Payload lets your brokerage collect what agents owe you: monthly dues, fees, and one-off charges, paid by credit card or straight from a bank account (ACH debit). You charge agents one time, in bulk, or on a recurring schedule, decide whether the brokerage covers the processing fee or passes it to agents, and see every payment in one place.
If your company already uses Payload to pay agent commissions, charging agents is ready to go on the same Payload connection. There is nothing extra to set up.
Agents manage their own saved cards and bank accounts, and can pay their own invoices.
What you can do
Charge an agent a single time, several agents at once, or on a recurring schedule.
Collect by credit card or by bank account (ACH debit).
Choose whether the brokerage absorbs the processing fee or passes it to agents.
Cancel a payment that was started by mistake, before it settles.
Set who pays the processing fee
Payload applies a small processing fee to each payment. You decide, for your whole company, whether the brokerage covers that fee or passes it to the agent being charged. You set the default once on your Payload connection.
Good to know: the current fee for each method is shown right next to its toggle, so you can see exactly what credit card and ACH debit cost before deciding whether to pass either along. Both are available to your agents.
When you pass a fee along, the agent's invoice shows a note that the processing fee was included, so the charge is clear to them.
Open your Payload payment gateway connection (Accounting > Payment gateways > Payload).
Find the Payload processing fees section.
Set each toggle the way you want:
Pass credit card processing fees to agents. When on, the credit-card fee is added to the agent's charge. When off, the brokerage absorbs it.
Pass ACH debit processing fees to agents. When on, the bank-debit fee is added to the agent's charge. When off, the brokerage absorbs it.
Click Update.
Both toggles start off, so unless you change them, agents are charged exactly the amount you bill and the brokerage covers the fee. The current fee for each method is shown right next to its toggle, so you always know what you would be passing on.
These toggles set your company default. The same choice also appears on the charge screens (one-time, bulk, and recurring), where it starts from your company default and remembers your last choice, so you can adjust it for a specific charge without changing the company setting.
Charge an agent once
Go to Accounting > Agent Ledger > Actions > Charge agent
Enter the amount
Pick the agent's saved Payload payment method: a credit card or their bank account (ACH debit)
Click Charge
You get an immediate result on the ledger, and the agent receives a payment confirmation. If the agent has not saved a payment method yet, you can still add the charge; it sits on their ledger as an unpaid balance until it is paid.
Charge several agents at once
To bill more than one agent in a single pass, use a bulk charge. Each agent's charge runs against that agent's own saved payment method, and any agent without a saved method has the charge added to their ledger as an unpaid balance.
Set up a recurring charge
For dues or fees that repeat, set up a recurring charge and pick the agent's Payload credit card or bank account. From then on the charge runs automatically on schedule, records on the ledger, and sends the agent a confirmation each time.
Cancel a payment
Started a payment by mistake? You can cancel a Payload payment as long as it has not settled yet.
Find the pending payment in the ledger.
Choose Cancel payment.
The payment is cancelled, any invoices it had been applied to are freed up automatically, and the agent or contact on the payment gets an email letting them know. If the payment has already settled, you will see a message that it can no longer be cancelled.
The Payload Transaction Status report
This is a report under Financial showing every Payload transaction, the charges you collect from agents (credit card, ACH debit) alongside the commission payments you send them, with the payer, amount, status, and cleared date for each.
Filter by status, agent, payment method type, or date to find or reconcile a specific charge. Statuses run pending > processed, or failed/canceled; a failed charge usually just means the agent updates their method.
FAQ
Who pays the processing fee? Whoever you choose. The two toggles on your Payload connection set the company default, and both start off, so by default the brokerage covers the fee and agents are charged exactly what you bill. Turn on a toggle to pass that method's fee to agents. The same choice also appears when you charge an agent, starting from your company default and remembering your last choice, so you can adjust it for a single charge. When a fee is passed, it is added to the charge and noted on the agent's invoice.
Should I bill by card or bank account? Either works. Because the bank-debit (ACH) fee is a flat amount and the card fee is a percentage, ACH is often the cheaper option on larger charges for whoever covers the fee.
A recurring payment failed. What happened? The card was declined or the bank debit did not go through (for example, insufficient funds or an expired card). The charge is marked Failed and the agent is notified; usually the fix is the agent updating their method.
I started a payment by mistake. Can I stop it? Yes, as long as it has not settled. Use Cancel payment on the payment in the ledger. If it has already settled, a refund will be the way to reverse it (coming soon).
Do agents set up their own payment methods? Yes. Agents add and manage their own cards and bank accounts, and can pay their own outstanding invoices.
Can an ACH debit payment be reversed after the money reaches us?
Yes. With ACH debit, the agent's bank has the final say and can reject a payment for up to 3 business days after it is initiated, even after the funds have already landed in your account. If that happens, Payload pulls the amount back out of your brokerage's bank account to cover the reversal. For example: an agent pays on Monday, Tuesday is a processing day, and the money reaches you on Wednesday; if the agent's bank rejects it on Wednesday or Thursday, Payload debits that amount back out of your account. Credit card payments are not subject to this. It is worth waiting out this window before treating a just-received ACH payment as final.