Set up quotas and pick a primary
Where to start: Quotas → Setting. The page is headed Quota Setting, under the eyebrow Quota Manager, and states its own job:
"Create the quotas a role is measured on and key monthly targets into each."
Two things happen here, and they are easy to conflate:
- Creating a quota — defining what a role is measured on (once).
- Keying targets — entering the numbers per person per month (every period).
A role can have several quotas
This is the part most people miss. A quota is not just a number — it is a named metric with a basis field, and a role can own more than one.
A Sales Rep role might carry:
| Quota | Basis field | Purpose |
|---|---|---|
| Bookings | Deal Amount | The headline number — Primary |
| New Logos | New logo count | A secondary target for a specific rule |
Each quota gets its own column of targets and can be measured by its own rules.
The primary quota
Exactly one of a role's quotas is the Primary quota. Lokom describes it as:
"The role's headline quota — drives OTE and the default view on Attainment. Only one quota can be primary."
What being primary actually changes — three things:
- It drives OTE. The primary quota is the number the plan's on-target-earnings maths works from.
- It is the default view on Attainment. Open Quotas → Attainment and you are looking at the primary quota unless you switch.
- Smart rate uses it, and only it. "Smart Rate accelerates on the primary quota." If you tick Smart rate on a rule, it measures against the primary — you cannot point it at a secondary quota. → Calculation and Smart rate
Ordinary rules with a Multiplier are not restricted this way: they ask "Which quota does this accelerate on?" and you can pick any of the role's quotas.
If a role has one quota, it is automatically the primary. You only think about this once you add a second.
Create a quota
- Go to Quotas → Setting and select the role.
- Click Add quota.
- Name it — e.g.
Bookings. This is the label you will pick from in rules. - Choose the Basis field — what this quota measures.
- Decide whether it is the Primary quota.
- Click Create quota.
Expected result: the quota appears as a tab above the grid, with a Primary badge if it is the primary one.
Three constraints on the basis field
Only numeric and currency fields can be a basis. If the picker is empty you will see "No numeric or currency fields available" — map a suitable field first at Organization → Data Sources → Fields.
The field must be one your deals actually carry. A field can be numeric, mapped and selectable while no deal has ever held a value for it. Lokom refuses it:
Field
<name>has no values on any deal in this org, so a quota measuring it would report zero attainment and any gated rule bound to it would pay nothing. Pick a field your deals carry.
This message is only in English today, including for French admins.
The refusal matters more than it looks. Any rule you later gate on this quota is forced to use the same field as its Source — so one quota built on an empty field silently zeroes every rule bound to it, and the basis cannot be changed afterwards.
The basis locks once targets are set:
"Basis is locked once targets are set. Create a new quota to measure a different metric."
This is deliberate: silently changing what a quota measures would rewrite the meaning of every target already keyed against it. To measure something else, make a second quota.
Change which quota is primary
- Click Edit
<name>quota on the quota you want to promote. - Turn on the Primary quota switch.
- Save.
Lokom tells you what will happen: "Making <A> primary will demote <B> — a role has
exactly one primary quota."
You promote, you never demote. The switch is disabled on the current primary, because a role must always have exactly one.
Any rule using Smart rate follows the primary quota. Move the primary and those rules start measuring a different metric at the next calculation. Check your plans before you promote.
Key the targets
Below the quota tabs sits the grid: Role / Rep down the side, months across the top, for the year in the picker. Measured by shows the selected quota's basis field.
- Pick the quota tab you are keying.
- Type the target into a cell. Values save as you type, with an Undo in the toast.
- Use Fill year to apply one month's figure to all twelve — closed months are skipped, and the toast tells you how many.
The Role default row sets a figure for everyone in the role; individual rows override it.
Watch for: a closed month's cell is read-only — click it to reopen the period first. And "No period set up for this month yet" means your commission calendar does not reach that month. → Set up your workspace
Role targets — the team-level number
A role target is what the role as a whole is measured against, and it is what role-attainment rules — team bonuses, manager overrides on team performance — divide by.
Two things catch people out:
A target is committed at save time. Lokom rolls up the members' individual quotas as a suggestion, but once you save, the figure is frozen: "Committed at save time. Later member-quota changes do not move this target." The delta against the current rollup is shown so over- or under-assignment is visible. A gap is normal finance behaviour, not an error.
No target means no team bonus. The statement says so outright: "No role target was committed for the measured role this period." An uncommitted target reads Not committed, and a target of zero records attainment as 0% with no accelerator applied.
Watch for: you cannot set a target for a role with no members in that period, and you cannot change one on a locked period — "This period is locked; targets cannot be changed."
Archive a quota you no longer use
Edit <name> quota → Archive quota. Lokom tells you how many target entries it holds
before you commit. Archived quotas stop being offered in rules but keep their history.
Watch attainment
Quotas → Attainment shows production against target, defaulting to the primary quota.
Use it during the period as an early warning — a whole team at 40% in week three is a plan problem or a pipeline problem, and both are cheaper to find now — and during review to sanity check payouts. A rep at 180% attainment with a small payout usually means a cap; a rep at 60% with a large one usually means a rule firing that should not.
The Attainment page measures on close date. Role actuals follow the period's own date field. The two can cover slightly different deals for the same period.
Changing a quota mid-period
You can. Attainment recalculates against the new number, so past deals in that period pay differently.
Correcting a data-entry mistake is fine. Raising a target because someone is over-attaining is visible in the audit trail with your name on it — which is the right outcome, but know it before you do it, not after.
Common mistakes
| Mistake | Consequence |
|---|---|
| Creating a second quota and forgetting which is primary | Smart rate and OTE quietly measure the wrong metric |
| Promoting a new primary without checking plans | Live rules change what they measure |
| Picking the wrong basis field | You cannot change it once targets exist — you need a new quota |
| No quota at all on the role | Multiplier is greyed out; thresholds and Smart rate have nothing to measure |
| Leaving a role target uncommitted | Team bonuses are skipped entirely |