In this article, we will explore using payment deductions in Performance Pay to account for expected fees. Processing fees eat into what you actually collect on a job. Card processors take a cut, and so do some ACH and financing providers. Payment deductions in Performance Pay let you account for those fees, so techs earn commission on what the business keeps rather than on the full amount charged.

We’ll show you how payment deductions work and why deductions are calculated per payment instead of once per job.

How payment deductions work

When you create or edit a commission rule, you can add one or more payment fee deductions. Each deduction has two parts: a payment method (for example, Credit card) and the amount to deduct, either a percentage of each payment (for example, 3%) or a flat dollar amount per payment (for example, $5).

Each time a payment is recorded on a job, Workiz checks how it was paid. If the rule has a deduction for that payment method, the deduction is subtracted from the commission base, and the commission rate is applied to what's left.

If no payment has been recorded yet, there's nothing to deduct, so the commission is calculated on the full amount. It's updated as each payment comes in. Payments you record manually count too. For example, a payment recorded as Credit offline uses the rule's Credit card deduction.

A deduction only applies to payments made with its payment method. If the same job had been paid in cash, the credit card deduction wouldn't apply, and the commission would be $100.

Deductions are calculated per payment, not per job

Many jobs are paid in more than one installment: a deposit up front and the balance at completion, or a split between card and cash. Performance Pay looks at each payment separately and applies the deduction that matches that payment's method. It doesn't apply one deduction to the whole job total.

So when a job is paid with a mix of methods, each method's fee only affects its portion of the job. Flat-dollar deductions work the same way: a $5 cash fee comes off once for every cash payment, not once per job.

Because deductions follow the payments, a tech's commission on a job can shift as payments are added. If commission looks different than expected, open the job and check how each payment was recorded.

Good to know

• Each payment method gets its own line. Add a separate deduction for each method with a fee, such as Credit card = 3% and ACH = 1%. A method can only be used once per rule.
• Deductions apply before the commission rate. They reduce the base first, then the rate is calculated on what's left.
• Recorded payment types count too. A payment you record manually, such as Credit offline, counts toward the matching method's deduction.