A commission tracker
that shows its work
A free spreadsheet for a small sales team: a plan, a deals log and a monthly statement per rep, with clawbacks inside a retention window. Download it for Excel or import it into Google Sheets.
What is in the file
- Plan. Each rep's monthly quota, base rate, accelerator rate above quota, and clawback window in days.
- Deals. One row per deal. Rate, commission, days to churn and clawback fill themselves in from the plan.
- Statement. Pick a month. Sales, attainment, rate applied, commission, clawbacks and net per rep, with a total.
- Read me. The rules the sheet applies, written down, so the person who inherits it knows what it does.
For Google Sheets: open a blank sheet, then File, Import, Upload, and pick the file. Every formula carries over.
| Rep | Sales | Attainment | Rate | Earned | Clawback | Net |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Alex Rivera | $8,800 | 14.7% | 8.0% | $704.00 | - | $704.00 |
| Priya Shah | $27,300 | 60.7% | 8.0% | $2,184.00 | - | $2,184.00 |
| Jordan Lee | $60,900 | 101.5% | 9.0% | $5,481.00 | ($1,680.00) | $3,801.00 |
| Total | $97,000 | $8,369.00 | ($1,680.00) | $6,689.00 |
Why the clawback lives on the deals log
Most commission spreadsheets record a clawback as a negative line typed into the month it was noticed. Six months later nobody can say which deal it belonged to, what rate was paid, or whether the window had already closed. That is the shape of every commission dispute: a number with no path back to its cause.
This tracker keeps the clawback on the deal row itself. Mark the customer churned, type the date, and the sheet counts the days, compares them to the rep's window, and reverses exactly what was paid, at the rate that was paid, into the month the churn happened. The statement for that month picks it up. The deal row still shows what was earned and what came back.
The accelerator question the sheet makes you answer
The Plan sheet has two rates per rep: the base rate, and the rate that applies once the month's sales reach quota. The statement applies the higher rate to all of that month's sales, which is the retroactive convention and the common one. Some plans pay the higher rate only on the dollars above quota instead. The difference on one good month can be thousands of dollars, and the plan document usually does not say which it means.
If yours pays marginally, change the Commission earned formula on the Statement sheet to split sales at the quota line. Either way, write the choice into the Read me sheet so the next person does not relitigate it.
Where a spreadsheet stops being enough
One rate per rep, one rep per deal, commission in the month a deal closes. The template holds that shape well. The things it does not hold are the things that arrive in year two: a deal split between two reps, a manager override on top, a deal that closed in March and funded in May, per-product rates, residuals on recurring volume, and a rep asking in September why a January number was what it was.
Each of those is a new column and a new formula someone has to remember. At that point the tracker is a second job for whoever owns it. That is the job Commish does: the same plan, written once, run every pay cycle, with every line showing its working.
- Is this commission tracker template free?
- Yes. It is an ordinary Excel workbook with no macros, no sign-up and no link back to us inside it. Download it, change the names and rates on the Plan sheet, and it is yours. It opens in Excel, Numbers, LibreOffice and Google Sheets.
- Does it work in Google Sheets?
- Yes. Open a blank Google Sheet, choose File, then Import, then Upload, and select the downloaded file. Every formula in the template uses functions Google Sheets supports (SUMIFS, COUNTIFS, INDEX and MATCH, IF and TEXT), so the statement recalculates the same way. The drop-down lists on the Deals sheet carry over too.
- How does the clawback work in the template?
- Each rep has a clawback window in days on the Plan sheet. When a deal's status is set to Churned and a churn date is entered, the Deals sheet counts the days between the deal date and the churn date. If that is inside the window, the full commission on that deal is reversed in the month the churn happened. Outside the window nothing is reversed. A half clawback is a one-character change to the formula, described in the cell comment.
- Can I track different rates for different products?
- Not without adding a column. The template carries one base rate and one accelerator rate per rep, which covers most small teams. For per-product rates, add a Product column to the Deals sheet and a small rate table on the Plan sheet, then point the Base rate formula at it with INDEX and MATCH. If you find yourself doing that for the third time, the plan has outgrown the spreadsheet.
- What should a commission statement show?
- What was sold, at what rate, what that earned, what was taken back and why, and the net. The Statement sheet shows exactly those columns per rep for the chosen month, and every figure on it traces to rows on the Deals sheet. A statement a rep cannot check against the deals they remember is the main reason reps keep their own shadow spreadsheet.
One rep on one page is
the easy version
Commish runs the whole team every pay cycle, against the plan you actually wrote, and shows the working on every line.