A sub-agent account at a recruiting agency is best kept as three separate streams: what each passenger the agent brought is billed, the money that actually moved between the office and the agent, and anything the office bought from the agent. The running balance is simply those three added together, and when each line names its passenger, both sides can follow it.
Who sub-agents are, and why their accounts get messy
Most agencies receive workers through local agents who find the passenger, collect money from them and settle with the office over time. One agent may bring a dozen passengers in a season, pay in pieces, take an advance, and sell the office an air ticket for one of the workers.
Each of those is reasonable. The problem is that they arrive mixed together, on different days, often in cash, and the record is a notebook entry with an amount and a name.
The three streams
What the agent is billed
For each passenger, the agreed charges: processing fee and any other fees the office bills through the agent. These are amounts owed, not money received. Raising a fee makes the agent owe more.
What actually changed hands
- Money received from the agent reduces what they owe.
- Money paid to the agent — an advance, a refund, a settlement — increases what they owe, because the office has handed money over.
These are real movements of cash or bank money, and each should name the account it went through.
What the office bought from the agent
Sometimes the office buys something through an agent, such as a worker's air ticket. That is a debt the office owes the agent, and it pulls the balance the other way. Keep it separate from the fees, even when it relates to the same passenger.
How the running balance works
Pick one sign convention and never break it. A common one: a positive balance means the agent owes the office.
- Start with the opening balance.
- Add everything billed for the agent's passengers.
- Subtract money received from the agent.
- Add money paid to the agent.
- Subtract anything the office bought from the agent.
The result is where you stand. Write the convention down where everyone who enters transactions can see it.
Habits that keep the account clean
- Name the passenger on every payment. A receipt with no passenger can still reduce the balance, but it cannot be shown against a file, and that is what disputes are about.
- Record advances as advances. Not as a reduced fee, not as a note in the margin.
- Keep the voucher. A photo of the deposit slip or bKash confirmation, attached to the entry, ends most arguments.
- Handle cancellations deliberately. When a file is called off, decide which amounts reverse and record each reversal against that passenger.
- Settle regularly. Print each active agent's statement on a fixed schedule and agree it while the entries are recent.
What a good statement shows
A statement you can hand to an agent should list, for a chosen date range:
- their opening position
- each passenger billed through them, with the charges
- each payment in either direction, with the date and passenger
- anything bought from them
- the closing balance, which follows from the lines above
If the agent can trace every line, the conversation is about one entry rather than about the total.
How EmbassyFile records it
In EmbassyFile, available on the Business and Enterprise plans, each passenger is linked to the agent who brought them, and the passenger's income heads are what that agent is billed. Agent transactions are recorded as money received from or paid to the agent, against a passenger, with an optional voucher image or PDF. Air tickets bought from an agent count in that agent's favour. The agent-wise report shows every agent's position for a date range, and each agent's statement itemises the files, tickets and payments behind the figure, ready to download as a PDF.
Key points
- Keep three streams apart: amounts billed, money moved, purchases from the agent.
- Choose one sign convention for the balance and write it down.
- Name the passenger on every payment and keep the voucher.
- Print and agree statements regularly, while entries are fresh.
Frequently asked questions
How do I track advances given to a sub-agent?
Record each advance as money paid to the agent, on the day it is paid, against the passenger it relates to if there is one. It then increases what the agent owes until it is settled.
Why does my agent’s balance not match theirs?
Usually because some payments were recorded without the passenger they were for, or an advance was noted informally. Go through the statement line by line and attach each untagged entry to its file.
Should air tickets bought through an agent be on their account?
Yes, if the office owes the agent for them. Record the purchase as a debt to that agent, separate from the fees they are billed.
How often should we settle with sub-agents?
Regularly enough that both sides still remember the entries. Many offices print statements monthly and before any busy season.