Paying commissioned agents, properly
Almost everyone a brokerage pays is on commission, and almost no payroll product is built for that — so the arithmetic ends up in a spreadsheet that one person understands. Mortgage360 calculates it from the funded deal itself: multiple participants, graduated tiers, caps, fees off the top and the bottom, and clawbacks when a deal unwinds.
Commission calculation and agent payouts are live in production today. Payroll for salaried staff — source deductions and remittances — is in development and is the only part of this page you cannot buy.
Does Mortgage360 do payroll for a mortgage brokerage?
For commissioned agents, yes, and that is most of a brokerage's payroll. Splits across multiple participants, graduated volume tiers, company-dollar caps with a different split after the cap, network fees off the top, transaction and desk fees off the bottom, referral arrangements, clawbacks and agent statements are all live in production. Payroll for salaried employees — source deductions and remittances — is in development and not something you can buy yet. We would rather be precise about which half you are getting.
- Live: multi-participant splits — lead agent, associate, assistant, referrer.
- Live: graduated tiers measured on transactions or funded volume.
- Live: company-dollar caps, with a different split and fee after the cap.
- Live: clawbacks recovered across future cycles when a deal unwinds.
- Live: agent statements showing the arithmetic behind every figure.
- In development: salaried pay runs, source deductions and remittances.
The commission engine, in production
Commission is where brokerage pay actually gets complicated, and it is the half that is solved. The calculation runs from the funded deal rather than being rebuilt each month, so the number an agent sees is derived from the file rather than typed by someone reconciling a spreadsheet.
- Per-deal splits across lead agent, associate, assistant and referrer, with allocations checked so a deal cannot be over-distributed.
- Graduated tier ladders measured on transaction count or funded volume — and bands can mix the two.
- Qualification periods that control when a tier change actually takes effect, with grace handling, on your fiscal year or an agent's anniversary.
- Company-dollar caps that can be crossed mid-year, switching to a post-cap split and a different transaction fee from that point on.
- Network or head-office fees taken off the top before the split; transaction, desk, underwriting and E&O fees off the bottom, as a dollar amount or a percentage.
- Referral arrangements — a one-time bonus, an ongoing cut of the referred agent's business, or both.
- Clawbacks recovered across future cycles when a deal unwinds.
- Agent statements showing the arithmetic behind every figure, and a clean export to whatever accounting system you already run.
What we are building
The gap is salaried staff. Today a brokerage calculates agent commissions in one place and runs employee payroll in another, then reconciles the two by hand. Closing that means handling source deductions and remittances properly — which is exactly why we are not rushing it.
- Salaried and hourly pay runs alongside commission payouts.
- Source deductions calculated and tracked for remittance.
- Year-end reporting from the same ledger the deals sit in.
- Mixed compensation — a salaried employee who also earns commission.
- One reconciliation instead of two systems and a spreadsheet.
We would rather lose the deal than oversell it
It would be easy to write this page as though payroll shipped, and you would find out on the demo. Marking it clearly costs us some search traffic and some leads. It costs a lot less than a customer discovering the gap after signing.
- Nothing on this page describes payroll as available.
- The demo will show you exactly what exists and what does not.
- Waitlist members are told a realistic timeline, not an aspirational one.
- If payroll is your blocking requirement today, we will say so.
- Everything else on the platform is live and independently useful.
A 30-minute walkthrough using your own deal flow — not a canned demo file.
Frequently asked
When will payroll be available?
We are not publishing a date, because payroll involves source deductions and remittances where being late is better than being wrong. Waitlist members get a realistic timeline and early access when the first cohort opens.
What can I use for payroll in the meantime?
Keep your existing payroll provider. Commission calculations export cleanly, so the reconciliation is a file rather than re-keying — which is the bulk of the pain most brokerages describe.
Is commission payout also 'coming soon'?
No. Commission splits, tiers, clawbacks, statements and payout cycles are live in production today. Only salaried-staff payroll is in development.
Will payroll cost extra?
Pricing is not set. Waitlist members will be told before anything is charged, and nobody will be moved onto a paid module without opting in.
Can it handle graduated tiers rather than one flat split?
Yes. Tier ladders are the default rather than a special case — a single band is simply a flat split. Bands are measured on transaction count or funded volume, and a ladder can mix the two, so an agent can move up on either five deals or ten million in volume.
How are company-dollar caps handled?
The cap is tracked as a running balance and can be crossed mid-period. Once it is reached, the agent moves to a post-cap split and, if you use one, a different transaction fee from that point on — calculated within the same run rather than adjusted afterwards.
Can more than one person be paid on the same deal?
Yes — lead agent, associate, assistant and a referrer can all take an allocation on one file, with the total checked so a deal cannot be over-distributed. This is the case most spreadsheets get wrong, because the error only shows up when the payouts are added together.
What about fees — desk, transaction, underwriting, E&O?
Network or head-office fees come off the top before the split; transaction, desk, underwriting and E&O fees come off the bottom afterwards. Underwriting can be a dollar amount or a percentage, and E&O can be charged annually or prorated to an agent's anniversary.
How do referral arrangements between agents work?
Either as a one-time bonus when the referred agent joins, or as an ongoing cut of their business, or both. The ongoing portion can be a percentage or a flat amount per deal.
When does a tier change actually take effect?
That is a policy choice rather than an automatic recalculation. Qualification periods control it — measured on your fiscal year, a calendar year or the agent's anniversary — with grace handling for an agent who narrowly misses. The point is that a good month does not silently rewrite last quarter's payouts.
What happens when a funded deal falls apart?
The commission is clawed back and recovered across future cycles rather than demanded back in one payment, and the adjustment appears on the agent's statement with the reason attached.
Can an agent see how their number was calculated?
Yes, and this is usually the point of the whole exercise. Statements show the arithmetic — gross, fees off the top, the split applied, fees off the bottom — so a disagreement becomes a conversation about a line item rather than about whether the spreadsheet is right.
Tell us what your payroll actually needs to do
Waitlist members shape the build order. The more specific you are, the more likely it lands the way you need.