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Blog · Territory, capacity and quota planning

Mid-year territory rebalancing: moving accounts without breaking the quota identity

How a sales operations team moves accounts between reps mid-year and keeps the numbers whole: dating every move, splitting each moved account's year-to-date and remaining expectation, adjusting quota by the same amount on both sides, and the identity that proves the company's total did not change. With a worked example of three moves and the reconciliation after them.

The short answerEvery account move carries a date. The account's revenue before the date stays with the old rep, after it goes to the new one, and the account's remaining expected revenue moves from the old rep's quota to the new rep's by the same amount. The identity is that the sum of rep quotas equals the company quota before and after every move, and the sum of rep year-to-date equals the ledger. A rebalance that does not hold both is a dispute at year end.

A territory rebalance in July fixes a coverage problem and creates a reporting one: in December, two reps both claim an account's revenue and neither claims its quota. The fix is a dated move record and an identity that is checked after every move. This guide sets out the process and the reconciliation.

The move record

One row per move:

Field Meaning
Account The account moved
From rep, to rep Both
Effective date Revenue before stays; after moves
Quota moved The account's remaining expectation, subtracted from one, added to the other
Reason Coverage, load, departure, request

The rows you need

  • Assignments: account, rep, effective from, effective to.
  • Ledger: account, date, revenue.
  • Quota: rep, period, quota, and each adjustment dated.
  • Pipeline: opportunity, account, close date, value.

Account and rep identifiers only.

The two identities

Σ rep quotas = company quota, before and after every move Σ rep year-to-date revenue = ledger year-to-date, with each account's revenue attributed by the assignment in force on the invoice date

Both are checked after each move and every month. Either failing is listed with the move that broke it.

A worked rebalance

Three moves on 1 July. Company quota $12.0m.

Account From To YTD to 30 Jun Remaining expectation Quota moved
4471 R-04 R-17 $180,000 $210,000 $210,000
2210 R-04 R-17 $95,000 $120,000 $120,000
9034 R-11 R-04 $40,000 $60,000 $60,000
Rep Quota before Adjustment Quota after
R-04 $2.40m −$330,000 + $60,000 $2.13m
R-11 $1.90m −$60,000 $1.84m
R-17 $1.50m +$330,000 $1.83m
Others $6.20m $6.20m
Total $12.0m 0 $12.0m

The total did not move. Rep R-04's year-to-date keeps the $275,000 from the two accounts that left; the second half's revenue on them goes to R-17. At year end, attainment for each rep is against a quota that reflects the book they actually held, for the months they held it.

Where it goes wrong

Undated moves. The whole year's revenue goes to whoever holds the account in December.

Quota not moved. The receiving rep gets revenue for free and the giving rep gets a quota with no accounts behind it.

Different amounts on each side. The total changes and nobody notices until finance does.

Pipeline left behind. A deal closes under the old rep's name on an account they no longer hold.

Moves not counted. A team that rebalances constantly has a plan that was wrong in January.

Every move, both identities

Mapped once, the dated assignments, the ledger and the quota adjustments produce attribution, attainment and both identities every month, with the failures listed. Covirage builds this from the exports as they are. The territory planning solution describes the setup, and the territory reconciliation guide covers the checks that a rebalance most often breaks.

Questions people ask

How is the remaining expectation for a moved account set?

From the plan's expectation for that account for the rest of the year, or, where the plan is at territory level, the account's share of the territory's remaining quota by run rate. Either way it is stated on the move record and is the same figure subtracted from one rep and added to the other.

What happens to open opportunities on a moved account?

They move with the account on the date, and are reported in the new rep's pipeline from then. Credit for a deal that closes after the move goes to the new rep unless the move record says otherwise, and a split is recorded as two dated lines, not one ambiguous one.

How many moves is too many?

The report counts moves per quarter and the quota moved as a share of the total. A team that moves a fifth of its quota mid-year has a planning problem, and the count makes it visible.