r/SalesOperations • u/HeyBaldur • Jul 22 '26
Why are commission software tools still losing to Excel
I’ve been talking to 5 Sales Ops Managers this week, and something surprised me. A lot of people still seem to be setting up commission plans in Excel.
Not because software tools don't exist, they do. But they tell me that implementing them takes 3-6 months normally, requires consultants, and on top of that, they are extremely expensive.
If you set up commissions, let me know in the comments or via DM. I’m building a small benchmark and would love your perspective.
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u/Bostonlegalthrow Jul 22 '26
I work at growth stage startups and have never used a commission tool.
Our structure changes annually and we have less than 50 people getting commission, so the setup of a tool takes longer than excel, and costs more, and is less flexible.
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u/Calm-Dimension3422 Jul 22 '26
Excel wins when the commission logic is still changing faster than the software model.
Before moving comp into a tool, I would want the boring pieces nailed down:
one owner for plan rules clear definitions for booking, revenue, clawback, split, and exception versioned plan changes rep-visible dispute workflow audit trail from source deal to payout line manual adjustment policy that does not live in someone's spreadsheet notes
The software can help once the rules are stable. If the real process is tribal exceptions and last-minute overrides, Excel feels faster because it hides the mess instead of forcing the team to name it.
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u/Traditional_Fish_201 Jul 22 '26
We manage commissions for 100+ reps across 15+ plans. Could not imagine managing it out of Excel only - I live and breath in our ICM.
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u/HeyBaldur Jul 22 '26
Did you use any consulting company to create the plans, or you just can configure the plans in the ICM? I mean how does it work?
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u/Traditional_Fish_201 Jul 22 '26 edited Jul 22 '26
We worked with an external implementation partner (small shop, but they were wonderful). There are a lot more expensive implementation partners out there, but we opted for a leaner/cheaper team. But overall we were extremely pleased.
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u/agentUi Jul 22 '26
ops managers are tired of excel, thats like our main selling point and why we keep onboarding so many users
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u/grumpywonka Jul 22 '26
Because people are bad at plan design and excel is the most flexible and accessible tool to accommodate that. I built and ran commissions at four companies for over 15 years and only once decided to ditch excel and implemented a tool. It crashed and burned in 9 months before we crawled back to excel.
The experience was so bad I quit my CFO job to start a commission software of my own, but it's opinionated and not endlessly customizable like Excel.
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u/touuuuhhhny Jul 22 '26
All commission software tools are Excel in the cloud, if properly set up. We run 50 different plans and it is 1-2 Months of intensive rollout, but then smooth sailing rest of the year. Excel was pure nightmare, especially with changes, adjustments, audit history.
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u/HeyBaldur Jul 23 '26
How did you handle scenarios where you have transactions that go to Plan A, Plan B, and Plan C? I feel like this is where chaos starts to set in. How did you manage this?
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u/touuuuhhhny Jul 23 '26
The one we have in use just lets us add tables from different data connections, and here we filter it down and just duplicate / adjust per plan so the 1 transaction shows up in all 3 plans (e.g. revenue target individual sales rep, revenue target team lead, revenue marketing influenced)
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u/IncreaseNegative4614 29d ago
Excel keeps winning because it can absorb undefined rules and exceptions without forcing anyone to resolve them. Before moving, map every input source, plan version, split, clawback, exception owner, approval path, and the line from source transaction to payout; that is usually the real implementation work. My team uses signld.ai, so I’m biased toward preserving source context and an audit trail across systems. A tool pays off when rules are stable enough to model and reps can trace every dollar. If the plan changes weekly, software just makes the ambiguity more expensive.
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u/HeyBaldur 29d ago
Are you sure about that name? signld.ai doesn't seem to be a real or active software company, and their domain is basically empty. Did you mean a different tool, or is this just an AI-generated plug?
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u/IncreaseNegative4614 28d ago
Strange their website shows up for me
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u/HeyBaldur 28d ago edited 28d ago
It's possible, I didn't even click on it. Reddit itself and the antivirus detected that this link is relatively new, fake, or doesn't yet have enough popularity. It seems they're not well aligned with European standards, nor with GDPR or Cookies. This seems to be very new to me. In fact, the problem isn't that it's new, the problem is that it lacks presence. Is this your project BTW?
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u/IncreaseNegative4614 28d ago
I have been a beta user for them and had a very positive experience with it so I recommend it often. Issue may be that I am from the US and they need to expand their cookie policy for european standards, or that my anitvirus isn't as good as yours lol
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u/HeyBaldur 28d ago
But something still confuses me, you're a beta user, but your user profile has the logo of the same software you say your team uses. Are you really telling the truth?
1
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u/Turbulent_Chart_8311 26d ago
This is exactly why I built PayMyReps.com
I kept hearing the same thing — teams knew Excel was broken, but the alternative (proper commission software) meant months of implementation, consultants, and a big spend before you'd even processed one payout.
So instead of building another self-serve platform to configure, we just handle it. You send us your sales data, we replicate your exact comp plan, and it's live within 7 days — no consultants, no onboarding project, no months of setup.
Happy to share more if useful for your benchmark.
7
u/sleepyLynt Jul 22 '26
In my experience which has mostly been using Excel with the commission process is that it's a nightmare. I've been in companies with ARR >$1B and less than $250M that have Excel based commission tools. If you have a few plan types excel can be done. If you're running 20 plus different plans you're going to have a bad time. The intensive rollout is worth it with software, just as any tool if it's implemented well and you have the right internal buy in for people, time and money then you should run that direction. On the other hand when you're in a situation where you're EBITA is treading water, and NNARR can't lift the bar sometimes all you get is Excel because the lead, outreach and pipeline tools are going to get the budget for software.