Commission & freight exemption

Exclude customers or customer groups from commission calculations and freight charges.

Commission and freight exemptions let you exclude customers or customer groups from commission calculations and freight charges. The two exemptions are independent: a customer can be exempt from one, both, or neither.

Why exemptions matter

Control commission payouts: exclude internal accounts or special arrangements from commission
Offer free shipping: waive freight charges for specific customers or entire segments
Manage at scale: set exemptions at the group level and let them cascade to all members

Two independent flags

Flag	Normal value	Exempt value	Effect when exempt
Commission exemption	Commission applied	Commission exempt	No commission calculated on orders
Freight exemption	Billed freight	Free freight	No freight charges on orders

Three levels

Exemptions can be set at three levels:

Customer group: applies to all customers in the group (both type groups and pricing groups carry these flags)
Individual customer: applies to that specific customer
Product line: applies per line item depending on what is ordered — for example, a product line can be marked commission exempt or freight exempt so that any item in that line carries the exemption regardless of customer settings

Cascading OR logic

When determining whether a customer is exempt, Augno checks the customer and all of their groups. If either the customer or any of their groups is exempt, the customer is treated as exempt.

For example:

Customer is commission_applied, but belongs to a group that is commission_exempt → exempt
Customer is commission_exempt, but all groups are commission_applied → exempt
Customer is commission_applied and all groups are commission_applied → not exempt

The same OR logic applies to freight exemption independently.

Product line exemptions work at the line-item level rather than the order level. Even if a customer is not exempt, individual line items can be exempt based on their product line. This means a single order can contain a mix of exempt and non-exempt lines depending on the products ordered.

Commission and sales rep interaction

Marking a customer as commission exempt clears their default sales rep, since commission is no longer calculated. If the exemption is later removed, the sales rep must be reassigned manually.

Practical examples

Wholesale group with free freight: Set free_freight on a pricing group. All customers in that group automatically receive free shipping.
Internal customer exempt from commission: Set commission_exempt directly on the customer record. No commission is calculated regardless of group membership.
Preferred tier with both exemptions: Set both flags on a pricing group. Members get free freight and no commission impact.

Where exemptions are used

Customer groups: set at the group level, cascades to members
Customer: set directly on the customer record
Sales orders: exemption status affects freight and commission calculations at order time

Next: Default sales reps