This article explains how to record agents commission in BookingTrust.
There are two types of agents:
Net Agents: Property Manager receives the full payment made by the guest; after the guest departs property manager pays the Agent's commission back to the agent.
Commission Agents: When the booking is made the agent collects their commission and pays the net booking amount to the property manager. Property Manager receives the net booking amount (net of OTA commission)
BookingTrust allows you to handle both types of agent fees:
Net Agents bookings:
You have received the gross booking amount, including agent commission (i.e.: some Booking.com bookings where property managers collect full the payment for the booking)
To record the Agent commission as an expense you can do one of the following:
Set agent commission as Global Fee
(Note - this option is only available for clients using PMS connectivity, soon this options will be available for stand-alone clients too).
Set Global Fee as % payable on Travel Agent (please contact our support team when setting this up as there needs to be a reference code placed in for this option to work).
Once the booking is received BookingTrust will automatically calculate the agent commission % of the booking and will treat it as an expense for the owner. Agent's commission amount will be added to the property manager ledger and will be sent to your trading account along with your management fees.
In this case Agent's commission is paid to the agent from your trading account.
Record an invoice
This is a manual process for property managers who pay travel agents commissions from their trust account.
To proceed you'll need to raise an invoice for the amount of agent commission payable to the supplier which is the travel agent.
Commission Agents bookings:
You have received a booking where only the net booking amount will be sent to you (net of agent's commission). (i.e.: HomeAway, Agoda).
To record the Agent commission as an expense you can do one of the following:
Record net booking amount (for standalone clients)
The easiest way to handle this type of bookings is to record a booking with a net booking amount (as a booking value) and to record the actual booking payment that was received (equals the net booking value).
i.e: if the guest paid $1000 for accommodation, but the agent send you $950 (after deducting their 5% commission), we add a booking in for the total booking amount of $950, with booking payment of $950. Booking is now fully paid.
Record gross booking amount and add a booking credit
You have received the booking payment less agent's commissions. In the same time, you have a record of the booking with its full tariff. The difference between the booking amount and the net payment amount is balanced by recording booking credit.
In BookingTrust you should always record the payment amounts that you actually receive, only then you'll be able to reconcile your trust bank balance.
Example:
Your booking value is $1000, out of which 5% is agent commission.
When you receive the payment, you will only get $950 and this is the amount you should record in BookingTrust as Accommodation Payment Received.
The $50 difference should be recorded as Booking Credit to make sure the booking is fully paid.
To record Booking Credit:
Go to Payment Record of the booking in question and click green button: Payment Received
From Transaction drop down select Booking Credit option and record the amount as usual.
In the Payment Details Section, under Bank Accounts select "Non Account" - the booking credit is not a financial transaction
Once done, Save changes and your booking will now be "fully paid"
The payment record for a booking with booking credit will look like this:
