Payout Overview

A payout in Contractors Cloud is money owed to someone on your team for a project — a commission, a bonus, a fee, or a draw against a future commission. Payouts belong to a project's contract and are usually created automatically by your Payout Rules (your commission schedule) as the project's finances change, though they can also be entered by hand. Each payout moves through a simple lifecycle — Projected, Available, In Review, Approved, Paid — so reps can see what's coming, request payment when it's earned, and managers can approve and pay with a full audit trail. Payouts are an internal ledger: they never post to QuickBooks or your accounting books.

Quick start — create a payout by hand

Most payouts appear on their own, created by Payout Rules. To add one manually:

Open the project → open the contract → click the Payouts/Commissions tab, then click the green +. (You can also add one from the Payouts/Commissions report with Add payout.)
Pick the Company, who receives the payout, and the Type; set the Amount, status, and date.
Click Save. Manual payouts are yours to manage — the automatic rules never adjust or remove them.

Where payouts appear

The contract — the Payouts/Commissions tab lists every payout and overhead for that contract. See Contract Commissions & Payouts.
Payouts/Commissions report — the company-wide list, on the Accounting dashboard and the Payout Resources page, filterable by rep, status, group, and dates. Users with payout permission also get the Draw Accounts and Payout Groups reports there.
My Payouts — the dashboard widget where each rep sees their own totals in six buckets (Projected, Available, In Review, Approved, Paid, Denied), any outstanding draw balances, and can print their commission schedule.
Profit & Loss — paid payouts appear in the P&L report's Payouts/Commissions section and on the contract's profit/loss.

The Payout dialog

Company — the company the payout belongs to.
Type — what kind of payout this is. For rule-created payouts the type comes from the rule, and the rule's name is shown alongside it.
- Draw — a portion of a commission paid early, usually at the start of a project, deducted from the final commission.
- Commission — compensation, typically to a primary rep, for selling and managing the project.
- Bonus — payment over and above any commission — for example, a sales manager's cut for overseeing the primary rep.
- Fee — a flat dollar amount for services rendered, such as an administrative assistant's per-project processing fee.
- Company Overhead — a "payout to the company" covering job overhead; it's what turns gross profit into the net profit that percentage-of-net-profit commissions are based on.
Paid to — the user receiving the payout.
Project/Contract — the job and contract the payout belongs to.
Payout Status, Date, and Paid Date — picking Paid fills the Paid Date automatically.
Group — assign the payout to a Payout Group (a check-run batch).
Comment — if you're adjusting an amount or denying a payout, it's good practice to tell the rep why here.

Below the details are the amount section, a Tags panel, and Utilities with Delete Payout. Payouts in Paid status cannot be deleted.

Payout statuses

Projected — a rule matched but its conditions aren't fully met yet. The amount adjusts automatically as the project changes.
Available — the payout is earned and ready to be requested by the rep or paid by the company. The amount can still adjust with project conditions.
In Review — requested and awaiting someone else's approval.
Approved — reviewed and okayed for payment, but not yet paid.
Paid — approved and paid to the user.
Denied — unavailable for requesting or paying.

The dividing line to remember: Projected and Available payouts are recalculated freely as the project's finances change. In Review, Approved, and Paid payouts are never silently adjusted — if a recalculation would change the amount, a red warning icon appears with an Amount Change row showing the new figure, and a manager can click Use Amount to accept it (or ignore it to keep the agreed amount).

Requesting, approving, and paying

When a payout reaches Available, the rep sees a +Request link on the contract's Payouts/Commissions tab. Clicking it moves the payout to In Review.
A user with payout permission opens the payout, verifies the amount, and sets it to Approved, then Paid — or Denied.
To pay several at once, collect payouts into a Payout Group and mark the group Paid — every payout in the group is marked Paid automatically. Note this is one-way: reopening or deleting the group does not un-pay its payouts.

Amounts and draw accounts

The amount section shows the original payout amount (what the rule computed) and the Total amount to Rep. If the rep has a Draw Account — money the company advanced them — part of the payout can be directed back to pay it off: pick the account under Draw account, enter the amount to pay back, and the amount to the rep drops by that much. Amounts can be set automatically by rules (see Enable auto commissions in Company Settings → Commissions / Payouts) or typed by hand.

Locking a contract's payouts

When a job is settled, a manager can lock it on the Payouts/Commissions tab — the label switches to OVERHEADS AND PAYOUTS LOCKED and a Payouts Closed Date is set. While locked, no automatic payouts are created, updated, or removed, and reps can't request payment. Locking is the right way to finalize a job's commissions so later bookkeeping (a stray expense, a refund) can't disturb them.

QuickBooks and accounting

Payouts are Contractors Cloud's internal commission ledger — they never transfer to QuickBooks, never create a bill, and never touch your books. Use the Payout Group print/export as your check register and pay reps through your payroll or accounting system.

Permissions

Creating, editing, approving, and deleting payouts requires the "Can create and approve payouts" permission (or executive authority) — it also controls Draw Accounts and Payout Groups. Users with Hide all project financial data or Hide all payout/commission data set see no payout information at all. The commissions feature itself is enabled per account — if you see "The custom commission feature is not enabled for your account," contact your Account Manager.

Troubleshooting

"The payout amount keeps changing."
It's in Projected or Available status, where amounts recalculate automatically as the project's finances change — that's by design. Once it's In Review or beyond, the amount is fixed; changes only show as a red warning with a Use Amount option.

"A payout I expected never showed up."
Open the contract's Payouts/Commissions tab and click View Log — it shows each rule's test results and why it did or didn't fire. Also check whether projected payouts are hidden (a "projected payouts hidden" note appears at the bottom of the list with a Show projected payouts link), and that payouts aren't locked.

"The rep has no +Request link."
It only appears while the payout is Available and the contract's payouts aren't locked, and only to the payout's own rep (or users with payout permission).

"I can't delete a payout."
Paid payouts can't be deleted. If it's attached to a Draw Account, remove it from the account first.

"Marking the group Paid marked everything Paid."
That's what Payout Groups are for — the group cascades Paid to all its payouts. There is no un-pay: reopening or deleting the group won't reverse it, so double-check the group's contents before paying it.

"My payouts aren't in QuickBooks."
By design — payouts never sync to QuickBooks. Pay commissions through payroll or your accounting system, using the payout reports as the source.

Other Resources

Roofing Sales Commissions: Models, Examples, Payouts and How to Automate Them