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Configure commissions and sales goals

Set commission rules per product or category, run periodic commission calculations, and review payouts before payroll. Includes per-staff and per-location sales goals.

How commissions work in Staff Hub

Three layers:

1. Commission rules — define what earns commission and at what rate
2. Sales attribution — connects each Shopify POS sale to the staff member who made it
3. Commission runs — periodic calculation jobs that turn rules + attributed sales into earnings

Step 1 — Mark staff as commission-eligible

Open Manage → Staff. For each staff member who earns commission:

1. Open the profile
2. In Workforce settings, toggle Commission eligible to on
3. Save

Non-eligible staff are skipped during commission runs — no need to exclude them in rules.

Step 2 — Create a commission rule

1. Go to Manage → Commissions → Rules
2. Click New rule
3. Pick a scope:
   • Flat rate on all sales — Simplest. e.g. 3% of every line
   • Product-specific — Higher % on premium products, lower on accessories
   • Category-specific — e.g. "Watches: 5%, Jewelry: 3%, Repairs: 0%"
   • Tiered — different % above a sales threshold
4. Set the rate type:
   • Percentage of line subtotal
   • Fixed amount per unit sold
5. Set the effective date range (when this rule applies)
6. Save

Step 3 — Set sales goals (optional)

Goals motivate without changing payouts. Optional but useful:

1. Go to Manage → Workforce → Goals
2. Click New goal
3. Pick scope: Per location or Per staff member
4. Set the target (e.g. $50,000 monthly revenue)
5. Set the period (week/month/quarter)
6. Save

Progress shows on the dashboard as a percentage filled. Hit a goal → optional bonus rule kicks in.

Step 4 — Verify sales attribution

Each POS sale needs a staff member attributed to it for commission to apply. Use the live manual and import workflows today. Automatic Shopify order/refund webhook ingestion is conditional on Shopify protected customer data approval and the matching app release.

• Manual attribution — Open Manage → Sales, find an order, click Attribute to... and pick a staff member. Useful for corrections.
• API/Import — Use the workforce import API to bulk-attribute historical sales.
• Automatic Shopify ingestion — Available only after protected customer data approval and the canonical app version with order/refund webhooks is released.

Step 5 — Run commissions

1. Go to Manage → Commissions → Runs
2. Click New run
3. Pick a date range (typically your pay period)
4. Click Calculate

The run pulls every attributed sale in the range, applies the matching rules, and produces a row per staff member with:

• Total sales attributed
• Total commission earned (from rules)
• Per-line breakdown (which products/categories drove the earnings)
• Refund adjustments when refund data is manually entered, imported, or available after protected customer data approval

Step 6 — Review and approve

The commission run is in Pending review state. Open it:

1. Spot-check a few rows against the underlying orders
2. Adjust any obviously wrong attributions (open the order, re-attribute, recalculate)
3. For edge cases (returned items, voided orders), use the Manual adjustment button — adds a one-off line with required reason
4. Click Approve when totals are right

Step 7 — Roll into payroll

Once a commission run is approved, the earnings flow into the next payroll period automatically:

1. Go to Manage → Payroll and open the pay period that overlaps the commission run
2. Click Recalculate
3. The summary now includes a Commissions column per staff member
4. Continue with your usual approval and CSV export flow — see the payroll guide

Common patterns

Retail jewelry / electronics

Tiered rules: 3% under $1,000, 5% over $1,000, 7% over $5,000. Per-product overrides for clearance items.

Salon / personal services

Per-staff rules tied to the service provider attribution. Higher % for service hours, lower for retail products.

Apparel

Flat 3-4% across the board, plus a quarterly bonus rule when location goals hit.

Common issues

"Run shows zero earnings for some staff"

Most common: their orders weren't attributed. Check Manage → Sales for unattributed orders in the date range. Also confirm the staff member is marked Commission eligible.

"Rule isn't applying"

Effective date range may have expired or not started. Or the product/category filter doesn't match the actual product. Open the order line in Shopify admin to confirm the product's category exactly.

"Refunded order still showing commission"

Where automatic refund ingestion is enabled, refunds are deducted on the next run; until then, use Manual adjustment to subtract the commission earned on the refunded line.