Signifyd brings consumption-based commissions into focus with CaptivateIQ

As Signifyd leaned into a consumption-based pricing model, commissions became both more complex and more critical. What started as a simple, company-wide bonus evolved into role-specific incentive plans across sales, business development, customer success, implementations, and sales engineering, each tied to KPIs connected to product usage and ongoing revenue impact.

To keep up with growth, Signifyd moved commissions out of Finance spreadsheets and into a system their one-person RevOps team could own and manage, with clear plan explanations for the business.

With CaptivateIQ, Signifyd ties payouts to actual consumption, delivers a modern self-serve experience for reps and managers, and reduces the risk of over- or under-paying on high-stakes, usage-based deals.

At a glance

Teams on CaptivateIQ: Sales, Business Development, Customer Success, Implementations, Sales Engineering
Commissions ownership: Revenue Operations (RevOps)

Previous state:

Commissions managed as a Finance/FP&A side responsibility
Payouts calculated and delivered via spreadsheets
Limited visibility for reps and managers into how payouts were derived

Key outcomes:

A centralized, self-serve experience for reps and managers to see earnings and drivers
A one-person commissions function able to manage evolving, usage-based plans
Scaled from ~40 to ~120 payees over three years without building a dedicated comp-ops team
Stronger alignment between commissions expense and realized (consumption-based) revenue
More flexibility to iterate on plan design without rebuilding Excel models

The heroes

Meet Signifyd’s revenue operations and commissions team

Ben Wood, Senior Director of Revenue Operations‍

Ben leads Revenue Operations at Signifyd, overseeing the tools and workflows that support the company’s go-to-market teams—spanning new business sales, business development, customer success, implementations, and sales engineering. Commissions is a core part of that charter, partnering closely with Finance and leadership to ensure plans align to Signifyd’s business model and strategic goals.

Justine Aquino, Revenue Operations Manager and Commissions Owner‍

Justine Aquino owns day-to-day commissions operations—from plan configuration and updates in CaptivateIQ, to coordinating plan logic with Finance and leadership, to supporting reps and managers with earnings questions. Justine was part of original CaptivateIQ implementation and has overseen compensation planning as Signifyd grew from roughly 40 payees to around 120 on the platform.

The challenge

Before CaptivateIQ, Signifyd ran commissions in Finance and FP&A spreadsheets. At the time, most employees were on a broad company bonus, so the process was manageable.

As Signifyd grew and introduced role-specific incentives across Sales, Business Development, Customer Success, Implementations, and Sales Engineering, commissions became harder to run in Excel. The move to consumption-based pricing added another layer, since revenue changed month to month, and commissions accrued over time.

[QUOTE
| quote: Captivate really allows us to dive into these different data sources, bring them into our calcs, and have somewhat complex true-up scenarios.
| name: Ben Wood
| title: Senior Director of Revenue Operations
| image: https://cdn.prod.website-files.com/5e20acf46e0215232a00fa2f/69cbedf7e1d31939ea368050_Group%201000000950.png
|]

What Started Breaking

Spreadsheets could not reliably handle consumption-based payouts and true-ups over time
Estimates at deal close did not always match actual usage, which created overpayment and underpayment risk
Role-specific plans introduced new KPIs and logic that made formulas fragile and hard to maintain
Payees and managers lacked clear visibility, since statements were shared as static, multi-tab spreadsheets
Resolving questions required manual investigation and long email threads

Why Signifyd chose CaptivateIQ

Justine led Signifyd’s evaluation and implementation, looking at tools like Xactly and Anaplan, and chose CaptivateIQ because it could handle complex, consumption-based commissions in a system that RevOps could own day to day. CaptivateIQ enabled the team to bring in usage data, support true-ups between estimated and realized revenue, and manage ongoing earnings over time.

The solution

A single, trusted source of truth

With CaptivateIQ in place, Signifyd moved commissions out of emailed spreadsheets and into one system their RevOps team could run. The new setup gave reps and managers a clear, self-serve place to understand earnings, instead of relying on static files and back-and-forth questions.

CaptivateIQ also gave Signifyd room to keep evolving their incentive plans as the business changed. The team could adjust plan logic and workflows without rebuilding spreadsheet models from scratch, which made it easier to support new roles, new KPIs, and ongoing changes tied to consumption.

[QUOTE
| quote: The user experience for our reps is probably one of the largest benefits of using a tool like CaptivateIQ over Excel sheets.
| name: Justine Aquino
| title: Revenue Operations Manager
| image: https://cdn.prod.website-files.com/5e20acf46e0215232a00fa2f/69cbedf7c11438d04b851c45_Group%201000000951.png
|]

What Signifyd Built With CaptivateIQ

A self-serve payee portal with clear, customized statements so reps and managers can understand earnings without emailed spreadsheets.
Deal-level, month-by-month visibility for consumption-based payouts, including deals that continue paying out over time.
Payouts tied to actual consumption with true-ups, keeping commissions aligned to realized revenue as usage changes.
Integrated data connectors pulling directly from CRM and the data warehouse, reducing manual extraction and manipulation, saving hours each month, and lowering manual error risk.‍
Manager self-serve access and faster plan updates, without manual exports, long email threads, or fragile spreadsheet formulas.

The impact

More confidence, less manual work

Reduced risk from bookings inaccuracies

By aligning payouts to actual consumption instead of optimistic forecasts, Signifyd tightened the connection between commissions expense and realized revenue—reducing the risk of overpaying when usage underperforms and underpaying when customers expand.

Better payee confidence and visibility

Reps and managers have a transparent, self-serve view into earnings and drivers—clarity that’s difficult to provide reliably with spreadsheet-based processes.

Operational leverage for a lean RevOps team

A one-person commissions function can support multi-team GTM plans as the organization grows, while enabling self-serve access that reduces ad-hoc questions and manual reconciliation.

Advice to other teams

For teams adopting or expanding a consumption-based pricing model, Signifyd’s experience reinforces a core lesson: commissions systems need to reflect how the business actually earns revenue.

If you’re still operating in Finance-owned spreadsheets—especially with a lean operations team—moving to a dedicated commissions platform can be a step-change in control, transparency, and scalability.

‍

Looking ahead

Signifyd continues to refine its consumption-based model and evolve incentives across the GTM organization. With CaptivateIQ as the backbone of its commissions engine, the team is positioned to:

Align plans even more closely to the usage and value metrics that matter most
Expand use of planning and modeling capabilities over time
Layer in more structured reporting and accruals as the business grows

As Signifyd and CaptivateIQ continue to partner on new capabilities, commissions is shifting from a fragile spreadsheet process to a strategic, usage-aligned system built for a modern revenue model.