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, then key a target for each period."
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 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 things to know about 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.
Lokom warns if your deals don't carry the field yet. A field can be numeric, mapped and selectable while no deal has ever held a value for it. Pick one of those and a warning appears under the picker straight away:
"No deal in this org carries a value for this field yet, so the quota reads 0% attainment — and a rule gated on it pays nothing — until your deals carry it. Fine if the data is still on its way."
It is a warning, not a refusal — the quota still saves. Building a plan before the data arrives is a normal order of work, and a field that is empty today is not empty forever.
Take it seriously anyway. Any rule you later gate on this quota is forced to use the same field as its Source — so one quota built on a field your deals never start carrying silently zeroes every rule bound to it, and the basis cannot be changed afterwards. Nothing warns you a second time once the quota exists, so this is the moment to check.
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, one column per pay period across the top, for the year in the picker. Measured by shows the selected quota's basis field.
One column per period, not per month. A monthly calendar gives you twelve and they look
like months. A quarterly one gives you four. A calendar whose periods run 26th-to-25th
labels them by start date — 26 Jan, 26 Mar — and if your calendar has been reshaped
mid-year you can see both styles side by side and end up with more than twelve columns. The
columns are always whatever periods your calendar actually has.
→ Set your commission calendar
You get the whole year, even if you signed up in July. When your commission calendar is saved, Lokom creates every period of the current year — the ones already past included — so there is always a column to key January into. Past periods stay open for exactly this reason. → Set your commission calendar
-
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, on the Individual Role Default row, to apply one default figure to every period of the year that is not closed. Its tooltip names the figure and the number of periods it will write:
"Apply 3,000 to 9 periods. Closed periods are left alone."
The toast afterwards counts the periods filled and any closed periods skipped. Fill year stays disabled until the row has a figure: "Enter a default in at least one period to fill the rest of the year."
The Individual Role Default row sets a figure for everyone in the role; individual rows override it. The ⓘ beside the label says the same thing:
"Applies to every member of this role. A value on someone's own row overrides it for them."
Read the word Individual literally: this is one person's number, repeated for everyone in the role. It is not the role's combined target. The team-level figure is a different row — see Role targets below.
The TOTAL column is the annual quota — the sum of the periods, with unset ones counting as zero. It is a sum, never one period multiplied up, which is what makes a seasonal year (a heavy Q4, a quiet January) add up correctly.
Watch for: a closed period's cell is read-only — click it to reopen the period first.
When the grid has no columns at all
Instead of an empty grid you get a whole-page message:
No periods set up for
<year>Set up your commission calendar to start assigning quota targets.
…with a Set up periods button that takes you to Period Preferences.
Two situations still reach it:
- You have never set a commission calendar. Set one; that alone builds the year.
- You hand-defined custom ranges and they have run out. Lokom will not invent next year's ranges for you, because they are your decision. Add them.
You should not see it for an ordinary Monthly or Quarterly calendar, in this year or next — Lokom keeps both years built. → Set your commission calendar
The plan wizard asks "What's the annual quota for this role?" too, but that answer only feeds its rate suggestion — it writes nothing here. Every number in this grid is one you keyed. It also reads the other way: the wizard pre-fills its box with the sum of this year's Individual Role Default row. → What the quota number there actually does
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.
Where it lives
It is the Role Target row, pinned at the bottom of the quota grid, under the members it rolls up. It is absent on a manager role that nobody manages: a role target is what the role's manager is measured against, so a role with nobody above it has nothing that divides by the number. It has one cell per period column, exactly like the rows above it — so the number you are looking at always belongs to the column it sits in. Its ⓘ names the one behaviour that catches people out:
"Follows the sum of the members' quotas until you type a target here. A typed target stops following them."
Do not confuse it with the row at the top. The Individual Role Default row is one person's number, repeated for everyone. The Role Target row is the whole role's number. They are both aggregates and they are both in euros, which is exactly why they are named apart.
You do not have to set it
Every period already has a role target. By default it is the sum of that period's members' quotas, live — add a rep, raise someone's quota, and the target moves with it. There is nothing to press.
This is the same relationship the rows above it use: a member's cell inherits the Individual Role Default until someone types over it. The Role Target row works the same way, so a cell is in one of two states.
Inherited — the sum, following its members. Hovering says so:
"Follows the members' quotas. Type your own to override it."
Overridden — a number you typed. Click the cell, type it, press Enter. The cell turns solid and grows a small drift dot once it differs from the sum:
"Set by hand
<date>. Clear the cell to go back to the sum."
The dot's tooltip names the gap: "That is <n>% against the live rollup, now <amount>."
Nothing there says the drift is fine, because nothing needs to: a drift the product considers
ordinary carries no warning icon, and that absence is the reassurance. Over-assignment is
normal finance behaviour, not a bug.
Past 25%, in either direction, the dot becomes a warning icon. It does not mean the number is wrong — it means the gap is large enough to be worth re-reading before the period is computed. Each direction says something different, because they are not the same event:
- More than 25% above the sum: "More than 25% above the sum — worth a second look." Usually a deliberate stretch, so the line stops at "look again".
- More than 25% below the sum: "More than 25% below the sum — the role reaches attainment on less production than its members carry." This one spells out the consequence, because a target under the sum makes the team look better than it is.
Going back to the sum
Clear the cell — click it, delete the number, press Enter. The cell inherits again. Typing the sum back in does the same thing, deliberately: a number that merely equals today's sum would still be frozen against it and would drift the next time a member's quota changed.
Undo works here, like everywhere else in the grid — the toast after a save offers it.
Reset to sum does the whole row at once. It clears the targets you set by hand so every open period follows its own members again:
"Clear the targets you set by hand so each period follows the sum of its members' quotas again (
<n>to reset). Closed periods are left alone."
The toast afterwards names what it did — "Reset <n> periods to the sum." When there is
nothing set by hand the button greys out: "No period has a target set by hand."
What to watch for
Members with no quota are excluded from that period's sum — and only that period's. The
cell's tooltip names the count: "Excludes <n> of <m> members with no quota this period." The members themselves are marked on their own cells, in the grid
above.
A sum of zero is flagged: "Member quotas sum to zero, so attainment against this target is undefined." A zero target records attainment as 0% with no accelerator applied.
No quotas at all means no team bonus. If a role's members carry no quotas for a period and nobody set a target by hand, there is nothing to measure against, and the statement says so: "No quotas are set for this role this period, so there is nothing to measure the team against, and the team bonus was not computed." Setting the members' quotas fixes it — you do not need to touch this row.
A role with no members in that period has nothing to roll up — "No members this period — nothing to sum."
A closed period cannot be changed — "This period is locked; targets cannot be changed." That holds in both directions: Reset to sum skips closed periods, so a target you set by hand before the period closed stays exactly as it was. A closed period's pay basis must not move. An inherited cell on a closed period reads "Follows the members' quotas. The period is closed."
The TOTAL, and people who have since left
The row's TOTAL is the annual role target — the sum of its own cells:
"Sum of the row: the annual role target. It equals the sum of the member rows above, except where a target was set by hand to something other than the sum."
Each cell sums the members who were in the role during that period, which is not always who is in it today. If someone joined, left, or moved roles mid-year, the grid hides their row by default and the TOTAL carries an asterisk saying so:
"It includes
<n>members who are not shown — turn on "Show former members" above the grid to see their rows."
Show <n> former members, above the grid, puts those rows back on screen. It changes no
number — "Already counted in the Role Target row. Showing them changes no number." Their
cells for the periods they were here for stay editable; the periods they were not are
read-only. A former member's row carries its own ⓘ: "Left this role during the year.
Their quota still counts in the periods they held it, so those cells stay editable."
Because an inherited target follows its members, editing a rep's quota moves that period's role target with it. Once the period is computed, the figure the bonus was actually measured against is stored on the payout and does not change afterwards.
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's members with no quotas | Team bonuses are skipped entirely — there is nothing to measure against |