Performance Calibration & Bonus Pool Math: Rating Curves, Multipliers & Payouts
Compare ratings with a target curve, calibrate managers with z-scores and percent ranks, fund a bonus pool from company KPIs, apply multipliers and pro-rating, fit the payouts exactly to budget and check fairness by grade, with every cell checked as you go.
One-time payment · lifetime access · lessons, labs, exam and certificate included · no subscription.
About this course
In eight hands-on spreadsheet labs you run a full year-end bonus cycle at a fictional robotics company. You count ratings per manager with COUNTIFS and compare them with a target curve in percentage points, calibrate lenient and strict managers with z-scores, STANDARDIZE and PERCENTRANK.INC, and map percent ranks to rating bands with an approximate XLOOKUP. Then you fund the pool from weighted KPIs on a threshold-target-maximum curve, calculate payouts with grade targets and rating multipliers, pro-rate joiners, leavers and part-timers with DAYS, scale and round every payout exactly to budget, and check cost against pool and fairness by grade.
Lessons
- Rating Distribution vs the Target Curve Pro
- Calibration: Z-Scores Within Each Manager Pro
- Relative Ranking: Percent Ranks and Rating Bands Pro
- Funding the Pool: Threshold, Target and Maximum Pro
- Individual Payouts: Salary × Target × Company Factor × Multiplier Pro
- Pro-Rating for Joiners, Leavers and Part-Timers Pro
- Fitting Payouts to the Budget: Scale, Round, Fix the Residual Pro
- Payout Summary: Cost vs Pool by Department and Fairness by Grade Pro