Real estate agencies often have lumpy income and high marketing costs. Clean accounting helps owners understand which agents, portals, and deal types are actually profitable.
Key Records
- Commission invoices
- Developer or landlord agreements
- Agent split agreements
- VAT treatment and tax invoices
- Portal advertising spend
- Payroll and contractor payments
- Receivables and collection status
Common Accounting Problems
- Commission recorded before it is earned
- Agent splits posted inconsistently
- VAT invoices issued late
- Portal costs not matched to periods
- Owner expenses mixed with agency costs
- No report by agent or deal source
Monthly Reporting
- Reconcile closed deals to invoices
- Track unpaid commissions
- Post agent splits
- Review portal and lead costs
- Reconcile bank receipts
- Prepare sales and margin reports
For growing brokerages, reporting by agent, team, or channel can be more useful than a basic P&L alone.
What This Looks Like in Practice
Brokerage revenue can be irregular, while portal spend and agent commissions are constant. Accounting needs to show which deals are earned, invoiced, collected, split, and still unpaid.
Records to Keep Before You Decide or File
- Bank statements, card statements, invoices, receipts, and supplier bills
- Payroll, WPS, gratuity, owner-current-account, and loan schedules
- VAT workings, Corporate Tax support, and monthly management reports
- Contracts, purchase orders, delivery notes, and software exports
Review Questions for the Owner
- Do bank balances in the accounts match the real statements?
- Can revenue, expenses, VAT, payroll, and owner payments be reviewed separately?
- Are reports useful for decisions, or only prepared because a deadline is near?
- Is the accounting file clean enough for another accountant to understand quickly?
Mistakes That Make This Expensive
- Posting bank deposits as revenue without checking invoices, VAT, or fees
- Letting owner personal spending sit inside normal business expenses
- Waiting until VAT or Corporate Tax filing to reconcile months of transactions
Practical Next Step
Track each deal from agreement to invoice to collection, then post agent splits and VAT from that deal record instead of memory.
Keep a short working paper with the facts, dates, assumptions, and documents used. It makes future filing, review, or handover much easier.