The Payout Pipeline

A payout in Earnest represents the commission a rep earns for a specific time period. This article walks through the full lifecycle — from generating drafts to publishing finalized statements — and explains how adjustments, approvals, and notifications work at each stage.

Payout Lifecycle

Every payout moves through a simple two-stage lifecycle:

No Payout → DRAFT → PUBLISHED

Published payouts are immutable. Once published, the commission amount, plan snapshot, and FX rates cannot be changed. If a correction is needed, it should be applied as an adjustment on a future period's payout.

Step-by-Step: Running Payouts

Step 1: Select the Period

Navigate to Admin → Payouts and select the month (or quarter) you want to process. The dashboard shows you all reps with their calculated commission, split into three groups:

• No Payout — reps who don't have a payout record yet.
• Draft — reps with draft payouts that haven't been published.
• Published — reps whose payouts are already finalized.

Step 2: Generate Drafts

Click "Draft All Payouts" to generate draft payout records for every rep who doesn't have one yet. This action:

1. Runs the commission engine for each rep in the selected period.
2. Creates a payout record with the calculated grossEarnings and finalPayout.
3. Captures a plan snapshot — a frozen copy of the plan's configuration (tiers, ramp steps, multipliers) at that moment.
4. Performs any required currency conversions and locks in the exchange rates.
5. Links any existing adjustments (manual revenue or fixed bonuses) to the payout.

After drafting, the status column will show "DRAFT" for each rep.

Step 3: Review & Adjust

Before publishing, review each rep's payout:

• Open the detail view by clicking on a rep's row. You'll see the full audit breakdown — revenue, attainment, tier calculations, bonuses, and adjustments.
• Add adjustments if needed. Earnest supports two adjustment types:

Adjustments can only be made on Draft payouts. Each adjustment requires a reason (free text).

Step 4: Publish

When you're satisfied with the numbers, click "Publish All" to finalize every draft payout for the period.

Period Guard: Earnest will not let you bulk-publish payouts for a period that hasn't ended yet. If you try to publish March payouts on March 25, the system will block the action and show the period's end date. This prevents publishing incomplete data — wait until the period closes, or use single-payout publish with explicit acknowledgment.

Publishing:

1. Changes the payout status from DRAFT to PUBLISHED.
2. Records the publish timestamp and the admin who approved it.
3. Updates each rep's activity records to reflect the published status.
4. Logs an audit event for each published payout.
5. Kicks off email notifications in the background (if enabled in org settings) — see Step 5.

Step 5: Email Notifications

When a payout is published and your organization has email notifications enabled, each rep receives:

• An email with the subject: "Your [month] commission statement is ready"
• A PDF attachment — the full Commission Statement with the complete math breakdown.

Emails are processed in the background after the publish action completes — the admin UI does not wait for all emails to send before showing confirmation. For large teams, emails may take a few minutes to arrive at every rep's inbox.

The email includes the rep's final payout amount, the period covered, and a reminder to contact their manager or finance team with questions.

The Plan Snapshot

When a payout is generated, Earnest freezes the entire plan configuration into a plan snapshot stored on the payout record. This means:

• If you update a plan's tiers or ramp schedule after generating payouts, the existing payouts are unaffected.
• You can always audit a historical payout against the exact rules that were active at the time.
• The commission statement PDF is generated from this snapshot when the payout is published.

Payroll Export

From the payouts page, you can export a payroll-ready CSV that includes:

• Rep name and email
• Payout amount in the rep's payout currency
• Equivalent amount in the org's base currency
• Period start and end dates

This export is designed to be handed directly to your payroll provider or finance team.

Frequently Asked Questions

Q: Can I un-publish a payout? No. Published payouts are permanent records. If you need to correct a mistake, create a Fixed Bonus adjustment (positive or negative) on the next period's payout and note the reason.

Q: What happens if I regenerate drafts after making changes to activities? If a draft payout already exists for a rep, the "Draft All" action skips that rep. You would need to delete the existing draft first (from the detail view) and then regenerate to pick up new activity data.

Q: Can I publish payouts before the period ends? Not via "Publish All." The system blocks bulk publishing for any period that is still in progress. For individual payouts, you can manually change the status from Draft to Published on the detail page — but this is discouraged as activities booked after today won't be included.

Q: Are reps notified when a draft is created? No. Notification emails are only sent when payouts are published. Draft payouts are internal working documents visible only to admins.

Q: What if a rep has no activities for the period? A payout is still generated with zero commission. If the rep is on a ramp with a guaranteed draw, they'll receive the draw amount. The payout record ensures you have a complete audit trail for every period.

Q: Can I publish payouts for individual reps? Yes. From the individual payout detail page, you can change the status of a single payout from Draft to Published. The "Publish All" button on the main page is a convenience for bulk publishing.

Q: How does the system handle quarterly payouts? For plans with a quarterly payout frequency, the period spans three months (e.g., January 1 – March 31). The commission engine aggregates all activities within the quarter, and a single payout is generated for the full period.

Q: What about dispute resolution on published payouts? If disputes are enabled for your organization, reps can flag specific activities or payout amounts for review. Admins can review disputes and, if warranted, create adjustments on the current or next period. The disputed payout itself is never modified.