Commercial real estate is all about transactions. Everything you do is to make transactions happen. Vouchers are receipts of those transactions—useful for making sure everyone involved in the transaction gets paid the right amount and on time.
Follow the step-by-step guide below on how to fill out and submit a voucher with Buildout’s Back Office add-on. If you still need to create the voucher, check out our Help Center article on creating vouchers.
Note: Only users with the “Can View Own Back Office Details” permission can create and view vouchers.
5 simple steps to submitting a voucher for approval
Step 1: Deal
For Sale and Lease Space vouchers, the applicable Property or Lease Space information will automatically populate from the listing. NOTE: If you need to make a change to this section, you must update the information on the Property Edit Form. For all other deal types, you can add property information directly to the voucher. If you use our CRM Lite add-on, you will have the option to search for and select a property from your database.
Next, enter additional transaction details in the Closing Information section. If you were already tracking deal progress in the pipeline feature of Premium Marketing, certain information will be auto-populated for you. Before you can mark the deal as Closed and submit the voucher, you will need to fill out any required fields.
For Lease and Tenant Rep vouchers, the next step is to add Lease Terms. The fastest way to complete this section is via the Add a Rent Escalation button, which will prompt you to enter information about the lease in order to auto-generate a set of lease terms. You also have the ability to add, update, or remove individual terms. When finished, you can use the checkbox at the bottom of this section to set up a lease expiration reminder.
Finally, if you have any Closing Highlights you want to include on the voucher, those can be added here.
Step 2: Contacts
Add the non-broker contacts for the deal. Depending on the voucher type, certain contacts may be required to mark the deal as Closed and to submit the voucher—for example, the Seller and Buyer, or the Owner/Landlord and Tenant. If you use our CRM Lite add-on, you will have the option to search for and select contacts from your database. If not, you can copy a contact from the associated listing or assignment, reuse a contact from one of your other vouchers, or create a new contact from scratch.
For more information on adding contacts to a voucher, see this Help Center article.
Step 3: Commissions
First, add any Pre-Split Deductions and/or Outside Commissions. NOTE: Only add outside commissions for outside brokers that need to be paid out of the gross commission collected by your brokerage.
Next, add each of the internal brokers that worked on the deal to the Internal Commissions section. Allocate the remaining gross commission to these brokers by specifying the appropriate “Gross %” or “Gross $” amounts.
Lastly, specify each brokers’ split with the house by selecting the appropriate commission plan (or selecting “No Plan” and entering the appropriate “Broker Split %” or “Broker Split $” amount) NOTE: Each broker’s split with the house is private and is only visible to that particular broker and to users with “Can Administrate Back Office” permissions.
Step 4: Billing
Add payer(s) to the Billing section so that you can generate and send invoices.
Next, set up Receivables to specify how much gross commission you expect to receive from the payer(s) and when you expect to receive it. If you expect the gross commission to be deposited in multiple parts, create one receivable for each part. If you added lease terms on Step 1, you’ll have the option to auto-generate “Yearly” or “Monthly” receivables.
After the voucher is approved, users with “Can Administrate Back Office” permissions can apply deposits to these receivables, which will automatically generate Payables for each of the brokers that need to be paid.
Step 5: Preview & Submit
Review the information from Steps 1 through 4. NOTE: This view is read-only by default—return to an earlier step or click the Edit button to make changes.
Once the deal is closed and all the required fields are filled out, you are ready to submit. Click the checkbox to certify that you have reviewed the information on the voucher. Then, click the Submit button.
If the voucher was successfully submitted, you’ll see a message confirming that the status has transitioned to “Pending Approval.” Users with the “Can Approve Vouchers” permission will receive an email notification that the voucher has been submitted and is ready for approval.
If you use our CRM Lite add-on, you can use the second checkbox to create a comp in your database. Make sure to hit Save after clicking the checkbox. NOTE: Because the comp is automatically attached to the property associated with the voucher, it will be created in the same database as that property.
When a voucher is submitted, users with the “Can Approve Vouchers” permission will receive an email notification with a link to the voucher. For more information on the approval process, check out our Help Center article on approving vouchers.
