Commission invoices paid by the conveyancer
How an estate agency invoices its commission, gives the conveyancer a clean payment reference and records the transfer when it lands.
By Achekam · · 5 min read · For Real estate businesses in South Africa, Nigeria, Kenya
The offer is signed, the bond is approved and the transfer is lodged. Your commission now sits with someone you neither employ nor can hurry: the conveyancer, who pays it out of the purchase price once the property registers. Until that day the money is promised, not banked.
That gap is where agency books drift. An invoice raised too early sits in debtors for weeks. A transfer that arrives with a vague reference lands in the bank but never reaches the invoice. A conveyancer who pays slightly less than you billed leaves a small balance that nobody can explain at year end.
The steps below work wherever a third party pays your commission on the seller's behalf: a conveyancer in South Africa, or the lawyer handling the sale in Nigeria or Kenya. The arrangement works much like escrow, and Investopedia's explanation of escrow covers how a neutral third party holds money until both sides perform, including the escrow accounts used in property transactions.
Decide when the invoice becomes real
In Achekam an invoice starts life as a draft. A draft can be changed or deleted and does not touch the ledger. Issuing is the step that counts: it takes the next number in your sequence and posts the invoice to the ledger as debtors, sales and output VAT. Default terms are 30 days, and the number format is set in Settings.
That suits commission well. You can prepare the invoice as a draft when the offer is signed, with the agreed commission, the property and the seller's details, and issue it when the conveyancer confirms the registration date or asks for your account. Whether tax falls due earlier than that is a question for your accountant. What the software does is simple and predictable: output VAT is posted on the day you issue.
Who the invoice is addressed to depends on your mandate. Usually the seller owes the commission and the conveyancer pays it from the proceeds, so the seller is the customer and the conveyancer gets a copy. Read the sale agreement before you decide.
Give the conveyancer a reference they cannot get wrong
An issued invoice can be downloaded as a PDF on your letterhead, or e-mailed from the invoice with or without a pay link. If the e-mail fails, the invoice records it as not sent, so you are not left assuming it went.
A pay link exists only for an issued invoice, never for a draft or a voided one. It opens a public page in your business's name and branding, and that page can show your bank details and a payment reference. For commission, those two items are the point. Conveyancers usually pay by electronic transfer, and a reference that matches your invoice is what lets you tie the money to the right deal. A link lasts 14 days by default, and an open link for the same amount is reused rather than duplicated, so sending it a second time does not muddle anything. Each bank account takes one currency, so check that the account on the page is the one you want paid.
What to send the conveyancer:
- the invoice PDF, addressed as your mandate requires
- your bank details and the payment reference shown on the pay page
- the property description and their own file reference, so their bookkeeper can match it
- the split, if another agency shares the commission
Record the money when the statement shows it
Bank transfers send Achekam no notice. A staff member marks the payment received once it appears on the bank statement. That is the right moment: commission counts when it is in the bank, not when someone says it has been sent.
One trap catches agencies that reconcile carefully. Matching the bank line to the customer's invoice in the bank reconciliation does not record the payment on the invoice. It must also be recorded in receivables. Skip that and the bank balances while the invoice still shows as owing, and the seller sits on your age analysis as a debtor who has in fact paid.
The order that avoids it:
- Confirm the transfer on the bank statement.
- Record the payment in receivables against the commission invoice.
- Match the bank line in the reconciliation.
Part payments and money held on account
Conveyancers sometimes pay less than the invoice: a reduction agreed late in the transaction, a share held back for a co-listing agency, or a calculation that differs from yours. Record what actually arrived. A part payment leaves the invoice part-paid, so the balance stays visible until you collect it or correct the invoice. If the sale itself collapses, see what to do with an invoice when a sale falls through.
The opposite happens too. If more arrives than the invoice asks for, the extra is held on the customer's account instead of vanishing into sales. Payments can be spread across a customer's invoices, which helps when one transfer covers two properties sold by the same seller. A receipt can be re-allocated later, and an administrator can refund or reverse one that went to the wrong customer.
Following up commission that is late
Receivables are aged into 0-30, 31-60, 61-90, 91-120 and over 120 days, with overdue totals. For an agency, an old commission invoice usually means one of two things: registration slipped, or the money arrived and was never recorded in receivables. The second is fixed with the steps above. The first needs a call to the conveyancer, not a letter to the seller.
That distinction matters because credit control is on for new workspaces. Once a day it e-mails overdue reminders, by default at 7, 14 and 30 days overdue with the invoice PDF attached, and a monthly statement to customers with a balance. It never charges anyone, it records whether each e-mail went out, and it needs working e-mail settings. Its reminders carry no pay link. Before registration is due, decide whether a seller should be receiving reminders about money the conveyancer is holding, and set their expectations early so the first reminder is not a surprise.
Once the commission is in, the agent's share is a separate job, covered in paying agents' commission through payroll.
Before the next registration
Take the next deal you expect to register and prepare its commission invoice as a draft now. Agree with the conveyancer which reference they will quote, and ask whoever banks your receipts to record each transfer in receivables before they reconcile the bank. Two habits, set up once, keep every commission traceable from the offer to the bank.
General guidance only, not advice on your own circumstances. Tax and payroll rules change: check the current position with the authority or your adviser.
