Tools
Sales job runway calculator
Most runway calculators ask for your monthly expenses and your savings, divide one by the other, and call it an answer. That works for a salaried employee. It does not work for a commissioned rep, whose exit involves a draw balance, a clawback window, deals still in flight, and residuals that may or may not survive the resignation. This one models all four, and reports the number that actually matters: your maximum cumulative cash deficit.
Your situation today
What leaving costs you at the door
What still pays you after you leave
The new business
| Month | Money in | Money out | Net | Cumulative | Cash balance |
|---|
This calculator runs entirely in your browser. Nothing you type is transmitted, stored, or saved anywhere. It is an educational model, not financial, tax, or legal advice.
Why the usual runway math fails a commissioned rep
The standard guidance is a multiple of monthly expenses. Financial-advice outlets commonly put it at six to twelve months, and for a salaried worker that is a reasonable heuristic: income goes to zero on the last day, expenses continue, and dividing one by the other gives you a usable number.
A commissioned rep's exit does not behave that way in either direction. Money keeps arriving after the last day - deals in flight, renewals, trails - and money keeps leaving after it too, because a recoverable draw is an advance that has to be settled and a clawback window can reverse commissions that were already paid and already spent. The result is a cash curve with a trough in it, and the trough, not the monthly burn, is what a savings target has to clear.
| Factor | Generic runway calculator | What a commissioned rep faces |
|---|---|---|
| Income at exit | Drops to zero on the final day. | Tapers. Closed deals may still pay for months, on a schedule you do not control. |
| Recoverable draw | Not modelled. | An unrecovered balance is an advance still owed. Separation with a negative balance is the most legally sensitive moment in the arrangement. |
| Clawbacks | Not modelled. | Cancellation, refund, churn or non-funding inside the plan's window can reverse commissions you were already paid. |
| Residuals | Not modelled. | Renewals and trails may survive your departure, or may be forfeited on resignation. The contract decides, not custom. |
| Health insurance | Folded into "expenses." | Steps up sharply the month you leave, because the employer's share becomes yours. |
| The answer it gives | Months of expenses covered. | Maximum cumulative cash deficit - the actual size of the hole. |
The four numbers to pull before you touch the calculator
All four live in documents you already signed. None of them are things to estimate from memory.
- Your draw balance, in writing, as of today. Draw recovery is an accounting mechanism, not a penalty - commissions you earn are applied against the advance. What matters is what the plan says happens to a remaining balance when you separate. Many states restrict deductions from a final paycheck without explicit written authorization, so the answer is jurisdiction-dependent as well as contract-dependent.
- Your clawback window and its triggers. Clawbacks attach to the deal, not to your employment: a customer cancels, refunds, churns or fails to fund, and the commission reverses. Find the window length and what starts the clock, then total the commissions still inside it.
- What your plan says about post-termination commissions. Whether deals closed but not yet paid follow you out the door is a contract question with a real answer. Get it before you give notice, not after.
- The real price of your health coverage. KFF's 2025 Employer Health Benefits Survey puts average annual employer-sponsored premiums at $9,325 for single and $26,993 for family coverage, with covered workers contributing an average of $6,850 toward the family premium. COBRA lets a plan charge up to 102% of the full cost of coverage. On those averages, family coverage is roughly $2,294 a month once you are paying all of it - against about $571 a month you had been paying. Marketplace plans may cost less; the mistake is discovering the number after you resign.
What a healthy result looks like
There is no universal threshold, but the shape of a survivable exit is consistent: the trough arrives early, it is smaller than your liquid cash, and the curve turns before your buffer runs out. If your maximum cumulative deficit is within a few thousand dollars of your total savings, the plan does not have a runway problem - it has no margin at all, and one late payment or one reversed commission is the whole difference.
The most common way the number goes wrong is optimism about the first revenue month. Push that input out by two months and watch what happens to the deficit; the sensitivity is usually larger than anything else on the page. If a two-month slip breaks the plan, the plan is a forecast, not a runway.
Frequently asked questions
How much money should a sales rep have saved before quitting?
There is no single number. The common advice - six to twelve months of living expenses - is built for a salaried worker whose income simply stops. A commissioned rep's income does not simply stop: an unrecovered draw balance can be clawed back, commissions inside a chargeback window can reverse months after you leave, and in-flight deals may still pay out. The number you actually need is your maximum cumulative cash deficit - the deepest point your running cash balance reaches before new income covers your outflow - not a multiple of monthly expenses.
What is a maximum cumulative cash deficit?
It is the largest total shortfall you accumulate across the whole transition, measured from the day you leave to the month your new income covers your outflow. Month-by-month it is the lowest point of your running cash balance. It is the correct target for a savings goal because it accounts for money arriving late (final commissions, residuals) and money leaving early (startup costs, a repaid draw), which a simple "months of expenses" rule ignores entirely.
Do I have to repay a recoverable draw if I quit?
It depends on your compensation agreement and your state. A recoverable draw is an advance against future commissions, and draw recovery is the accounting mechanism by which that advance is repaid out of commissions you earn. Separating with a negative draw balance is the most legally sensitive moment in the arrangement. Many states restrict deductions from a final paycheck without explicit written authorization. Read your comp plan and, if the balance is material, get it reviewed before you resign.
Can my employer claw back commissions after I leave?
Commission clawbacks are typically triggered by events tied to the deal rather than to your employment - a customer cancels, refunds, churns, or fails to fund. If those events happen inside the window your plan specifies, previously paid commissions can be reversed. That exposure follows the deal, not the desk, which is why it belongs in your runway math as a lump-sum risk rather than being ignored.
What does health insurance actually cost once I leave?
More than most reps expect, because the employer share becomes yours. KFF's 2025 Employer Health Benefits Survey puts the average annual premium for employer-sponsored coverage at $9,325 for single and $26,993 for family coverage, with covered workers contributing an average of $6,850 toward the family premium. Under COBRA a plan may charge up to 102% of the full cost of coverage. On those averages, family coverage works out to roughly $2,294 a month in full - against about $571 a month the worker had been paying. Marketplace coverage may be cheaper; the point is to price it before you resign, not after.
The calculator gives you the number. The harder question is what you are building on the other side of it.
Read the long-form companion piece, how much money you need before quitting your sales job, or start at the pillar: from sales rep to business owner. If leaving is not the right move yet, you may not have to quit at all.
Sources
Premium figures: KFF, 2025 Employer Health Benefits Survey. COBRA rules: U.S. Department of Labor, An Employee's Guide to Health Benefits Under COBRA (PDF). Monthly COBRA figures are derived from the KFF annual averages at the statutory 102% ceiling and are illustrative. Draw and clawback mechanics summarised from published sales-compensation guidance and are not legal advice; your plan document and state law govern.