How Sales Commission Is Calculated
How Sales Commission Is Calculated
Before You Use This Article
- Access needed: Load Manager login and permission to use this screen, report, setting, or workflow.
- Use this article when: you are using this exact Load Manager feature and have the access listed above.
- Use a different article when: you are choosing a full setup path for your company instead of using one reference article; start with Freight Brokers, Carriers, Owner-Operators, and Trucking Companies, or Dispatch Services.
Use this article when you need to understand why a sales commission amount appears the way it does on a Load Manager commission report. Percentage-based commission is generally based on load profit or margin, not the full customer charge.
Basic Formula
For a percentage-based sales commission, Load Manager uses this basic idea:
Commission = commissionable profit x commission %
Commissionable profit is generally the amount left after carrier or driver charges are subtracted from customer charges. Depending on the report and company setup, the calculation may also account for report deductions, factoring settings, dispatch-service settings, split driver pay, or direct cost values.
Example:
- Customer charges: $2,000.00
- Carrier or driver charges: $1,500.00
- Gross profit: $500.00
- Sales commission: 10%
- Commission amount: $50.00
Where the Commission Percentage Comes From
A user's default sales commission is stored on the user's profile.
- Open the Users tab.
- Select the user.
- Find the Sales Commission field.
- Enter the commission value.
- Select whether the commission is a percentage or a per-load amount, if that option is available for your setup.
- Save the user.
When a Load Has More Than One Sales Rep
If more than one sales rep should receive commission for a load, use the load's split commission option. The split commission window lets you assign up to three sales reps and enter the commission value for each rep.
Each sales rep line can use the commission value from that user's profile or a value entered for that load. Depending on your setup, the value may be a percentage or a per-load amount.
What Can Affect the Commission Amount
If the commission amount is not what you expected, review the load and report settings before changing the user commission percentage.
- Customer charges: Make sure the customer totals on the load are correct.
- Carrier or driver charges: Make sure the cost side of the load is correct.
- Sales rep assignment: Confirm the correct sales rep is assigned to the load.
- Split commission: Check whether the load has more than one sales rep or a load-specific commission value.
- Report filters: Confirm the date range, date type, status range, sales rep, dispatcher, customer, carrier, equipment, margin, office, and grouping options used on the report.
- Report deductions: Some commission reports include a deduction percentage in the report criteria.
- Company setup: Factoring, direct costs, split driver pay, dispatch-service settings, and foreign currency settings may affect the amount used by some reports or workflows.
Why the Commission Report May Not Match a Quick Manual Estimate
A quick manual estimate is helpful, but the report uses the load data and report filters available at the time the report is run. If a load has extra charges, adjusted costs, split commission, report deductions, factoring, direct cost, split driver pay, foreign currency, or dispatch-service settings, the reported amount may be different from a simple customer-minus-carrier calculation.
For the cleanest comparison, open the load and confirm the customer total, carrier or driver total, sales rep assignment, and split commission values before running the report again.