Which Back Office Reports Are Most Valuable to Brokers?

Reporting capabilities are a key component of brokerage back office platforms. Reports give brokers the ability to identify top producers, low performers, potential recruits, and even monitor transactions for signs of trouble.

With the end of the year coming up, brokers' thoughts may soon be turning to how their business performed in 2016. However, the typical back office solution contains dozens of different types of reports, and it can be difficult to pin down which ones are most useful.

To help us narrow down which reports brokers should focus on, we turned to Andrew Chishchevoy, founder of back office solution Brokermint. He pointed out over a dozen reports that Brokermint clients use to stay on top of their business. You can find analogous reports in the back office system you currently use.

Reports for Monitoring Agent Performance

"A quality agent report lets brokers see all information about their agents," says Chishchevoy. "You should be able to slice and dice that information to find out what an agent did, when they did it, how much they contributed to the company, and how much they earned. You can basically compare your agents in an apples-to-apples manner to identify top performers and those who may need help."

Chishchevoy recommends using the following reports to keep an eye on agent performance:

• Agent profile report - A list of all agents with full profile information. Use filters to differentiate between active and inactive agents, as well as other criteria.
• Agent production report - See each agent's individual contribution, their commissions earned and sales volume. This is a multi-level report that allows you to identify top producers and their associated transactions.

Reports for Monitoring Transactions

A substantial part of monitoring your agents (and the health of your firm) consists of monitoring their transactions. Look for these or similar reports to accomplish this:

• Brokerage trends report - Get a high level view of what's happening in your business. This report shows the 12-month trend of listings that are new, under contract, closed and cancelled, grouped by month. For larger companies, filters allow you to break down these trends by office.
• Transaction documents report - This report finds transactions with missing documents so that brokers can identify potential issues. You can drill down by agent.
• Reports for active listings, pending sales, cancelled sales, and closed sales - Each of these are individual reports by transaction status. Brokermint software allows you to filter each report by agent so you can identify those with, for example, the most cancelled sales in order to identify coaching opportunities.

Financial Reports

Where's your money going, and what money is owed to you? These reports can help answer these questions, and more:

• Commission disbursement authorization report - This report shows transactions with generated commission disbursement forms. Brokers can use this report to determine which files are missing processed CDAs.
• Payments report - A detailed overview of deductions, like transaction fees, desk fees, E&O fees, etc. Brokers can filter by status, timeframe and agent.
• Earnest money deposit report - Shows earnest money deposits across pending transactions. Companies use this report to reconcile with their escrow account balance.

Reports for Tracking Leads, Equipment, and More

Hard numbers aren't the only thing that your back office solution can track. It can also track where your leads come from, your inventory of lockboxes and yard signs, and even the vendors you most frequently use.

• Lead source report - View all and compare your lead sources, and the ROI for each. "Because this is a contract to close product, we've included the ability to track of your marketing sources," says Chishchevoy. "If you have 20-30 different lead sources, you can analyze all that within the system to figure out what's working, down to the dollars spent and your ROI."
• Lockbox and yard sign - Track your yard sign and lockbox inventory. "We've learned that many, many companies need this," says Chishchevoy. "If they have, for example, 50 active listings, they hypothetically have 50 yard signs and lockboxes installed somewhere. They want to track those so that as soon as they sell, they can go and pick up the sign and lockbox and start using it again."
• Vendor report - Allows brokers to see the vendors used in live transactions, escrow, title, and beyond.

Franchise and Custom Reports

If you're a franchisee, you may have additional reporting needs that 'mom and pop' shops do not. Look for reports just for franchises in your back office solution to make communication with your corporate office easier.

"Brokermint offers franchise reports within our system so brokers don't have to use a third party solution," says Chishchevoy. "Brokermint generates all needed reports in the needed layout that they can use to submit to their corporate office."

And even though most back office platforms offer a wide range of pre-made reports, many brokers may find that they have special needs that necessitate a custom built report. Most solutions providers, including Brokermint, are happy to build these for you for a small fee. Contact your vendor to learn more.

If you'd like to try Brokermint's reports for yourself, they offer a 30-day free trial. RE Technology members who want to continue using the program after trial are eligible for a 10% discount when they sign up at the link above.

Next Steps

• Check out our Brokermint review to learn more
• Explore additional Back Office solutions in our Product Directory
• Read related articles about back office software