Improvements to the Pay Agent’s Deductions Processing

A number of companies utilize the “Pay Agent’s Deductions” command to print checks to the company or to various outside companies for amounts withheld from agent checks for various purposes. The deductions that are paid are those that are taken when preparing an agent commission check for printing within the “Transactions” module of BOS.

Above, this option is currently accessed from within BOS’s  Accounts Payable module.

Above, and NEW for Version 14.5, the “Pay Agent’s Deductions” option (and the Reverse) have also been placed within the “Transactions” module. This means that your operator, after printing individual checks, or printing batch commission checks can now access the deduction payment function from the menu.

Above, the NEW Pay Agent’s Deductions search and processing window. 

 The new pay processing window has a number of new features to make it easier to process payments. First, there is a Search button. The operator now can set all of your criteria at the top of the window first and then click “Search” when  ready to locate the deductions desired. (Previously the screen would keep searching every time one of the criteria was changed – this would cause interruptions and delays for the operator).

Above illustrates an example of selecting a check to be paid to the company (entered as a vendor in “Basic Setup”), for agent Bootz, for any deducted transaction fees (“Trans Fee”).  All three entries were made and then “Search” was clicked to quickly locate these deductions.

Note that the “Check Preview” screen has not changed. As shown above, when a deduction payment is to a vendor, the payee name and address are completed from data entered in that vendor’s BOS record.

NEW – For companies who always pay “the company” for the all or multiple agent deductions taken as a mechanism to move the monies into a different account it is no longer necessary now to setup and assign a “company vendor” for the deduction items and then to the individual agent deduction setups.

 As shown above, the new “Search” window can accept a “<None>” payee (no vendor assigned) and a “<ALL Deduction Items for Same Payee>” to load the deduction payments.

 This is a big setup timesaver for companies who always pay “the company” all of the deduction amounts taken as the need for any vendor setup and assignments to items are now unnecessary.

Note:  Above, with this approach, the operator must enter all of the payee information for the check on the “Check Preview” tab as there would not be a vendor payee assigned.

NEW : Above, a new selection option has been added to load deductions from a particular transaction. Just enter the transaction number, set other selections if necessary, and click “Search”. 

Above example: the operator wishes to pay out all agent check deductions taken in transaction “9800001”.  The pay window shows that there was a client club deduction.

Review and Tips For setting up and using Agent Deductions.

Following is a brief review including some tips for setting up and using the agent deductions feature in REAL/Easy BOS. By implementing this feature, many companies can save hours and hours of time tracking and reporting this using manual procedures.

If deduction applying and tracking is done with another financial accounting system, bringing over and integrating this task to BOS can save many hours of time also just due to the fact that the solution is integrated.

The deduction items are setup using the “Add/Edit Deduction Items” command within BOS Setup’s “Advanced Setup” tab.

Above, sample of a number of Agent Deduction types.

Above – setup tab for a deduction item – all account numbers must be assigned. REAL/Easy’s can be used or you can add your own familiar account numbers in REAL/Easy’s chart of accounts (example shown below).

 The deduction can be tied to a “Vendor” if you are going to be writing checks to vendors for deductions taken. If you are not going to do this, you do not have to assign a vendor code. (Vendor’s are setup with “Basic Setup” ).

The “Contribution Period” is optional. It is used to specify that a certain deduction is only to be taken from an agent check for a given pay period (based on check date). 

 If the closing department is to add this deduction “on the fly” to agent checks irregardless of the date, then do not enter a start or end date on this tab.

The “Amounts” tab is used to pre-define a deduction amount to be taken.  Above, a $20 amount is specified.  Further by checking the “Or No Maximum” box this means that there is no maximum total limit on this deduction item for an agent.

To specify a maximum amount, uncheck the “Or No Maximum” and enter the amount in the “Agent/Staff Maximum” item.

Review and Tips For setting up and using Agent Deductions – continued…

 How are deductions taken on agent checks?

 This is done within the “Transactions” module, using the “Close Transaction” command:

Above: Within the “Transactions” module, command “Close Transaction”, and highlighting the transaction, using the “Pay Commissions” button:

The agent commission pay screen has two tabs – above the “Commissions” tab that details all gross to net amounts.  Note the total of additional deductions is in the lower portion.

Review and Tips For setting up and using Agent Deductions – continued…

 How are deductions taken on agent checks?

The “Deductions” tab is accessed to for adding or changing the deductions from the agent gross commission.  Click “Add” to enter a deduction to the check.

Review and Tips For setting up and using Agent Deductions – continued…

 How are deductions taken on agent checks?(continued …)

 Select from the deduction items that were specified in “Advanced Setup”. Item amounts are added as deductions to the check and totaled and net payable is recalculated.

 Note: when printing checks with REAL/Easy BOS, these deductions are itemized on the check stub. When using REAL/Easy’s Interface Accounting, the itemized deductions are posted as distributions (credits) for the financial accounting system’s payables or GL modules.

 To save time setting up check printing , how can deductions be “pre-defined” for an agent?

If agent deductions are more or less the same for every agent check, these can be setup within the agent’s record to save time when paying commissions. In this way, all of their deductions are automatically placed on the pay commissions check “Deductions” tab eliminating the need to enter them manually for each check.

This setup is done through the “Basic Setup” – “”Add/Edit Agents & Staff” command (above).

Above, locate the agent and “Edit”.

Review and Tips For setting up and using Agent Deductions – continued…

 How can deductions be “pre-defined” for an agent?  (continued…)

The Agent’s record edit includes a number of “Tabs” of information.

Move to the “Deductions” tab and use “Add” to setup the deductions for this agent.

Review and Tips For setting up and using Agent Deductions – continued…

How can deductions be “pre-defined” for an agent?  (continued…)

Above, example, two deductions selected to be on every check.  The setups are pulled from the deduction list that was setup previously using the “Add/Edit Deduction Items” command within “Advanced Setup”.

Note: the “Edit/View Detail” button can be used to view the deduction item’s contribution period, amounts, and to maximum settings. This means that these setups can be changed for the individual agent – e.g. change the amount per check to deduct for client club from $20 to $25.

After this setup is completed, all subsequent commission checks that are setup for printing for this agent will automatically have the two deductions above placed on the check as deductions. If maximums or contribution dates are specified, these are automatically calculated too for the check date.

Review and Tips For setting up and using Agent Deductions - continued

Below: example of adding your own GL account number(s):

Go to BOS Setup’s “Basic Setup” and use the “Add/Edit Chart Of Accounts” item.

Above: example entry of your own account number for “Client Club” using “Basic Setup” – “Add/Edit Chart Of Accounts”.  Deduction items are usually Expense or Revenue accounts.  Always use the “Detail” type.

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