What is a draw?

A draw is a guaranteed minimum payment added to a team member's compensation plan, independent of their earnings results. It's most commonly used during ramp periods for newly hired or transitioning reps.

There are two types of draws:

Non-recoverable draw — QuotaPath pays the team member the greater of their plan earnings or the draw amount for that period. If earnings fall short of the draw, the difference is never tracked as a debt.

Example (non-recoverable): A rep has a $5,000/month draw and earns $3,200 in plan earnings in March. QuotaPath pays a $1,800 draw top-up, bringing total earnings for March to $5,000. The $1,800 difference is not owed back.

Recoverable draw — QuotaPath ensures the team member earns at least the draw amount for the period by paying a top-up at period close if earnings fall short. The shortfall is tracked as an outstanding balance and recovered from future commission payouts over time. (Coming in a future release — see below.)

Example (recoverable): A rep has a $5,000/month draw and earns $3,200 in March. QuotaPath pays $5,000. The $1,800 difference is tracked as an outstanding balance and recovered from future payouts.

Before you start

Draw components are available in Plan Builder (in the component library). After you add one, it will appear at the top of the plan hierarchy, above your commission and bonus components. Draw components are calculated at the plan level and cannot be nested amongst quota or commission components.
Each plan supports one non-recoverable draw component and one recoverable draw component.
Draw components must be added to the same plan as the earnings they're netted against. A draw set up in its own separate plan will not correctly offset earnings from a different plan, even if the member is assigned to both.
Draw components are not mapped components — no CRM field mapping is needed.
Both non-recoverable and recoverable draws require the Growth tier or above.
The draw Component should be set up in the same plan.

For how recovery balances, schedules, and adjustments appear once a period closes, see How to View Draws.

How to configure a draw component

Step 1: Open Plan Builder

Navigate to Plan Builder and open an existing plan, or create a new one.

Step 2: Choose your draw type

Non-recoverable draw and recoverable draw are both options in the Component Library in the left-hand component panel, or in the "+ Add Quota or Component" menu within the plan structure.

One draw component per type per plan. Each plan supports one non-recoverable draw component and one recoverable draw component.

Step 2: Add the draw component

Click + on the component card in the library, or click + Add Quota or Component within the plan and select the correct Draw component from the dropdown menu. The Draw component will appear at the top of your plan hierarchy. Once configured and saved, a badge will appear on the draw component in the plan structure showing the draw amount range at a glance. Default draw periods and amounts are generated automatically, but the draw won’t be active until you assign at least one rep (and have at least one draw amount entered).

Step 3: Name your draw

Enter a name for the draw (for example, "Q1 Ramp Draw") and an optional description. This name and description are visible to reps and other workspace members.

Step 4: Enter the draw amount

Enter the guaranteed minimum payment amount for each draw period. This is the floor amount that will be compared against the team member's plan earnings at the end of each period.

Step 5: Select the draw frequency

Choose how often the draw is evaluated. Available options are:

Weekly
Monthly
Quarterly
Half-yearly
Yearly

For a recoverable draw, the configuration drawer in Plan Builder also shows a Recovery Period row (below Draw Period), reflecting this same cadence.

Step 6: Assign the draw to reps

Expand the assignment table to see all plan assignees. Use the checkboxes to select which team members should receive a draw, or use the bulk select checkbox at the top to add all assignees at once. Once a team member is selected, the draw config amount is automatically pre-filled for each period — you don't need to enter amounts manually unless you want to customize per rep or per period.

Once assignees are selected, you can:

Set different draw amounts per rep — useful for individually negotiated ramp guarantees.
Opt a rep out of a specific period by removing their amount for that period. The cell will show "–" and you can re-add it at any time.
Remove a rep entirely by unchecking them in the table. Reps who are unchecked will not see draw records in Plan Verification or anywhere else in the app.

Note: If a rep is checked as an assignee but has no draw amounts entered for any period, QuotaPath will block the save and show a notification. You'll need to either add at least one draw amount or uncheck that rep before saving.

Tip for staggered start dates: If a rep joins mid-ramp (for example, Rep A starts in January and Rep B starts in February), remove the non-applicable period amounts for each rep. QuotaPath does not automatically prorate draw amounts for mid-period starts.

Step 7: Save and publish

Click Save, then publish the plan as you normally would.

Note: A warning will appear if you edit draw settings after deals have been generated on the plan. Changing the cadence or draw amounts for periods that have already passed has the potential to generate discrepancies in approvals and payouts. Editing the draw component name or description only is safe and will not impact any calculations.

For information on how to view Draws throughout QuotaPath, check out this Help Center article here.

Things to keep in mind

Draws are a floor, not a bonus. A non-recoverable draw pays the greater of the draw amount or plan earnings — not both added together.
Draw components cannot be nested in folders or dragged among other component types. They always live as a distinct group at the top of the plan hierarchy.
Draw components are automatically available in Workspace Components, making it easy to apply a draw configuration across multiple plans.
Manager visibility follows existing permission rules. Standard and Full managers can see draw information. Limited managers cannot, consistent with how manager permissions work elsewhere in QuotaPath.
Changing the draw frequency after saving will remove all existing draw assignments. QuotaPath will prompt you to confirm before making this change.
No automatic proration. If a rep starts mid-period, QuotaPath does not automatically prorate draw amounts. Set per-assignee amounts manually in the assignment table to reflect your intended guarantee.
Past draw records cannot be retroactively corrected. You can edit the draw component at any time — including amounts, assignees, and future periods — but changes to periods that have already closed will not update the records that were already generated. This is why editing past-period amounts may create discrepancies in approvals and payouts.
Rate formulas are not supported on draw components.
Draw amounts do not roll up into higher-level plans.
Once a recoverable draw has had a recovery override, its Draw Type and frequency lock . Both the type toggle and the frequency selector become uneditable, with a tooltip explaining why. To edit, the user must remove the recovery overrides.
Recoverable draws carry a running balance the rep repays from future earnings. See "How to View Draws" for how that balance and recovery activity appear across Earnings, Payouts, and Approvals.
Recoverable draw terms are captured in Plan Verification. When a rep signs a plan that includes a recoverable draw, the repayment obligation is part of the immutable, signed record — same treatment as the rest of the plan's terms.
Carrying a balance forward to a new plan is a manual step, not automatic — see the new section directly below.

Carrying over an outstanding recovery balance to a new plan

Example: A rep has an outstanding recovery balance on a recoverable draw when their plan ends — for instance, at year-end, a rep still owes back $5,000 of their draw. Building next year's plan is a good opportunity to carry that $5,000 forward as the starting point QuotaPath recovers against, rather than resetting to zero. This will be the most common case, though there may be other situations where carrying a balance forward makes sense too.

Important — this does not happen automatically. QuotaPath does not link an old plan's recoverable draw to a new one. The admin exports the outstanding balances from the old plan and uploads them into the new one; from there, recovery against that balance is calculated automatically going forward.

Step 1: Export outstanding balances from the old plan. On the old plan's Earnings → Draws Overview tab, once any assignees' individual dates have ended — this doesn't require the whole plan to have ended, just those assignees' own dates — a banner appears along with a live count of how many assignees still carry an outstanding balance. Click the banner's Download Balances for Past Assignees button to export a spreadsheet. The file only includes the assignees whose periods have actually ended, not the full assignee list.

Step 2: Upload the balances into the new plan. On the new plan, open the recoverable draw component's drawer in Plan Builder and click Upload Starting Balances. In the Upload Starting Balances from Previous Draw modal, drag in the spreadsheet from Step 1 (.csv or .xlsx). Starting balances are applied once the drawer is saved.

This button is only available before any draw period on the new config has closed — once a period closes, starting balances can no longer be uploaded for it.
If a rep has an outstanding balance but won't be receiving new draw periods on the new plan, their draw periods can be left blank in the spreadsheet. They'll still show up in the assignment table as a read-only "Recovery only" row so their balance keeps recovering against future earnings.
Uploaded balances show as a read-only "Starting balance: $X" line beneath each assignee's name in the draw assignment table — they aren't editable directly in the grid, only via re-upload.

Worked example: A rep ends the year owing $5,000 on their 2026 recoverable draw. The admin downloads the balances file from the 2026 plan's Draws Overview tab, then uploads it into the 2027 plan's recoverable draw. The rep's 2027 draw now starts with a $5,000 balance, and any 2027 earnings above their new draw floor recover against that $5,000 before anything else.