There are times when an Agent is paid out on a deal and we get information after that fact that means the Brokerage either needs to recover funds back from the Agent or need to pay the Agent a little more. The good news is that you don’t necessarily have to remove and redo all those transactions. In most cases you can make a quick adjustment to the allocations or deductions and Loft will record the difference in order to update the deal and your financial platform. 

An Agent underpayment can happen in three ways; 

• You deducted a fee that you shouldn’t have 

• You charge them more than you should have for a specific fee

• You recorded lower commissions than what they actually received

An Agent overpayment can happen in three ways; 

• You forget to deduct a fee 

• You charge them less than you should have

• You recorded higher commissions than what they actually received 

UNDERPAYMENT

Rather than unreconciling transactions and reposting the original payout you will want to make a quick adjustment to the deal in Loft and post the updated payout. 

You’ll need to record an additional payout to the Agent if you’ve already paid them. In short, the Brokerage owes the Agent money. Loft created a new payout which will post an additional bill to the Agent in your accounting platform. 

If the underpayment was a result of overcharging the deductions, follow these instructions for making the adjustments. 

The agent had $3,000 of commission, two fees deducted for a net pay of $2,100.00. We are going to reduce the split fee as the agent should have been charged  $300 rather than the $500 that was deducted. The net pay to the agent then should have been $2300. 

Before: (please note, the deductions may vary on your deal, this is an example only) 

After:

Head to the Payout Commission page to see that Loft has created a second payout which will post a second Bill to the Agent. If you haven't cut a check on the initial bill you can group both payout together to combine into one check or you can pay them out individually. 

Make sure you are paying from the bank account that is currently holding funds to avoid any transfer issues between accounts.

Instructions when the underpayment is a result of recording too little commission. 

1. Increase the amount of commissions on the commission page and the allocation should adjust to the correct amount. If the allocation has been manually overridden you can manually override to the correct amount. 

2. Head to the Payout Commission page which will show a payout for the difference as the commission is more than what was originally paid. Posting this will post a second invoice to the Agent. 

OVERPAYMENT

Rather than unreconciling transactions and reposting the original payout you will want to make a quick adjustment to the deal in Loft and post the updated payout. 

You’ll need to recover those funds from the Agent if you’ve already paid them. In short, the Agent owes the Brokerage money. Loft created a negative payout which will post an invoice to the Agent in your accounting platform. This amount becomes part of their accounts receivable balance. 

If the overpayment was a result of the deductions, follow these instructions for making the adjustments. 

The agent had $3,000 of commission, two fees deducted totalling $900 for a net pay of $2,100.00. 

Before:

We are going to increase the Office Split to $700 rather than the $500 that was deducted. To do that we simply add another fee of the same type. We want to increase the total amount of the fee by $200.00

After: The  “Office Split” total is now $700 and the net pay is now $1,900.00. 

Head to the Payout Commission page, you can see that Loft has created a negative payout which will post an invoice to the agent in Xero. You can collect cash from them or deduct their Accounts Receivable balance off their next commission payout!  To reconcile the invoice against the payment in Xero, follow these instructions here.

Instructions when the overpayment is a result of recording too much commission. 

1. Adjust the amount of commissions on the commission page and the allocation should adjust to the correct amount. If the allocation has been manually overridden you can manually override to the correct amount as well. 

2. Head to the Payout Commission page which will show a negative payout since the commission is less than what was originally paid. Posting this will also post an invoice to the Agent.