Channel and sub-agent commissions, multi-currency

Where a sale comes from at an agency — office, phone, WhatsApp, a sub-agent, an online channel — changes the commission math directly. Kept in a spreadsheet, that split usually leads to one channel’s commission getting forgotten, or booked to the wrong account; once costs run in a foreign currency and sales in TRY, the room for error only grows. This article covers running channel-level commission alongside a multi-currency current account.

Why the channel split needs to be a field, not a list

Every booking should carry a field showing which channel it came from: walk-in, phone, WhatsApp, sub-agent, online channel. This isn’t for reporting — it’s needed for the commission math itself: a sale made through a sub-agent is computed differently from a direct sale. The channel should be written onto the booking record at the moment of sale; digging up “which channel was this” after the commission period has closed is exactly where mistakes creep in.

Net vs. gross

For a service sold through a sub-agent or channel, the price the channel sees (net) differs from what the guest actually pays (gross). Channel-facing roles should not see the gross price — otherwise the sub-agent sees exactly how much margin is left on their own customer, which damages that commercial relationship. Price visibility should be tied to role, not to which screen happens to be open.

A multi-currency current account

For an agency whose costs run in EUR or USD and whose sales run in TRY, every movement needs to be stamped with which rate, on which date, it was calculated. Balances shouldn’t be collapsed into a single currency — an account opened in a foreign currency shows its balance in that currency, while total reporting is compiled on the TRY equivalent. A deposit-plus-balance schedule follows the same logic: the deposit may have been taken in one currency, the balance collected on another date at a different rate; both need to stay visible on the same current account, each with its own rate stamp.

Example

A sub-agent sells a 2,000 EUR package tour through you; your contract sets an 12% commission for that channel. The customer pays a 500 EUR deposit, with the remaining 1,500 EUR collected 10 days before the tour; the two payments land on different dates, each converted to TRY at a different rate. Commission — 12% of 2,000 EUR, or 240 EUR — is posted as a credit to the sub-agent’s current account once collection is complete, carrying both the EUR amount and the TRY equivalent on the day it was collected.

How it works in Rotenta

1. When a Booking is created, the channel field is mandatory: office, phone, WhatsApp, sub-agent, online channel.
2. The Channel and Commission screen defines a commission rate or fixed amount per channel; sub-agents can be set up with their own individual rates.
3. Once collection is complete, commission is calculated automatically and posted to the relevant channel’s or sub-agent’s current account — with a rate stamp if the account runs in a foreign currency.
4. In the Accounting module, each current account’s balance shows in its own currency, while summary reports are compiled on the TRY equivalent.
5. Channel-facing roles see only their own net price, never the gross amount the guest paid; that separation is enforced through role permissions.
6. If a visa file has been opened against the same customer record (see Visa File), commission and collection records stay independent of it, while remaining reachable from the same customer card.

Channel and commission management is the piece of our travel agency software most directly tied to revenue: how allotment and commission work together on the booking side is covered in tour allotment, and how commission is reversed on a cancellation in cancellation and deduction rules. For the multi-currency ledger in more depth, see the accounting module.

Frequently asked questions

How do you stop a sub-agent from seeing the gross price charged to their own customer?

Price visibility is tied to role; a channel-facing role only sees its own net price, and the gross amount the guest paid is never shown on that screen.

Is commission calculated before collection is complete?

The commission amount can be calculated at booking time, but posting it as a credit to the current account can be tied to collection being complete instead; that choice is set per your firm’s policy.

Can we see balances in different currencies as one combined total?

Each account shows its balance in its own currency; TRY-equivalent reporting is compiled separately, based on the rate stamp recorded with every movement.

Do visa files get mixed up with commission or accounting records?

No; a visa file is kept as a separate record with its own access and retention rules, reachable only from the same customer card. Access to passport and identity data is authorized separately.

Does adding a new channel or sub-agent require anything outside the system?

No, channels and sub-agents are set up from the screen; a commission rate applies to new sales from the moment it’s defined. For setup questions, reach out to us.