Commission rules stack three levels deep — item overrides beat employee rates, which beat the store-wide default — calculated on selling price or profit. Assign a sales person per sale or per line item, and track what everyone earned with graphical, summary and detailed commission reports.

If your staff earn a cut of what they sell, PHP Point Of Sale can track it sale by sale, so commission day is a report instead of a spreadsheet argument. Rates can live at three levels — store-wide, per employee, per item — and land in reports you can filter and export.

There is nothing to switch on first: set a rate at any level and sales start accruing commission.

How the three levels stack

Commission is worked out per line item on the sale, using the most specific rule that exists:

1. Item level wins over everything. If the item (or item kit) overrides the default commission, its own percent or fixed amount is used — for every employee, at the same value.
2. Employee level applies when the item has no override: the Commission Default Rate on the sales person's employee profile, if it is above 0.
3. Global level is the fallback: the store-wide Commission Default Rate in Store Config applies when neither the item nor the employee has a rate.

Two more calculation facts worth knowing:

• Percent commission is figured on the line's price after any line discount. With the Profit calculation method, the formula is (discounted selling price − cost price) × rate; with Selling Price, it is discounted selling price × rate. Profit-based commission keeps clerks from discounting their way to an easy number, since a cheaper sale also means a smaller cut.
• A fixed commission pays the set amount per unit — quantity 3 pays the amount three times. A line with a price of 0 earns no commission at all.

Set the global default rate

If everyone in the store earns the same rate, one setting covers it:

1. Open Store Config in the left menu and type commission in the search bar at the top.
2. Fill in Commission Default Rate — the percent every sale line earns when no employee or item rule applies.
3. Set Commission Percent calculation method to Selling Price (the amount the item sells for) or Profit (selling price minus cost price).
4. Click Save.

Set a rate per employee

When employees earn different rates, put the rate on the profile — it overrides the global default for that person:

1. Go to Employees and click Edit on the employee.
2. Fill in Commission Default Rate with their personal percent.
3. Choose their Commission Percent calculation method — Selling Price or Profit.
4. Click Save.

Leave the rate at 0 for an employee who should fall back to the global default. The field sits with the rest of the work settings covered in employee accounts.

Override commission on individual items

Some products deserve their own deal — a high-margin line you want pushed, an accessory with a flat spiff, or a product that should pay no commission at all:

1. Go to Items and click Edit on the item, then open the Pricing tab.
2. Check Override Default Commission.
3. Enter the Commission value and pick its type from the dropdown:
   • Percentage — the value is a percent, calculated by the Commission Percent calculation method you choose underneath (Selling Price or Profit).
   • Fixed Amount — a flat currency amount paid per unit sold; no calculation method needed.
4. Click Save.

The same fields exist on the Pricing tab of an item kit, and the items bulk-edit form can set a commission override on many items at once. To zero out commission on an item, override it with a percentage of 0. Remember that an item override applies to everyone who sells that item, regardless of their personal rate.

Credit the right sales person

By default, commission goes to the logged-in employee who rings up the sale. If the person who closes the sale is not always the person who earned it, turn on sales person selection:

1. Open Store Config, search for sales person, and enable Select sales person during sale.
2. Set Default sales person to Logged in employee (the cashier is pre-selected on each sale) or Not set (each sale starts blank — and a sales person must be chosen before payment can be added).
3. On the register, the sale now carries a sales person selector, and each line item can be assigned its own employee. A line-level assignment overrides the sale-level sales person for that line's commission.
4. Optionally enable Show Line Item Sales Person On Receipt in Store Config to print who sold each line; see customizing receipts.

That covers the everyday cases: one clerk closes a sale a colleague spent an hour building, or a single cashier rings up a basket that two different salespeople assembled. Set the sales person per line and the commission follows the work, not the login. More on the register flow in ringing up a sale.

Run commission reports

1. Open Reports in the left menu and click Commission.
2. Pick Graphical Reports for a chart, Summary Reports for totals per employee, or Detailed Reports for every sale behind the numbers.
3. Set the report options — date range and employee, and on the detailed report also Sale Type (All, Sales or Returns) and Employee type, which decides whether commission is grouped by the assigned Sale person or by the Logged in employee who rang the sale up.
4. Click Submit. Reports can also be exported to Excel; filtering and exporting work like everywhere else — see running reports.

The detailed report lists each sale with its items, totals and the commission earned, and links straight to the sale and its receipt. Returns are included: a returned line carries negative commission, so returns subtract from the employee's total.

Permissions and profit interplay

• Seeing the commission report family at all requires the Commission view permission in the Reports group.
• View all employee commissions decides scope: with it, a manager sees everyone's numbers; without it, an employee running the report only sees their own commissions.
• Commission columns sit next to profit columns, which are governed separately by Show profit in all reports and Show cost price in all reports. Grant them together for managers. All of these live in permissions and permission templates.
• If commission is a real cost to you, enable Remove commission from profit in reports in Store Config: reported sale profit then has the accrued commission subtracted from it.

Get commissions into your books

If you sync with QuickBooks Online, map the Commission Debit Account and Commission Credit Account in the integration settings and the journal entries PHP Point Of Sale creates carry accrued commissions into your accounting instead of being retyped from a report. See QuickBooks and accounting.

Common questions

Which rate applies when an item, the employee and the store all have one? The item's override wins, then the employee's rate, then the store-wide default. An item override applies to every employee at the same value.

Is commission calculated before or after discounts? After. A 10% line discount shrinks the base the percent is applied to — and under the Profit method it shrinks the profit too.

How do I pay commission on profit instead of the sale price? Set Commission Percent calculation method to Profit — globally in Store Config, on the employee profile, or on the item override, whichever level you use. Profit is the discounted selling price minus the item's cost price.

How do I make one item pay no commission? Edit the item, check Override Default Commission on the Pricing tab, and set a Percentage commission of 0. The item override beats every employee and global rate.

Two employees worked on the same sale — can they both get credit? Yes. With Select sales person during sale enabled, assign a different employee on each line item; each line's commission goes to its assigned employee.

Why does an employee's commission report come up empty? Check that a rate exists at some level (item, employee or global), that the date range covers the sales, and — if someone else ran the sales — that the report's Employee type matches how credit was given (Sale person vs Logged in employee). Also confirm the employee has the Commission report permission.

Why can a clerk see everyone's commission numbers? They have the View all employee commissions permission in the Reports group. Remove it and the report restricts to their own sales.

What happens to commission when a sale is returned? The return shows up in commission reports as negative commission on the returned lines, reducing the total owed. Use the detailed report's Sale Type filter to look at returns on their own.