My sales offer says ‘uncapped commission.’ What does the contract actually promise?

The recruiter talks about on-target earnings and no ceiling. The employment contract gives you a base salary and points to a commission plan you have not seen. Before comparing the offer with another job, get that plan.

Treat target earnings as an outcome to investigate. Ask what performance assumptions produce the quoted number, rather than reading it as guaranteed pay.

Follow the money through five steps

For a representative sale, find the answer to each question in the written plan:

1. Credit: Which salesperson gets credit, and when? What happens with shared accounts or a changed territory?
2. Calculation: Which amount gets multiplied by which rate—booked revenue, collected revenue, margin or something else?
3. Earning: What conditions must be met before the commission becomes earned?
4. Payment: Which payroll includes it, and can payment be delayed pending approval?
5. Reversal: What events cause a reduction or repayment, and for how long?

Keep the source beside each answer. If the plan only answers calculation, the other four steps remain open.

Run a payout example before accepting the headline

This is a fictional illustration, not a market benchmark or interpretation of your plan. Suppose eligible collected revenue earns 5% commission, and a customer signs a $20,000 order but initially pays $10,000.

Ask the employer to work the same example through the actual plan. Then ask what changes if two people share the sale or the customer pays late. You are looking for a reproducible answer, not a promise that “payroll sorts it out.”

Test the quota and rate changes

Find the quota period, ramp-up arrangements and any threshold before commission starts. If there are accelerators, ask whether the higher rate applies only above the threshold or to all eligible sales in the period. Those formulas can produce different payouts.

Check who can change quotas, rates, territories and account ownership, how changes are communicated and which transactions they affect. A plan that can be changed raises a different question from one that can be changed retroactively; do not treat them as identical.

If there is a draw against commission, ask whether it is recoverable, how the balance is calculated and what happens on departure. Do not count an advance as extra guaranteed income without reading its repayment terms.

Read the leaving clause before you need it

Take the sale above and imagine you leave after the first customer payment but before the commission payroll. Then imagine you leave before the second customer payment. Ask what you receive in each case, including during notice, dismissal or redundancy.

The answer depends on the contract and applicable law. In Great Britain, Acas's commission guidance specifically says the contract should explain what happens to commission when employment ends, including earned commission awaiting payment. Its guidance is not a rule for every country or state.

Record any “still employed on payment date” wording rather than assuming it is automatically valid or automatically irrelevant. If the offer's value depends on that point, resolve it before relying on the projected earnings.

Send a short request for the missing detail

Here is a fictional email you can adapt:

Before I accept, could you send the commission plan that applies to this offer, including its version and effective date? Could we work through a $20,000 sale paid in two instalments, including a partial refund and departure before the payment date? I also want to confirm how quota changes affect sales already in progress and how the quoted target earnings are calculated.

Contracts.money can provide an AI first read of the PDF or DOCX you supply, with analysis by email. Mention the role, location and payout questions in the context. If the plan is a separate missing document, the review of your employment contract cannot supply its rules.

For the rest of the offer, use the job-contract checklist. If the employer changes the plan or contract in response, use the revised-contract worksheet to match the response to your request.