Setting Up a Brokerage

Setting Up a Brokerage

For modern real estate brokerages looking to streamline back‑office operations and automate commissions, Loft47 offers a powerful, all‑in‑one platform. Loft47 helps you manage deals, track commissions, and gain financial insights — all while reducing manual work and increasing accuracy.

Here’s how you can set up and manage your brokerage settings to run smoothly on Loft47
Login > Broker > Settings > Fill in as much information as you know, following the descriptions and explanations below.

Brokerage Name:  your broker Name
Legal Name: the official name used for tax reporting and legal documents.
Default Office: your primary or main office name
Tax ID: your brokerage's tax ID
Phone Number: your business telephone number
Fax Number: fax number if any
Commission Type: 
Non Tiered Commissions– Applies to all U.S. states and most provinces in Eastern Canada.
Tiered Commissions is only used in Alberta and British Columbia.
Commission Side Entry:
Side-Based: Displays List and Sell commissions on the Deal > Commission page.
Gross-Based: Displays Gross and Sell commissions on the Deal > Commission page.
Default Deal Sale Status:  This sets the default status for any new deal you create or import from SkySlope or Dotloop.  
            Conditional – The deal has pending conditions, such as inspections, financing, or waivers.
Firm – The deal is fully committed with no pending conditions.
You can generate reports to track upcoming sales and differentiate deals based on their status.
Franchise Deductions: Fees or costs subtracted from a franchisee’s earnings, typically paid to the franchisor or for mandatory expenses.


Excluded Types on Report: Certain categories or data types are left out of the report. For example, you can exclude lease properties or property management from your production report.
Listing Expiring Notification (Days): Set the number of days before a listing expires so agents receive a reminder(notification).
Currency: CAD or USD
Post and Pay URL: Specify which accounting system to use when closing or paying out a deal. After payout, you’ll land on the transaction page. Choose QuickBooks Online or Xero based on your setup.
Transfer Report Recipients: Automatically email the transfer report daily to selected brokerage members, such as admins or managers.
Tax Reporting Threshold: Enter the minimum dollar amount for 1099 reporting if your state only requires it for agents above a certain earnings level.
Allowed Tax Years: Allows agents to generate their own 1099 or T4A for selected years. Add the current year at the end of each year.

Detail Workflow Selections:


Email Daily Bank Transfers Report: When enabled, Loft automatically emails the transfer report to the people you selected above.
Default to Pay Outside Brokerages: If a deal involves an outside brokerage in deal allocations, your brokerage typically pays that outside brokerage.
Show Referral Lines on Admin Report: Shows all agents, outside brokerages, and referral parties who earn a portion of the commission on a deal.
Show Tax ID on Admin Report: Select this to include Tax IDs when sending reports to outside brokerages, lawyers, or title/settlement companies.
Agents Paid by Brokerage (Pay Payouts):  Enable it to indicate that the brokerage is managing agent commission payouts through Loft.
Automatic Income Transfer: For brokerages with multiple bank accounts (e.g., Commission and General Operations), enabling this lets Loft automatically record the income transfer in Xero or QuickBooks. You’ll still need to move the funds physically whether go to the bank or online banking, but the daily transfer report email keeps you informed.
Other Income Transfer: Shows amounts earned by the brokerage or agents above commissions, such as buyer fees or client fees, typically paid directly by the client.
Report Other Income on 1099/T4A: Increase an agent’s 1099/T4A amount if they earn additional income on top of their commission.
Report Mentor Fee Income on 1099/T4A: Enable this if one agent pays another agent a coaching (mentor) fee. The receiving agent’s 1099/T4A income will increase by that amount.
Post non-payable outside brokerage transactions to accounting: Enable to record accounting entries in Xero or QuickBooks for outside brokerage commissions, even if your brokerage isn’t paying them. This allows tracking total deal commissions including amounts owed to outside brokerages.

Agent Access: 

Agents can only see: All contacts or Their own contacts. 
(
Agents can create contacts, but they cannot edit shared or existing contact records. This is intended to protect data consistency across the brokerage and avoid duplicate contact mapping on the accounting side.)
Scope Listings by Agent: Agent can see all brokerage listings or Only their own listings.  
Allow Agents to Export Deals: When enabled, agents see a download button in the Deals menu. Deselect to hide the button. As shown below:
Allow Agents to Access Commission Pages: Select this to allow the agent to view their own Deal > Commission page.
Allow Agents to Access to All Commission Information and Pages: Allows the agent to view ALL deals and commissions info that they are assigned to the deals via People Page.  Review the video for a clearer explanation of the agent’s view - 🎥 Agent view


⚠️ Use caution—this setting exposes sensitive data.

With "Allow Agents to Access Commission Page" and "Allow Agents to Access to All Commission Information and Pagesenabled, agents can view commission details, people, and documents for any deals they’re assigned to (via the People page).

They cannot edit unless granted Write permission for that deal.

Allow Agents to Edit Profiles: Allows agents to log in, view, and update their OWN profile information, including tax ID, name, email, and phone number, etc.
** For a detailed overview of Agent Access and Permissions, please refer to this article Agent Access and Permissions Overview
Brokerage Logo: Once you upload a file (JPG or PNG, 100×100 pixels), it will appear on your reports.
Sidebar Logo: Once you upload the file (JPG, PNG), it will appear in the top-left corner of your Loft page.

And that’s it! 👍 Your brokerage is all set up—now you’re ready to manage deals, track commissions, and keep everything running smoothly. Happy selling!
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