Commission is what an artist earns from a sale. Tattoo Studio Pro works it out from the sales you record, so you can see what each artist is owed without a spreadsheet. It reports what’s owed. It doesn’t pay anyone, so your studio still handles how and when people are paid.
You can start with one rate per artist and add more as your setup needs it:
- One rate. A single percentage on every service the artist does.
- Cash and card rates. A different percentage depending on how the client paid.
- Product commission. A percentage on the products you choose, paid to the artist who sold them.
- A sliding scale. The rate goes up as the artist sells more in a pay period.
Artists can see their own numbers in My earnings on their profile.
How a commission rate is saved on each sale
When you check out a sale, Tattoo Studio Pro saves the artist’s rate on each service line. If you change that artist’s rate later, sales you already rang up keep the rate they had. A new rate applies to sales from the day you set it.
Sales recorded before November 4, 2026 don’t have a saved rate. Those use the artist’s current rate.
Tips are separate. They go to the artist in full, on top of commission, and a rate change never touches them.
Setting a rate for an artist
Commission fields are on the Payment tab of a team member’s profile, and in the Payment section when you add a team member. Only managers see them.
- Open the team member’s profile from the Team Management page.
- Open the Payment tab (Web) or the Payment section (Mobile).
- Enter a Commission Percentage, for example 55.
- Save the profile.
That percentage applies to every service the artist does, however the client pays. Leave it blank and the artist keeps the full ticket. See Team Management for the rest of the profile.
Separate cash and card rates
Some studios pay a lower rate on card sales to cover processing fees. You can give an artist two rates.
Choose what counts as cash and what counts as card
This is a studio-wide setting, so you set it once.
- Go to Settings > Payments.
- Find Commission by payment method.
- For each payment method, choose Cash or Card.
Every payment method is listed, including any you renamed. The starting choices are:
- Stripe: Payment Link and Stripe: Card Reader count as Card.
- Everything else, including Other Processor, counts as Cash.
Change any of them to match how you want to pay your team. For example, you might move Other Processor to Card if it’s your outside card terminal.
Set the rates on the artist
- Open the artist’s Payment tab (Web) or Payment section (Mobile).
- Enter a Cash rate and a Card rate.
- Save the profile.
If you leave both blank, the artist is paid the Commission Percentage on every payment method. The card rate applies to the full sale amount. Tattoo Studio Pro doesn’t subtract the processing fee first, so a lower card rate is how you account for the fee.
Commission on products
Product commission is set on the product, not on the artist. That lets you pay on jewelry and aftercare and leave t-shirts at none.
- Go to Settings > Offerings and open the Products tab.
- Add a product, or edit an existing one.
- Enter a percentage in Commission. Leave it blank for no commission.
- Save.
At checkout, each product line has an artist field:
- Web: Artist (optional). Clear it with the clear button if the product shouldn’t earn commission for anyone.
- Mobile: Team member (optional). Choose No team member to clear it.
If the sale has exactly one service artist, that artist is filled in when you add the product. You can change it or clear it.
A product line with no artist earns no commission, and the studio keeps it. When you pick an artist for a product that has no commission set, the line shows “No commission is set for this product.”
Commissioned products show up in Commissions, Payouts, and My earnings along with services.
Pay periods
Pay periods group an artist’s sales into the weeks or months you pay them. You need them for a sliding scale, and My earnings uses them to show a Pay period view.
Set the start date
- Go to Settings > Payments.
- Find Pay periods.
- Choose a Pay period start date. Pick the first day of any recent pay period.
- Web: select Save. Mobile: the date saves when you pick it.
The start date works like this:
- Weekly periods start on the weekday of that date. With no start date set, weekly periods start on Monday.
- Biweekly periods run 14 days from that date. Biweekly needs a start date.
- Monthly periods follow the calendar month.
Pay periods use your studio’s time zone, which you set under Business hours. The Pay periods card shows your current and next biweekly periods so you can check the dates line up with your pay days.
Set each artist’s pay frequency
- Open the artist’s Payment tab (Web) or Payment section (Mobile).
- Choose a Pay frequency: Weekly, Biweekly, or Monthly.
- Save the profile.
Each artist has their own pay frequency, so a weekly artist and a monthly artist can work side by side. Changing it regroups the current pay period.
Sliding scale
A sliding scale pays a higher rate as the artist sells more in a pay period. You set a few bands, each with a starting amount and a rate.
For example:
| From | Rate |
|---|---|
| $0 | 50% |
| $1,000 | 55% |
| $1,500 | 60% |
Turn it on for an artist
- Make sure the artist has a Pay frequency, and that you’ve set a pay period start date if it’s biweekly. The scale resets each pay period, so it can’t be saved without one.
- Open the artist’s Payment tab (Web) or Payment section (Mobile).
- Turn on Use a sliding scale.
- Choose a method, Whole period or Marginal.
- Fill in the bands. Each row reads “From $ … earns … %”. The first band starts at $0. Use Add band for more, and Remove to take one out. You can use 2 to 6 bands.
- Check the example line under the bands. It shows what a sample amount would pay.
- Save the profile.
When the scale is on, the artist’s flat Commission Percentage and Cash rate and Card rate fields are hidden. An artist is on a sliding scale or on cash and card rates, not both. Turning the scale on replaces their cash and card rates, and the band rate applies whatever the payment method.
Whole period or marginal
The two methods differ in what happens when an artist crosses a band. Using the bands above, say an artist sells $1,200 in a week.
Whole period. Crossing a band re-rates every sale in the period. The artist passed $1,000, so all $1,200 earns 55%. Commission is $660.
Marginal. Only the dollars above each threshold earn the higher rate, like tax brackets. The first $1,000 earns 50% ($500) and the next $200 earns 55% ($110). Commission is $610.
Whole period pays more at the moment a band is crossed, and it rewards a strong week. Marginal changes more gradually.
What counts toward the bands
- Services count.
- Products count only if the product has a commission set. They keep their own product percentage, not the band rate.
- Deposits count once they’re applied to a sale at checkout. A deposit still sitting as credit on a client’s profile doesn’t count.
- Tips never count.
Whole-period figures can change until the period ends
With Whole period, one more sale can move the artist into a higher band, and that re-rates every earlier sale in the same period. So the figures for the current pay period can go up until the period ends. Tattoo Studio Pro labels them “Provisional until the period ends” while the period is open.
Changing a scale
Turning a scale on, or changing the bands, applies to the whole current pay period, including sales already made. Turning it off takes effect from the next pay period. The Payment tab reminds you of this while the scale is on.
Where commission shows up
Reports
Open Reports and use the Commissions and Payouts views. Each sale line is counted at the rate saved on it, so a rate change never rewrites last month’s totals. Payouts adds tips and salary on top.
If any artist is on a sliding scale, those reports use the full pay period to find the band, even when you’re looking at only a few days. A note on the report says so, and each sliding-scale artist gets a line like “Sliding scale: Nov 2 to Nov 8, 55% band, provisional.”
When the sliding scale is available on your account, the CSV export from Reports adds three columns: Pay Period, Rate Method, and Commission %. Rate Method reads Flat, Cash, Card, Product, Whole period, or Marginal. That helps when someone asks why their split looks different from last week. See Reports for filters and exports.
My earnings
My earnings shows a team member’s sales, commission, tips, and payout for a date range, with the sales behind the numbers. If they have a salary, it shows that too.
- Web: it’s a tab on the team member’s profile. Choose Today, This week, This month, Pay period, or Custom range. Pay period appears when the artist has a pay frequency.
- Mobile: it’s a section lower on the profile screen. Choose Today, This Week, This Month, or Pay period, or use the Custom range picker.
Artists on a sliding scale also see a card for the pay period. It shows how much they’ve sold, which band they’re in, and how far they are from the next band. Each sale line shows the rate it earned.
Here’s who sees what:
- The team member sees My earnings on their own profile.
- The studio owner sees Earnings on any team member’s profile, with the same numbers. Other managers don’t see it.
- Anyone using the shared team PIN doesn’t see earnings. A team member on their own profile gets a note asking them to sign in with their own PIN.
My earnings controls what shows on screen. It isn’t a privacy setting.
Questions
I changed an artist’s rate. Why didn’t their old sales change? Each sale keeps the rate it had at checkout. The new rate applies to sales from the day you set it. Sales from before rates were saved on each sale use the artist’s current rate.
Why did my artist’s commission go up for sales earlier in the week? They’re probably on a Whole period sliding scale and crossed a band. Every sale in the pay period moves to the higher rate, including the ones before the crossing. With Marginal, only the dollars above the threshold earn the higher rate.
Why are the Reports figures different from the dates I picked? For sliding-scale artists, the band comes from the full pay period. Reports shows only the sales in your date range, rated at the band the whole period earns.
Does the card rate come off after processing fees? No. The card rate applies to the full sale amount.
A product sold but no commission showed up. Check two things. The product needs a Commission percentage under Settings > Offerings in the Products tab. And the product line at checkout needs an artist. A line with no artist earns nothing.
Can an artist have a sliding scale and a card rate? Not together. Choose one for each artist. Product commission works alongside either.
I can’t save a sliding scale. The artist needs a Pay frequency first. For biweekly, set the Pay period start date under Settings > Payments too.
An artist can’t see My earnings. Check how they signed in. Earnings don’t show in a session started with the shared team PIN, so they need to switch to their own PIN.
Related Docs
- Team Management, the team profile, roles, and the Payment tab
- Reports, Commissions, Payouts, and CSV export
- Payments and Checkout, adding products and choosing an artist at checkout
- Settings, payment methods and pay periods