Free tool
What do chargebacks actually cost you?
Reps negotiate the commission percentage constantly and the chargeback window almost never. This puts both in the same units so you can see which one is worth more.
Share of sales that cancel or fail to install inside the chargeback window.
Season, gross
$20,480
Before any clawbacks.
Season, after chargebacks
$18,022
What you actually keep.
Clawed back
$2,458
About 8 of your 64 sales reversed.
What to do with this
To earn the gross figure net of these chargebacks, your commission would have to be about 13.6% higher. That is the number to weigh against a shorter chargeback window when you negotiate, and almost nobody calculates it.
- Is a lower chargeback window worth giving up commission points?
- Often, in trades with high cancellation. This tool exists to let you compare the two rather than guess, because reps negotiate the percentage and almost never negotiate the window.
More on this: pay and commission
The maths, so you can check it
gross = commission per sale × sales
clawed back = gross × cancellation rate
net = gross − clawed back
equivalent uplift = rate ÷ (1 − rate)
Why the uplift figure is the useful one
Losing ten per cent to clawbacks is not offset by a ten per cent raise, because the raise is also subject to the same clawbacks. The uplift needed is always larger than the cancellation rate, and the gap widens as the rate climbs.
Ask for your window, not the industry’s
Chargeback windows vary by trade and company enough that a published figure would mislead. Ask what yours is, treat pay as provisional until it passes, and remember the window is frequently more negotiable than the percentage.
What you control
Most avoidable cancellations trace back to a sale that was oversold at the door. A customer who understood what they bought cancels less than one who agreed to something described optimistically, and that part sits entirely with you rather than with the contract.