A CRM and a commission engine, in plain English.
Straight answers to the questions buyers actually ask about running a CRM and a commission engine in one platform — plus a glossary of the commission terms that show up along the way. Every answer describes what KickSplit does today.
Is there a CRM that tracks commissions?
Yes. KickSplit is a CRM and a commission engine in one platform. You capture leads and deals in the built-in CRM, and a won deal feeds a full commission engine that calculates tiered rates, splits, manager overrides, draws, and SPIFs — then produces locked rep statements and payroll-ready exports. One system runs the whole path from lead to paid-ready commission.
How does KickSplit handle clawbacks?
When a deal is canceled in KickSplit's CRM, the platform automatically reverses the commission that deal earned on your next commission run — no manual entry. You set the policy per plan: a clawback window, so cancellations after it don't claw back, and whether recovery is full or prorated. Locked, already-paid runs are never altered.
What is a commission draw, and how is it recovered?
A draw is a periodic advance your company pays a rep against future commissions. KickSplit calculates and reconciles them — recoverable draws — a shortfall carries forward and is recovered from later commission, with an optional per-cycle recovery cap — and non-recoverable draws, a guaranteed floor that is never clawed back. Draw activity reconciles automatically in the run and shows on statements and exports.
Can it handle split commissions between reps?
Yes. When a sale has more than one assigned rep, KickSplit splits its commission across them — either equally or by configurable per-rep weights, for example 60/40 or 70/20/10. Rounding is cent-exact, so the shares always add up to the sale's total commission. The split is set per sale, not hard-coded into the plan.
How do commission overrides work for managers?
An override pays a manager or upline rep a percentage of another rep's commission. KickSplit supports territory overrides, overrides to a specifically named rep, and multi-level overrides that walk the reporting hierarchy up a configured number of levels, each with its own rate. Overrides derive from the seller's commission and run on the same locked run.
What is a SPIF, and how do I run one?
A SPIF (sales performance incentive fund) is a short, time-boxed sales contest. In KickSplit you scope it to a territory and a metric — sales count, revenue, or gross profit — and it auto-ranks reps. When it ends, an admin pushes the winning payouts onto the locked commission run so they appear on statements and the payroll-ready export.
Can I track leads and calculate commissions in one tool?
Yes — that is the core of KickSplit. Leads, deals, and a customizable pipeline live in the built-in CRM. When a deal is marked won, an optional bridge turns it into a commissionable sale the engine calculates commission on. The bridge is one-way and off by default; once enabled it is admin-reviewed by default, with an optional fully-automatic mode.
How do I get commission data to my payroll provider?
KickSplit generates a downloadable, configurable CSV of your finalized commission run — every rep, broken out by compensation type. Pick a format template, rename columns, and map each compensation type to your provider's earning codes, then import the file into your payroll system. KickSplit prepares the file; it does not run payroll or transmit data to a provider.
How KickSplit compares
Where a CRM-plus-commission platform fits against the categories teams usually stitch together — described by what each category structurally requires.
How is KickSplit different from a commission-only tool?
A commission-only tool calculates payouts but still needs a separate CRM feeding it, so won deals get re-keyed or CSV-shuffled between two systems every cycle. KickSplit's CRM and commission engine share one data model — a won deal in the CRM becomes a commissionable sale with no export-import step in between.
How is KickSplit different from a general CRM?
A general CRM manages pipeline well, but a tool built for pipeline is not built to encode tiered rates, splits, draws, overrides, or clawbacks — so commission math falls back to a spreadsheet beside it. KickSplit runs those in a real commission engine, on the same deal data the CRM already holds.
Can KickSplit replace a CRM-plus-spreadsheet setup?
That is the most common real-world setup: pipeline in one tool, payouts in a workbook the two never reconcile. KickSplit keeps leads, deals, and the commission run in one place, so the numbers reps see come from the same record — not a spreadsheet re-keyed by hand at month-end.
Commission terminology glossary
The commission terms that come up most, defined by what they mean in KickSplit.
- Draw
- A periodic advance your company pays a rep against future commissions. A recoverable draw is recovered from later commission if the rep falls short (with an optional recovery cap); a non-recoverable draw is a guaranteed floor that is never clawed back.
- Clawback
- The reversal of commission a rep was credited for a deal that later fell through. In KickSplit, canceling a deal in the CRM reverses its commission on the next run — full or prorated — within a per-plan clawback window.
- Chargeback
- In KickSplit, the ledger entry that reverses a previously credited commission when its deal is canceled — a negative line, linked to the original commission, that lowers the run's net. It is not a card- or bank-network chargeback.
- SPIF
- A sales performance incentive fund: a short, time-boxed contest that pays reps for hitting a specific goal — sales count, revenue, or gross profit — on top of their regular commission plan.
- Override
- Commission paid to a manager or upline rep as a percentage of another rep's commission — assignable by territory, to a specifically named rep, or up a multi-level reporting hierarchy with a per-level rate.
- Tiered rate
- A commission rate that rises as a rep hits revenue or unit thresholds. Retroactive tiers apply the higher rate to all qualifying sales once a threshold is reached; progressive tiers apply each tier rate only to the sales within that bracket.
- Gross profit commission
- A commission paid on a sale's profit — its amount minus its cost of sale — rather than on revenue. A margin-band variant pays by the sale's margin percentage instead.
- Ramp guarantee
- A guaranteed minimum commission for a newly hired rep's first few pay periods; the amounts can step down over time. If earned commission falls short, KickSplit calculates the top-up on the run; your payroll pays it, and it is never clawed back.
See it run on your commission plans.
Book a walkthrough and we will show the lead-to-paid-ready loop — CRM, commission engine, statements, and the payroll-ready export — on a setup like yours.