Purpose: Reconcile every commission deposit against our expected payout so missing or underpaid commissions get chased while the trail is fresh. Also gives us accurate month-over-month revenue data for tax + planning.
Who runs this
Primary: Operations / Bookkeeper
Backup: Owner
Trigger
Runs the 5th of every month
for the prior month's bookings
Time needed
2-3 hours for a 30-40 booking month
What you'll need
Bank statement for the prior month (supplier ACH deposits)
Our booking tracker (spreadsheet or CRM commission module)
Supplier commission statements (pull from each supplier's portal)
Last month's reconciliation file for reference
Coffee — this is not a 15-minute job
Steps
Pull a list of all bookings with departure dates in the prior month. These are the bookings we should have been paid on.
For each booking, look up the expected commission on our tracker. Note the supplier, booking reference, and expected amount.
Download each supplier's commission statement for the period. Most suppliers send these monthly by email or have them in their portal.
Match supplier statements line-by-line to the bank deposits. Some suppliers batch multiple bookings into a single ACH — unpack these.
Flag any booking where paid amount < expected amount, or where we haven't received commission yet but should have.
Update the booking tracker with: actual paid amount, paid date, any variance.
Log any variances in the "Missing commission" sheet — we chase these in a separate process (see Related SOPs).
Reconcile the total against Books — the deposit entries should sum to match the commission ledger.
Common failure modes
Commission short-paid
Symptom: supplier statement shows $240 but expected commission was $280.
Response: Common causes: supplier applied a tier-1 rate instead of our consortium rate; a fee was deducted we didn't expect; booking was modified after original commission calc. Log the variance, email the supplier's commission team with the booking reference + our expected amount.
Commission not received
Symptom: expected from Supplier Y in June, nothing landed.
Response: Most suppliers pay 30-45 days after travel, some 60. If past their SLA, email their commission team with the booking reference, travel dates, and invoice number. Keep a running "overdue" list by supplier for escalation.
ACH deposit doesn't match any booking
Symptom: $412.50 from "Princess Cruises" on Tuesday but no booking matches.
Response: Could be a delayed older booking, a corrected re-pay, or a referral/override payment. Check the remittance PDF if available. Last resort: call the supplier commission line with the amount and date.
Duplicate payment
Symptom: $280 from the same supplier on the same booking twice in a month.
Response: Don't spend it — most suppliers audit quarterly and will reclaim duplicates. Email the supplier to confirm; if they verify it's real, record it. If it's a mistake, note it and wait for the reversal.
After reconciliation
Send the owner a summary: total commission received, variance count, total value of overdue items.
Post the month-end journal entries in Books (commission income, receivables clearing).
Archive the reconciliation file in the /reconciliation/YYYY-MM/ folder.
Related
SOP: Chasing overdue commission
Supplier Policies → [Supplier] commission rate sheet
Payments → Taking a deposit
Books → Monthly close checklist