Quota Attainment Calculator
Attainment measured against the share of the period gone, the run rate needed to finish, and whether the pipeline covers the gap at your win rate.
Closed $420,000.00
Quota $750,000.00
Attainment 56%
still to close $330,000.00
Time day 58 of 90, 64.4% gone
Straight-line pace
expected by now $483,333.33
ahead or behind -$63,333.33
on pace to finish at $651,724.14, 86.9% of quota
The remaining 32 days
needed a day $10,312.50
done a day so far $7,241.38
which is 1.42 times the current rate
Pipeline $1,200,000.00
at a 28% win rate $336,000.00
coverage of the gap 3.64×
lands the quarter yes, at the historical win rate
pipeline needed $1,178,571.43 at that rate
Attainment is 56% with 64.4% of the period gone. Those two numbers
belong together: the first one alone is ahead of pace early in a quarter
and behind it late, and reporting it without the second invites the
wrong reaction.
A quarter is not linear. In most business-to-business selling a large
share of the revenue lands in the last two weeks, when the discounts
appear and the deadlines bite. Straight-line pacing therefore calls a
normal quarter a bad one in week six, so compare against the shape of
your own previous quarters rather than against a straight line.
The run rate needed against the run rate achieved is the one comparison
that turns attainment into a plan. Where they are close the quarter is a
question of execution; where the first is several times the second, it
is a question of which specific deals exist.
Pipeline coverage of three times the gap is the usual rule of thumb, and
it is a rule about the average of many deals. One deal worth the whole
gap has coverage of one and no diversification, so the number is only
meaningful across a portfolio.
If fewer than about half the team is hitting quota, the quota is the
thing to examine. Attainment measures performance against a number
somebody chose, and a target set from a board deck rather than from a
pipeline produces a team that looks uniformly bad.
Sandbagging is a plan design outcome, not a character flaw. When the
marginal commission rate rises after a threshold, holding a deal until
the next period is worth money, and a rep who is comfortably over quota
has every reason to push a deal into next quarter. Look at the
commission plan before concluding anything else.
Closed is not collected. A quarter that hits quota on signature and
misses it on cash has a different problem, and which of the two the
compensation plan pays on should be written down in advance.
Output is valid and updates as you type.
Fix the highlighted fields to update the output.
Attainment on its own is not a number you can act on halfway through a quarter. 56 percent is ahead of pace in week five and behind it in week nine, so the figure only means something next to the share of the period that has gone.
What turns it into a plan is the run rate: what has been closed a day so far, against what has to be closed a day to finish. When those two are close the quarter is a question of execution. When the second is several times the first, it is a question of which specific deals exist, and no amount of activity changes the answer.
How to use
- Put in what has closed and the quota for the period.
- Put in the days gone and the days in the period. Use selling days if that is how the team plans.
- Add the open pipeline and your own win rate to see whether the gap is coverable.
Example
420,000 closed against a 750,000 quota, on day 58 of 90:
Closed $420,000.00
Quota $750,000.00
Attainment 56%
still to close $330,000.00
Time day 58 of 90, 64.4% gone
Straight-line pace
expected by now $483,333.33
ahead or behind -$63,333.33
on pace to finish at $651,724.14, 86.9% of quota
The remaining 32 days
needed a day $10,312.50
done a day so far $7,241.38
which is 1.42 times the current rate
Pipeline $1,200,000.00
at a 28% win rate $336,000.00
coverage of the gap 3.64×
lands the quarter yes, at the historical win rate1.42 times the current rate is a hard quarter and not an impossible one, and the pipeline covers the gap at the historical win rate. That is a different conversation from the one 56 percent starts on its own.
Pitfalls
A quarter is not linear. In most business-to-business selling a large share of the revenue lands in the final two weeks, when the discounts appear and the deadlines bite. Straight-line pacing therefore calls a normal quarter a bad one in week six. Compare against the shape of your own previous quarters instead.
Pipeline coverage of three times the gap is a rule about a portfolio. One deal worth the whole gap has coverage of one and no diversification, however large the number looks. Count the deals as well as the value.
Use your own win rate. An industry figure describes somebody else’s qualification standard. A weighted pipeline built on a borrowed number is a forecast about a company you do not work at.
If fewer than half the team hits quota, look at the quota. Attainment measures performance against a number somebody chose, and a target set from a board deck rather than from a pipeline produces a team that looks uniformly bad while doing the same work as last year.
Sandbagging is plan design, not character. When the marginal commission rate rises after a threshold, holding a deal until the next period is worth real money to the rep. A rep comfortably over quota has every reason to push a deal into next quarter, and the plan is what created that reason.
Closed is not collected. A quarter that makes quota on signature and misses it on cash has a different problem, and which event the compensation plan pays on should be written down before the quarter, not during it.
Attainment above 100 percent is information too. A team that consistently beats quota by 40 percent has a quota problem in the other direction, and it is expensive: the accelerator is paying a premium on revenue that was going to arrive anyway.
Compatibility
Arithmetic in the browser: nothing is uploaded and nothing is stored, which matters for a number this sensitive.
Straight-line pacing is used explicitly and labelled as such, because it is the assumption every dashboard makes silently. The run rate needed is the remaining gap over the remaining days, and the run rate achieved is what has closed over the days gone, so the ratio between them is the multiple required for the rest of the period.
Pipeline coverage is the raw pipeline over the gap, and the weighted figure is the pipeline at the win rate given. Both are shown because they answer different questions: coverage is a rule of thumb about diversification, and the weighted number is the forecast.
Currencies use their own conventions, so the yen is shown without decimals.