How to Actually get Agent Bills Paid on Time

Agent bills, bills, bills. They’re an inevitable (and healthy) part of a busy brokerage, but they can leave you and your team feeling like a collections agency. Agent billing is complicated, agents themselves are busy, and paying their bills gets put on the backburner. It’s no surprise it’s such a common pain point, and there aren’t many brokerages that couldn’t benefit from simplifying and streamlining this process. The solution? Make it simple for agents to see exactly what they owe, and make it easy for them to pay it. Here’s what you need to prioritize:  

Streamline Operations with the Right Tech

First things first, make sure you’re leveraging the right technology solution to manage (and automate) your billing. This should be a system designed for real estate that integrates seamlessly with your CRM and other point solutions. (Single flow of data!). Make sure you can track balances, send or split invoices, and charge expenses via credit card without manually entering everything. 

Generate Statements for Transparency

Billing is complex, people are pressed for time, and agents often don’t understand exactly what bills they owe, so payment is delayed. Leverage a system that automatically generates statements with a complete view of an individual agent’s financial activity for a designated amount of time. Monthly is often the simplest route. 

These automated statements should read like a bank statement for your brokerage, and include all recurring charges and bills for the past month (or other designated amount of time). *Bonus tip: include your Agent’s commission payouts on their monthly statement as well. Make sure agents are notified of their statements, your administrative team has full access, and add some major clarity to the process. 

Provide Better Billing Communication 

Everyone works better with their preferred communication style, so make sure your billing process is meeting people where they are. Some agents like to log into the billing system, check a dashboard, and make a payment. Others rarely log in and would benefit from email notifications of new financial statements. Make sure your solution offers automated communication when a new statement is created, and allows your administrative team to generate and email an invoice manually as well. 

Scale your Operations for Success 

Prompt payment comes from better visibility and the right infrastructure. Empower your team with the tools to make that simple, and make sure your solutions scales. Admins should be able  to set up recurring billing for agents in bulk (as well as edit and delete bills in bulk), and manage most of the billing communication with automated notifications. 

Take the heavy lift off of your team by implementing the right tools. Your back office will work better, and financial records stay up-to-date when agents have full visibility into their charges, admins have a simpler way to manage payments, and the brokerage has a system that scales. We’re all about a better back office at Brokermint. Learn how we can help make agent billing--and your other back office breakdowns- better.

Learn how Brokermint can help with this and more.