Bonus targets, and what was actually paid

Targets promised 5,286,890.00. Performance paid 5,096,030.50, a 96.4 percent payout that splits very unevenly: Sales at 105 percent, Technology Delivery at 80, Support at 90. The report keeps the promise and the outcome on one line.

RuleReport payout as actual over target, by plan and department: one ratio per group, with the money visible on both sides of it.

Nevermix plan years in one payout number. A March payment against last year’s targets is last year’s story, whatever month it posts.

◆ Target and actual, by departmentthe promise, the outcome, and the ratio.

Department	Target pool	Actually paid	Payout %
Sales	3,281,850.00	3,445,942.50	105.0
Technology Delivery	1,544,480.00	1,235,584.00	80.0
Support	460,560.00	414,504.00	90.0
All plans	5,286,890.00	5,096,030.50	96.4

A 96.4 percent company payout hides the real story: Sales overachieved to 105, Technology Delivery landed at 80. The targets are the same pools the pay mix report states, so promise and outcome reconcile by construction. Sample values are illustrative, never client data.

◆ Reading the splitratios are questions, not verdicts.

An 80 percent department is not automatically a problem; it may be exactly what the funding formula was designed to do in a soft year. The question the report forces is whether the formula, the targets, or the performance moved. A payout ratio with its money visible starts that conversation with facts.

◆ The owned answerpayouts from payroll, targets from the plan.

Actual payouts come from the bonus pay components in the payroll results; targets come from plan assignments. Joining them by worker and plan year keeps March payments against the right year’s promise.

-- payout ratio by department for plan year 2025
SELECT t.dept,
       SUM(t.target_amount) AS target_pool,
       SUM(p.paid_amount)   AS actually_paid,
       ROUND(SUM(p.paid_amount) * 100.0
             / SUM(t.target_amount), 1) AS payout_pct
FROM plan_targets t
LEFT JOIN bonus_payments p
  ON p.worker_id = t.worker_id AND p.plan_year = t.plan_year
WHERE t.plan_year = 2025
GROUP BY 1

Use case

Problem

Bonus payouts are quoted as one company percentage, with no department split, no tie back to targets, and plan years blurred by payment dates.

What we build

Targets from plan assignments joined to actual bonus components from payroll, by worker and plan year, rolled up with money on both sides of each ratio.

What you get

A payout story you can defend: which departments funded where, against the same targets the mix report states, one plan year at a time.

Can you show payout against target by department?

We build the target-to-payout join that keeps every plan year honest.

Talk to us

Terms on this page

target pool: Summed on-target bonuses for a group; the promise side.
payout ratio: Actually paid over target, after summing both sides.
plan year: The performance year a payment rewards, not the year it posts.
funding formula: The rule turning company performance into pool funding.
bonus component: The pay component the payout arrives on in payroll.