Glossary›Accelerator
Sales Performance

Accelerator

Updated September 2026Finance Software Glossary

An accelerator is a higher commission rate that applies once a salesperson passes a set quota threshold, usually 100% attainment. For example, a rep earning 10% of revenue up to quota might earn 15% on every dollar above it. Accelerators reward overperformance and keep top reps selling after they hit their number.

Accelerators are usually built as rate tiers. A plan might pay a 10% base rate up to 100% of quota, 13% from 100 to 125% and 15% beyond that. Some plans apply the higher rate only to sales above the threshold. Others apply it retroactively to all sales, which costs far more and needs careful modeling.

Finance teams watch accelerator cost closely because a few large overachievers can push commission expense well past budget. The counterpart is a decelerator, a reduced rate that applies below a minimum attainment level.

In software: commission platforms such as CaptivateIQ, Xactly and Varicent handle tiered and retroactive accelerator logic natively. This is exactly the math that breaks spreadsheet-based commission processes.

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