and deleting drafts
Regenerate Drafts and Regenerate Selected
Regenerate Drafts (N) recomputes every draft for the month "in place from the current activities, adjustments, and configuration. Each draft keeps its payout ID." Manager reviews on those drafts are reset. Published payouts are never touched.
To recompute only some reps, tick them and click Regenerate Selected (N). Only their drafts are recomputed, in place and with the same payout IDs, and only their manager reviews reset. A ticked rep with no draft is skipped. A manager's payout is calculated from their team's deals, so if the reps' deals changed, regenerate their manager too. Saving an FTE override on a ratio-plan draft also regenerates that draft ("Override applied — draft regenerated.").
When to regenerate
Regenerate after anything a draft was calculated from changes: deals imported, edited or deleted, credit splits, approved adjustments, corrections landing in the month, or edits to a position, plan, team or the base currency. Publishing refuses a draft whose inputs moved (see Publish holds).
The Out of date badge warns early, but only for position changes and approved adjustments. New deals don't set the badge; they are caught at publish.
Delete Drafts and Delete Selected
Delete Drafts (N) removes every draft for the month; Delete Selected (N) removes the ticked reps' drafts. "Their activities are reverted to pending and any linked adjustments are unlinked, so you can re-draft the month at any time." Manager reviews on deleted drafts are lost.
Deleting is refused when a later period already used the draft's balance: "Cannot delete 1 draft(s): it carries a recoverable balance that a later period already netted. Delete the later period(s) first, then clear these drafts."
Adjustments before publishing
Click Adjust on a row to open Add Adjustment:
| Field | Notes |
|---|---|
| Adjustment Type | Revenue Adjustment ("Flows through commission calculation"; Volume Adjustment on a unit plan) or Fixed Bonus ("Added directly to payout"). |
| Amount | Revenue amounts are in the rep's quota currency; fixed bonuses in their payout currency. Negative is a deduction. Up to 1,000,000 either way. |
| Reason | Required, up to 500 characters. It appears on the rep's statement. |
Admin adjustments are approved at once. If the month already has a draft, regenerate it: tick the rep and use Regenerate Selected, as the confirmation says. On a published month, the adjustment becomes an amendment in the rep's next open month (see Corrections and clawbacks).
Bulk Upload creates many adjustments for the selected month from a CSV or Excel file with the
columns email,type,amount,reason (type is REVENUE or FIXED_BONUS), up to 5,000 rows, with a
preview before you apply. Rows for a month that is already published are refused, not amended.
Adjustments submitted by managers wait for approval in Review (see Review, approvals and disputes).
The Publish dialog
Publish All (N) opens Confirm Publish All; ticking rows and clicking Publish Selected (N) opens Confirm Publish Selected. Both show "You are about to publish N draft payouts for [Month] totalling [amount]." and a summary:
- "N active reps have no draft this month." (Publish All only)
- "N of M drafts manager-reviewed." This is information only and never blocks publishing.
- "N drafts are $0."
- "N open disputes and N pending adjustments touch this month."
- How many drafts are split between plans, when any are.
If some drafts were generated under a previous base currency, the dialog says they are not in the total and "will be held from publishing until regenerated."
Type PUBLISH and click Confirm Publish. When anything is flagged, including the month's total, the button also needs the acknowledgement checkbox.
The anomaly scan
When the Publish dialog opens, Earnest compares each draft with the rep's own published history and lists the unusual ones, most severe first, each linked to its detail page:
| Chip | Rule |
|---|---|
| clawback carried forward | The period did not cover itself: the gross for the period was negative, or a clawback was added to the rep's carried balance. |
| $0 with activity | The payout is $0 and the rep had activity in the period. |
| 3× above average | The amount is more than 3× the average of the rep's earning months among their last 3 published payouts, and above 500 in your base currency. Skipped when none of those months earned anything. |
| ±50% vs last period | The amount moved more than 50% from the rep's most recent published payout. Changes are measured against that payout or 500 (base currency), whichever is larger. Skipped for reps with no published history. |
Spike and swing compare base-currency amounts, so small figures moving around don't raise flags.
The org total rule compares this month's total with the previous period's published total (last month for monthly reps, last quarter for quarterly reps). This month's total is its drafts plus any payouts for the same period you already published, so publishing a few reps first doesn't make the rest look like a drop. Beyond ±30% the box shows "This month's total is N% above last month's published total." It runs on Publish All only, and is skipped while drafts from a previous base currency are present.
To publish, tick the acknowledgement: "I've reviewed the flagged payouts above — publish anyway.", or "I've reviewed this month's total — publish anyway." when only the total is flagged. The server repeats the scan when you publish. If the result changed, or the scan couldn't finish ("Could not verify payouts for anomalies. Review and acknowledge to publish anyway."), the dialog reopens with the reason and the checkbox.
Publish gates that ask you to confirm
| Gate | When | What you see |
|---|---|---|
| Early publish | The period hasn't ended | See Publishing early. |
| Exchange rates | Converted payouts while live rates are stale or missing | "Publish on non-live exchange rates?" with the reason, then Publish anyway. |
| Anomalies | The scan flagged something | The checkbox above, or on the detail page "This payout looks unusual (…). Publishing is final — confirm to publish anyway." |
Publish holds
Holds block publishing until you fix the cause. On Publish All and Publish Selected, held drafts stay drafts and the rest publish; a warning says how many were held and why.
| Hold | Message | Fix |
|---|---|---|
| Inputs changed | "N drafts were held back: something they were calculated from — sales data, an approved adjustment, a position or plan configuration — changed after generation. Regenerate drafts to recalculate, then publish again." The detail page names the cause: activities added, approved adjustments added, credit splits changed, or "an activity, a position, or plan configuration" changed. | Regenerate Drafts. |
| Activities outside the position | "N activity(ies) in this period fall outside this rep's position dates, so they can never be paid and regenerating will not change that." On a bulk publish these are counted in the held drafts above. | Extend the position or remove the activities. |
| Manager before team | "N manager payouts were held until the team's payouts for the period are published — a manager's payout is calculated from the team's. Publish the team, then publish again." | Publish the reps first. Publish All orders reps before their managers. |
| Missing month | "N drafts were held back: these reps have no payout for [months]. Generate and publish those months first, then publish again — regenerating this month won't close the gap." | Generate and publish the missing months. |
| Earlier month in the quarter | "Cannot publish payouts because there are preceding draft payouts in the current quarter. Please publish those first." This stops the whole batch. | Publish the earlier month. |
| No compensation profile | "This rep has no active compensation profile covering this period, so the payout can't be published." (detail page) | Check position dates and plan assignment. |
| Activities arrived while publishing | "Activities landed in this period while the payout was being published, so publishing was cancelled…" (detail page) | Regenerate, then publish. |
| Previous base currency | Named in the Publish dialog. | Regenerate. |
Publish All, Publish Selected and the detail-page Publish
| Publish All | Publish Selected | Publish on the detail page | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Scope | Every draft touching the month | Ticked reps' drafts | One payout |
| Typed PUBLISH | Yes | Yes | No; gates open their own dialogs |
| Org-total rule | Yes | No | No |
| Rep email | "Your [Month] commission statement is ready", PDF attached | Same as Publish All | Same as Publish All |
On all three, the rep gets an in-app notification. Emails need Payout Email Notifications on (Settings → Features, on by default) and are skipped for reps who turned off payout statement emails. Emails go out after publishing completes and can take a few minutes for a large team. In the rare case Publish All or Publish Selected can't build a rep's statement, that rep gets "Your [Month] payout is ready" with a link instead, and can download the statement from their dashboard.
Large batches publish in chunks ("Publishing… N done, M remaining"). If some can't finish: "Published N payouts — M could not be published and remain as drafts. Try again to finish." If nothing was left: "Nothing was published — these drafts were already published or removed since the page loaded."
The payout detail page
The detail page ("Payout Details") holds the per-payout controls: Publish for a draft, Add Adjustment on a draft, and on a published payout Recompute Correction and Add Amendment. It also shows the "Early Draft" banner on a current-month draft, the "Amended" banner and correction ledger, and the "Recoverable balance" banner.
To open it, click the rep's row in the payouts table, then Open payout in the breakdown. The flagged list in the Publish dialog and the manager names in the Recompute Correction dialog link to it too. The page shows the Payout ID under the rep's name, for support requests.
Quarterly payouts
- Generated only when the quarter's last month (March, June, September, December) is selected and has begun. In the first two months of a quarter, quarterly reps are not in the table.
- One payout covers the three months. Early-publish checks use the quarter's end date.
- Publishing the quarter's last month includes its quarterly drafts. Publishing an earlier month of the quarter while the quarter is still running leaves them as drafts (see Publishing early); once the quarter has ended, publishing any of its months includes them.
- The dispute window counts from the first day of the quarter's last month.
Publishing early
- Publish All / Selected on the current month: the dialog adds "Warning: The month is not yet complete." Typing PUBLISH is your confirmation.
- Detail page: "Publish before the period ends?" with "This period ends on [date]. Publishing now finalizes it early — activities booked after today won't be included. Confirm to publish anyway."
- A month before the quarter's last month: Publish All and Publish Selected publish that month's payouts and leave quarterly drafts whose quarter hasn't ended, with the note "N payouts were left as drafts: their period runs to [date]. Publish them from [Month] once the period ends." The Publish dialog says so beforehand, and they are not in its count, total or anomaly scan.
What publishing locks
Once a period is published, its deals can't be added, moved or edited ("Book it in an open period, or post a correction…"). Position, role and plan changes that would alter it are refused, and a plan's pay frequency, metric type and evaluation period can no longer change ("clone the plan instead"). A rep with a published payout can't be deleted; deactivate them instead. A revenue adjustment for a rep whose manager already published that month is refused.
Exports
Export to Payroll
| Preset | Columns |
|---|---|
| Earnest (Default) | Rep Name, Email, Period, Gross Commission, Adjustments, Net Payout, Currency, Status |
| Gusto | Employee Email, First Name, Last Name, Check Date, Earnings Type, Amount, Currency, Status |
| ADP | Employee ID, File Number (both the rep's email), Pay Period End, Earnings 3 Code, Earnings 3 Amount, Currency Code, Status |
| Rippling | Employee Email, Pay Period Start, Pay Period End, Earning Type, Amount, Currency, Status |
Published payouts only starts ticked once any payout for the month is published, and unticked when none is. Unticked, the file includes drafts and reps with no payout, with a warning that "Draft amounts are not final". Status values: Published, Draft, "Draft - regenerate (N adjustments not included)", No payout, Not calculated. Amounts are in each rep's payout currency and never negative. The file follows your filters across every page.
Export Statements
All as PDF (zip) and All as CSV cover every rep matching the filters, including drafts and reps with no payout. The zip is built in your browser from the table, so it can differ from the statement a rep receives or downloads from their dashboard.
The plan snapshot
Every payout freezes the plan it was calculated under. Editing a plan later never changes a saved payout, the statement is drawn from the snapshot, and a recompute correction is priced against it.
FAQ
Can I unpublish a payout? No. Post a correction instead; see Corrections and clawbacks.
I imported deals after drafting. What now? Click Regenerate Drafts, then publish. Otherwise the drafts are held.
How do I recalculate one rep? Tick them and click Regenerate Selected (1).
Are reps told when a draft is created? No. Only publishing notifies them.
A rep had no deals. Do they get a payout? Yes, a $0 payout (or their guaranteed draw), so every period has a record.
Why did a rep get a link but no PDF? Rarely, Publish All or Publish Selected can't build a rep's statement. The payout is still published, and the rep can download the statement from their dashboard.
Can a manager's sign-off stop me publishing? No. It is information only and is cleared when the draft is regenerated or deleted.