Track and pay employee commissions
Set each employee's commission percentage on their user profile. When a job with an invoice is completed, WorkZen creates commission records for the team on its visits. Approve or mark them paid on the Commissions page, recording the day, method and reference, and analyze trends in the Commission Report.
Commission math by spreadsheet is where team trust goes to die. WorkZen calculates it automatically from the jobs your team actually completed, and gives you a clean approve-and-pay trail.
Set the rates
Open a user's profile and set Employee Commission (%), the percentage they earn on jobs they work. That is the whole setup; there are no per-job or per-service rates. Editing the field requires the commission editing permission.
How a commission is born
When a job is completed, WorkZen looks at its invoice and at the team members assigned to the job's visits:
- The invoice total is split evenly between those team members.
- Each member's commission rate is applied to their share.
- A Pending commission record is created for each.
The rate is captured at calculation time, so later rate changes never rewrite history. If a job completed before you set someone's rate, open its invoice and use Recalculate. A preview lists each person's current and new amount, and nothing is saved until you click Apply changes. Approved or paid records are never touched by a recalculation. One-off bonuses can be added as manual commissions.
Approve and pay
The Commissions page (its own item in the sidebar) is the payout workflow:
| Status | Meaning | Who moves it |
|---|---|---|
| Pending | Calculated, awaiting review | Approve or Pay permission |
| Approved | Reviewed, cleared for payout | Pay permission |
| Paid | Paid out | Final |
Select rows and use Approve or Mark Paid in the bar above the list. Approving is an optional review step: a pending row can be marked paid directly, and WorkZen records you as its approver on the way. Mark Paid asks for the day the money went out (today by default), the method (Payroll, E-Transfer, Direct deposit, Check, Cash or Other) and an optional reference such as a cheque number or payroll run. WorkZen moves no money here; this is the trail.
The Approved / Paid column on every row shows that trail: the date, who approved or paid it, the method and the reference. The employee gets a notification when their commission is approved and when it is paid. The line under the page title adds up what is pending, approved, and paid out. The All, Pending, Approved and Paid tabs count the records, and Filters narrows the list by employee and date (see how lists work). Export downloads the list as a CSV file, holding only the rows you can see. By default, managers can approve but only admins can mark paid.
People who can manage commissions (admins and managers by default) see everyone's commissions. Everyone else sees only their own: on the Commissions page, in its totals, and in the Commissions section of an invoice.
The Commission Report
Reports > Commission Report is the analysis view: total commissions with growth versus the previous period, the trend over time, top earners, and a per-employee breakdown (jobs, earned, pending, paid, average per job). Pick a range, click Run Report, and export to CSV when payroll asks.
The report dates commissions by when the job completed, not when you paid them out. A commission marked paid this month still counts in the month it was earned, which is usually what you want for performance questions.
Frequently Asked Questions
This article answers:
- How do I set up employee commissions?
- How are commissions calculated in WorkZen?
- How do I mark a commission as paid?
- Why is my commission report empty?