Which Back Office Platform is Right for Your Brokerage?

Last week, we took a look at the first of two back office solutions for brokerages. Today, we're highlighting brokerWOLF, a back office and accounting solution from our 2017-18 Technology Guide.

What is brokerWOLF?

brokerWOLF is an back office and accounting solution from Lone Wolf. The program is centerpiece of a suite of brokerage productivity tools that includes everything from transaction management, to an intranet, to website management. With brokerWOLF, brokers can manage listing inventory, transactions, commissions, agent billing, accounts payable and receivable, and more.

There's a trend today of back office tools integrating with third-party accounting solutions like Quickbooks. But because brokerWOLF itself was built specifically to handle a real estate brokerage's finances, brokers have access to helpful features that aren't available in general accounting programs, like:

• Escrow/Trust Accounting - Check preparation, deposit calculation, account reconciliation
• Accounts Receivable - Tracks all A/R activity from the transaction record; post cash receipts.
• Accounts Payable - Invoice entry for office expenses as well as recovery of expenses from agents; General Account check preparation.
• Commission Accounts Payable - Tracking of all other broker activity from the transaction record.
• Commission Escrow Accounting - Commission escrow activity on all transaction activity; commission escrow check preparation; escrow account reconciliation.
• Agents Commission/Expenses - Commission check preparation, including deductions; expense activity including posting of direct expenses, recurring and group expenses; reparation of monthly and yearly expense statements.
• Staff Payroll - Preparation of staff payroll checks.
• Financial Activity - Track all transactions, A/R, A/P, agent expense and commission; reconciliation of the General Bank Account; analysis of budget and actual financial information; preparation of financial statements for any date range.

The program is more than just accounting, however. The back office side of brokerWOLF can track all of your listings, all of your agents, their commission plans, tasks, and more.

With all of that data about your business residing in the program, brokerWOLF can turn out some powerful reports that give your deep insight into the health of your business. These include standard financial reports, like an Annual Income Statement, as well as Accounts Payable reports and Agent Expense statements

brokerWOLF also offers reports that let you calculate the value that individual agents bring to your firm. For example, you can see all of your agents ranked by commission earned, see which agents are cutting their commissions, and even see how much business your firm is doing with outside agents--a great recruiting tool!

Is brokerWOLF right for your firm?

While brokerWOLF can scale to any size brokerage, larger firms are likely to get the most out of it. It's a robust, but often complex product. Smaller firms may be better off going with a leaner (and less expensive) product.

One thing to keep in mind when evaluating brokerWOLF is whether your company already uses or plans to use other programs from Lone Wolf. If so, brokerWOLF will pair with the seamlessly and act as the main hub that the others plug into.

And, as of this month, Instanet Solutions is part of the Lone Wolf family, so if your brokerage uses Instanet products, or they're offered by your MLS, brokerWOLF should definitely be on your radar.

Next Steps

• Visit the Lone Wolf website to learn more
• Download your free copy of the Technology Guide to explore more technology solutions
• Explore more back office solutions in our Product Directory
• Read articles about Back Office management