# Set Up and Manage Commission Plans
Commission settings control how much partners earn and under what terms — a referral fee, a reseller margin, a co-sell split, or a finder's fee.
---
## Overview
Fours gives you two layers to work with:
- **Standard Defaults** apply automatically to all partners.
- **Custom Plans** override those defaults for specific partners who need different terms.
:::info
You'll need an Admin or Editor role to make changes here. If the fields appear locked or read-only, check your role with your Fours admin. See [Manage Users and Roles](/get-started/account/).
:::
## How Commission Plans Are Applied
When a co-sell is created, its **Revenue Share** tab is populated using the following priority order:
**`Custom Plan → Standard Defaults → Manual`**
Fours first checks whether the partner has an assigned Custom Plan. If not, it uses your Standard Defaults. If no applicable defaults are available, the revenue share setup falls back to a manual configuration path rather than being automatically populated.
## The Four Commission Types
Both Standard Defaults and Custom Plans are organized around the same four commission types:
| Type | Purpose |
| --- | --- |
| Referral Fee | Pays a partner for referring an opportunity to you. |
| Reseller Margin | Pays a partner that resells your product directly. |
| Co-Sell Revenue Split | Shares revenue on opportunities you and the partner close together. |
| Finder's Fee | Pays a partner for introducing an opportunity with limited involvement beyond the introduction. |
You'll set the same fields below for whichever commission types apply to your partner program.
## Understand the Fields
Both Standard Defaults and Custom Plans use the same set of fields for every commission type.
| Field | Description |
| --- | --- |
| Revenue Share Model | Determines how the commission is calculated.
**% of Final Transaction**: Pays the partner a percentage of the deal value. Use this when commission should scale with deal size.
**Fixed Amount**: Pays the partner a flat amount regardless of deal value. Useful for programs that pay the same amount for every qualified lead or referral. |
| Default Rate (%) | Percentage used when the model is % of Final Transaction. For example, a 15% rate on a $100,000 deal results in a $15,000 commission. |
| Payment Trigger | Determines when the commission becomes payable.
**On Deal Close**: Commission becomes payable as soon as the deal is marked Won.
**On Customer Invoice**: Commission becomes payable after the customer has been invoiced.
**On Payment Received**: Commission becomes payable only after customer payment has been received. |
| Clawback Window (days) | Optional number of days during which a paid commission can still be reversed if the deal is canceled or otherwise reversed. |
| Maximum Commission Cap | Optional maximum payout regardless of deal size. |
| Minimum Deal Value | Optional minimum deal amount required before any commission is paid. |
| Renewal Commission | Controls whether commission is paid only on the initial deal (One-time) or also on renewals (Recurring). |
## Set Your Standard Commission Defaults
The **Standard Defaults** tab is selected by default when you open the **Commissions** page. These values become your global commission rules and apply to all partners unless a Custom Plan overrides them.
1. Go to **Fours Console**, then **Settings**.
2. Click **Partner**, then **Commissions**.
3. Open the **Standard Defaults** tab (selected by default).
4. For each commission type your program actually uses, fill in the fields as described above in the [Understand the Fields](#understand-the-fields) section.
5. Click **Save Defaults**.
## Create a Custom Commission Plan
Use this when a specific partner needs different terms than your defaults — for example, they negotiated a higher margin, or a strategic account gets better payment terms.
1. Go to **Fours Console**, then **Settings**.
2. Click **Partner**, then **Commissions**.
3. Click the **Custom Plans** tab, then **+ New Plan**.
4. Give the plan a **Plan name** and an optional internal **Description** (not partner-facing).
5. For each commission type, check the box to enable it for this plan, then fill in its fields the same way as Standard Defaults.
6. Click **Create Plan**.
:::tip
Any type you leave unchecked falls back to your Standard Defaults — it doesn't default to zero.
:::
## Assign a Custom Plan to a Partner
Creating a plan doesn't apply it to anyone. A custom plan sits unused until you attach it to a specific partner, and you do that from the partner's own record rather than from the Commissions page.
1. Go to **Fours Console**, then **Partners**.
2. In **All Partners**, click the partner you want to put on the plan.
3. In the right-hand sidebar, find the **Commercial** card. The **Commission Plan** row shows which plan applies today — **Default** when none has been assigned.
4. Click **Assign plan**.
5. In the **Assign Commission Plan** dialog, open the **Plan** dropdown and choose one:
- **Default (Standard Defaults)** — remove any custom plan and fall back to your organization-wide defaults.
- Any **Active** custom plan, listed by name. Plans you haven't activated don't appear here.
6. Click **Confirm**.
:::info
Assigning a plan applies to **future co-sells only**. Co-sells that already exist keep the terms they resolved with when they were created — changing a partner's plan never rewrites a deal you already agreed.
:::
:::tip
Don't see the **Commercial** card or the **Assign plan** link? Commission features are enabled per organization. If the card is missing entirely, check with your Fours admin.
:::
## See What a Partner Owes and Is Owed
A partner record has its own **Commissions** section that reports the relationship in both directions rather than as one blended number:
- **You owe** — pending commission you owe that partner.
- **{Partner} owes** — pending commission the partner owes you.
- **Paid so far** — what has already settled. When money moves both ways, this splits into a paid-by-you figure and a paid-by-them figure.
The table underneath filters by **Type**, **Direction** (`You pay` / `You receive`), and **Currency**, with tabs for **All**, **Pending**, and **Completed**.
For how to read and work that section, see [Work a Partner Record](/prm/work-a-partner-record/).
## Commission Values on a Fours Co-Sell
The commission types above are the labels you configure your program with. When a commission is attached to a **Fours co-sell**, the record stores one value from each of these two fixed sets — and these are the exact strings the bulk import below expects.
**Commission type**
| Value | Meaning |
| --- | --- |
| `Referral Fee` | Paid for referring the opportunity. |
| `Reseller Margin` | The margin a reselling partner keeps. |
| `Cosell Split` | A revenue split on a jointly closed deal. |
| `Finder Fee` | Paid for the introduction alone. |
**Payment trigger**
| Value | Commission becomes payable |
| --- | --- |
| `On Close` | When the deal is marked Won. |
| `On Invoice` | Once the customer has been invoiced. |
| `On Payment` | Only after the customer pays. |
| `Custom` | On terms agreed for that specific deal. |
## Import Historical Co-Sell Referrals
Deals that closed before you started tracking them in Fours can be loaded in bulk, so your commission history is complete rather than starting from the day you switched on.
This lives with your co-sell settings, not on the Commissions page.
1. Go to **Fours Console**, then **Settings**.
2. Click **Partner**, then **Co-Sell**.
3. Under **Bulk import historical referrals**, click **Upload CSV**.
4. Click **Download Template** to get a file with the correct headers, then fill in one row per deal.
5. Drag the finished file onto the drop area, or click **Choose CSV File**.
6. Review the preview table. Rows with problems are flagged; remove any you don't want with the **trash** icon.
7. Click through to submit. Fours confirms how many rows were queued.
**Required columns** are **Partnership ID**, **Opportunity Name**, **Stage**, and **Customer Company**. The template also carries Opportunity Type, Deal Role, customer website / industry / country, close date, deal value and currency, both sides' owner name and email, CRM opportunity ID, a brief, and a closed-lost reason.
**The commission columns are optional.** When you use them:
- **Commission Amount** is a flat amount in the deal's currency. If your arrangement was a percentage, work out the figure yourself first — there is no separate commission currency column, because the commission always rides the deal currency.
- **Commission Type** and **Payment Trigger** take the values listed in [Commission Values on a Fours Co-Sell](#commission-values-on-a-fours-co-sell) above.
- **Commission Status** marks a won deal's commission as already settled. Leave it blank and the commission rests as pending.
:::info
Imported records are created **silently at the stage you give them** — including `Won` and `Lost`. No partner notifications are sent, which is the point: you're recording history, not opening a conversation about a deal that finished months ago.
The import runs in the background. Submitting confirms and closes the dialog rather than reporting per-row results; the outcome of each row shows up afterward in **Cosell → Metrics → Logs**.
:::
:::tip
The same **Settings → Partner → Co-Sell** tab holds **Auto-accept referrals** — an organization-level switch that accepts inbound Fours referrals from partners you nominate, stamping a default owner on each one. It is unrelated to the import, but it is the other thing on this page.
:::
## The Commission Lifecycle After Close-Won
The plan decides *what* a partner is owed. Once the deal is Won, the commission moves through
a fixed sequence that records *whether it has actually been paid* — and each step belongs to
one side of the deal, so neither party can advance the other's half.
```d2
direction: right
classes: {
s: { style.border-radius: 8; width: 170 }
}
pending: "PENDING" { class: s }
approved: "APPROVED" { class: s }
sent: "PAYMENT_SENT" { class: s }
confirmed: "CONFIRMED" { class: s }
clawed: "CLAWED_BACK" { class: s }
proposal: "PENDING_UPDATE_APPROVAL\n(terms change in flight)" { class: s; style.stroke-dash: 3 }
pending -> approved: "seller approves"
approved -> sent: "seller marks payment sent"
sent -> confirmed: "partner confirms receipt"
sent -> approved: "partner rejects payment\n(recorded as PAYMENT_REJECTED)"
confirmed -> clawed: "seller claws back\n(clawback window only)"
pending -> proposal: "seller proposes\nnew terms"
approved -> proposal: "seller proposes\nnew terms"
proposal -> pending: "partner approves\nor rejects"
proposal -> approved: "partner approves\nor rejects"
```
| Transition | Who does it | What it means |
|---|---|---|
| `PENDING` → `APPROVED` | Seller | The seller accepts the calculated commission as owed. |
| `APPROVED` → `PAYMENT_SENT` | Seller | Payment has been issued outside Fours; the ledger records it. |
| `PAYMENT_SENT` → `CONFIRMED` | Partner | The partner confirms the money arrived. This is what closes the loop. |
| `PAYMENT_SENT` → `APPROVED` | Partner | The partner says the payment did not arrive. Fours records `PAYMENT_REJECTED` and returns the commission to `APPROVED` so the seller can re-send. |
| `CONFIRMED` → `CLAWED_BACK` | Seller | The deal reversed inside the clawback window, so the commission is reversed too. Only possible after the partner confirmed, and only while the window is open. |
**Changing the terms after Close-Won is a separate, two-sided flow.** The seller proposes new
revenue-share terms; the commission moves to `PENDING_UPDATE_APPROVAL` and waits for the
partner to approve or reject, which returns it to whichever state it was in before. A seller
cannot quietly re-rate a won deal.
:::info
Working through the API? These are exactly the transitions
[Apply a commission lifecycle action](/api/update-commission-lifecycle/) accepts — you send the
target `state`, and the matching action is derived from the pair. Proposing new terms is
[Propose a post-Won commission-terms update](/api/propose-commission-update/). Any other pair
is rejected.
:::
## Where This Shows Up on a Deal
Once a co-sell is created, its **Revenue Share** tab shows the resolved terms — the model, rate, payment trigger, and clawback window that apply — based on the priority order above.
