Office guide

Module 6 — Pay and Close Deals

6 min read

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Interactive tour with screenshots — no sign-in required.

Part of Broker / Staff Basic Training.

After review and firm-deal milestones, staff receive trust deposits, create outbound payment lines from Payments, and Close File when the deal is fully paid out. Commission math and deal-level deduction overrides were covered in Module 5 — confirm Commissions and Fees looks correct before creating payments.

Contents

Open Payments for a deal

  1. Open Deals or Brokerage Activity and click the deal number link.
  2. Alternatively, open Payments from Transaction Room after the deal is approved.
  3. The page header shows deal number, status badge, and client shortcuts.
  4. Work top to bottom in the Deal Payments area — trust and commission account panels, payment tables, and Close File at the bottom.

If payment buttons are disabled, your role may not include those actions — contact your office administrator.

Record deposits in trust

  1. Open the Deposits panel — Outstanding Deposits lists expected amounts; Received Deposits lists what is already in trust.
  2. Click Edit Deposits to add or change deposit lines — amount, due date, payer, and method.
  3. When Zum EFT is enabled, use Request Deposit to send a deposit request to the payer.
  4. On the trust account panel (heading shows the linked trust account name), click Receive Payment and enter amount, date, payment method, payer, and memo.

If no account is linked, use Add Trust Account or Add General Account on the panel warning first.

Receive funds from conveyance

When conveyance shows an amount owed to your brokerage:

  1. Click Receive Funds in the Deal Payments panel header.
  2. RealDesk opens Receive Payment with payment type, lawyer, payee, and amount prefilled from the conveyance.
  3. Confirm the trust account, review prefilled fields, and save to post the receipt.

Create Payments

When autopay is enabled for your brokerage:

  1. Confirm deposits are received and Commissions and Fees reflects the final commission breakdown (see Module 5 for deduction overrides).
  2. Confirm an account is linked on the panel you are paying from.
  3. Click Create Payments in the Deal Payments panel header.
  4. RealDesk loads proposed payment rows from the commission breakdown — realtor net pays, referral lines, third-party deductions, and brokerage retained amounts.
  5. Review each row's payee, amount, tax, and account before confirming.
  6. Click Create Payments in the modal footer to post the selected lines to the account ledger.

Re-run Create Payments after large commission changes if proposed rows look stale.

Review and edit proposed payment lines

In the Create Payments modal:

  1. Each row shows payee, payment type, amount, tax, and total. Rows with a green E badge include recoverable expenses.
  2. Expand a row to edit payee details, cheque payable name, mailing address, or payment date when the row type requires it.
  3. Change Amount or Tax on editable rows when a one-off adjustment is needed for this payout — compare totals to Commissions and Fees before confirming.
  4. Uncheck rows you are not paying in this batch.
  5. Starting-balance or adjustment rows may appear when prior payments or corrections affect the deal.

Use Send Payment on the account panel afterward for any payee not included in the batch.

Recover outstanding expenses on agent payments

Agent payment rows can include outstanding Expense Manager balances:

  1. In Create Payments, expand a realtor payment row (click the pencil icon on a row with a green E badge).
  2. Open the Deductions and Expenses section under that row.
  3. Review listed expenses and credits — amount and tax prefill from outstanding balances.
  4. Check the expenses to recover on this payment and adjust amounts when partial recovery is intended.
  5. Confirm the payment Total still covers checked deductions and expenses — the modal warns when expenses exceed the payment amount.

Expenses can also be recovered outside autopay via Expense Tracker or other configured recovery methods (see Module 5).

Send individual payments

Use Send Payment when you need one payee outside Create Payments, or when autopay is not enabled:

  1. Click Send Payment on the correct account panel.
  2. Set amount, date, payee (realtor, lawyer, vendor, client, etc.), and payment method (cheque, EFT, internal transfer, and others your brokerage enables).
  3. Complete extra sections when paying lawyers, referrals, or vendors with open bills.
  4. Save — the line appears in the account table and moves to EFT Payments or Cheque Payments when method and payee banking allow.

Confirm the panel Balance covers the payment before saving.

Collapsed deals — deposit release only

Conditional deals stay on Deals until the agent updates status to Firm (or Collapsed) and resubmits for office review. Do not run full commission payout until the deal is firm unless your office policy says otherwise.

Collapsed or rescinded deals follow a shorter path:

  1. Open Payments on the approved collapsed deal.
  2. Click Create Payments on the trust account — only Deposit Release rows are proposed, not commission payouts.
  3. Review each line, set Payee, mailing address, and Cheque Payable when paying by cheque.
  4. Confirm to post release payments, or use Send Payment with Deposit Release for a one-off refund.
  5. When trust balances are $0.00, complete Close File in the next section so the deal no longer shows as open.

Close the file

When commissions and trust activity are complete:

  1. Confirm all trust account balances on Payments are $0.00 — RealDesk blocks Close File while a trust or commission trust account still carries a balance.
  2. Optionally upload closing documents in the Close File panel.
  3. On referral deals, check Close Referral when closing should also close the linked referral record.
  4. Click Close File — RealDesk sets status to Closed and stamps the close date in the header badge.
  5. When your brokerage uses trade-record signing, the signing workflow starts after close and signed PDFs are saved to the deal file automatically — you do not need to print the Trade Record Sheet first.

After close and corrections

A closed deal limits payment actions on account panels. When adjustments are needed:

  1. Click Make Corrections to reopen adjustment mode.
  2. Change payments, commissions, or uploads as required — accounting may reverse and repost entries.
  3. Click Save Corrections to persist changes while in adjust mode.