The agents' spreadsheet
A good share of your charters may come through agents and brokers. Each agent emails to ask about availability, places an option on a boat for a client, converts it to a booking or lets it lapse, collects payment from the client, and pays you the charter fee less their commission, on their own schedule.
Every agent does this slightly differently. Different commission rates, sometimes different for different boats or seasons. Different payment timing. Some pay the full amount and invoice their commission. Some deduct it. Some place options for a few days, some ask for longer. The office tracks it all in a spreadsheet and a lot of emails, and at the end of the season tries to reconcile what each agent owes and has paid.
Why agent terms are hard to track
| Area | Why it varies |
|---|---|
| Commission rate | Set per agent, sometimes per boat, season or offer |
| Option length | Agreed per agent or per enquiry |
| Payment | Gross with commission invoiced, or net |
| Payment timing | Agent's own schedule, not the guest's |
| Guest details | Passed on late, in the agent's format |
The terms are in contracts and emails, and the person who agreed them is often the only one who remembers them. When an agent's statement does not match yours, finding out why takes a long time.
What agent muddles cost you
- Options that are not released on time, keeping boats off sale.
- Commission calculated at the wrong rate, which is awkward to correct later.
- Payments that cannot be matched to charters because one transfer covers several.
- Guest details that reach the base late, delaying paperwork.
- Agents who feel you are hard to work with and send enquiries to other fleets.
Agents are a sales channel you do not pay for until a booking happens. Being easy to work with, and exact about money, keeps them sending clients.
Options deserve a special mention. An agent who asks for a hold on a popular boat for a July week, and then goes quiet, is effectively taking that week off sale. If the expiry date is only in an email, the boat can sit on option long after the client has booked somewhere else, and a direct guest who wanted that week is told it has gone.
Agent records that track every option and payment
What we build keeps each agent's arrangements in one place and applies them to everything they book.
- Each agent has a record: their commission rates and any rules by boat, season or offer, option length, whether they pay gross or net, and their payment timing.
- Options are recorded with the agent, the client name if given, and an expiry date. The agent is reminded before it expires, and it is released on your calendar if they do not confirm.
- When an option becomes a booking, the charter's price, commission and amount due from the agent are calculated from their terms.
- Agent payments are matched to charters, including payments covering several bookings, using the agent's remittance and your bank feed.
- Guest details and paperwork links are sent to the agent to pass on, or the agent can complete them directly.
- Each agent gets a regular statement of their options, bookings, amounts due and payments, in a format they can check against their own records.
- Commission and payments can be posted to your accounting system, such as Xero, through its API.
Agents who find you easy to work with
Options expire when they should, and agents are reminded in time, which keeps more boats on sale. Commission is right first time because it comes from the agent's terms. Statements match, and when they do not, the difference is easy to find.
The office stops keeping a separate spreadsheet per agent. At the end of the season, the agent position is already reconciled, and you can see which agents actually produce bookings rather than just options.
Do your agent dealings look like this?
- Agent terms live in emails and one person's memory.
- Options are left in place after they expire.
- Commission is calculated by hand in a spreadsheet.
- Agent payments covering several charters are hard to match.
- Agents' statements never quite agree with yours.