What a rep actuallytakes home.
Base, commission, accelerators above quota — the plan reads simple until the period closes and the number is nothing like the spreadsheet in the offer letter. Punch in your real attainment and see exactly what lands in the check.
Your numbers
Bookings you actually closed this period (the number commission pays on).
Your target for the period. Everything above it pays at the accelerator.
Guaranteed salary for the period, before any commission.
Percent of revenue you earn on every dollar up to quota.
Higher percent paid on revenue closed beyond quota.
The verdict
Commission earned
$8,000
Total pay
$13,000
Quota attainment
80.0%
Effective commission rate
10.0%
Total commission ÷ revenue closed.
Where the take-home comes from
Attainment vs. quota
Assumes an uncapped, revenue-based plan with one accelerator tier above quota; multi-tier or capped plans pay differently.
Sensitivity · the attainment step
What each level of attainment pays
| Attainment | Revenue closed | Commission | Total pay |
|---|---|---|---|
| 60% | $60,000 | $6,000 | $11,000 |
| 80% | $80,000 | $8,000 | $13,000 |
| 100% | $100,000 | $10,000 | $15,000 |
| 120% | $120,000 | $13,000 | $18,000 |
| 150% | $150,000 | $17,500 | $22,500 |
Notice the jump above 100%: that's the accelerator. The gap in total pay between 100% and 120% is wider than the gap between 60% and 80% — overperformance pays more per point because every dollar past quota earns 15% instead of 10%.
Your move
You see the take-home. I'll show you where the pipeline's leaking.
$8,000 commission + $5,000 base = $13,000 total pay at 80.0% quota attainment.
Send me your funnel behind this quota. In the first 30 minutes I'll tell you whether you're short on pipeline, conversion, or deal size — and what I'd fix first to get you past the accelerator line. Free, and yours to keep whether you hire me or not.
Plain English
Commission is simple. The plan around it isn't.
Sales commission is the slice of revenue you earn for closing it — a percentage of bookings layered on top of a guaranteed base. The headline rate looks clean on paper, but two things bend it: quota and accelerators. Below quota you earn the base rate. Above it, a good plan pays you more per dollar to reward overperformance.
That kink at 100% attainment is where most reps misread their own check. Land at 80% of quota and every dollar paid at the base rate, no accelerator in sight. Land at 130% and the last 30 points pay at the juiced rate — which is exactly why the gap between an 'okay' quarter and a 'great' one is wider than the gap in revenue suggests.
This calculator runs your real numbers through the actual structure: base, commission to quota, accelerator above it. You get the commission earned, total take-home pay, your quota attainment, and your effective commission rate — the single number that tells you what every dollar of closed revenue is really worth to you.
The formula
Commission = (Revenue ≤ Quota) → Revenue × Rate; else Quota × Rate + (Revenue − Quota) × Accelerator. Total Pay = Base + Commission.
Close $140,000 against a $100,000 quota at 10% base / 15% accelerator: the first $100k pays $10,000, the extra $40k pays $6,000, so commission is $16,000. Add a $5,000 base and total pay is $21,000. Effective rate: $16,000 ÷ $140,000 = 11.4% — higher than the 10% base, because the accelerator did its job.
What commission rates actually run
Commission rates scale with deal complexity and sales cycle: transactional roles sit low with high volume, enterprise sits high with long cycles. Typical ranges by role:
| Role | Typical commission rate |
|---|---|
| SDR / BDR | 5-10% |
| Account Executive | 8-15% |
| Enterprise AE | 10-20% |
Source: Sales compensation benchmarks (RepVue / Bridge Group) · 2025
Your number came back light. Where's the leak?
Attainment under ~70%.
Commission is doing nothing for you yet — you're living on base. The fix isn't the comp plan, it's pipeline. Get coverage to 3–4× the gap and the accelerator never enters the conversation.
Effective rate barely above the base rate.
You're closing right at or below quota, so the accelerator never fires. The money is in the last 20 points of attainment. Pull one deal forward across the line and the marginal rate jumps.
Big base, thin commission.
Your plan is base-heavy, which caps upside. Comfortable, but you'll never out-earn a leaner, higher-leverage plan in a strong year. Worth a conversation at renewal if you're a closer.
Total pay looks fine, take-home feels low.
Remember commission is taxed as supplemental income and clawbacks lurk in many plans. The gross here is real; budget against net and read the clawback clause before you spend it.
Eight ways to move the take-home number
01Chase attainment, not activity
Pay is a step function at quota, not a smooth line. Ten extra calls mean nothing; one extra closed deal that crosses 100% unlocks the accelerator on everything above it.
02Pull deals into the period
A deal that slips to next quarter resets your attainment to zero on it. Front-loading the period stacks revenue toward the accelerator band sooner.
03Protect deal size
Effective rate rises with average deal size when accelerators kick in. Discounting to close shrinks both the revenue and the commission percentage you ultimately earn.
04Know your accelerator cliff
Most plans pay the higher rate only above quota — some have tiers at 110%, 125%, 150%. Map the cliffs and sequence deals to clear them before the period ends.
05Build coverage before the quarter
You can't accelerate past quota without enough pipeline to clear it. 3–4× quota in qualified pipe is the price of admission to the high-rate band.
06Read the clawback clause
Commission paid on deals that churn or refund often gets clawed back. Bank conservatively on plans with long clawback windows; that gross isn't fully yours yet.
07Negotiate the mix, not just the OTE
Two plans with the same on-target earnings pay wildly differently in a great year. A lower base with a steeper accelerator out-earns a flat plan once you're a proven closer.
08Track effective rate monthly
Your effective rate is the truest read on plan health. If it's stuck at the base rate, you're consistently landing under quota — a pipeline problem, not a pay problem.
The vocabulary
- Quota
- The revenue target you're measured against for the period. The line that separates base-rate commission from accelerated commission.
- Attainment
- Revenue closed ÷ quota, as a percentage. 120% attainment means you closed 20% past target.
- Accelerator
- A higher commission rate paid on revenue above quota, designed to reward overperformance and pull deals forward.
- Effective rate
- Total commission ÷ total revenue closed. The blended percentage every dollar of bookings actually earned you.
- OTE
- On-target earnings: base plus the commission you'd make at exactly 100% of quota. The 'expected' number in an offer.
- Clawback
- Recovery of commission already paid when the underlying deal churns, refunds, or fails to collect inside a defined window.
Commission questions, straight answers
Commission is a percentage of the revenue you close. With a quota and accelerator, revenue up to quota pays the base rate and revenue above quota pays the higher accelerator rate. Total pay is your base salary plus that commission. This calculator splits the math at the quota line automatically.
Keep going
A calculator tells you what. A call tells you what to do about it.
Send me the account behind these numbers. I'll tell you straight where the money's leaking and what I'd fix first — free, and you keep it whether you hire me or not.