Sales compensation calculator

For an AE, your effective rate is your variable pay divided by your quota — typically 8–12% of what you close at target in US SaaS. Above that is generous; below it, you’re carrying a lot of quota per dollar of upside. Use the calculator to see your own number and where it sits against the band.

Predictability comes from knowing three things early: your live attainment, what your open pipeline is likely to close, and how the curve pays it. The deeper mode here estimates your next quarter from your pipeline, win rate and cycle — the same math your comp team runs, but in your hands, now.

Recompute it yourself: base + variable × the payout multiple at your attainment, plus any accelerators above 100%. If your statement and your own math disagree, that gap is worth a conversation. Most disputes are a mislabelled deal or a stage that didn’t sync — not the rate.

Most SaaS AEs take 4–6 months to full quota; SDRs 2–4. A good plan gives quota relief across the ramp instead of dropping you at full number on day one — the schedule in the calculator shows a typical shape.

The time goes into assembling a clean file — reconciling CRM, billing and the plan by hand every cycle. That reconciliation is exactly what Pharo automates: the audited, commission-ready file exists before the run, so review is a spot-check, not a rebuild.

By running attainment and pipeline forward instead of waiting for the close. That’s the deeper mode here for one rep; with your data wired in, Pharo does it continuously across the team, so there are no month-end surprises.

Quarterly against real attainment, with a fuller reset annually. Anything slower and the plan is optimising for a motion you no longer run. The blocker is usually effort, not will — which is the argument for making the data cheap to look at.

Rarely, and only for genuinely transactional, high-velocity motions with short ramps. For anything with a real cycle, commission-only pushes so much risk onto reps that you lose the ones you most want to keep. A base is retention insurance.

Yes during ramp, and case-by-case for territory changes or leave — it protects good reps from setup they didn’t cause. The discipline is writing down when relief applies before the quarter, so it’s a policy, not a negotiation.

A short clawback window on early churn (say 90 days) aligns reps to deals that stick, and is standard. Make the trigger and the recovery mechanism explicit in the plan — vague clawbacks are the fastest way to lose trust in the whole document.