Most commission administration is answering two questions repeatedly: is this unit still available, and where is my payment. A broker portal that answers both without anyone from your team picking up the phone removes the majority of that work, and it removes the information asymmetry that causes attribution disputes in the first place.
Lead registration, the core mechanic
Registration is the moment attribution is decided, so it has to be simple enough to happen every time:
- The broker submits the buyer's name and phone number before or at introduction.
- The system normalises the number and checks it against existing leads and buyers.
- It returns accepted with an expiry date, or rejected with the reason — already in the pipeline, already registered to another partner, or already a customer.
- The result is visible to the broker immediately and permanently.
Rejection is as valuable as acceptance. A broker told immediately stops spending time on the lead and does not arrive at booking expecting commission. The phone normalisation that makes matching reliable is the same problem covered in Facebook lead ads to CRM.
Expiry, and why it must be automatic
| Rule | Typical setting |
|---|---|
| Initial validity | 60 days from acceptance |
| Extension on recorded activity | +30 days per site visit or meeting |
| Maximum total | 180 days |
| Expiry warning | 7 days before |
| After expiry | The lead returns to unattributed |
The value of automatic expiry is that it converts a judgement into a date. Nobody has to decide whether a broker "really" introduced someone eight months ago, which is the conversation that damages relationships.
What to expose, and what to keep internal
Expose: own registered leads and their status; unit availability by type, floor band and status; current price band; own commission — accrued, due, paid, clawed back; project brochures, floor plans and approved marketing material; payment plan options.
Keep internal: other brokers' leads and registrations; buyer contact details beyond their own; net realised prices and discount authority; internal cost and margin; any buyer's payment history.
The rule is that a broker needs enough to sell confidently and to trust the commission arithmetic, and nothing that would let them price against you.
Commission visibility is the retention feature
A broker who can see, without asking, that three bookings have accrued commission and one payment is due next week will bring you the next buyer. The portal should show the calculation, not just the total: which booking, which rate and where it came from, net realised value, accrued amount, paid amount, and any clawback with its reason. That transparency is what makes commission structures credible in practice rather than only in the agreement.
Rolling it out
Start with the two questions brokers actually have — availability and payment — and add the rest afterwards. A portal launched with eight features and no live availability gets one login per broker. A portal that reliably answers "is A-704 still available" gets used daily, and once it is used daily, registration through it becomes the norm and attribution disputes decline on their own.
What to do next
Count the availability and commission enquiries your sales admin handled last month. That number, multiplied by the time each takes, is what a portal returns to your team immediately — see broker registration, expiry and accrual in one place.