Commission software for European teams: the short answer
Commission software for a European or Nordic sales team has to do more than calculate. It should keep pay data in the EU under a GDPR data processing agreement, deliver approved commission to your local payroll system, handle deals in several currencies, and support local rules on holiday pay, sick pay and pay transparency. Use the checklist table below with any vendor before you sign.
This guide is for sales leaders, finance and HR in Denmark, the Nordics and the rest of Europe who are comparing commission tools. It is general guidance, not legal advice. Check the rules that apply to your company with your lawyer or accountant. For the basic definition, see commission software in the glossary.
Why European teams need their own checklist
Many commission tools are built for the US market first. It shows in the details: examples in dollars, tax content about US forms and state laws, integrations with US payroll providers, and data hosted wherever the vendor started. None of that is wrong. It just does not answer the questions a European buyer has to ask.
In Europe, commission is personal data and pay at the same time. That brings in three sets of rules a commission tool has to fit:
- Data protection: the GDPR decides where commission data may be processed and what your contract with the vendor must say.
- Employment law: in Denmark and many other countries, commission counts when holiday pay, sick pay and pay during notice are calculated.
- Pay transparency: the EU Pay Transparency Directive counts commission and bonuses as pay, so the rules behind them have to be objective and documented.
On top of that comes the practical side: payroll systems that differ from country to country, deals in euros, kroner and other currencies, and reps who would rather read their statement in their own language.
Checklist: what to ask any commission software vendor
Copy the questions into your evaluation and ask every vendor the same ones. A clear, written answer is a good sign. "It is on our roadmap" is also an answer, but ask for a date.
| Area | Ask the vendor | A good answer |
|---|---|---|
| Data location | Where are the application, database, file storage and backups hosted? | Named EU/EEA regions for all of them, in writing |
| Transfers outside the EEA | Does any sub-processor process our data outside the EEA? | No, or a named transfer tool under Chapter V of the GDPR |
| Data processing agreement | Can we read your DPA before we sign? | A published DPA that meets Article 28 of the GDPR |
| Sub-processors | Which sub-processors do you use, and how are we told about changes? | A current list, advance notice and a right to object |
| Access to pay data | Who can see a rep's commission, including your own staff? | Role-based access; vendor access only for support, and logged |
| Payroll | How does approved commission reach our payroll system? | A direct integration or a payroll file built for your system |
| Accounting | Can commission be based on invoices, margin or credit notes from our accounting system? | An integration with the accounting system you use |
| Currencies | What happens to a deal in EUR when the rep is paid in DKK, SEK or NOK? | Amount and currency kept together, with clear rules for rate and date |
| Holiday and sick leave | Can we calculate commission for holiday and sick leave under our rules? | Yes, for example as an average over a period you choose |
| Corrections | What happens when a deal changes after the period is approved? | A correction on the next statement, with a trail |
| Pay transparency | Can we document plan rules and export commission by rep, role and period? | Plan rules in the system and an export per rep and period |
| Language | Which languages do the rep app and statements support? | The languages your reps actually work in |
| Support | Who answers support, in which language and time zone? | People in your time zone who know your payroll setup |
| Pricing | What is the price per rep, which other fees apply, and in which currency? | Clear prices, with onboarding costs stated up front |
| Exit | Can we export all statements if we leave, and when is our data deleted? | A full export, and deletion terms in the DPA |
The sections below explain why each area matters and how Prowi answers it.
1. Data residency and GDPR
Commission data is personal data: names, pay, performance and sometimes notes about disputes. When a vendor calculates commission for you, your company is normally the data controller and the vendor is the data processor. Article 28 of the GDPR requires a written agreement between the two, the data processing agreement (DPA). Personal data may only be transferred to countries outside the EEA under the conditions in Chapter V of the GDPR.
"Hosted in the EU" can mean different things. Ask where each part runs: the application, the database, file storage, backups and the tools used for email and support. Ask the same about every sub-processor.
How Prowi does it: according to Prowi's privacy policy, personal data is stored and processed within the EU. The application runs on Heroku in AWS EU-Central-1 (Frankfurt, Germany), and the database is in AWS EU-North-1 (Stockholm, Sweden). Prowi's data processing agreement is part of every customer agreement, is published on the site and follows the Danish Data Protection Agency's standard clauses. The GDPR FAQ answers the questions data protection officers usually ask, including retention, breaches and audits.
2. Local payroll and accounting
Commission is not finished when it is calculated. It has to land on the payslip, with the right wage type, in the right period. In the Nordics that usually means a local payroll system with its own import format. If the vendor's answer is "export a CSV and fix it in Excel", someone will be doing that every month.
How Prowi does it: when a period closes, each rep's statement moves to approval. Approved commission is added to the rep's balance in Prowi and passed on to payroll, straight into Zenegy or as a payroll file for systems such as Danløn, Visma Dataløn, Lessorløn and Visma Enterprise. For commission based on invoices or margin, Prowi integrates with e-conomic, Dinero and Fenerum.
3. Currencies
A Danish team selling into Germany or Sweden can have deals in DKK, EUR and SEK in the same pipeline. Commission goes wrong when amounts are added up without their currency, so that one euro is counted as one krone. Ask the vendor how amounts and currencies are stored, which exchange rate is used and on which date, and in which currency the rep is paid.
Pipedrive deals carry their own currency. When Prowi reads a monetary field from Pipedrive, it arrives as an amount in the deal's currency, so the currency is not lost on the way. See our guide to Pipedrive commission tracking and Prowi as commission software for Pipedrive.
4. Local employment rules
In many European countries commission is part of pay when holiday, sickness and notice periods are calculated. A commission tool does not decide those rules, but it has to hold the data you need to apply them. Denmark is a good example:
- Holiday pay: under the Danish Holiday Act (ferieloven), an employee on paid holiday gets compensation for commission lost because of the holiday (section 17). With holiday allowance instead, it is 12.5% of the commission that corresponds to the lost income (section 19). Try the holiday pay on commission calculator.
- Sick leave: a salaried employee (funktionær) paid commission is entitled to the commission they would presumably have earned while absent, under section 9(3) of the Danish Salaried Employees Act (funktionærloven). In practice it is often an average over a reference period. Try the commission during sick leave calculator.
- Leaving the company: what happens to commission on deals that close after a rep leaves depends on the contract and the law. See commission after resignation.
Sweden, Norway, Germany and other countries have their own rules and collective agreements. Ask the vendor whether you can calculate averages over a period you choose and add manual corrections, and check the rules for your country with your lawyer or payroll provider. In Denmark, commission is also taxed as salary; see tax on commission in Denmark.
5. The EU Pay Transparency Directive
The EU Pay Transparency Directive (2023/970) counts commission and bonuses as pay. Pay must rest on objective, gender-neutral criteria that employees can access, gaps in variable pay must be reported separately, and employees can ask for average pay levels by gender for the same work. Member states had to transpose the directive by June 7, 2026. In Denmark, bill L 68 proposes that the rules apply from March 1, 2027. It had not been adopted as of October 28, 2026.
For commission software, that means three things. The plan rules should live in the system, not in someone's head. Reps should be able to see how their commission is calculated. And you should be able to export commission per rep, role and period for the pay report. Read more in our guide to the EU Pay Transparency Directive and sales commission.
How Prowi does it: Prowi calculates commission from CRM data by the rules you set up, and reps see their earnings and the deals behind them in the mobile app and on the web. Every statement goes through approval, and changes after approval land as corrections on the next statement, so the history per rep and period is kept.
6. Language, support and pricing
A tool reps do not understand is a tool they do not trust. Check which languages the rep app and statements are available in, and whether support answers in your language and time zone. On pricing, ask for the price per rep, any platform or onboarding fee, and the currency you will be invoiced in, so you can compare vendors on the same basis.
Prowi is a Danish company built for Nordic sales teams. Prices are on the pricing page.
Where Prowi fits
Prowi calculates commission live from your CRM and ERP data and shows reps their earnings in a mobile app (iOS and Android) and on the web. It connects to HubSpot, Pipedrive, Salesforce, Microsoft Dynamics 365 and Podio, and to Nordic payroll and accounting systems; see all integrations. When a period starts, Prowi creates a statement for each rep that updates live through the period. When the period closes, the statement goes to approval, and approved commission is passed on to payroll. Clawbacks, corrections and sales competitions run on the same data.
FAQ
Is commission software GDPR compliant?
Software is not GDPR compliant on its own; how it is contracted and used decides that. Check that the vendor signs a DPA that meets Article 28, names its sub-processors, keeps data in the EU/EEA or uses a valid transfer tool, and limits who can see pay data.
What does EU data residency mean for commission software?
It means the vendor stores and processes your commission data in data centres in the EU or EEA. Ask for named regions for the application, database, file storage and backups, and check that sub-processors follow the same rule. Prowi's application runs in Frankfurt and its database in Stockholm.
Do we need a data processing agreement with our commission software vendor?
In most cases, yes. When the vendor processes your employees' pay data on your behalf, it is a data processor, and Article 28 of the GDPR requires a written agreement. Prowi's DPA is published at prowi.io/en/dpa.
Which commission software works with Pipedrive in Europe?
Look for a tool that reads won deals, products and custom fields from Pipedrive, keeps each deal's currency, and sends approved commission to your payroll system. Prowi does this and stores data in the EU; see the Pipedrive integration.
Does the EU Pay Transparency Directive cover commission?
Yes. The directive's definition of pay includes variable components such as commission and bonuses, and gaps in variable pay must be reported separately. In Denmark, bill L 68 proposes that the rules apply from March 1, 2027.
Want to see how this works with your own CRM and payroll? Book a demo.