Agent expenses (formerly agent advertising) is where you can maintain expenses for each agent/user. As an office, you may be paying for property advertising on behalf of the agent or for general expenses i.e. business cards or subscription costs. Within the agent expenses, these expenses can be tracked against each individual agent/user with the ability to generate an invoice for the agent/user or link to their commission statement.

Contents:

• How to view a users agent ledger
• Adding an expense (debit) against an agent
• Adding an agent contribution for property advertising
• How to generate an invoice for the agent expenses
• Adding a payment (credit) from the agent or company in the agent's expenses
• Linking an agent expenses invoice to an agents commission statement

Step by step

How to view a users agent ledger

1. Go into Financials > Advertising > Agent Expenses

2. Select the desired agent/user and the display settings of expenses (Not Yet Invoiced, Last 30 Days, Last 60 Days or All) from the drop-down in the top right-hand corner

3. This will then populate all added expenses or agent contributions attached to the selected agent/user

Adding an expense (debit) against an agent

We provide the option to add expenses against an agent. This can be used to generate an invoice to provide to the agent for any out of pocket expenses. An expense can be added against the agent by following the below steps:

1. Go into Financials > Advertising > Agent Expenses

2. Select the desired agent/user from the drop-down in the top right-hand corner

3. Click on Add Expense (Debit) in the bottom right-hand corner

4. Once in the add screen, you are then able to populate the below details for the debit/expense: 

• Date: - The date you would like to apply against the debit/expense added
• RefID: - This is optional and can be used should you have an internal reference for the debit/expense
• Expense: - Here you can select the existing supplier and expense type you would like to add
• Total amount: - This will automatically populate based on what is set on the expense, however, you can manually change this amount if required
• Less Company Contribution: - If the company is paying for all or part of the expense, you can add in the company contribution amount
• Notes: - General notes, which will be added to the invoice
• Charge to: - This will default to the agent/user that you had selected

4. Once you have added all debit/expense details, you can click Save to add the transaction

5. This will then add the expense, where you are able to repeat the above steps to add further expenses. If you need to update any expense details, we provide the option to click on Edit on the right-hand side of the transaction

Adding an agent contribution for property advertising

Should the agent agree to pay for part or all of a property's advertising cost, this can be added into the property advertising ledger as an agent contribution. Below are the steps on how to add an agent contribution and how it populates in the agent's expenses.

1. Navigate into the desired property > Financials > Advertising tab

2. Click on Add Payment (Credit)

3. Once in the add screen, you are then able to populate the below details for the credit/payment:

• Date: - The date you would like to apply against the credit/payment added
• RefID: - This is optional and can be used should you have an internal reference for the credit/payment
• Type: - Here you can select an Agent Contribution
• Agent: - Select the agent that is paying for part or all of the property advertising
• Total amount: - Here you can define the amount of the credit/payment
• Invoice # - If you have already created an existing invoice, you can assign the credit/payment against the selected existing invoice. Otherwise, the system will add the credit/payment to the ledger, which you will be able to include in a future invoice

Notes: - General notes, which will be added to the advertising invoice4. Once you have added all advertising credit/payment details, you can click Save to add the transaction

5. This will then add the credit/payment into the advertising ledger and will populate on the invoice # selected should you link the credit/payment to an existing invoice

6. If linked to an invoice, you are then able to Print or Email Invoice from within the Invoices section7. Once added, this will also populate in the Agents expenses (Financials > Advertising > Agent Expenses) as a debit/expense as shown below

If you need to edit the agent contribution, this cannot be done from within agent expenses and will need to be edited from within the property's advertising ledger.

How to generate an invoice for agent expenses

Once you have added all expenses, you are then able to generate an invoice for the agent following the below steps:

1. Go into Financials > Advertising > Agent Expenses

2. Select the desired agent/users ledger and the display settings of expenses (Not Yet Invoiced, Last 30 Days, Last 60 Days or All) from the drop-down in the top right-hand corner

3. This will then populate all added expenses or agent contributions attached to the selected agent/user where you are able to click on Generate Invoice

4. This will then open the Generate Invoice screen, where you are able to populate the below details for the invoice:

• Assign: - If you have already created an existing invoice, you can assign further advertising expenses/payments against the selected existing invoice. Otherwise, the system will assign a new invoice if no prior advertising invoices have been created for the property
• Footer - If you have multiple footers set up, you can select the desired footer for the invoice 
• Include: - This will populate all unallocated agent advertising expenses/payments, where you are able to tick the expenses you would like to include in the invoice

4. Once you have set the above details, you can click on Create Invoice to generate the agent expenses invoice

5. This will then automatically populate in the Invoices section below the transactions and allow you to Print, Remove Invoice (Delete) or Email Invoice to the agent

Adding a payment (credit) from the agent or company in the agent's expenses

Once you have received payment for agent expenses from either the agent or the company, you are then able to add a payment (credit) to the agent expenses by following the below steps:

1. Go into Financials > Advertising > Agent Expenses

2. Select the desired agent/users agent expenses > Click on Add Payment (Credit)

3. Once in the add screen, you are then able to populate the below details for the credit/payment:

• Date: - The date you would like to apply against the credit/payment added
• RefID: - This is optional and can be used should you have an internal reference for the credit/payment
• Type: - We provide the option to add a payment/credit as an agent or company contribution, depending on who is paying for the advertising
• Agent: - If an agent contribution is selected, this will populate the agent attached to the agent ledger
• Total amount: - Here you can define the amount of the credit/payment
• Notes: - General notes, which will be added to the agent expenses invoice

4. Once you have added all agent expenses credit/payment details, you can click Save to add the transaction

5. This will then add the credit/payment, where you are able to generate an invoice to include the credit/payment on a new invoice or link to an existing invoice. More information on how to generate an invoice can be found above under How to generate an invoice for the agent expenses

Linking an agent expenses invoice to their commission statement

We provide the ability to link an outstanding agent expenses invoice against an agent's commission statement. This will allow you to assign the outstanding invoice as an expense on the commission statement, resulting in placing a credit against the agent expenses ledger and assigning a credit to the invoice. Below are the steps on how this is populated: 

1. An outstanding invoice has been created in the desired agent's expenses as per the steps provided above under How to generate an invoice for agent expenses

2. Once generated, this will then populate within the agent's commission report (Financials > Commissions > Pay cycle Commissions)

3. This can then be allocated against the agent's commission report by clicking on the plus (+) symbol next to the invoice you would like to assign

4. Once assigned, this will apply the invoice as an expense on the commission report and place a credit to the agent expenses ledger and assign this credit to the invoice.

If you have applied an agent expenses invoice by mistake, we provide the option to click on the minus (-) symbol next to the invoice should you like to unassign it from the commission report. This will then remove the invoice as an expense on the statement and will update the outstanding amount on the invoice, and remove the credit previously placed on the advertising ledger.