Realtors & Property Management Edition

One reference for both sides of a real estate business: deals that close with the commission split posted automatically, and rentals with security deposits that stay legally segregated, monthly rent invoicing, and a live rent roll. Earnest money and deposits run on the same guarded trust engine as our Law Firm edition — client money physically cannot be overdrawn or commingled.

Turning On the Edition

Included with the Pro tier and above at no extra charge. When your license qualifies, 🏠 Real Estate appears in the sidebar automatically. On Starter? Upgrade under Settings → License Management.

Creating a Deal

A deal is one transaction — a listing-side or buyer-side closing. Click + New Deal and enter:

• Property address and which side you represent (listing, buyer, or dual).
• Client — the buyer or seller, from your Client Center.
• Agent — your agents are Sales Reps (Settings → Sales Reps), each with a default split tier. Tick "create matching vendor" when adding one and their 1099-NEC record is wired up from day one.
• Sale price and commission rate — the split panel computes live as you type.
• Referral fee and the referring vendor, if a fee is owed.
• Earnest money expected — informational here; the actual deposit is recorded on the Escrow tab.

Deal numbers auto-assign per year (RE-2026-0001) or type your own. Deals sit in pending until they close or fall through.

How the Commission Split Works

The waterfall, computed live on the form and posted at closing:

1. Gross commission = sale price × your rate (or a typed flat amount for negotiated deals).
2. Referral fee comes off the top.
3. Agent share = the agent's split percentage applied to what's left. Defaults from the agent's tier; override per deal.
4. Brokerage net = the remainder — what the house keeps.

Earnest Money

The buyer's good-faith deposit is client money and belongs in escrow, never operating. On the Escrow & Deposits tab, click 💰 Deposit Earnest Money, pick the buyer, and record the amount. The escrow bank account and its "Funds Held in Trust" liability move together, and the buyer's individual balance starts tracking.

The same hard rules from our trust engine apply: no client's balance can go below zero, entries are append-only (corrections are visible voids), and the bank balance always equals the sum of everyone's individual ledgers.

Closing a Deal

Press close on the pending deal. BizBooks Pro shows the final split for confirmation, then posts one journal:

• Dr Commissions Receivable / Cr Real Estate Commission Income for the gross.
• Dr Agent Commissions Expense / Cr Commissions Payable for the agent's share — tagged to the agent.
• Dr Referral Fees Expense / Cr Commissions Payable for any referral — tagged to the vendor.

Closed deals are locked from editing (the journal already posted), and your books show exactly what's owed to whom from the moment of closing.

Receiving the Commission Check

When the title or closing company's check arrives, click receive $ on the closed deal, pick the deposit account and date. That clears the receivable — and the deal won't accept a second receipt.

When a Deal Falls Through

Mark the pending deal fell through — no journal posts. If earnest money is held, refund it from the Escrow tab (↩️ Refund) and the buyer's ledger zeroes out.

The Escrow / Trust Account

Set up once: create the escrow bank account in Chart of Accounts, then flag it on the Escrow & Deposits tab. BizBooks Pro creates the offsetting liability automatically. The tab shows three numbers at a glance — bank balance, total owed to clients/tenants, and whether they agree.

Properties & Units

Click + Property, name it, and list the units in one comma-separated line ("1A, 1B, 2A, 2B"). Each property also becomes a value in the built-in Property tracking dimension — that's what powers the per-property P&L later. Add more units any time with + unit.

Leases

+ New Lease: pick a vacant unit (occupied units don't appear), the tenant (a client record), monthly rent, due day, term, and the security deposit amount. One active lease per unit — the unit frees up automatically at move-out.

Security Deposits

When the tenant's deposit check arrives, click collect deposit on the rent roll row. The money lands in the escrow/trust account, tracked under that tenant's name — it remains the tenant's money until move-out, and your balance sheet says so structurally. A lease can't collect its deposit twice.

Rent Invoicing

invoice rent on any lease row drafts that month's rent invoice: tenant, property, unit, and month on the line, posted against Rental Income. It opens as a draft in the regular Invoice Center for review and sending, and each lease-month can only be invoiced once — no accidental double-billing in a busy week.

The Rent Roll

The Properties & Leases tab keeps a live rent roll: every active lease with its unit, tenant, monthly rent, term, and — importantly — the deposit actually held in trust, not just the amount the lease says. It's the one-screen answer to "what should hit the bank this month, and whose deposits am I sitting on?"

Move-Out & Deductions

Click move-out on the lease. Enter any deductions — carpet cleaning $200, wall repair $100 — and BizBooks Pro settles the deposit in one guarded action:

• Deductions move from trust to operating and post as Damage & Cleaning Recovery income, with the descriptions on the journal.
• The remainder is refunded to the tenant (check number recorded).
• The lease ends and the unit opens for the next tenant.

Deductions exceeding the held deposit are rejected — you can't keep money you don't hold.

Per-Property P&L

Because every property is a tracking-dimension value, the standard reports do the work: open Reports Studio, run an income statement, and filter by the Property dimension. Rent invoices generated here are tagged automatically through their Rental Income lines; tag property expenses (repairs, insurance, taxes) with the same dimension as you enter them and the picture completes itself.

Agent 1099s at Year-End

Agents are Sales Reps with paired vendor records, so commission payments you cut against the Commissions Payable balance accrue to the right vendor all year. Reports Studio → 1099 Summary has each agent's annual total ready to file — same machinery our travel agencies use for their contractors.