Managing / Financial Reporting / FRS FAQ’s
Personnel Roster / Team Roster
Q: How can I add or remove an agent/team and when will the changes be reflected?
All adjustments to the roster can be made on rlpNetwork™. Go to “Manage People” under “Managing” on the home page and select “Manage Users” or “Manage Teams”. The changes made will be reflected on all reports the following day.
Q: Why is it important to keep our roster information updated?
Keeping your roster information updated regularly, especially prior to the billing date (see Billing/Locking of Invoice section below) ensures your monthly Invoice is accurate and complete. Additionally, the roster information in rlpNetwork is used for awards such as recruiter of the year and for the determination of agent awards.
Q: What is a billable team lead on the Manage Teams page?
A team can have more than one team lead. The billable team lead is the team member designated as the team lead who is assigned all of the GCI generated by that team. Thus the GCI of the billable team lead is used for billing and awards purposes. This means that all team members, other than the billable team lead, will show a GCI of $0.
Q: I can’t make a billable team non-billable, or vise versa – can you give me the authority to do so?
Once a team, whether billable or not billable, has trades, its billable status cannot be changed, as this would result in a series of adjustments. The only way to change a team’s billable status is to contact help@royallepage.ca and we will process the request.
Q: I can’t change the billing lead of a team to a different team member – can you give me the authority to do so?
Billable Team leads cannot be changed once there are trades associated with the team, as this would result in a series of adjustments. The only way to change a billable team lead to a different team member is to contact help@royallepage.ca and we will process the request.
Q: When a team decides to disband, how is it determined which trades belong to a team or an individual agent?
The Close Date of the trade determines whether a trade goes to an individual or the team lead.
Q: Why can’t I delete a team?
If a team has trades assigned to it, then deleting it would reassign all trades back to the individual agents. This would result in many adjustments. In order to closely monitor and reduce the impact of adjustments, any adjustments to teams are to be made by head office. Therefore, in order to adjust teams, please contact customer care at help@royallepage.ca.
Q: What is a back office number?
The back office number is a unique ID number assigned to each agent within the accounting system used by the Brokerage.
Q: Where do I enter the Back Office number?
A back office number can be entered on each agent’s profile under “Manage People/Manage users/agents profile/contact information tab. If a person has more than one back office number, it is to be entered in a comma-separated format (zzz,xxx).
On the FRS reports, back office numbers are prefixed by 0s. This is strictly a system requirement, and the leading 0s do not need to be included when back office numbers are added to a user’s profile.
Upload / Trade Entry
Q: When is the deadline to upload/enter trades for our month end file?
All file uploads and trades entered in the Financial Reporting System are to be completed prior to the billing date (8th day following the Invoice month – described below under Billing/Locking of Invoice). On the billing date, a final invoice will be prepared by FRS. Payment is due two days subsequent to that (10th day). Uploading/entering trades prior to the billing date will allow you to process payment in a timely manner to avoid interest on late payment charges, which begin accruing on the 11th day of the month.
Q: File upload errors and what do they mean?
File upload errors are indication of the data uploaded being inaccurate (i.e. back office number on file does not match rlpNetwork) or incomplete (i.e. file uploaded is empty). The error message received is to notify you of the specific error that requires adjustment prior to processing the file. Therefore, read the message carefully and contact Customer Care at help@royallepage.ca for any assistance required in correcting the error and re-uploading the file.
Q: Do I need to re-create a new LoneWolf file once I have made a correction to an error after an upload?
Whether you need to re-create a new LoneWolf file or to re-upload the previous file depends on the nature of the error.
If the error with the upload was because of back office numbers not matching, or an error related to the processing of the file, then you may re-upload your file, or upload a new Full file once all necessary corrections are made within rlpNetwork.
If the error was caused by a corrupt file that was not generated from the back office system properly, or the file is missing required information, then a new Full extract must be re-created and uploaded.
Q: How is the error out of sequence corrected?
If the sequence of your uploads is out of order, you can either upload a full file or you can upload the incremental file(s) that will close the gap in the sequence. DO NOT manually edit or rename your files, as this will result in unpredictable and inaccurate reports which may require a significant amount of your time to reconcile or fix.
Q: What do you do when the following error message is received: “Back Office number does not exist in rlpNetwork”
This error message is normally accompanied by the agent’s name. In most cases you need to add the specified Back Office Number to the stated individual’s profile within rlpNetwork. If for some reason that does not work, then a request should be sent to Customer Care at help@royallepage.ca for further assistance.
Q: What do you do when there is an error message showing a trade associated to an active agent on your file who is no longer active?
Contact Customer Care at help@royallepage.ca.
Q: What do you do when the Invoice has not captured a fee for an assistant who became a paying agent?
Contact Customer Care at help@royallepage.ca.
Q: What is the “Within last 30-day” search in Trade Entry form represent?
This function will list all trades that have closed within the previous 30 days. Note that this is the previous 30 days from the day the search has been conducted, and not the previous month.
Invoice & Excel Reports
Q: Where can I find the details for the amounts presented on my Invoice?
There are various excel reports available and you can access them by going to “Financial Reporting” under “Managing” on the home page. From the drop down, click on “Excel reports”. From there you can select excel reports by month, year and location.
Q: Where does the data within the excel reports come from?
The information within the excel reports are directly obtained from your upload/trade entry and most up to date roster information. The total balances within the excel report will match your Invoice.
Q: Where can I find the specific trade which caused an agent to reach his or her cap?
The “full roster and transaction details” reports within the “excel reports” page on rlpNetwork has all the details associated with Fixed fees and Variable fees for the month, year and location selected. You may filter the “fees capped” column to see all the trades that have capped and the date when they capped. The capped amount is reflected in your total Variable fees owing within your Invoice.
Q: How should I adjust an incorrect trade allocation to an agent who now shows as capped?
To allocate the trade to the correct agent and adjust the capping error, please adjust the data in your back office system (i.e. Lonewolf/Gimmi) and re-upload. If you are using trade entry, make the correction on the trade-entry form. If the change is processed after the billing date, it will be captured as an adjustment in the following month’s invoice and the adjustment will be displayed by type (i.e. Variable fee vs. Fixed fee) and the month the adjustment relates to.
Q: How can I reflect the changes I made to my roster information (i.e. termination of an employee) in my current Invoice?
All adjustments to roster or file uploads/trade entry after the billing date (see below for the definition of billing date) are reflected as an adjustment in the following month’s Invoice. If the adjustments are made prior to the billing date, the Invoice will reflect those changes in the current Invoice.
Q: What are the different excel reports available and what information do they contain?
The following excel reports are available to provide you with the necessary details to help you understand your Invoice balances:
- Full Roster and Transaction Details – This is a comprehensive report, which contains ALL the details associated with the Variable fees and Fixed fees. This report lists each agent, trade number and capping information used in computing Fixed fee and Variable fee in the Invoice.
- Agent Commission Details – This report isolates the agent commission details from the full roster and transaction details to make the reconciliation of the commission balances in these reports with commission in your back office system reports easier.
- Agent Commission Summary – This report summarizes the Agent Commission Details report noted above by agent.
- Back Office Number Matching – This report provides a list of agents with back office numbers that is different in the uploaded file from their back office system compared to what has been entered in rlpNetwork.
- New Hires and Terminations – This report provides the list of agents added or terminated in rlpNetwork within the selected month specifying the date the agent was hired or terminated.
- Roster and Commission Summary – This report summarizes the Fixed fee and Variable fee owing by the agent in the month.
- Adjustment Details – Fixed Fees – This report details the Fixed fee adjustments associated with roster information reported in the Invoice by month.
- Adjustment Details – Variable fees – This report details the Variable fee adjustments associated with trades reported in the Invoice by month.
Q: How long does it take for a file to upload and generate an invoice?
The timing of when an Invoice is generated depends on the uploaded file size and how many files are on queue already. It could take a few minutes to approximately 24-hours. For trade entry forms, the trade entered is processed and a DRAFT Invoice is generated within a few minutes to approximately 24-hours.
Billing/Locking of Invoice
Please refer to the training site for examples of scenarios associated with the NEW automated process of finalizing an Invoice.
Q: When does the NEW automated Invoice locking mechanism take effect?
The automated process will take effect on February 8th, 2019. This means, your financial report for the month of January 2019 including January closed trades and agent count (roster) will be automatically locked on February 8th, 2019. As of February 8th, 2019 the “Verify” button will no longer be available.
Q: What does the NEW automated Invoice locking mechanism do?
The NEW automated Invoice locking mechanism eliminates the manual process of “Verifying” an Invoice. Effective February 8, 2019 the Invoice is locked at a specified date and time (8th day following the Invoice month at 11:59pm or the “billing date”) and deemed FINAL. Franchisees should upload/enter trades and update their rosters prior to the billing date to ensure their complete monthly financials are captured on the Invoice generated. Any changes the uploaded or entered trades made after the billing date will be captured as adjustments on a future Invoice.
Q: What is the Invoice month?
Invoice Month is the month Royal LePage has rendered services to your brokerage. Fixed fees and Variable fees for the Invoice Month will be billed on a billing date and are due the 10th day after the end of the Invoice Month.
Q: What is the billing date?
The billing date is the date on which the Invoice (reflecting the Fixed fees and Variable fees for the Invoice Month) is prepared. This is when a FINAL Invoice is generated, which is at 11:59 p.m. on the 8th day following the Invoice month (described above).
Q: What is a DRAFT and a FINAL Invoice?
A DRAFT Invoice consists of data from your upload/trade entries as well as your roster on rlpNetwork from the 9th day of the Invoice month to the next billing date. DRAFT Invoices are watermarked and are subject to change as a result of changes made to the trade/roster information since the date of your last FINAL Invoice. In addition, the Fixed fee on the DRAFT Invoice reflects the Fixed fees that will be due at the end of the month based on the most recent roster information.
The FINAL Invoice consists of data from the latest DRAFT Invoice. Only a copy of the FINAL version of the Invoice will be retained and archived in FRS.
Q: How will this automated process impact our uploads and trade entry?
If you are currently not uploading/entering trades and updating your roster information prior to the billing date, you will need to adjust the timing of your upload and trade entry to ensure your monthly closed trades and roster information is captured accurately and completely by the billing date.
Q: As a Franchisee what do we need to do to ensure our financials are reflected accurately and completely under this new process?
The Franchisee is the owner of the financials and as this is a self-reporting system, your brokerage is responsible for ensuring the data uploaded/entered is accurate and complete, therefore prior to uploading/entering data and updating roster information please review your financials and subsequently review the DRAFT Invoice. To ensure your monthly financials are captured in your billing, please make sure you have completed uploading/entering data and updating roster information prior to the billing date.
Q: How is the Fixed fee computed on the Invoice?
The DRAFT Invoice will be updated daily until the billing date to reflect the most up to date roster information.
To ensure accurate and complete billing of Fixed fees, please review your roster information on rlpNetwork and make the necessary adjustments prior to the billing date, at which point the Invoice will be deemed FINAL.
Q: Will there be a Variable fee if I uploaded after the billing date?
The Variable fee uploaded after the billing date associated with the most recent Invoice month will be reflected in the next month’s Invoice as an adjustment, which will be displayed by type of fee adjustment and the month to which the adjustment relates.
Q: I have never uploaded a file or entered a trade via manual entry form, what should I expect when I upload or enter a trade via manual entry form for the first time on February 8, 2019?
For those who that have never uploaded a file or entered a trade via manual entry form, they currently have no invoices on FRS. If your first upload is on February 8, 2019, FRS will generate a draft invoice consisting of your January 2019 month end transactions and roster information and deem the invoice FINAL on February 8, 2019 at 11:59 p.m.
Additionally, FRS will create invoices for all the months you previously had no invoices for going back to your latest audit date, which will include your monthly fixed fees and variable fees.
On the next billing date (March 8, 2019), upon your upload or trade entry via manual entry form, FRS will generate an invoice consisting of your 2019 February month end transactions and roster information. It will also include adjustments, if you have changed trade or roster information associated to months prior to February 2019.
Q: I have uploaded files or entered trades via manual entry form, however I have NOT verified my invoices in the previous months. What happens to those invoices?
All Unverified invoices on FRS will be automatically locked (“verified”) on February 8, 2019 at 11:59 p.m.
Q: I have uploaded files or entered trades via manual entry form and verified all my invoices in the previous months. What happens to those invoices?
There will be NO changes to invoices that have been verified in the previous months. However, if there are changes to trade or roster information in the new file upload or manual entry form relating to previous months, it will be processed as an adjustment on your 2019 January invoice.
Q: When does Interest charges begin?
Interest charges begin on the due date which is 10 days after the invoice month. If you fail to upload/enter trades via manual entry form prior to the billing date, interest will be calculated as if you had uploaded the information correctly. Therefore, in making a payment by the 10th of the month you will avoid interest charges on the balance owing for the previous month.