Sale Commissions

Where does the commission on a sale come from, when is it created, and what happens if you recalculate it? This article follows the commission chain from the sales-flow side — the default rule on the property, the copy onto the deal, and the calculation that fires when the sale is won — and flags the one behavior that catches people out: recalculating replaces the commission records rather than editing them. The engine mechanics (rule items, recipients, splits, and the payout formula) live in the Billing section; this article stays at the sales-flow altitude and links across. No prior REDA experience is assumed.

The commission chain, in one picture

Commission on a sale isn't entered by hand — it flows down a chain that starts on the property and ends with records REDA builds when the sale closes:

The default commission rule

The chain begins on the property. Each property carries a Default Commission Rule (Property Sales) — a lookup that offers only active commission rules. When a new sale deal is created on that property, REDA copies the rule onto the deal's Commission Rule while the deal is still open. Set the default on the property once, and agents don't have to pick a rule per deal (see Marking a Property Available for Sale).

When commissions calculate

Commissions calculate when the sale is marked Closed Won, provided the deal has both a Commission Rule and a Calculated Commission Base Amount. REDA flags the deal for calculation, and the commission records are built from the rule.

For percentage-based commission, the percentage applies to the deal's Calculated Commission Base Amount — a figure distinct from the Sale / Purchase Price. Where that base comes from is an engine detail covered in the Billing section; on the sales side, treat it as "the base the percentage applies to."

Recalculating is destructive

Two things trigger this behavior. The manual Calculate / Recalculate Commissions action on the deal deletes the existing commissions and creates new ones. And moving the deal out of won deletes the commission records entirely (rebuilt only if you close it again).

What a commission record carries

Each commission record REDA builds names a recipient and the terms of their cut. At the sales-flow level, that's:

The full payout formula, the difference between fixed and dynamic recipients, and how splits combine are the Billing engine's job — see Commission Calculation and Commission Rules.

How the amount lands — fixed, percentage, and splits

You don't type commission amounts in — REDA computes each record from the rule when the sale closes. Two things decide the number: the Commission Type on the rule, and whether the paid party has a split arrangement behind it. At the sales-flow level, here's what each does.

• Fixed — a flat amount, unaffected by the sale price. A 5,000.00 marketing fee is 5,000.00 whether the villa sells for 800,000.00 or 1,200,000.00.
• Percentage — a rate applied to the deal's Calculated Commission Base Amount (not the Sale / Purchase Price). A 1.5% rate on a base of 1,000,000.00 works out to 15,000.00 before any split.

A split is how one earning party's cut is divided among several accounts. If the party who earns the commission — say a brokerage — has splits set up behind it (a house share and an agent share, for instance), REDA writes one commission record per split instead of one for the whole party. Each split record carries that share's Commission Split %, and the payout is scaled by it. If there's no split, the record simply carries a 100% split and the whole amount goes to the one party.

Worked example: commission on Harbour Villa 7

Meridian's Harbour Villa 7 sale to David Okafor closes Won. The property carried a Default Commission Rule (Property Sales) — the brokerage's standard sale rule — which copied onto the deal's Commission Rule when the deal opened.

At Closed Won, with the calculated commission base present, REDA builds the commission records from that rule. Suppose the rule has two lines: a percentage line to the brokerage and a fixed line to the marketing team, and the brokerage cut is split between the house and agent Marcus Bell. With an illustrative base of 1,000,000.00, the records come out like this:

Rates, the 40/60 split, and the 5,000.00 fixed fee above are illustrative — your own rule supplies the real ones. Each record also carries a Due Date derived from the deal's Under Contract Date (1 Jul) plus the rule line's due-after days, and opens in Draft status.

If the manager later runs Calculate / Recalculate Commissions, all three records are deleted and rebuilt from scratch — any manual edits are gone. The Billing commission-calculation article walks the same math in full; this article stops at "the rule produced these records."

The sale deal's Commissions related list — the brokerage split appears as separate house and agent records alongside a fixed line, with Commission Split % and Net Commission Amount columns.

Reference: calculation triggers

Where to go next

1. Commission Calculation — the calc algorithm, recipients, splits, and the Net Commission formula.
2. Commission Rules — setting up commission rules and their rule items.
3. Closing a Sale (Closed Won) — the moment that flags this calculation.
4. Marking a Property Available for Sale — where the default rule is set on the property.

Frequently asked questions