Overview
The Sales Commission report helps you track job completion rates and calculate commission payouts for your sales team. It lets you review completed jobs, verify gross margins, and determine accurate commission amounts so you can cut checks with confidence. When sales representatives can see how their commission ties to job completion, gross margin, and collections, they're more likely to take ownership of the full sales cycle, not just the close.
This report lives in the Reports module and pulls data from your completed jobs, invoices, and payment records. It's designed to unite your sales representatives goals with your company goals. When your sales team takes ownership of each sale, it drives accountability and performance across the board.
Who this affects: Office Administrators, Sales Managers, Operations Managers, Branch Administrators, General Managers, and Executive leadership.
Things to know
The Sales Commission report is located under Reports > Standard Reports > Accounting > Sales Commission.
You can create multiple versions of this report. One for a full sales team and separate ones for individual sales representatives.
If your company uses different commission rates for different divisions, you need a separate report with its own Advanced Search Formula for each division.
Credit memos can affect commission payouts. Always review credit memo data before finalizing checks.
Whenever you generate this report to pay out commissions, make sure that the month’s transactions are done (meaning that the month has passed and no more costs are being applied that would affect this report).
Don’t pay on the first of the month because costs might still be added. You can backdate, if necessary.
Export this report to have a hard copy that cannot be manipulated. This helps remind you what has already been paid out and can be stored for your records.
Requirements
You need View Reports added to your user role.
You need View Drill Down Reports- Sales Commission.
To create Advanced Search Formulas, you also need either Branch or System Administrator access added to your user role.
How it works
The Sales Commission report pulls data from your completed jobs and matches it against the filters and formulas you've set up. Here's how the key pieces fit together:
When a job is marked as complete and its invoice is paid, the job is eligible to appear on the Sales Commission report.
If you apply filters (such as date range, unpaid amount, or gross margin), the report only displays jobs that meet all of your filter criteria.
If you add an Advanced Search Formula, Aspire calculates a commission dollar amount for each qualifying job based on the formula you've built (for example, estimated dollars multiplied by 5%).
This behavior is driven by:
The filters you apply to the report (date paid, unpaid amount, gross margin)
Advanced Search Formulas configured in Administration
The saved list you create from the filtered report, which can also power Metrics on your home screen
Key terms
Term | Definition |
|---|---|
Advanced Search Formula | A custom calculation you build that displays computed values (like commission amounts) directly on a report. |
Gross margin | The difference between revenue and cost on a job, expressed as a percentage. Many companies set a minimum gross margin requirement before paying commission. |
Saved list | A filtered version of a report that you save for repeated use. You can share saved lists and use them to create Metrics. |
Metric | A visual widget on your Aspire home screen that tracks data from a saved report list over a specific time frame. |
Behavior notes and exceptions
Different commission rates by division: If your company pays different rates per division, a single Advanced Search Formula won't work for all divisions. Create separate reports, each with its own formula, so the dollar amounts match the correct percentage.
Credit memos: Credit memos reduce the revenue tied to a job. If a credit memo is issued after a commission check is cut, it can result in an overpayment. Review credit memos before finalizing payouts.
Month-end timing: Don't generate commission reports on the first of the month. Costs may still post that affect gross margins and revenue figures. Wait until all transactions for the month are complete. You can backdate if needed.
Partial upfront payouts: Some companies pay a portion of commission upfront before the job is complete. Aspire's filters support this model, but you'll need to account for partial payments when reconciling the final payout.
Creating Advanced Search Formulas to View Dollar Amounts
You can create an Advanced Search Formula to view dollar amounts on the Sales Commission report.
Note:
You can create different Advanced Search Formulas based on if your company cuts checks after revenue is invoiced, or based on percentages custom to your sales representatives. After you build the formula, you can add it to your filters on the report to better track commission for your jobs.
The following example for an Advanced Search Formula is based on jobs that have Estimated Amounts multiplied by .05. This is the commission rate we want to display on our report; we’ll cut checks to our Sales Representatives for 5% of the Estimated Amounts of their jobs sold.
Select Administration > Application > Advanced Search Formulas. Click New to create a new Advanced Search Formula.
Under Search List, select Sales Commission. This tells Aspire to show the formula you are creating in the correct module Search List.
Name your Formula.
Because this filter needs to display a dollar amount, configure the Display Format as Currency, with 2 Decimals.
The Formula use would be Estimated Dollars, as we are paying the commission in this example at 5% of the estimated dollar amount of the job.
After adding your formula, add the multiplication function for your commission percentage to finish creating your formula.
Save the Advanced Search Formula. You can then add this Advanced Search Formula as a filter to your Sales Commission report.
In this example, each time this Advanced Search Formula is used, it will be calculated for Estimated Dollars multiplied by .05 (5%).
Read Creating a Custom Field for your Lists with Advanced Search Formulas to learn more about advanced search formulas.
Advanced Search Formula for Invoiced Amounts
If you create commission checks based on invoiced amounts, your Advanced Search Formula will be based on invoice amount and not estimated dollars:
Field Name | Value |
|---|---|
Search List | Sales Commission |
Formula Name | Commission Payout |
Display Format | Currency, 2 Decimials |
Formula | Invoice Amount |
Advanced Search Formulas gives you detailed support when using the Commission Report to effectively review commission related data.
Key Fields to Add to Your Commission Report
Depending on the dates you review and cut commission checks, you should include a date range in your filter fields for this report. This helps you review only completed jobs so you can effectively pay out your Sales Representatives.
We recommend adding an unpaid amount filter based on your company commission requirements. When reviewing data, consider if you want cut commissions based on if the job invoices are fully paid or partially paid.
If you have a minimum gross margin requirement that needs to be met before issuing checks, you can add a gross margin filter with a custom value to view only the jobs that have met this criteria.
Note:
Have a Gross Margin shelf. Make sure the jobs that are being sold are profitable before cutting commission checks to your Sales Representatives.
Like many report types in Aspire, you can filter and customize data as needed on the Commission Report; below are some recommended filters to add to this report.
Field Name | Filter Type | Value |
|---|---|---|
Date Paid | Last Month or Last Quarter | |
Unpaid Amount | Equals | 0 |
Gross Margin | Greater Than | .6 |
(Your Advanced Search Formula) Commission on Est. $ (5%) | Greater Than | 0 |
Apply the filters and Save As for future use, sharing, or Metric creation. The Sales Commission report displays as a list of jobs with columns for job details, revenue, costs, margins, and any Advanced Search Formula values you've added, such as calculated commission amounts. You can filter, sort, and customize the columns to match your payout workflow.
For Metrics
When you save the report as a list and create a Metric from it, the Metric appears on your Aspire home screen as a quick-view widget showing commission totals for your selected time frame.
Read Navigating, Editing, and Creating a Metric for more information.
Why this matters
A well-configured Sales Commission report does more than calculate checks, it creates transparency and accountability across your sales team.
This report also helps you keep accounts receivable (A/R) top of mind. When commission payouts are tied to paid invoices, your sales team has an incentive to help push collections forward, which benefits the entire company.