For the third year in a row, QuotaPath has been named to HubSpot’s Essential Apps for Sales, a curated collection of must-have integrations designed to help HubSpot users sell smarter, faster, and with more confidence.

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This recognition is a badge of honor and proof that our customers are seeing real impact from how we help unify their sales process inside HubSpot, eliminating fragmented tools and giving teams a complete view of their pipeline.

“Our sales managers and reps are more productive, our accounting is error-free, and the whole system flows better,” said Eric Baum, CEO of Bluleadz, a customer of QuotaPath and HubSpot. “The QuotaPath integration with HubSpot has transformed our operations.”

We continue to build on this momentum with two powerful new product launches that will further enhance your HubSpot experience: the Attainment App Card and Earnings App Object.

Watch our video below and read on to learn more.

Earnings App Object: Centralized Commission Insights

Our first big launch, the Earnings App Object, brings component-level earnings data into HubSpot as a native object.

This means you can now:

• Track commissions spend and trends: Report on total earnings by deal, rep, or team and monitor commissions as a percent of revenue over time
• Evaluate incentive impact: Compare earnings by deal size, type, or product sold. See which compensation components drive the most performance, and track manager comp based on rep earnings.
• Prioritize high-impact deals: Identify high-efficiency deals by earnings per dollar sold and analyze cost of sales by contract length or segment

Attainment App Card: Quota Progress Where You Work

In addition to our Earnings App Object, we also launched a new app card.

Now, with our Attainment App Card, reps can see their quota progress in real time, directly on deal pages.

No switching tabs. No manual tracking. 

Just a clear, visual bar graph showing overall attainment against quota in real time.

This instant visibility helps reps self-check progress, understand how each deal impacts their goals, including forecasted views, and course-correct faster. Managers can use the same view to coach more effectively and improve forecasting accuracy.

Our Attainment App Card joins our existing Earnings App Card, which gives reps and managers instant access to commission data without leaving HubSpot. Together, these app cards provide a complete performance view, earnings and attainment side by side, right where your team works.

With earnings data centralized in HubSpot, RevOps teams can analyze commission trends, evaluate incentive impact, and prioritize the deals that drive the most performance—all without leaving the CRM.

Why This Matters for You

With Essential Apps recognition and these two new capabilities, QuotaPath is doubling down on our mission: helping sales teams stay focused, motivated, and aligned with company goals.

• Reps get clarity on where they stand and what’s needed to hit quota
• Managers get better coaching tools and forecasting accuracy
• RevOps leaders get richer data to optimize comp plans and drive revenue growth
  

We’re adding features, yes, but most importantly, we’re removing friction from your workflow so you can move faster and sell smarter.

See It in Action at INBOUND

Both the Attainment App Card and Earnings App Object are making their debut at HubSpot’s INBOUND conference. If you’re there, stop by our booth (#22) to see why we’re a 2025 HubSpot Sales Essential App. Ask questions, get hands-on with the new tools, see a live demo… and maybe play a round of roulette!

For everyone else, you can book a demo here to see how these launches and our award-winning HubSpot integration can impact your team.

Commission accounting can be notoriously messy and prone to errors. Manual spreadsheets create compliance risks, causing Finance teams to lose valuable time chasing down discrepancies. A structured commission accounting checklist helps eliminate these challenges, keeping your reporting accurate, compliant, and efficient from the start.

Why Do You Need a Commission Accounting Checklist?

Without a straightforward process, sales commission accounting can quickly spiral into errors, delayed payouts, and audit exposure. Finance leaders face the added pressure of staying compliant with standards like GAAP and ASC 606 Revenue Recognition. A commission accounting checklist helps prevent these risks by providing structure and consistency for greater accuracy, efficiency, transparency, and trust across Finance, Sales, and RevOps.

Step-by-Step Commission Accounting Checklist

Here’s a clear, structured checklist you can follow.

Step 1: Gather accurate sales and commission data

Collect clean, complete commission data from all relevant sources. Missing or inconsistent entries are the most significant cause of errors and delayed reporting. Consolidate sales and commission data on one platform, like QuotaPath, to reduce discrepancies and ensure Finance works from a single source of truth.

Step 2: Verify commission rules and rates

Confirm that commission rules, rates, and eligibility criteria match your approved compensation plan. Even small misalignments, like outdated rate tables or exceptions not being properly logged, can trigger disputes, delayed payouts, or compliance issues. Consolidating these details in a centralized system, such as QuotaPath, simplifies validation, reduces errors, and ensures that every team is aligned with the same framework.

Step 3: Align fiscal periods across teams

Establish consistent fiscal period alignment across Finance, Sales, and Revenue Operations (RevOps). Without it, commission expenses and revenue may be recorded in different reporting windows, creating mismatches that complicate audits and forecasts. This alignment avoids reporting conflicts between Sales, Finance, and RevOps, ensuring accurate comparisons and streamlined financial close processes.

Step 4: Apply ASC 606 and revenue recognition rules

Apply ASC 606 standards to ensure commission expenses are recognized in line with revenue recognition requirements. Misclassifying or failing to spread capitalized commissions over the service period can result in misstated earnings and increased audit risk. Automating commission accounting in QuotaPath simplifies revenue recognition and ASC 606 compliance, reducing risk while strengthening reporting integrity.

Step 5: Automate commission calculations

Manual commission calculations are time-consuming and prone to errors, often resulting in disputes and delayed payouts. Automation reduces these risks significantly. CFO.io found that AI saves Finance teams over 200 hours annually on manual tasks, while Nominal reported a 55% reduction in data entry, 40% faster process completion, and 30% improvement in decision-making accuracy. Commission accounting software, such as QuotaPath, offers these benefits by streamlining calculations, allowing finance leaders to close faster with fewer errors.

Step 6: Reconcile with your general ledger

Regularly reconcile commission entries with your general ledger to ensure accurate and audit-ready financial statements. When commission schedules become misaligned with booked revenue, discrepancies surface during month-end close and complicate audits. Integrating commission data into your accounting system through a platform like QuotaPath ensures consistency, reduces manual rework, and supports a smoother closing process.

Step 7: Implement GAAP-compliant reporting

Ensure your commission accounting practices align with GAAP standards to maintain transparency and accuracy in financial reporting. Deviations from GAAP can lead to restatements, investor concerns, and increased audit scrutiny. With a commission account system, like QuotaPath, Finance leaders can produce GAAP-compliant reports more efficiently, giving stakeholders confidence in both the numbers and the processes behind them.

Step 8: Manage clawbacks and overpayments

Establish transparent processes to handle overpayments and clawbacks when deals fall through or customers return products. Without defined rules, Finance teams face disputes, strained relationships with reps, and inconsistent recovery of funds. Incentive compensation management software, like QuotaPath, enables you to automatically identify and apply clawbacks, so corrections are accurate, transparent, and fairly enforced.

Step 9: Forecast commission liabilities

Forecasting commission liabilities provides a clearer picture of future expenses and reduces exposure to unexpected sales compensation payouts. Without this step, you risk underestimating your obligations, which can strain your budget and create financial surprises. By using a sales commission accounting software like QuotaPath, teams can model liabilities in advance, improving financial risk planning and supporting stronger long-term decisions.

Step 10: Provide team visibility

Provide Sales, Finance, and RevOps teams with visibility into commission data through clear dashboards and reporting. When reps can’t see how their incentive compensation is calculated, it often leads to disputes, mistrust, and wasted time for Finance. Automating this process with QuotaPath ensures every stakeholder has real-time, transparent access to commission details, building confidence and reducing friction across teams.

Step 11: Integrate with your financial tech stack

Connect your commission accounting system with the rest of your financial tech stack to maintain data consistency and eliminate duplicate entry. Without integration, Finance teams risk errors, delays, and siloed reporting across systems. QuotaPath offers robust integrations that sync commission data directly into the general ledger, maintain accurate books, and accelerate the close process.

How Automation Speeds Up Commission Accounting

Automation transforms commission accounting by eliminating manual errors, streamlining the month-end close process, and enhancing transparency across teams. Instead of spending days reconciling spreadsheets and correcting mistakes, Finance leaders can rely on sales commission automation to deliver accurate results faster. This increased efficiency saves time and builds greater trust between Finance, Sales, and RevOps.

Why Choose QuotaPath for Commission Accounting

QuotaPath goes beyond basic tracking to deliver automation, accuracy, and compliance benefits that make commission accounting easier and more reliable.

Unified platform for all teams

QuotaPath provides a single source of truth where Finance, Sales, and RevOps work in sync, reducing silos and eliminating duplicate entry. This unified approach makes online sales commission accounting software a central driver of efficiency and trust across teams.

Built-in ASC 606 and GAAP-compliant reporting

QuotaPath simplifies ASC 606 commission accounting by automating the process of capitalizing expenses in line with revenue recognition rules. With accurate sales commission accounting treatment built in, Finance leaders can ensure compliance and produce GAAP-ready reports with confidence.

Commission forecasting, integrations, and scalability

QuotaPath enables Finance teams to forecast commission liabilities more accurately, integrating seamlessly with your CRM and general ledger for a more cohesive sales tech stack. As scalable sales commission accounting software, it adapts with your business, helping you plan for growth while minimizing risk.

Final Thoughts

A reliable commission accounting checklist is essential for minimizing errors, ensuring compliance, and fostering trust across Finance, Sales, and RevOps. Automating the process ensures consistency, speeds up reporting, and strengthens financial planning. Don’t leave compliance and accuracy to chance. Automate your commission accounting with QuotaPath.

If your top sales rep is making more than your VP, is that a problem? Or proof the system is working?

For most companies, it sparks panic.

A rep blows past quota at 180% attainment, earning $400K in commissions. Finance balks: “That’s more than the VP makes. We can’t pay that.” The solution? 

Cap commissions at 150%.

Here’s the irony: instead of protecting the business, caps cripple it. 

By capping commissions, companies unintentionally tell their best performers to stop performing. High achievers sandbag, Q4 pipelines stall, and culture shifts from growth to limits. Matt Green, CRO at Sales Assembly,  said it bluntly in his LinkedIn post: “Pay for performance, or explain to your board why your top talent works for competitors.”

Today, when replacing a top rep can cost six figures in lost revenue and 6–12 months of productivity, the math is simple. 

Commission caps don’t save money; they burn it. 

And for Matt, the solution is equally straightforward: let your best reps out-earn leaders. 

Leadership is a trade-off: more responsibility, less pay. Top performers, on the other hand, drive revenue that justifies their outsized earnings.

To unpack his philosophy, we sat down with Matt for a conversation on comp plan design, progressive commission rates, and why CFOs and sales leaders need to rethink how they motivate reps.

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Q&A with Sales Assembly CRO Matt Green

You’ve been outspoken about how commission caps demotivate top performers. What’s the most effective comp plan structure you’ve seen that avoids this while still managing CFO concerns?

Matt: Keep it simple. For a mid-market AE, a clean 50/50 split with 10% flat commission on ARR and accelerators after 120% works best. That structure rewards consistent performance without creating unnecessary loopholes. The more complexity (spiffs, multipliers, exceptions) you add, the more reps try to game the system. I’m also a big believer in rewarding pipeline coverage. If reps are self-sourcing quality meetings or driving renewals and expansions, tie 10–15% of comp to that. It builds healthier deals and better customer stickiness.

You mentioned progressive commission rates as a healthier alternative. How would you structure one for a $1M quota AE?

Matt: Instead of a flat rate, I’d tier the attainment. Something like:

• 0–50% attainment → 5% commission
• 51–100% attainment → 10% commission
• 101–125% attainment → 12% commission
• 126%+ attainment → 15% commission

This structure motivates reps from the start because they’re earning even at 50%, but also creates a powerful pull effect as they approach quota. For a $1M target, someone finishing at 120% would earn $120K–$125K in commission, which is above OTE but completely justified by the $200K in additional revenue they generated. It’s far cheaper than hiring incremental headcount to close the same gap.

How should companies handle reps who exceed quota but close low-quality or risky deals?

Matt: Quality gates are key. I’m not against clawbacks or tying part of comp to customer success. One approach I like: link a small percentage of comp to NPS scores after the CSM handoff. It’s not huge, but it’s meaningful. Another version I’ve seen (though pretty extreme) included commissions that were only paid if deals fit strict ICP criteria. If you closed a deal outside ICP, you didn’t get paid. It’s a dial turned to 11, but it makes sure reps are thinking long-term.

How do compensation philosophies shift across startups, growth-stage, and enterprise companies? Where do comp plans most often go wrong?

Matt: The danger zone is startup to scale-up. Startups often overpay early to attract talent before they have product-market fit. That’s fine at Series A, but by Series B or C those legacy comp plans start bleeding money. I’ve seen reps making $800K–$900K on outdated structures. At the enterprise level, companies usually stabilize with lower bases, clearer quotas, better balance with culture. For example, Sprout Social is known for low bases but excellent retention because reps feel supported and consistently hit quota.

Do you believe top sales reps should out-earn sales leaders?

Matt: Yes, absolutely. Commission is the most quantifiable ROI a company has. A rep delivers revenue, they get paid for it. It’s math. Leadership is a trade-off: more responsibility, less pay. Good leaders know that. If a rep is pulling in $600K+ and the leader isn’t, it’s because that rep is driving the revenue engine. And that’s a good thing.

What’s the best comp plan you’ve ever been on?

Matt: A decade ago at Kapow. I joined after their Series A, and the comp plan was pure Wild West. We were getting paid on signatures—even before revenue was collected. For reps, it was gold. For CFOs, a nightmare. Two CFOs came and went before they shut it down. It wasn’t sustainable, but it showed me how much latitude sales leaders have in shaping comp, and how critical it is to balance rep motivation with financial responsibility.

Final Thoughts

Matt’s philosophy is clear: compensation should fuel performance, not limit it. And we agree wholeheartedly. When companies cap commissions, they lose dollars and momentum, talent, and culture.

The key lessons from his approach are simple but powerful:

• Commission caps backfire by demotivating reps and encouraging sandbagging.
• Simplicity wins when it comes to comp plans; complex structures only invite loopholes.
• Progressive rates drive performance, motivating reps before and after they hit quota.
• Quality matters, and comp plans should reward not just deal volume but the right customer deals.
• Top reps should out-earn leaders because paying for performance is the surest way to drive revenue growth.
  

At the end of the day, if a rep generates $3M in ARR and takes home $400K, the company still nets $2.6M. Cap that earning, and you risk losing both the revenue and the talent that produced it. Want to build smarter, cap-free comp plans? Try QuotaPath’s AI-powered plan builder and book a demo today.

When comp plans hinge on usage, closing the deal is just the beginning.

And with more SaaS and fintech companies adopting usage-based pricing (according to a recent event featuring Insight Partners’ portfolio companies,  84% of attendees reported exploring, piloting, or already using this pricing model), leaders must reconsider how sales teams are compensated. 

But without clear rules of engagement, revenue leaders risk demotivating reps or missing revenue targets.

In this blog, we’ll walk through the five key rules for enabling sales reps to succeed in usage-based comp environments, drawing from real-world examples and insights from teams like Tremendous and Vic.ai.

Why Usage-Based Comp Requires New Rules

Making the switch from a traditional to a usage-based model fundamentally changes the sales rep’s role…and how they’re rewarded. Instead of a linear deal-to-commission relationship, reps now operate in a system where their impact is more distributed and delayed.

This shift forces leaders to rethink what behaviors they want to incentivize. As Scott Shepard, Head of Sales at Tremendous, explained:

“We wanted to tie AE behaviors to the underlying thing we care about—gross profit to the business—which all comes down to spend,” said Scott.

Unlike traditional SaaS pricing, where bookings equate to revenue, usage-based revenue trickles in over time. 

That means:

• Commissions may be delayed
• Forecasting is harder
• Motivation can dip when outcomes feel too far away

As a result, leaders need to redefine success metrics, compensation timelines, and how companies keep reps focused on driving long-term customer value (not just landing the contract).

Now, let’s get into the rules. 

Rule 1: Define Clear Quota Retirement Mechanics

First, define clearly what counts toward quota.

Many teams separate quota retirement from commission payout to keep reps focused on long-term value without compromising short-term motivation.

For example, reps might retire their full quota based on forecasted usage, but receive commission as usage accrues over time.

“Quota retirement will determine the rate that they earn… the rest is dripped over time,” said QuotaPath VP of RevOps Ryan Milligan.

This approach helps unlock accelerators while protecting cash.

Rule 2: Use Hybrid Payout Structures to Balance Risk and Reward

Next up, think about your payout structures. 

In our most recent report, we found hybrid payout structures to be most effective. 

To balance business risk with rep incentives, most teams use hybrid models that combine upfront and milestone-based payouts.

Example: An SMB SaaS company pays 25% of commission at deal close, 50% upon onboarding, and 25% once the customer reaches 50% of their estimated spend.

“This model has always felt like the fairest on both sides,” added Ryan.

Rule 3: Tie Rep Engagement to Post-Sale Behavior

You should also pay close attention to what responsibilities the rep will have after the sale.

In usage-based models, onboarding and early adoption drive revenue. That means the rep’s job isn’t done at signature.

Scott said Tremendous credits reps for moving deals into onboarding…with a CSM’s approval. This ensures reps care about setting customers up for success.

Consider milestone bonuses for early usage or onboarding completions.

Report: Ramping Comp Plans

See how 100+ revenue leaders set their new reps up for success by creating ramping comp plans with adjusted quotas and commission rates.

View Report

Rule 4: Account for Ramp Time (For Customers and Reps)

Usage builds slowly. So does rep impact.

Just as customers may take weeks or months to ramp up their usage, reps navigating a usage-based model also need time to develop pipeline, close deals, and see usage-based revenue materialize. 

Unlike traditional models where pay can land within a month, comp here may trickle in over quarters.

Tremendous addressed this lag by extending their AE ramp time to 18 months for enterprise reps, acknowledging that closing the deal is only the first milestone in a longer revenue realization journey.

This ties back to earlier rules around quota retirement (Rule 1) and hybrid payouts (Rule 2), both of which can help smooth rep earnings during a slow start. 

Ramp periods should be designed with usage timelines in mind, not just sales cycle length.

Adjust your expectations and your comp timelines accordingly.

 Reps need space to influence customer outcomes, and that means longer performance windows and patience from leadership.

Rule 5: Use True-Ups and Forecast Accuracy Thresholds

Even with strong forecasting, actual customer usage rarely follows a perfect curve. 

This is why true-ups are essential, serving as a safeguard for both the business and the rep.

If you’re paying commissions based on estimated usage, true-ups ensure compensation aligns with the real value delivered over time. They allow you to adjust payouts if actual consumption deviates meaningfully from the forecast.

For example, a cloud services provider implemented a tolerance band: they only trigger a true-up if the customer’s usage ends up more than 20% above or below the original estimate. 

This kind of buffer protects reps from frequent clawbacks while still holding the business accountable to accuracy.

Additionally, this rule complements what we discussed in Rule 2 (hybrid structures) and Rule 4 (longer ramps). 

True-ups give you the flexibility to reward reps earlier, based on estimates, while still reconciling when the full value becomes clear months later.

Used well, true-ups create trust. They reduce risk, limit overpayment, and reinforce alignment between forecasted and actual value without overwhelming RevOps teams with admin work.

Final Takeaways

If your revenue model is tied to usage, your rep strategy needs to evolve. Use these rules to set reps up for success:

• Quota credit upfront, with payouts tied to real usage
• Hybrid models that drip commissions based on milestones
• Clear incentives for post-sale behavior
• Realistic rep ramp periods
• Forecast-adjusted true-ups

Usage-based comp plans can work—but only when reps are equipped to win within them.

For more examples and plan structures, read our full Usage-Based Compensation Report.

Accurate commission accounting and compliance aren’t just back-office tasks. They’re critical for financial health, investor confidence, and avoiding costly compliance penalties. SaaS revenue recognition rules require that revenue be recognized over time, and contracts often span multiple years, making the stakes even higher.

Missteps in commission treatment can ripple into misstated earnings, delayed closings, and audit issues.

That’s why SaaS commission accounting introduces unique complexities when compared to other industries. Subscription revenue models, multi-year agreements, churn, and mid-term contract changes all require finance teams to adjust how they recognize revenue and amortize commission expenses on a continuous basis.

What Makes Saas Commission Accounting Complex

For instance, under ASC 606 revenue recognition, commissions must be allocated over the service period. This rule can create major challenges when contracts shift midstream.

Plus, SaaS contracts rarely stay static.

Customers frequently upgrade to higher tiers, downgrade to smaller packages, or churn altogether. Each of these events forces finance teams to revisit their schedules for revenue recognition and deferred commission accounting.

For example, if a customer upgrades their license mid-year, increasing ARR, finance must adjust the capitalized commissions linked to that contract. That means updating the amortization schedule, reallocating payouts, and ensuring the changes align with GAAP, all while keeping the books audit-ready.

Below, we unpack SaaS commission accounting challenges (the risks of getting it wrong) and tactics to get it right.

Unique Challenges In Saas Commission Accounting

While the SaaS subscription-based revenue model creates growth opportunities, it introduces a unique set of hurdles for Finance and RevOps. Some of the most common SaaS commission accounting challenges that teams encounter include:

The Risks Of Getting It Wrong

The complexities of SaaS commission accounting create additional work for Finance and RevOps, while also opening the door to serious business risks. From compliance penalties to delayed closing and lost credibility with investors, getting it wrong can carry a steep cost.

Compliance Penalties

• Failing to allocate commissions correctly under ASC 606 or amortize per ASC 340 can result in costly fines.
• Misstated financials can trigger SEC scrutiny or GAAP noncompliance flags during audits.
• Revenue restatements damage credibility with auditors and investors alike.

Audit Delays and Restatements

• Inconsistent or incomplete commission data can stall quarterly and annual closes.
• Missing documentation forces finance teams into time-consuming forensic reconciliations.
• Restating prior periods disrupts investor confidence and diverts resources from growth priorities.

Lost Investor and Board Confidence

• Errors in commission accruals or payouts raise doubts about leadership’s financial controls.
• Unreliable reporting on sales efficiency metrics (CAC, LTV, GRR) clouds strategic decision-making.
• Persistent inaccuracies can reduce valuation multiples in fundraising or M&A negotiations.

Solutions That Work

The good news is that each of these challenges has a clear path forward. With the right processes and tools, SaaS businesses can streamline commission tracking, stay compliant with ASC 606, and protect both cash flow and credibility.

Automate ASC 606 Compliance

• Auto-allocate commissions over the service period based on deal terms.
• Generate audit-ready amortization schedules directly from closed deals.
• Flag exceptions for early renewals, cancellations, or contract changes.

Simplify Capitalization and Amortization Tracking

• Automatically capitalize eligible commission expenses for multi-year deals per ASC 340.
• Schedule amortization to match revenue recognition without manual spreadsheets.
• Maintain a clear audit trail for all adjustments and write-offs.

Real Time Forecasting and Liability Modeling

• Project future commission payouts from pipeline and booked deals.
• Model scenarios for upgrades, downgrades, and churn impacts on liabilities.
• Provide finance leaders with instant views of accrued vs. paid commissions.

Integrated Data For Finance, Sales, and RevOps

• Connect CRM, ERP, and payroll so all teams work from the same data source.
• Enable shared dashboards showing earnings, attainment, and payout status.
• Reduce close delays and payout errors caused by disconnected systems.

How QuotaPath Handles SaaS Complexity

Solving these issues requires more than spreadsheets or manual processes. Commission accounting software for SaaS, like QuotaPath, delivers automation, integrations, and flexibility that finance teams need to stay compliant and maintain accurate commissions, even in the most complex SaaS environments.

Here’s how:

Customizable Commission Rules For Saas

• Challenge: Complex deal structures, mid-contract changes, and multi-year subscriptions make manual commission tracking prone to errors.
• QuotaPath Feature: Flexible commission logic that supports tiered rates, multi-role payouts, accelerators, clawbacks, and proration for upgrades/downgrades.
• Benefit: Automates recalculations instantly when deal values or terms change, reducing manual work by 50%+ and eliminating payout errors.

CRM + ERP Integrations

• Challenge: Data misalignment between Finance, Sales, and RevOps causes reporting delays, audit issues, and payout disputes.
• QuotaPath Feature: Native integrations with Salesforce, HubSpot, QuickBooks, Rippling, and other ERPs to sync deal, payout, and amortization data in real time. 
• Benefit: Creates a single source of truth for commissions, cutting close cycles by days and ensuring audit-ready, ASC 606-compliant records without rekeying data.

In Action: Actabl

Don’t just take our word for it. See how QuotaPath simplifies SaaS commission accounting.

Hospitality operations platform Actabl evaluated four commission tools before selecting QuotaPath. What won them over was the combination of efficiency, visibility, and audit-readiness. Instead of wrestling with multi-hour spreadsheet processes each month, Actabl’s team now runs commissions with confidence, saving hours of manual work while giving Sales, Finance, and RevOps full transparency.

“For the FP&A team, it was that they can trust that it’s being calculated properly, and that if we’re ever audited, we can show what’s going on… QuotaPath met these boxes for all three teams—RevOps, Finance, and Sales,” said Kenza Sebbar, Director of RevOps.

With measurable time savings, seamless adoption, and audit-ready reporting, Actabl’s experience demonstrates the ROI of choosing commission accounting software for SaaS that’s built to handle complexity.

See how QuotaPath can simplify your SaaS commission accounting. Schedule time with a team member today.

What is Outcome-Based Pricing?

SaaS pricing models are evolving.

Although a traditional fixed-rate monthly or annual subscription was once the norm, companies have increasingly adopted usage-based pricing, where customers pay for what they use, aligning pricing with customer value. The latest value-based pricing strategy is outcome-based pricing, where customers pay based on realized value or agreed-upon success metrics, not just consumption or time.

According to Forrester, “this shift reflects the reality that value doesn’t always scale with user count.”

They continue by explaining, “APIs and AI agents are accelerating the shift away from user-based pricing by delivering value through automation, integration, and scale rather than human interaction. As AI continues to decouple usage from value, buyers will increasingly favor outcome-based pricing.”

Report: Usage-Based Compensation Plans

Learn triggers, tactics, common structures,and best practices.

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How Outcome-Based Pricing Impacts Sales Compensation

Aligning rep incentives to customer success metrics in sales compensation plans is the key to preventing short-termism. It encourages reps to build long-term client relationships, driving long-term value, and achieving sustained growth. This alignment motivates reps to identify and close deals with customers who can achieve their desired outcomes by incorporating customer success incentives, rather than relying on short-term revenue-based commissions.

Like usage-based models, an outcome-based pricing model often involves delayed payouts when paying based on actual revenue rather than estimated revenue. It also makes forecasting challenging due to factors that may influence outcomes throughout the year. Common variables that can be tied to payouts include milestones achieved, sales performance metrics hit, and customer ROI targets achieved.

Challenges of Comp’ing on Outcomes

Although outcome-based pricing models require tracking specific data to determine compensation payments, sales compensation best practices remain applicable. For instance, establishing a balance between base pay and variable compensation to ensure sales rep motivation.

“An AE’s performance in any given quarter can feel prebaked,” according to Scott Shepard, Head of Sales at Tremendous, “Without a lever to pull now, reps risk going on autopilot or giving up if behind pace.”

In addition to balancing rep motivation, forecasting complexity, delayed rep gratification, and data quality are challenges to be navigated when creating a comp plan for an outcome-based pricing model.

• Forecasting complexity: Harder to predict when outcomes will be achieved.
• Delayed rep gratification: Dopamine gap if payout is far from deal close.
• Data quality: Requires reliable tracking of success metrics.Rep motivation balance: Avoid disengagement if outcomes are slow to materialize.

Comp Plan Structures for Outcome-Based Models

Consider these commission payout models to help address some of the challenges of compensating for outcome-based pricing models. The following frameworks stem from usage-based comp consulting calls.

Best Practices for Designing an Outcome-Based Comp Plan

Using these comp plan design best practices will help you create an effective outcome-based pricing compensation plan.

• Set clear, measurable outcome definitions: Eliminate ambiguity.
• Shorten the feedback loop: Where possible, introduce interim metrics or bonuses to keep motivation high.
• Balance rep cash flow: Consider partial upfront payments at reduced rates.
• Align with company strategy: Comp should drive behaviors that match business priorities, not distort them.
• Use clear and transparent communication: Ensure reps understand the rules, expectations, and potential earnings, as well as how to calculate commissions and payment timing.

Outcome-Based Pricing Comp Plans Examples

Use the following examples as models to help you get started in creating your outcome-based pricing compensation plans.

Example 1: SaaS Implementation Firm (10 AEs)

This plan focuses on a customer operations cost reduction outcome.

Outcome Metric: Customer reaches 20% cost reduction in operations.

Quota: $500K annual outcome value.

Structure: 50% payout on projected value at deal close, 50% on verified outcome within 12 months.

Notes: True-up annually to reconcile over/under performance.

Example 2: FinTech Platform (Enterprise)

This plan, by contrast, focuses on driving gross profits.

Outcome Metric: Gross profit generated from the client’s spend.

Quota: $5M gross profit quota.

Structure: Quota retirement as profit accrues; supplemental quota credit for new $100K+ outcome deals.

Notes: Split target — 60% gross profit, 40% new outcome accounts.

What to Watch Out For

When structuring outcome-based pricing compensation, it’s easy to overcomplicate plans with too many micro-bonuses or metrics. Overly complex plans confuse reps and dilute motivation. Another risk is misaligned ICPs–chasing outcomes with low profitability or high resource drain. Finally, avoid unrealistic ramp timelines. Because outcomes often take months to realize, allow for longer ramp timelines and payout schedules that reflect this reality.

Keeping these pitfalls in mind will help you design outcome-based comp plans that motivate reps, drive sustainable growth, and align with customer value.

Schedule time with QuotaPath to help structure comp plans while automating quota attainment tracking and commission management.

News just in: usage/outcome-based pricing models are more than a popular trend. 

At a recent private event with Insight Partners’ portfolio companies, 84% of attendees reported that they were either using, piloting, or exploring usage-based pricing models. 

This signals a transformation in how SaaS and fintech companies monetize value.

As pricing evolves, so must the systems that support it. Usage-based models shift how and when revenue is recognized, which means compensation structures need to evolve, too. Reps can no longer rely on fixed contract values; they’re now incentivized to drive activation, adoption, and long-term usage.

This blog explores how to navigate that shift, including defining value metrics and designing comp plans that align sales performance with customer outcomes. Enjoy the read. And, for a deeper dive, including five real-world comp plan examples, download the full Usage-Based Comp Plans Report.

REPORT: Usage-Based Compensation Plans

Trends, models & examples from high-growth revenue teams.

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Why Shift Away from Seat-Based Pricing?

Seat-based pricing was built for a different era, an era when user count was a reliable proxy for product value. In that world, usage remained relatively flat, teams grew in predictable ways, and it made sense to equate value with the number of logins.

But today’s software doesn’t work like that.

Modern SaaS products, especially infrastructure, fintech, and AI-driven tools, scale with activity, not seats. Whether it’s API calls, data processed, or transactions completed, value comes from usage, not headcount.

That shift has triggered growing pressure from buyers for pricing flexibility. 

Customers expect to pay for what they use…not what they might use. 

And in PLG or land-and-expand sales motions, this flexibility often fuels faster adoption and lower barriers to entry.

From the company’s side, usage-based models provide a stronger foundation for revenue alignment. Instead of trying to lock in large contracts based on estimated needs, revenue leaders can now tie pricing directly to customer outcomes.

“Usage-based models are a key lever for increasing ACV and driving Net Dollar Retention (NDR),” said Andrea Kayal, Chief Revenue Officer at HelpScout.

Put simply, usage-based pricing better reflects how modern software is bought, sold, and consumed. And for companies ready to make the jump, it opens the door to better expansion economics and stronger customer alignment, when done right.

Both usage-based and outcomes-based pricing models are designed to do one thing: align what customers pay with the value they actually receive.

Usage-Based Pricing

Usage-based pricing ties revenue directly to product consumption.

Instead of paying a flat fee per seat, customers are billed based on how much of the product they actually use, whether that’s:

• GBs stored
• API calls made
• Transactions processed
• Emails sent
• Background checks run
  

This model is particularly common in infrastructure, fintech, and data platforms, where consumption scales linearly with value. It also gives customers the flexibility to start small and expand usage as they grow, a perfect match for PLG and modern SaaS motions.

Outcomes-Based Pricing

Outcomes-based pricing goes a step further by tying payment to results delivered rather than raw usage. Think:

• Hires made (for a recruiting platform)
• Leads generated (for a marketing tool)
• Cost savings achieved (for a spend management platform)
  

This approach is less common—due to its complexity—but incredibly powerful in industries where ROI is measurable and high stakes.

Examples

• Tremendous, a fintech platform, charges based on payout volume. The more their customers spend through the platform, the more Tremendous earns.
  
• Data infrastructure providers often price based on API calls, which tend to scale predictably with customer growth.
  
• Customer support platforms are replacing seat-based models with metrics like “contacts helped”, better reflecting the actual impact of the product on customer experience.
  

In both models, pricing shifts away from assumptions and toward value realization, rewarding vendors for impact, not access. This alignment opens the door to stronger customer retention, more transparent pricing conversations, and a better foundation for revenue growth.

How to Make the Transition

Shifting from seat-based to usage- or outcomes-based pricing isn’t just a pricing change; it’s an organizational transformation. To pull it off successfully, your company needs to rethink how it defines value, aligns teams, and motivates sales performance.

Here are the three core steps:

1. Pick the Right Value Metric

Your pricing model lives or dies by the clarity of your value metric.

Choose something that’s:

• Measurable
• Intuitive
• Aligned to customer outcomes
• Consistent across customer segments
  

For instance, “contacts helped” is clearer than “agents licensed.” And “API calls” beats “monthly active users.”

Your value metric doesn’t just define pricing… it drives comp plans, forecast models, and customer conversations.

It helps to get this right first.

2. Educate Internally

Additionally, a pricing shift is a company-wide change. That means internal education is critical. 

You have to get RevOps, Sales, Finance, CS, and Product on the same page:

• Sales needs to understand how usage maps to revenue.
• RevOps must adapt quota and commission structures.
• CS plays a vital role in driving activation and early usage.
• Finance needs visibility into usage trends and forecast reliability.

“Prepare your teams with internal doctrine and decision records,” said Andrea Kayal, Chief Revenue Officer at HelpScout. “A successful rollout starts with internal alignment.”

3. Update Comp Plans to Match

Usage-based pricing without a matching comp plan is a recipe for frustration. Reps are left chasing numbers they don’t control, or worse, waiting months to see any commission at all.

That’s why compensation must evolve alongside pricing.

“We tied AE comp to gross profit, not contract value. Because that’s when we make money, when customers spend,” said Scott Shepard, Head of Sales at Tremendous.

Here are the three most common models we see in the field:

Estimated Revenue

• Structure: Reps receive quota credit and partial payout at close, based on projected usage.
• ✅ Motivating for reps (immediate earnings)
• ❌ Risk of clawbacks if forecasts miss

Estimated Revenue

• Structure: Reps receive quota credit and partial payout at close, based on projected usage.
• ✅ Motivating for reps (immediate earnings)
• ❌ Risk of clawbacks if forecasts miss

Hybrid

• Structure: Combines upfront payouts with performance-based triggers and usage validation.
• ✅ Best of both worlds: motivation + risk management
  

Example: For a rep earning 10% on an $80K forecasted deal:

• 25% of the payout is paid at close
• 25% is released at customer onboarding
• Final 50% unlocks once the customer hits 50% of forecasted spend

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Real World Examples

When Not to Make the Switch

Usage-based pricing works best when usage data is reliable and scalable. But it’s not always the right move.

Avoid usage-based pricing if:

• Your usage patterns are erratic or seasonal
  Example: a recruiting tool during a hiring freeze
• Your infrastructure can’t track usage accurately
• You’re an early-stage and still testing your pricing model
• Your reps need fast, predictable earnings to stay motivated
  

“We really are flying blind into this. Our estimates are still way off,” said a Sales Operations leader at an AI startup.

Final Thoughts

Shifting to usage-based or outcomes-based pricing is more than a tactical change—it’s a strategic upgrade.

Done right, it improves revenue alignment, deepens customer value, and unlocks more scalable expansion motions.

• Start with a hybrid model.
• Align compensation with realized value.
• Educate your teams and create a clear internal doctrine.
  

This isn’t just the future of pricing…it’s the future of GTM strategy.

To modernize your compensation strategy, book time with our team today.

I’ve spent the better part of the last decade working in RevOps, and if there’s one truth I’ve come to believe, it’s this: a company without a clear North Star Metric is a company navigating without a compass.

At QuotaPath, we’ve worked with hundreds of finance, sales, and RevOps leaders, from high-growth SaaS teams to commission-heavy industries like real estate and logistics. And the pattern is always the same. 

When the business isn’t aligned around a single, actionable, and predictive metric of success, it shows up everywhere: in disconnected priorities, conflicting comp plans, missed targets, and overburdened finance teams trying to make sense of it all.

So let’s break this down. 

What is a North Star Metric? Why does it matter so much? And, critically, how do you actually operationalize it across departments?

What is a North Star Metric?

Your NSM is not just another KPI. It’s the measurable, shared, and strategic metric that best reflects how your business creates long-term value. Done right, it’s the answer to the question: “If we moved just one number up and to the right, would we be confident the business is growing in the right direction?”

For us at QuotaPath, our NSM is: % of revenue with payouts running through QuotaPath this quarter. It’s simple. It’s tied directly to product usage.

And most importantly, it gives us a pulse on our overall business health.

Why It Matters (Especially to Finance)

If you’re in Finance, you’re used to tracking dozens of metrics. 

But the NSM plays a different role; it acts as the strategic glue that connects finance to revenue teams and the boardroom.

Here’s why it matters:

• It creates clarity in decision-making. When your GTM teams request additional budget or resources, you can tie those decisions back to their impact on the NSM.
  
• It strengthens compensation plan design. If your sellers don’t understand how their behavior impacts company-wide metrics, they can’t be expected to optimize for them. The NSM gives them that visibility.
  
• It aligns incentive structures. Whether it’s Sales, CS, Marketing, or Product, everyone should see how their work ladders up to one core measure.
  

When the NSM is missing or vague, Finance ends up being the referee between teams instead of the strategic partner they want to be.

With that said, here’s how to get started.

Step 1: Identify Your NSM

First, you have to agree on the metric.

You can’t drive alignment until you’re aligned yourself. Here’s how I recommend teams identify the right North Star Metric.

Ask yourself:

✅ Can every team understand and repeat it in one sentence?
✅ Is it measurable and consistently trackable?
✅ Does it require cross-functional ownership?
✅ Will moving it predict real business growth?

Additionally, avoid lagging indicators like raw revenue or closed/won deals. They’re important, but they don’t help you steer in real-time. 

Focus instead on leading indicators tied to product value or customer behavior:

• Time to value
• % of customers realizing value
• Renewal rate
• Monthly active users
  

Step 2: Drive Buy-In Across the Org

Next up is getting org-wide buy-in. This is where most teams stumble. You find a good metric, get excited, and then… it falls flat.

Why? Because you didn’t operationalize it.

Here’s two factors that we’ve found works:

Socialize It Internally

Start with leadership. Bring in Finance, RevOps, Sales, and Product. Ask: “How do you influence this metric?” If they can’t answer, either the metric’s wrong, or you haven’t clarified its value.

Then test it across the org.

Ask individual contributors to repeat it back. If it’s not sticky, it won’t scale.

Make It Part of the Company Story

Don’t just slap the NSM on a slide and move on. Bake it into:

• Team meetings
• OKRs
• Onboarding sessions
• Quarterly planning
• Compensation plans
  

Push teams to ask: “Will this initiative move the NSM?” If not, why are we doing it?

Step 3: Track It, Report It, Celebrate It

Once your NSM is live, track it obsessively.

• Slice the data by team, segment, or region. Who’s moving the needle? Who’s stuck?
• Celebrate playbooks that work. Highlight what teams did to impact the metric.
• Report progress to leadership and the board. Connect it to strategic investments, rep performance, and market trends.

Don’t forget: Context matters. If your NSM moves, explain why. Create a learning loop.

Step 4: Revisit and Refine

Your NSM shouldn’t be permanent. Reevaluate it at least annually.

Ask:

• Is it still the most predictive signal of success?
• Are teams still engaged with it?
• Has our product, model, or GTM strategy evolved?

If the answer to any of these is “no,” iterate. Layer in supporting metrics if needed, but don’t dilute the focus.

Bonus: Tie It to Compensation (Yes, Really)

This is where Finance leaders can lead from the front.

When comp plans reflect NSM movement, reps care. Period. At QuotaPath, we’ve helped teams align comp in powerful ways:

• SDRs: Bonus for meetings with NSM-fit accounts
• AEs: Accelerators for closing high-NSM-value deals
• CS/AMs: Bonuses for moving customers from “non-NSM” to NSM usage tiers
  

Final Thoughts

If you’re serious about efficient growth, you need more than dashboards. You need direction.

A clear, company-wide North Star Metric doesn’t just align teams. It drives the right behaviors, connects day-to-day execution to long-term value, and gives Finance leaders a powerful tool to tie performance to strategy.

If you’re not sure where to start…start by asking the hard question:

What’s the one metric that matters most to your future growth?

If you can’t answer that confidently, you’ve just found your first step.

Let’s get clear.

Let’s get aligned. 

And if you need help operationalizing your NSM, from comp plan design to payout automation, we’re here.

Managing sales commissions is often more complicated than it needs to be.

On one end, you have clunky spreadsheets that demand constant upkeep and manual checks. On the other hand, bloated enterprise platforms promise automation but deliver headaches, lengthy onboarding, steep learning curves, and endless troubleshooting.

Both create unnecessary friction in a process that should be straightforward.

The result? Confusion, wasted hours, and “black box” payouts that leave reps questioning their earnings. Hidden costs pile up in the form of lost time, strained trust, and diminished morale. And perhaps the biggest irony: the very tools purchased to make compensation easier often slow everything down.

That’s why simplicity isn’t a nice-to-have; it’s a strategic advantage.

Tools like QuotaPath deliver more value precisely because they do less but do it really well.

In this blog, we’ll explore how intuitive tools save time, build trust, and drive better outcomes for teams, all backed by real customer proof points.

The Hidden Costs of Over-Engineering

Over-engineered compensation tools drain more than the budget.

They drain time, trust, and morale. Hours are lost to training, debugging, and constant “admin heroics.”

Reps become frustrated when they don’t understand the system or doubt its accuracy, while leaders struggle with software capabilities that aren’t aligned with business needs. Long onboarding times add to the drag, leaving businesses with a tool that slows processes instead of speeding them up.

Spreadsheets: Familiar, But Fragile

Meanwhile, spreadsheets remain a trusted fallback for many teams, offering familiarity, control, and a sense of confidence. But that comfort comes with tradeoffs. Spreadsheets are often gatekept by a single owner, diminishing transparency to the rest of the team, while payout errors and disputes creep in as teams scale.

Whistic’s story shows this pattern clearly. After trying Spiff, which proved too overcomplicated and unpopular with reps, they reverted to spreadsheets—only to discover that wasn’t sustainable either. As Taggart Befus, Revenue Operations Manager at Whistic, explained, “QuotaPath ultimately solves a complicated problem through simplicity. It’s even more simple than logging into a Google Sheet.”

Warmly faced similar challenges.

“We had errors, multiple audits, and leadership would catch mistakes I had missed. When six sets of eyes still aren’t enough to prevent errors, you know it’s a problem,” said Keegan Otter, Head of Revenue. For Warmly, spreadsheets had become a bottleneck, prompting them to seek a scalable solution for their team.

5 Ways To Optimize Your Comp Plans For Performance And Cost

Learn how to optimize your compensation plan for both performance and cost-effectiveness.

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Why Simplicity Is a Strategic Advantage

Scalability calls for simplicity. Because when it comes to sales compensation tools, simplicity is power, not a limitation.

Comp plans are already complex enough; the tools used to manage them should uncomplicate an already complicated process. Yet too often, buyers fall into the trap of believing that more features equal more value. In reality, complexity creates a drag on time, trust, and performance.

By contrast, QuotaPath is a “Do Less, Deliver More” tool, intentionally avoiding overengineering. Its plug-and-play usability streamlines compensation operations across RevOps, Finance, and Sales teams.

This simplicity translates into ROI, where RevOps and Finance gain hours once wasted on administration, allowing them to focus on more strategic initiatives. Rep clarity leads to fewer disputes, better morale, and faster action. And with fewer moving parts, companies lower their risk of errors and rework.

As Taggart Befus, Revenue Operations Manager at Whistic, explained: “What stood out about QuotaPath was its simplicity. It did exactly what we needed without adding unnecessary complexity.” Emma Wilkinson, Moxo, echoed that sentiment: “QuotaPath is very plug and play… user-friendly, flexible, and the answer was always, ‘Yes, we can handle that.’”

How Simplicity Shows Up in QuotaPath

These customer reactions stem from QuotaPath’s philosophy: simplify what’s already complex.

By focusing on usability and clarity, QuotaPath makes managing sales compensation faster, easier, and more transparent across the organization. Here’s how that philosophy shows up in practice:

• Fast Setup & Onboarding: Companies like Warmly and Whistic were live in days, not months, proving that compensation software doesn’t need lengthy implementation timelines to deliver value.
• Minimal admin lift. No army of ops required: QuotaPath reduces the operational overhead typically associated with compensation tools. As Randy Laufersky, President at Core Imaging, shared: “From an admin side, QuotaPath is the easiest thing I have done yet. It’s super simple.”
• Intuitive for All Users: The platform is designed for simplicity, so both administrators and sellers can use it without steep learning curves. James Hall, EVP of Revenue at Gappify, explained: “I liked most about QuotaPath… how clean the interface was and very intuitive for myself and for our sellers.”
• Built for Finance, RevOps, Sales, and Leadership alike: QuotaPath serves every stakeholder with clarity and speed. As Liza Dukhova, RevOps Manager at Rootly, put it: “Now, I can’t imagine my life without it… Anything that saves me hours of time is appreciated — and QuotaPath does that for me.”
• Reps Trust and Use It: With a straightforward, visual interface, reps always know where they stand, which reduces disputes and builds trust across the team. This transparency boosts morale and keeps reps focused on the right outcomes.
• Supports Complexity Without Forcing It: QuotaPath is flexible enough to handle advanced comp plans while remaining easy to manage. “It was obvious that we weren’t going to keep a super simple, vanilla plan. We needed something that allows for a lot of flexibility to add different contingencies and business logics,” said Thomas Egbert, Head of Finance at Prefect.

Ready to learn more?

QuotaPath adapts to business needs without requiring unnecessary setup or complexity. Learn more about QuotaPath’s simplicity. Schedule time with a team member today.

RevOps is changing… and so is their pay.

Once viewed as a behind-the-scenes operations role, Revenue Operations has become a strategic growth driver. That shift has brought increased visibility, influence, and pay.

In 2025, RevOps leaders are earning more, yes, but they’re also being compensated in smarter, more nuanced ways that align directly with company performance metrics.

In this post, we break down how RevOps salaries are trending, what incentive structures are working (and which aren’t), and how top companies are designing comp plans that drive both accountability and growth.

RevOps Salary Trends in 2025

First, let’s check in on RevOps salaries.

According to BoostUp.ai and ZipRecruiter, RevOps roles are seeing a steady upward trend in compensation, with a reported 5% year-over-year salary increase, outpacing the projected 4% average across industries. 

Entry-level roles such as RevOps Analysts now command salaries ranging from $85,000 to $124,500, while more experienced managers and directors earn between $150,000 and $250,000, depending on seniority and company size.

Additionally, location and skillset remain key factors. 

Professionals in tech hubs like San Francisco and New York earn 20–30% more than the national average, especially those with strong backgrounds in revenue intelligence and data analytics, skills increasingly in demand as RevOps becomes more data-driven.

But this isn’t the only change to RevOps compensation.

Incentive Design: Beyond the Base Salary

One of the most compelling shifts in RevOps comp is the move away from just base salaries and toward performance-based incentive structures. 

As Sarah Ditmars, RevOps Manager  at Secoda, shared in our interview:

“I’ve been on profit-sharing plans with quarterly payouts based on leader performance, and I loved it. It made me feel like I had ownership over our cash flow.” — Sarah Ditmars, Head of Revenue Operations, Planswell

In addition to profit-sharing, companies are increasingly using:

• Accelerators tied to company-wide goals (e.g., revenue milestones, CRM implementation success)
• Quarterly bonus structures tied to initiatives like churn reduction, customer expansion, and pipeline health
• Equity-based incentives like RSUs and stock appreciation rights for long-term alignment

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Customizing Incentives: Not One-Size-Fits-All

A key insight from both research and interviews is that incentive plans must reflect the RevOps role’s unique impact across multiple departments, not just sales.

Sarah argues against using standard sales structures like “three tiers of BANT”:

“You shouldn’t have the same structure [as Sales]… But there should be some type of quarterly accelerator. We’re in marketing, sales, CS. We touch everything. We need a model that reflects that,
said Sarah.

She also noted that tying RevOps incentives to a blend of Sales, Marketing, and Customer Success KPIs would better motivate cross-functional collaboration and alignment.

Final Thoughts

You can be just as strategic with RevOps compensation as you are with the role itself. 

As businesses tighten spending while expecting more from every role, finance and RevOps leaders must collaborate to build comp plans that are equitable, motivating, and directly tied to business impact.

As Sarah put it: “We’re not admins. We’re not COOs. Our hands are in three buckets. Give us the tools to move the metrics we touch.”

For help building RevOps comp plans or any role at your organization, chat with our team today. 

What Does It Mean to Lead a Sales Team Effectively?

Those who lead a sales team inspire people toward a shared vision and empower them to achieve it, while those who manage a sales team focus on overseeing daily operations and processes. Sales leadership focuses on motivation, culture, and long-term growth, playing a central role in driving sales team performance metrics and results.

Leaders define success, align metrics with company goals, and provide coaching, tools, and incentives that enable reps to meet and exceed benchmarks consistently. This alignment ensures performance is measurable, targets are achievable, and progress is sustained over time. Effective leaders possess a combination of sales leadership strategies that balance proactive leadership with reactive management.

Proactive leadership anticipates trends, forecasts accurately, and drives innovation. By contrast, reactive management responds quickly to challenges and shifting opportunities. Striking the right balance keeps the team adaptable while maintaining a clear path toward long-term success.

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The role of a sales leader in setting goals and driving performance

A sales leader connects individual performance, team objectives, and the company’s growth strategy when setting sales goals that motivate the team and support revenue goals. This requires an understanding of the company’s growth strategy and a strategic alignment with the sales compensation plan essential to driving company objectives.

Top-performing leaders also leverage sales goal tracking software like QuotaPath to drive quota attainment tracking and maintain high motivation.

For instance, David Thai, RevOps Team Lead at Augury said, “Our reps love the forecasting earnings feature… it does kind of drive a little bit more of incentive for them to kind of differentiate, you know, pitch harder… that’s really an invaluable driver of morale and just understanding how you make money at the end of the day.”

Similarly, Rootly’s Director of Sales, Andre King, shared that, “Visibility into their earnings has changed what the reps are pushing for… showing your reps how much more they can make on longer contracts changed how they sell.”

By combining strategic alignment with tools that make progress and earnings transparent, sales leaders can turn targets into tangible motivators, driving individual and team performance.

Coaching vs. managing: why leadership style matters

A sales leader’s style also shapes more than daily operations.

It influences team performance, engagement, and long-term growth. Leaders who lean too heavily on managing may hit short-term targets but risk missing opportunities to develop skills, foster innovation, and retain top talent.

Coaching, on the other hand, builds capability and confidence, equipping reps to consistently improve their performance.

Directive and developmental coaching are two distinct coaching styles that leaders can draw from depending on the situation. While directive coaching diagnoses the issue and prescribes the solution, Developmental coaching uses questions to guide reps toward their own solutions, building independence and adaptability.

Pairing both styles with effective sales enablement equips leaders with the tools and training to make coaching more impactful and sustainable.

How to Set Achievable Sales Targets For Your Team

Setting sales targets that inspire performance without overwhelming your team is a balancing act. The following steps will help you create achievable, data-driven goals that align with business priorities and keep your reps focused on what matters most.

Aligning individual goals with company objectives

Drive sales productivity by ensuring every rep’s targets contribute directly to the company’s broader growth strategy. Establish this alignment with a North Star Metric (NSM) — a clear, measurable indicator that reflects how the business creates value and grows over time. Tying individual goals to the NSM gives reps a common focal point and understanding of how their day-to-day activities influence the organization’s success.

This approach not only keeps priorities consistent across the team but also strengthens collaboration between sales and other functions, as everyone works toward the same overarching objective.

Using historical performance data to forecast accurately

Once individual goals are aligned with company objectives, use past performance data to set targets that are both ambitious and attainable. Review historical sales results, conversion rates, and pipeline metrics to identify realistic benchmarks and spot trends that can inform your projections. Using historical performance data offers valuable insights, greater forecasting accuracy, and enables informed sales target decisions.

How compensation plans influence target setting

Target setting defines what sales teams are expected to achieve, such as quota, revenue, or retention. Sales compensation plans provide the incentives tied to those targets. For target setting to be credible and effective, leadership needs to: model possible outcomes, forecast payout risk, and test comp plan behaviors ahead of rollout.  

For instance, the QuotaPath compensation management platform helps streamline these processes, eliminating manual calculations.

The impact of compensation on behavior:

Compensation structures directly influence how sales reps prioritize their efforts and approach their work.

Incentive Alignment

• Sales reps are more likely to focus on activities that directly lead to rewards.
• Accelerators (e.g., higher payouts after hitting quota) boost effort late in the quarter.

Increased Deal Volume & Size

• Reps push to close more deals or larger deals when payout potential is visible.
• Clear line-of-sight to earnings encourages proactive selling.

Healthy Competition

• Transparent compensation structures (with visibility tools like QuotaPath) drive reps to outperform peers.

Deal Structuring & Prioritization

• Reps favor product lines, contract lengths, or account types with higher payout multipliers.
• Example: Incentives for multi-year contracts lead to more long-term deals sold.

Pipeline Management

• Reps become more disciplined in tracking and updating CRM data if it affects payouts.

Quota Attainment Strategies

• Compensation plans can drive behaviors like:
  • Pulling deals forward to hit quota.
  • Sandbagging if accelerators are poorly structured.
  • Gaming plans (if not well-designed).
    
    

How QuotaPath users simulate and adjust plan modeling.

Our customers use QuotaPath to easily model and test compensation plans before launching them.

For instance, NeuroFlow requested a tool to mock up and run compensation scenarios, and QuotaPath’s Draft Plans feature was born.

As NeuroFlow’s Systems Operations Manager, Genevieve Moss-Hawkins explained, “Really early on, we provided feedback about wanting to mock up a plan and run scenarios without using the production environment… During our time as customers, QuotaPath built and released Draft Plans. We’ve used it for at least one year of commission planning.”

Whistic also leverages QuotaPath to simplify their compensation management process. “We just finished up year-end for 2024 kickoff for 2025, so there was a lot of modeling exercises and a lot of planning. I think the modeling and kind of the more planning element is something that still is a little new, but improving,” said Taggart Befus, Revenue Operations Manager at Whistic

Best Practices For Motivating Your Sales Team

Motivation is the fuel that keeps a sales team performing at its best. These best practices will help you sustain high energy, boost engagement, and inspire reps to meet or exceed their targets consistently.

Leveraging incentives and commission structures

Commission tracking software, such as QuotaPath, drives better performance by providing sales reps with real-time visibility into how their activities translate into earnings. That transparency clarifies incentives, boosts motivation, and reduces disputes so reps can stay focused on selling.

McKinsey found that companies that focus on their people’s performance are 4.2 times more likely to outperform their peers, realizing an average 30 percent higher revenue growth and experiencing attrition five percentage points lower.

“The sales team loves having the ability to see their pipeline, forecast potential commissions, and understand exactly when they’ll get paid…QuotaPath keeps them motivated and eliminates the back-and-forth,” said Genevieve.

Recognizing and rewarding consistent performance

Simple practices like peer recognition, monthly awards, or shout-outs in team meetings are effective ways to motivate sales team members, reinforce desired behaviors, and sustain momentum.

According to Gallup, employees who don’t feel adequately recognized are twice as likely to say they’ll quit in the next year — underscoring the link between recognition and retention. By making recognition timely, authentic, and tailored to individual preferences, leaders can boost morale, strengthen loyalty, and encourage reps to keep performing at their best.

Building a transparent and supportive culture

Transparency is crucial to the success and effectiveness of your sales compensation plan.

Compensation transparency fosters trust, enhances plan adoption, and boosts sales team motivation. There are fewer commission disputes and better morale when reps understand how they earn incentives and have visibility into payout calculations. Ways to incorporate compensation transparency include: 

• Enabling reps to approve their commissions in a multi-level approval workflow
• Locking plan data once it’s approved
• Providing deal-level traceability of payments to reps
• Giving reps access to earnings dashboards
• Providing an automated dispute process

What To Do When Your Team Is Not Hitting Targets

Even top-performing teams face slow periods or missed goals. Here’s how to identify the root causes, adjust your strategy, and keep morale strong when your team is falling short.

Identifying root causes (pipeline, process, compensation issues)

Before making changes to your sales strategy or compensation plan, pinpoint the factors preventing your team from hitting targets by examining key performance indicators and market conditions.

Look at: 

• Sales activity metrics: Calls, emails, demos—are reps putting in the work?
• Pipeline health: Are there enough qualified opportunities at each stage?
• Conversion rates: Identify where deals are falling off.
• Quota and compensation alignment: Are goals realistic and incentivizing the right behavior?
• Market and competitive changes: Has something shifted externally?

To determine if it’s time to change your comp plan, Ryan Macia, CFO at Osano, recommends you start evaluating comp plans when there’s a misalignment between actual performance and plan expectations.  Then, once you’ve identified a gap, Anne Pao, Founder & CEO at Ignite Consulting, suggests engaging the sales team to understand what they find confusing or demotivating about the plan.

Adjusting goals and expectations strategically

When performance falls short, adjust goals and expectations in a way that refocuses the team while still driving toward overall business objectives. 

• Coach and re-skill: Prioritize training and individualized coaching.
• Refine targeting: Ensure reps are focused on the right ICPs and segments.
• Optimize the sales process: Remove friction and clarify next steps at each stage.
• Adjust comp plans if needed: Ensure they’re driving desired outcomes.
• Collaborate with marketing: Improve lead quality and nurture support.

Communicating setbacks without damaging morale

When reps aren’t achieving sales targets, the way leaders communicate can mean the difference between a motivated rebound and a drop in morale. Combining transparency, empathy, and ownership helps maintain trust and keep the team engaged. Be clear about the challenges, acknowledge the team’s efforts, and share the plan for moving forward, showing that setbacks are a shared responsibility and an opportunity to improve together.

How QuotaPath Helps You Lead Your Team To Sales Success

The right tools make it easier to lead a sales team toward hitting and surpassing their goals. QuotaPath provides the visibility, automation, and insights necessary to align compensation with strategy, boost motivation, and drive consistent results.

Automate compensation to reduce admin overhead

When you automate sales commissions, you free up valuable time, reduce calculation errors, and eliminate the inefficiencies of manual spreadsheets.

Augury experienced this firsthand after implementing QuotaPath.

“It used to take the full 45 days to do quarterly commissions. Now it takes 15 days or less,” said David.

Align comp plans with strategic business goals

Compensation plans should motivate sales teams and drive the attainment of business objectives. QuotaPath supports leadership in achieving this with dynamic modeling tools and plan performance reports, enabling them to forecast outcomes, test plan scenarios, and adjust incentives in real time.

These insights help sales leadership ensure comp plans remain aligned with evolving business goals, while motivating reps to focus on the activities that deliver the highest strategic impact.

Increase transparency and boost sales motivation

Visibility into earnings is a powerful motivator, and QuotaPath delivers it through real-time dashboards and deal-level payout details. This transparency builds trust, reduces disputes, and keeps reps engaged in achieving their targets.

Actabl’s adoption of QuotaPath improved trust and rep engagement.

“Some reps trust me and never log in. Others are super users who flag things, check their status, and use it regularly. And they love it because of the visibility,” Actabl’s Director of Revenue Operations, Kenza Sebbar, shared. 

See how QuotaPath helps you lead your team in achieving sales targets. Schedule time with a team member today.

The shift is on: Sales comp is following the usage-based pricing model.

Usage-based pricing has been the conversation in SaaS and fintech for the last few years. Now, sales comp plans are catching up.

At a recent private event with Insight Partners portfolio companies, the momentum was clear:

• 19% are already on a usage-based pricing model
• 17% are piloting or testing
• 48% are actively exploring
• Only 17% are still just learning
  

This model works beautifully when customer spend ties directly to operational metrics (think: data volume, payment transactions, or API calls). But changing how you price often means rethinking how you pay your sales team. 

That’s where things get tricky.

Report: Usage-Based Compensation Plans

Turning customer consumption into revenue requires rethinking sales compensation. In this report, learn when usage-based comp works, design frameworks, payout strategies, and five anonymized examples from high-growth teams.

View Report

That’s why we created our Usage-Based Compensation Plans: Trends, Models & Examples from High-Growth Revenue Teams Report. 

It’s a deep dive into the state of usage-based comp today, who’s using it, what’s working, what’s not, and the exact plan structures teams are putting in place. Packed with benchmarks, best practices, and anonymized examples, it’s designed to help you decide if (and how) this model could work for you.

Why We Built This Report

We wanted to cut through the noise and give Revenue and RevOps leaders real-world insights from leaders who’ve been in the trenches.

We analyzed dozens of compensation consultation calls, spoke with industry leaders, and pulled in external benchmarks to answer:

• When does a usage-based comp plan make sense (and when doesn’t it)?
• What are the top challenges, and how do teams solve them?
• What frameworks work best?
• What do actual usage-based comp plans look like?

What You’ll Learn

In this report, you’ll find:

• Adoption trends: 60% of SaaS companies use some form of usage-based pricing (OpenView, 2023).
• Common pain points: Forecasting accuracy, delayed revenue realization, clawbacks, and rep motivation.
• Best practices: Hybrid payout models, quota credit vs. payout separation, and onboarding-aligned incentives.
• Five anonymized comp plan examples spanning fintech, infrastructure SaaS, SMB SaaS, and more.
  

A Few Nuggets We Couldn’t Keep to Ourselves

• Hybrid structures are where it’s at. Most successful teams blend forecast-based payouts with true-ups tied to actual usage.
  
• Quota credit ≠ payout timing. Giving full quota credit at close (even if payouts drip over time) keeps reps engaged without draining cash.
  
• Early usage is everything. When reps drive onboarding and adoption, usage ramps faster, benefiting both the customer and the business.
  

Ready to See the Full Report?

If you’re considering or already navigating a usage-based pricing or compensation model, this report will give you the frameworks, examples, and pitfalls to watch for so you can build a plan that motivates your team and protects your bottom line.

Read Report Now.

A sales compensation clawback occurs when a company recovers commissions previously paid to a representative, typically because a customer cancels, requests a refund, or fails to pay within a defined period. While clawbacks are widely disliked, they serve a critical purpose: protecting the business financially, discouraging fraud or misrepresentation, and motivating reps to prioritize high-quality, long-term customers.

To be considered fair, every clawback policy should include three essentials:

• A defined timeframe, within 3–4 months of the sale, for example
• Clear triggers like cancellations, refunds, or non-payment
• Transparent terms, such as a signed clause in the compensation plan, a clear recovery method (usually future commission deductions), and visibility for reps to monitor clawback risk.

In this article, we’re sharing five best practices for creating fair, transparent, and enforceable clawback policies that protect your bottom line while maintaining rep trust and motivation.

Here we go!

1. Set a Clear and Reasonable Timeframe

Every clawback policy should include a defined timeframe; the simpler, the better.

A clear and reasonable clawback window makes the policy easier to understand and implement, while preventing confusion or resentment among reps. A 3–4 month period post-sale is generally considered standard and fair.

According to HubSpot’s The Ultimate Guide to Sales Compensation, “If a customer cancels their plan one to four months after signing up, the salesperson who sold it to them is forced to give back their commission payment. This ensures reps focus their time and attention on businesses that can really benefit from the product.”

Predictability and simplicity should take precedence over punitive timelines.

Long or ambiguous clawback periods can create anxiety and distrust, especially when reps don’t know when a deal is officially “safe.” A short, well-defined window protects the business financially while enabling reps to plan their earnings and focus on closing more high-quality deals without tracking clawback risk indefinitely.

Download Our Free Sales Commission Agreement

2. Apply Clawbacks to Commission, Not Quota

When a deal falls through, companies have two primary options for clawbacks: recover the commission dollars or revoke the quota credit. While both approaches are technically viable, clawing back only the commission is widely considered the fairer and more effective option.

Quota clawbacks are overly punitive and demotivating for reps. If a rep is forced to “re-earn” quota credit for a churned deal, they may enter the next month or quarter already behind — a position that can feel insurmountable. This kind of policy affects rep morale and may drive shadow accounting, sandbagging, or other behaviors that undermine performance and trust.

By limiting clawbacks to commissions, companies protect their revenue without jeopardizing rep motivation or creating unnecessary friction. It’s a cleaner, more predictable process that encourages reps to keep selling, even when the occasional deal doesn’t stick.

3. Include Clear Language in Comp Plans

A clawback provision is only enforceable if it’s clearly written and acknowledged. That’s why it’s critical to include a specific clawback clause in your sales compensation plans. This clause should be clear and unambiguous, leaving no room for doubt about when and how commissions may be recovered.

For instance, this sample clause sets clear expectations: “Any commissions paid on deals that are refunded or canceled within four months will be deducted from future payouts.”

This language defines both the trigger (refund or cancellation) and the timeframe (four months), while also specifying the recovery method (deduction from future payouts). To avoid misunderstandings, it’s essential to include this clawback provision in a written compensation plan that requires the representative’s acknowledgement to confirm they’ve read and understood the terms.

Leverage our downloadable AE compensation policy and SDR compensation policy templates as a starting point for writing the clawback provision portion of your sales commission agreements.

4. Use CRM and Compensation Software to Automate Clawbacks

Clawbacks can create unnecessary administrative overhead if handled manually. However, compensation tools like QuotaPath streamline the process by automatically detecting clawback-eligible deals from CRMs like Salesforce or HubSpot and adjusting commissions accordingly.

With filters and time-based automations, you can flag deals that fall within a clawback window, apply the correct deductions, and track everything in one system. This streamlines the process, reducing manual oversight and saving time while minimizing errors.

As Prefect’s finance team shared, “We cut our time spent on commissions calculations by 50%+ and have enjoyed providing real-time transparency to our sales reps and technical pre-sales team.” Automating clawbacks lightens the load for finance and builds trust by giving reps instant visibility into their earnings and potential clawback risk.

5. Communicate Clawbacks Transparently with Reps

Clawbacks are easier to accept and less likely to cause frustration when reps know precisely when and why they occur. That’s why transparency is key. Show them in rep-facing dashboards that indicate which deals are at risk of clawback, when the clawback window ends, and whether a clawback has been applied. Use visuals and calculators to help reps forecast clawback risks, such as when a deal churns or a payment hasn’t been made.

Poor communication around clawbacks can quickly erode trust. On the other hand, a clear and intuitive UI that displays clawback data in real-time builds morale. When reps feel informed and in control, they’re more likely to stay motivated and focused on closing lasting deals.

Final Thoughts

Clawbacks are only fair when they’re clear, limited in scope, and enforced consistently. Although clawbacks are unpopular, businesses benefit from including them in compensation plan documents, as they mitigate revenue risk, motivate reps, and align them on prioritizing specific deals.

The right tools make all the difference. By automating clawback detection and recovery, you can reduce manual work, mitigate revenue risk, and give reps real-time visibility into their earnings.

Automate clawback management. Try QuotaPath for free or schedule a demo.