Run a Flat-Fee Brokerage in the Commission Module

Pipeline has no flat-fee field, but it runs a flat-fee office perfectly well once you know which three things to set. The trade is a little manual entry per deal for reports that still work.

Introduction

The Commission Module was built around percentage splits, and a flat-fee brokerage doesn't have one. There's no field that says this agent pays $350 a transaction and fills itself in, and no amount of hunting will turn one up.

What there is, is everything else you need: a place to record the arrangement so whoever enters commissions can see it, a way to allocate the actual dollars, and a cap tracker that works on dollar amounts rather than percentages. Set those three up and a flat-fee office gets the same CDAs and the same reports as anybody else — you're just typing the numbers rather than having them calculated.

When to Use This

• Your agents pay a fixed amount per transaction rather than a split.
• You charge a flat fee up to an annual cap, then nothing.
• You went looking for a flat-fee or transaction-fee field and there isn't one.
• Your agents keep 100% and the office is paid another way.
• You charge a monthly desk fee rather than a per-transaction one.

1. Leave the Agent's Commission Percent Blank

Don't put a number in it. A default percent exists to pre-fill the split at entry time, and on a flat-fee agent there is no percentage to pre-fill — leaving it empty stops Pipeline suggesting a figure you'd only have to overwrite.

Set an agent's share once and Pipeline fills it in every time you enter commissions on one of their transactions.

See Commission Percent

2. Write the Arrangement Into Commission Notes

This is where the flat fee actually lives. Put the amount, the cap, and anything conditional about it in the agent's Commission Notes, and it appears in the year-to-date pop-up the moment anyone clicks into that agent's boxes during entry — which is precisely when they need to know it.

Some of an agent's plan won't fit in a percentage field. Commission Notes hold the rest, and show up right where you enter commissions.

See Commission Notes

Direct deposit details, a mailing address, a licence number, an odd split for lease deals — everything about an agent that has no field of its own goes in one place, and shows up exactly where you need it.

See Stop Retyping an Agent's Payment Details

3. Allocate the Dollars by Hand on Each Deal

In the disbursement step, enter the amounts rather than percentages — the agent's share and the brokerage's, as dollar figures. There are three shapes offices use, and which one you want depends on where the fee should come from:

• From the agent's share — an Agent Fee, subtracted from their commission after the split.
• Before any split at all — an off-the-top deduction, taken out of the gross first.
• Agent keeps 100% — set their split to 100% and take the office's fee off the top.

Take an amount out of the gross commission before anyone's split is calculated, so the figure the brokerage and its agents divide is already net of it.

Some money never belongs to the split — a franchise royalty, a broker credit, a lead fee. Take it out of the gross first and Pipeline calculates every percentage underneath on what's actually left.

See Take Your Brokerage's Fee Off the Top

4. Track the Cap With a Split Threshold

Caps work on flat-fee agents the same way they work on anybody else, because the threshold is a dollar amount. Enter the annual cap as the agent's Next Commission Split Threshold and Pipeline warns you as they approach it, on the transaction where it matters.

A cap only works if Pipeline knows two numbers about each agent and can see the deals behind them. Set those, and the warning finds you while you're entering the commission that crosses the line.

See Track Each Agent Toward Their Annual Cap

5. Keep Monthly Fees Outside the Module

A desk fee or monthly membership isn't transaction income, and putting it on a transaction would skew every report you have. Track those outside Pipeline. For the deals themselves, set the agent's split to 100% so their earnings, volume, and units are still recorded properly.