Commission Settings & Overrides

Your commission is the percentage of an artwork sale your organization keeps. Set it once for the whole organization and override it on an exhibition when a particular show needs a different arrangement. This guide covers where the rate lives, how it is chosen for a given sale, and where to check it afterwards.

Commission applies to sales of artwork. Entry fees are a different thing entirely: see Understanding Platform and Processing Fees.

Setting the organization default

Go to Admin → Settings → Organization, open the Payments section, and find Commission rate.

Enter your rate in Default commission (%) and choose Save commission. The field takes a percentage with one decimal place, so 32.5 is a valid rate. The note under the field states the rule plainly: artists receive 100 percent minus this percentage.

This rate applies to new sales and exhibitions. Only an Owner or Admin can change it, and team members without that access see the rate without an editable field.

There is one commission model, a percentage of the sale. There is no fixed-amount or tiered commission.

Overriding a rate for one exhibition

Open the exhibition at Admin → Programming → Exhibitions, then its Commission section.

Commission override (%) starts blank, and the placeholder shows the organization default so you know what you are replacing. Leave it blank and the exhibition uses the organization rate. Enter 0 to take no commission at all, which is what a fundraiser or a members' show usually wants.

Because the override lives on the exhibition rather than on each artwork, changing it changes every sale in that show that has not been paid out yet.

Which rate applies to a sale

Crafted Call resolves the rate in this order:

A rate recorded specifically for that artist at your organization, if one exists.
The exhibition's override, if it has one.
Your organization default.

The same order is used by the payouts page and by the commission report, so the two always agree.

Seeing the split

On an exhibition's payouts page, Revenue Overview states the split in words: the artist's share as a percentage, your organization's share as a percentage, and a note that online sales are also reduced by processing fees. The metrics beside it name the artist payout with its percentage and your gallery net.

The same numbers appear per piece on Artist Payouts (Admin → Finance → Artist Payouts) when you expand an artist's row: Sale Price, Commission and Artist Share side by side. That is the view to open when an artist questions an amount, because it shows the arithmetic for the specific piece rather than a policy.

Reporting on commission

Commissions (Admin → Finance → Commissions) reports what your organization earned in commission over a period. Use it for board reporting and for checking whether a particular show carried its own costs.

Being straight with artists about it

The rate is an agreement, so treat it as one:

Tell artists the rate before they consign work, not when the payout arrives.
If you are running a show at a reduced or zero rate, set the exhibition override before the first sale rather than adjusting payouts afterwards.
If you change your default, remember that it applies to new sales. Sales already recorded keep the rate that applied at the time, which is why an artist may see two different rates in one payout history.

Troubleshooting

The commission on a payout is not my default. Check the exhibition for an override, then check whether a rate was recorded for that artist specifically.

I changed the default and an old sale did not change. That is intended. A recorded sale keeps the rate that applied when it was recorded.

I cannot edit the rate. Only Owners and Admins can. Team members with Finance access can see the rate and the reports without changing the policy.