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Catch-up rebates

A catch-up rebate measures cumulative turnover from the element's start every period, instead of only the turnover inside the current period block. Use it when a member who underperforms early in the deal should still reach targets — and earn the matching rate — once their year-to-date turnover catches up.

How it calculates

For a normal element, each period block is measured in isolation: Q3's band comes from Q3's turnover. For a catch-up element, every period's measurement window runs from the element's start date to the end of the current block:

  • Period 1 measures months 1–3 (quarterly example)
  • Period 2 measures months 1–6
  • Period 3 measures months 1–9, and so on.

Banding, rates, and output types then apply as configured to that cumulative figure.

Example. Quarterly stepped element, band at £100,000 → 1%. A member does £40k, £45k, £50k in Q1–Q3. Without catch-up, no single quarter reaches £100k and the band never triggers. With catch-up, the Q3 window measures £135k cumulative — the band is hit and the 1% rate applies.

Because each period re-measures an overlapping window, catch-up elements are usually paired with the engine's update-in-place behaviour (each element + member + period line is refreshed on recalculation) and often with a compound flag so later periods deduct what earlier periods already paid rather than paying on the same turnover twice.

A catch-up element that is also strung measures cumulative net-of-rebate turnover; a catch-up compound element deducts the target element's payments across the whole element-to-date window.

Why does a catch-up rebate change unexpectedly?

  • Early-period turnover amendments ripple into every later period's measurement, because all later windows include those months.
  • Crossing a band mid-deal re-rates the cumulative window, which can make a single period's line look disproportionately large — it is carrying the catch-up for the whole year so far.

What a catch-up rebate is not

  • It is not a year-end reconciliation — it recalculates every period, not once at the end.
  • It does not change the period blocks — lines are still produced per period; only the measurement window grows.
  • It is not automatic deduplication — pairing with compound (or reviewing payments) is what prevents paying on the same turnover in successive periods.