Most salons, spas, and medspas pay providers through a mix of hourly wages, service commission, and retail commission — and calculating those payouts by hand is one of the most error-prone tasks in the business. Commission management software applies your rules automatically: when an invoice closes, the system calculates each provider's share, accounts for splits, deductions, and bonuses, and rolls everything into a payroll-ready total. In Zenoti, commission rules are configurable at three levels — item, employee, and job — so you can set organisation-wide defaults and still make exceptions for individual services or senior staff.

Owners rarely run one commission rate across the whole team, and Zenoti is built for that reality. Set a flat dollar amount per service, a percentage of revenue, or revenue tiers where the rate increases as a provider's sales grow. Each item type carries its own configuration. Define rules once at the item level for the whole organisation, then create exceptions at the employee level or apply rules by job so every employee with the same role inherits the same plan.

Tiered structures reward providers for growing their sales, but they're painful to administer manually. In Zenoti, you define revenue ranges and the commission rate for each; the system tracks each employee's revenue and applies the correct rate automatically at payroll. Versioning matters more than most owners expect: if you raise a tier's rate mid-quarter, Zenoti applies the new value from its effective date while past pay periods keep their original rates.

Whether to pay commission on the menu price or the discounted price is one of the most debated compensation questions in the industry. Zenoti removes the ambiguity: the sale-price-after-discount option calculates commission on what the guest actually paid, while the revenue option calculates it on the original price regardless of discounts or loyalty redemptions. Because the choice is configurable per item type rather than fixed, you can set the policy that matches your culture and margins.

Team-based service delivery breaks most manual commission systems, because one invoice has to produce two correct payouts. Zenoti handles splits natively: when employees share a service, specify how the commission divides directly from the Appointment Book or POS at payment time. Each provider's portion flows through their own commission configuration and appears on their own payroll, with no spreadsheet reconciliation.

A flat commission on a colour service quietly pays the provider a percentage of your product cost. Zenoti supports two deduction styles: on each invoice (deducted from the service amount before the rate applies) or on total commission (deducted from the provider's commission total for the period). For cancellation and no-show fee invoices, choose which cost components to deduct from revenue. Deductions appear transparently in the Employee Commissions report.

Retail commission is usually a flat percentage, which rewards busy providers but does nothing to change behaviour. Zenoti's three calculation models provide sharper levers. Product revenue is the classic model. Product sales per guest rewards consistency by measuring retail revenue against guests served. Product-to-service sales ratio pays based on how much retail a provider sells relative to their service revenue — the model that turns your commission plan into a retail attachment incentive.

When a guest no-shows, the provider loses the time and the earnings — even if the business collects a fee. Zenoti lets you share that fee revenue with the affected provider. Choose the commission type at centre level: based on the original service price or fee collected, a flat value per cancelled or no-show invoice, or a percentage of the cancellation or no-show fee. Once the front desk marks the appointment and closes the invoice, commission calculates automatically and appears in the Employee Sales No-Show/Cancelled report and the provider's paycheck.

Many salons run a "greater of" or hybrid model — providers earn an hourly base, and commission kicks in when their sales justify more. In Zenoti, hourly rates are configured per work task on the employee profile, service commissions accrue from closed invoices, and the Employee Hourly Pay/Service Commission report puts both side by side so payroll reflects the correct outcome. Combined with overtime configuration and the Employee Payroll Summary report, this supports compliant hybrid compensation without spreadsheet gymnastics.

Because Zenoti Integrated Payroll is built into the same platform, earnings flow straight from closed invoices to paychecks: hourly pay, salary, all commission types, tips, and bonuses are calculated automatically from transactions recorded in Zenoti. Run payroll as often as needed — including off-cycle runs for one-time bonuses or commissions — with next-day direct deposit, automated federal and state tax filing in all 50 U.S. states, and W-2 and 1099 support. Employees track earnings, view pay stubs, and download tax documents in the myZen app. Zenoti Integrated Payroll is currently available in the United States.