It's that time of the year again-- new year, new compensation plans! In order to make the process as seamless as possible, we've created a step-by-step guide with videos on not only how to build & launch your 2026 compensation plans, but also how to ensure your entire workspace is set up for success including tips and best practices!
Plan Creation & Modeling
Follow these steps to build and model your 2026 compensation plans:
Duplicate last year’s plan as a draft plan and edit instead of building from scratch to reduce errors and save time.
When duplicating, set new plan effective dates and rename plan to differentiate from last year's plans (i.e. '2026 Plan').
Do a complete run-through of copied plan components to adjust default quotas, rates, and tiers.
View quota and rate tables to assign individual quotas and rates.
Recheck components that previously had dependencies and re-apply logic as needed.
Use Workspace Components to re-use components from other plans.
Assign new members to plans and set plan effective dates.
Update plan assignees' base and variables for new year. This is important if any plan components use auto rate calculation.
Visit Modeling tab to estimate commission costs and forecast effectiveness.
Plan Mappings
After creating the plans, follow these steps to map plans to your data source:
If 2026 plan was duplicated, when editing the mapping, be sure to select option to "Edit as new mapping" to avoid accidentally editing mappings on 2025 plans.
If plan components have a temporary/one-time period, review and edit any date filters in the mappings.
Re-review mapping fields, stages and filters to ensure values still align to your current source data set-up.
If new mappings are created, use unique mapping names to differentiate from last year's mappings (i.e. '2026 deals').
Re-review payout eligibility rules and ensure fields and logic are up-to-date for 2026.
Member, Team and Plan Management
After finishing building out your 2026 plans, follow these steps for additional workspace hygiene:
Go to Members page and archive any inactive members. Do not delete in order to preserve historical data.
If individual member earnings currencies are applied, visit Currency Manager and ensure you have entered your 2026 exchange rates.
Visit Teams page to update team members, team assignment dates, or create new Teams. This is especially important if any of your plan components use roll-ups.
After you've finished paying out commissions on your 2025 plans, go to the Plans page to archive. Once a plan is archived, data will no longer sync on that plan.
For active plans, you can also use the Locked Plan Data feature to pause syncing during a specified date range. This is best suited for plans without payout eligibility rules.
Plan Data Validation
Complete these last few steps to validate the accuracy of your 2026 plan builds. Please note these steps only apply to plans in an active state.
Follow our data validation guide for a detailed step by step guide on validating plan data.
Visit the Earnings and Attainment pages, select a user via the 'View as' dropdown, review total earnings, quota attainment and list of deals. Check whether decelerators, accelerators, or bonuses are applying correctly.
If deals are missing, search for the record name or ID via the search bar, visit the source record page, and click 'Analyze Mapping' to troubleshoot.
Note: If this feature is not available to you, please reach out to support.
Click on a deal name or search for a deal to spot check and validate individual deal details.
Plan Launch & Communication
When you're ready to launch your 2026 plans to your team, follow these final steps:
If you haven't already, visit the plan detail page and click 'Publish' in order to move plan from a draft to active state.
Upload any accompanying plan documents, and then request plan verification.
Track plan verification status and re-send requests as needed.
Refresh any internal QuotaPath training resources to reflect any new plan or workspace configuration changes.
Provide refresher training for reps on QuotaPath as needed.