What is a Bill in Brokerage Engine?
Overview:
In this article, we will define what a Bill is and how it is used in Brokerage Engine . Please find the available resources below.
A Bill is a record in the system that says "the brokerage owes someone money." It's simply the system's way of documenting that money needs to go out the door to a specific person or company.
How Bills Relate to Agents
The most common Bill you'll see in Brokerage Engine is one created for an agent's commission payout. Here's how that works:
- A deal closes and a commission comes into the brokerage.
- The system calculates the agent's share based on their commission split.
- Brokerage Engine creates a Bill on the agent's Vendor profile — because the brokerage now owes the agent that money.
- When the brokerage actually pays the agent (by NACHA file, check, Payload Payment, etc.), that Bill gets marked as paid.
The Bill is what sits in between "we owe them" and "we paid them." It's the record that tracks the obligation.
Bills vs. Invoices — What's the Difference?
These two are mirror images of each other:
- An Invoice says "someone owes us money" — it tracks money coming IN to the brokerage. Invoices are tied to an agent's Customer profile.
- A Bill says "we owe someone money" — it tracks money going OUT of the brokerage. Bills are tied to an agent's Vendor profile.
Think of it this way: if you go to a restaurant, the check they hand you is an Invoice from their perspective (you owe them) and a Bill from your perspective (you owe them). In accounting, the terminology depends on which side of the table you're sitting on.
Common Examples of Bills in Brokerage Engine
- Agent commission payouts — The agent's share of a closed deal.
- Referral fees — Money owed to an outside agent or referral source.
What Happens to Bills When They Sync to the Accounting Module?
When the Commission Module syncs with the Accounting Module, Bills land under the agent's Vendor profile. This is why agents have a Vendor profile in the system: the Accounting Module needs a Vendor record to attach the Bill to.
Once the Bill is paid in your workflow, that payment also syncs so the Accounting Module reflects that the obligation has been settled.
What This Means for You Day-to-Day
For commission-related Bills, you typically don't need to create them manually — Brokerage Engine generates them automatically when transactions are processed and commission splits are calculated. Your main interaction with these Bills will be reviewing them before issuing payments and confirming they've been paid.
However, not all Bills are commission-related. Operational Bills — like office rent, utilities, or other business expenses — do need to be entered into the system manually. If these are expenses that repeat on a regular schedule (monthly, quarterly, etc.), you can set them up as a Recurring Bill in the system so they're automatically created on a set cycle without you having to re-enter them each time.
