Understanding the execution of the approval process

Based on your commission plan, the execution of your approval process varies. The below image helps understand the execution, diagrammatically:

Approver actions

Once a commission record is queued for approval, the approver can respond to the approval request from two places: From within the record and from the My Jobs module.

Records carrying icon indicates that they are in the approval process.
From within the commission record, the approver can view the commissionable, status of the approval process, and respond. An approver can Approve, reject, or delegate the approval request.
From the MyJobs module, all the commissions are listed under Approvals tab.

You can Approve/Reject/Delegate from the list view.
Or, explore each request and then respond.
You can also view approvals queued for other approvers and approval history.

Once approved, the record will be locked, but made visible, and the payout will be generated. If there was no discrepancy and no clawback processed, the commission manager can process the payouts.

The transaction that comes under a commission plan will bear the commission record associated as related list. The sales rep working on them can have an idea about their earnings and the status.