Realtors & Property Management Edition

For brokerages closing deals and managers running doors — often the same business. Deals carry their commission math from first entry to the posted closing journal; rentals get a protected deposit ledger, one-click rent invoices, and a rent roll that reflects what's truly held. The escrow machinery underneath is the same guarded trust engine that runs our Law Firms edition.

Switching It On

Bundled with Pro and every tier above — nothing extra to buy. Once your license qualifies, 🏠 Real Estate shows up in the sidebar on its own. Missing on Starter? Settings → License Management handles the upgrade.

The Deal Pipeline

Every closing-to-be is a deal. Hit + New Deal and capture the address, which side you're on (listing / buyer / dual), the client, the agent, the numbers, and key dates. Numbers like RE-2026-0001 assign themselves per year unless you type your own scheme.

Agents live in Settings → Sales Reps with a default split tier each — check "create matching vendor" when adding one so their 1099 trail starts immediately.

Split Math

The split panel recalculates as you type, and the same waterfall posts at closing:

1. Sale price × your commission rate = gross commission (or enter a flat gross for negotiated deals).
2. Any referral fee is deducted first.
3. The agent's percentage applies to the remainder — pulled from their tier, overridable per deal.
4. What's left is the brokerage net.

Earnest Deposits

Earnest money is the buyer's, full stop — so Kantivo won't let it near your operating account. Record it on Escrow & Deposits → 💰 Deposit Earnest Money: it lands in the flagged escrow account, offset by a liability, with a personal ledger per buyer that can never go negative and never pays anyone else's obligations.

What Posts at Closing

Clicking close confirms the split and writes a single journal: gross commission to income with a matching receivable, the agent's cut to Commissions Payable tagged to the agent, and any referral to the same payable tagged to the referring vendor. From that second your books know exactly who is owed what — and the deal locks against edits, because the ledger already moved.

Commission Checks

When the title company pays, receive $ on the deal clears the receivable into your chosen bank account. A deal accepts exactly one receipt.

Busted Deals

fell through retires a pending deal without touching the ledger. Held earnest money goes back to the buyer via ↩️ Refund on the Escrow tab — their ledger returns to zero, cleanly recorded.

Escrow Done Right

One-time setup: add the escrow bank account in the Chart of Accounts, flag it on the Escrow tab, and Kantivo creates the offsetting "Funds Held in Trust" liability itself. The tab's scoreboard shows the bank balance, the total owed to clients and tenants, and whether the two agree — which they always should.

Buildings & Units

+ Property takes a name, an address, and the unit list in one go ("1A, 1B, 2A, 2B"). Behind the scenes, each property registers as a value in the built-in Property dimension — the key to profit-by-property reporting later. More units come via + unit whenever.

Setting Up a Lease

+ New Lease offers only vacant units. Choose the tenant (a client record), the monthly rent and due day, the term, and the deposit amount. One active lease per unit, enforced — the unit reopens automatically when the lease ends.

Tenant Deposits

The rent roll's collect deposit action puts the tenant's deposit into the escrow account under their own name. It stays their money — visible as a liability, untouchable past their balance — until move-out resolves it. Collecting twice on one lease is blocked.

Monthly Rent Billing

One click of invoice rent drafts that month's invoice — tenant, building, unit, and month on the line, coded to Rental Income, tagged for the property P&L. Review and send it from the regular Invoice Center. Kantivo refuses a second invoice for the same lease-month, so the busy first-of-the-month can't double-bill anyone.

Reading the Rent Roll

Every active lease on one screen: unit, tenant, rent, term — and the deposit actually sitting in escrow, not just the number written on the lease. If a deposit was never collected, the roll says so, with the collect action right there.

Move-Outs

move-out settles everything at once. List the deductions (cleaning, repairs); Kantivo moves them to operating as Damage & Cleaning Recovery income with descriptions preserved, refunds the balance to the tenant with the check number recorded, ends the lease, and frees the unit. Deductions beyond the held deposit? Rejected — the ledger won't let you keep money you don't hold.

Profit by Property

Run any income statement in Reports Studio filtered by the Property dimension and you have that building's P&L. Rent invoices tag themselves; tag the building's expenses (repairs, insurance, taxes) with the same dimension as they're entered and the report fills in both sides.

Year-End Agent 1099s

Because agents are Sales Reps with linked vendor records, every commission payment accrues to the right 1099 all year. Reports Studio → 1099 Summary totals each agent automatically — no January spreadsheet session.