I built offices, ran teams, and generated millions for a company. When I left, they decided the commissions were optional.
They were wrong, and the fight taught me lessons worth more than the money.
First: get it in writing, signed by both sides, with no expiration. A verbal deal is a story you tell a jury later. Second: never sign a release under pressure. When someone holds your money hostage and slides a document across the table, that release was signed under duress, and duress is a crack a good attorney can drive a truck through. Third: keep records of everything. Every agreement, every email, every number. The party with the documentation wins the room.
In Texas the Sales Representative Act exists for exactly this. Withhold a sales rep's earned commission in bad faith and you are not staring at the amount owed, you are staring at up to triple it plus fees. That statute turns a five figure grievance into a six figure problem for the people who thought stalling was a strategy.
Do the work. Document the deal. And when someone bets you'll walk away rather than fight, make them lose that bet.