Commission Periods, Approval, and Disputes in Pulse

Commission in Pulse is tracked in monthly periods. Each period has a clear state that determines what can happen to it and who can act on it.

The three period states

Every commission period moves through three states in order:

• Open — the current working period. Payments are still coming in and being attributed. Commission events are added automatically. An admin can recalculate at any time. Open periods can have their tier rate updated if the tier schedule changes.
• Locked — the admin has frozen the period. No further commission events are added, no recalculations run. The rep receives an in-app notification when their period is locked, which is the signal that the figure is final and payout is being processed. An admin can revert a locked period back to Open if needed.
• Paid — the admin has recorded that the bank transfer was made. This is the terminal state — a paid period cannot be unlocked or changed. The rep receives both an in-app and email notification when their period is marked paid.

Month-end maintenance

When a new month begins, an admin runs Month-End Maintenance from the Commission Settings tab. This does two things: it auto-locks all open periods from prior months (so they stop accumulating new events), and it seeds the current month's period rows for all reps so they start accumulating from zero.

Pulse shows a warning banner in Commission Management if month-end has not been run yet for the current period, prompting the admin to take action.

Locking and paying a period

On the Commission Overview, an admin selects a month and sees each rep's revenue, commission total, and status for that period. From there:

• Click Lock on an Open period to freeze it. This signals to the rep that the number is final.
• After the external bank transfer is done, click Mark Paid on a Locked period. Enter the payment date and confirm. The rep is notified immediately.

Disputes

A rep can raise a dispute from their commission dashboard on any period that is still Open or Locked. They write a description of the issue and optionally enter a disputed amount. All admins receive a notification when a dispute is submitted.

The admin resolves the dispute (marking it Resolved or Dismissed) with optional resolution notes. The notes are visible to the rep on their dashboard so they know the outcome. Disputes do not automatically change the commission amount — if an adjustment is needed, the admin unlocks the period, fixes the underlying data, and allows Pulse to recalculate.

What reps can and cannot do

• Reps can view their own earnings, period history, and tier progress.
• Reps can raise disputes on Open and Locked periods.
• Reps cannot lock, unlock, or mark periods as paid.
• Reps cannot see other reps' commission data.
• Only admins can manage period states, tier configuration, and unattributed payments.