Your Commission Summary report shows how much commission each of your employees earned over a given period, with one row per person-and-role and a breakdown by Parts, Labor, and Tires. You'll see each user's total retail (the sales amount their commission was calculated on), their total commission earned, and — for each of the three categories — the retail, the effective commission rate, and the dollar amount. It's the primary report shops use for commission payroll and reconciliation, and it includes a stacked-bar chart across your top earners so you can see at a glance who produced the most in the period. Clicking a user opens a detailed per-line drill-through (when your plan has the drill-through feature enabled).
Filters
| Filter | Default | What it does |
|---|---|---|
| Created Date | Last month (the previous complete calendar month) | Sets the window for the report based on when each order was first created — not when it was invoiced or paid. This is different from most of your other financial reports (Sales Summary, taxes, payments), which default to invoice date. If your totals don't match another report, this is almost always the reason |
| Invoiced Date | Off | When you turn this on, only orders invoiced inside the range will show up — stacked on top of the Created Date filter. Useful when you want the commission view to line up exactly with what a Sales Summary shows |
| Fully Paid Date | Off | When you turn this on, only orders that were fully paid inside the range show up. Use this for "I only pay commission on jobs we actually collected on" |
| Order Status | All statuses | Narrow to Estimate, Repair Order, or Invoiced orders. Repair Order only appears if your shop uses that feature |
| Paid Status | All (Paid, Unpaid, Partially Paid) | Narrow by payment state on the order |
| Users | All users | Pick specific people. Former employees stay in the list (tagged "(Deleted)") so your historical commissions stay intact |
| Roles | All (Service Writer, Technician) | Narrow to one role. Useful when you want to see, say, only your Service Writers' commissions |
| Locations (multi-location accounts only) | All locations | Narrow by shop location. Empty means "all visible locations," not "no filter" |
| Countries (multi-country accounts only) | Your own country | Narrows the Locations list to a single country — a display aid, doesn't change the data by itself |
Understanding Each Number
| Card | What it means | What it doesn't include | When it's useful | Notes |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Name | The employee's name. "(Deleted)" means they've left the company | — | Seeing who earned what | Always shows the current name, even on old commissions — if you rename an employee, their old rows update too |
| Role | Service Writer or Technician | — | Splitting payroll by role | If an employee earns in both roles, they appear on two separate rows — one for each role — with that role's retail and commission |
| Location (multi-location only) | Which shop the user's commissions sit under | — | Multi-location review | If the user earned across more than one location, only one location name is shown here — but the dollar totals include all of them |
| Items | How many commission entries this user has in the period | — | A quick sense of how much activity a user had | Counts commission stamps, so a line with two commissioned people adds 1 to each person's count |
| Total Retail | The sum of retail (sales dollars) the user's commission was calculated against, across Labor + Parts + Tires | Retail on lines that weren't commissioned to this user | Seeing the book of work a user's commission was earned on | — |
| Total Commission Amount | Total dollars the user earned in commission | — | The payroll number | Saved at the time each line is saved on the order — a later change to the user's commission rate in settings won't update old lines (see FAQ) |
| Labor Retail / Labor Commission Rate / Labor Commission Amount | The labor slice of the user's work: what retail it was figured on, the effective rate they earned, and the dollars | — | Breaking commission down by category to understand earnings mix | The Rate shown is the effective blended rate across everything they did in the period, not their configured default. If one line had a manual rate override, this number moves off the default |
| Parts Retail / Parts Commission Rate / Parts Commission Amount | The parts slice — same idea as labor | — | Seeing how much commission came from parts | Same "effective, not configured" rate behavior as labor |
| Tires Retail / Tires Commission Rate / Tires Commission Amount | The tires slice — same idea as labor | — | Seeing how much commission came from tires | Same behavior |
| Total row (footer) | How many user/role rows are in the report | — | A quick count | A person with both roles is counted twice |
| Employees chart (above the table) | A stacked-bar chart of the top 25 users by total commission, broken down by Parts / Labor / Tires | Users with no commission in the period | A visual of who your top earners are and what mix they earn in | Click the Parts / Labor / Tires checkboxes to hide/show each layer |
Common Questions
Q: Why doesn't my Commission Summary match my Sales Summary?
A: They default to different date fields. Commission Summary filters by Created Date (when the order was first created), while Sales Summary defaults to Invoiced Date. If an order was created in March but invoiced in April, it shows up in this report's March totals and in Sales Summary's April totals. Either switch both reports to the same date filter, or turn on the Invoiced Date filter here to match.
Q: I just changed an employee's commission rate — why isn't it showing up on old orders?
A: Commission amounts are locked in when each line item is saved on the order. Changing the rate in the employee's profile only affects future line items, not ones already saved. To apply the new rate to existing work, you (or your support rep) would need to resave the affected line items, or have Shopmonkey run a commission recalculator for the location.
Q: Why is one of my technicians showing up twice?
A: Your technician is probably earning commission in both roles — once as a Technician (on labor they perform) and once as a Service Writer (on parts or tires they sell). Each role gets its own row with its own retail and commission. If you'd rather see them collapsed into a single row, use the Roles filter to pick just one role.
Q: Why is the commission rate column different from what I set in the employee's profile?
A: The column shows the effective rate the employee actually earned — total commission divided by total retail — blended across everything they did in the period. Your configured default is the starting point, but if you ever manually change the rate on a single line when saving it, the blended rate on the report will shift away from the default. A gap between the two usually means line-level overrides happened.
Q: Why isn't an employee showing up even though I know they worked this month?
A few possibilities. (1) The lines they worked on weren't set up with a commission for them at the time they were saved (check the Commission section on the order). (2) The order is read-only. (3) The services were hidden or declined without being authorized, or the whole order was declined — those are excluded from the report. (4) Your filters (Order Status, Paid Status, Created Date, Role) are excluding the work they did.
Q: My Total Retail looks higher than the orders' labor + parts + tires totals — why?
A: When a line has two commissioned people on it (for example, a labor line that commissions both a Technician and a Service Writer), each of them has their own commission record with their own retail snapshot. When you add up Total Retail across all users, the same line can be counted once per commissioned user. You're not double-billing — each user's individual commission is correct. Look at the Commission Detail report if you want to see the per-line picture.
Q: Why isn't there a grand total dollar amount at the bottom?
A: The report shows only a row count in the footer ("Total: N"), not a grand-total dollar amount. To see your overall commission spend for the period, use the chart at the top of the report, export to Excel and sum there, or scan the Total Commission Amount column.
Tips for Getting the Most Out of This Report
- Pick the right date mode for the question you're asking. If you're reconciling against revenue reports, turn on the Invoiced Date filter so both reports line up. If you're paying commission only on money collected, turn on the Fully Paid Date filter. The default Created Date view is best for seeing when the work was scoped in, not when it was billed or paid.
- Watch the effective rate columns when a user's rate has changed. If the Labor / Parts / Tires Commission Rate columns don't match what you expect, it's usually because (a) line-level rate overrides have happened, or (b) a settings-level rate change hasn't been backfilled onto existing lines yet. Either way, the rate you see here is what was actually earned — so it's the number to pay out on.
- Use the chart to spot your top earners and their mix. The stacked bars show at a glance who produced the most commission and whether they earned it on parts, labor, or tires. A technician showing nearly all labor and a service writer showing mostly parts is normal; an unexpected mix is worth a closer look.
- If someone earns in both roles, filter by Role for a cleaner payroll export. Running one export with Role = Technician and another with Role = Service Writer makes it easier to split payroll if you pay each role on a different schedule.
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