Four reports answer four different versions of the question — what came in, deal by deal, what's still coming, and how this year compares. Pick by the question, not by the report that's nearest.
Introduction
"What did we make?" isn't one question. Sometimes it means a single figure for a board meeting. Sometimes it means the transaction that dragged the month down. Sometimes it means what's still in the pipeline, or whether this September beat last September.
The Commission Module has a report shaped for each of those, and they're built from the same data, so they agree with each other. What they don't do is substitute for each other. Running the wrong one is the usual reason a number looks wrong.
When to Use This
- You need the brokerage's income figure for a period and want one number.
- Your accountant wants the detail behind that number, transaction by transaction.
- You're forecasting cash and need what's under contract but not yet closed.
- You're comparing this year's months against last year's.
- Your totals don't match your MLS member production report.
1. Run Aggregate Performance for the Snapshot
The whole company in one file: how many deals closed, how much came in, how much went out to agents, and who your top producers were.
2. Run Commission & Closings for the Detail Behind It
The closed-business record — every closed transaction in your period, with the commission and fees your company collected and what it paid back out.
3. Run Pending Commissions for What's Still Coming
Deals under contract that haven't closed. It's the forward-looking half of the picture, and the one people forget when they say the brokerage had a slow month.
Look forward instead of back. Pending Commissions lists the commission figures on deals that are under contract but haven't closed yet.
This report only sees pending transactions that already have commissions entered and a CDA generated. If your office does commission entry at closing rather than at contract, it will look emptier than your pipeline actually is — the forecast reports are the ones to use instead.
Three reports answer 'what's closing' and none of them agree, because each one gates on something different. Pick by the gate you can live with, and the numbers stop looking broken.
4. Run Comparative Production to Line Up the Years
The same months across several years, side by side, so a strong month has something to be strong against.
Comparative Production lines the same month up across years, and on the Commission Module it adds a Sales Units section and counts only the closed transactions you've entered commissions on.
See Comparative Production (Commission Module)
5. Reconcile a Discrepancy at the Source
When your figures don't match an outside report — an MLS member production summary is the usual one — the difference almost always traces back to the sales volume allocated to each agent when commissions were entered, not to the report you ran. Volume is set by hand per agent, so a deal split between two people, or a dual-sided deal credited twice, will move your company total without anything looking wrong on the transaction.
You allocate sales volume and units by hand, and they don't follow the commission dollars. That's what lets a dual-sided deal credit two sides, an assistant credit nobody, and a mentor take money without taking production.