Forecast the pipeline, not the bank balance
Your bank balance describes deals that closed months ago; your pipeline describes the next two quarters. We build a realtor's cash forecast from the stages the business actually moves through: active listings and buyer clients, conditional deals, firm deals, closings. Firm deals carry near-certain value with a known closing date; conditional deals get weighted for financing and inspection fall-through; everything earlier is coverage, not cash.
Layered on top is the lag. A deal that firms up today typically pays out 30 to 90 days later, after closing and the brokerage's processing, so the forecast maps commissions to the weeks they will actually land. The result is a rolling cash view that answers the only question that matters in a slow stretch: how long can this continue before something has to change?
Seasonality gets built in rather than rediscovered every winter. The GTA market pays agents in two waves, spring and fall, with a trough between and a long one after, so the plan holds back part of each peak to carry the quiet months. That is a budget decision made in May, not a scramble made in January.
A level pay cheque and a standing tax reserve
Volatility is survivable when your personal draw stops mirroring it. The corporation, usually a PREC, becomes the buffer: commissions land on the market's schedule, and you get paid on yours, a fixed monthly amount set from the forecast and your household burn rate. Each commission is split on arrival, HST set aside, a reserve banked for corporate and personal instalments, and only then does the remainder join working capital.
The mechanics are deliberately boring: separate accounts for tax money and operating money, transfers on statement day, and a written rule for when the draw can rise. This is the discipline that makes the deferral strategies in tax planning possible at all. Agents who drain the account in hot months have nothing retained by year-end, whatever the plan said. Agents who pay themselves a salary they chose, in months they chose, do.
Team economics: what a closing actually costs
Once buyer agents, an assistant and a real marketing budget exist, gross commission income stops being a useful number. What matters is what remains after splits, per-listing costs and payroll, and which lead sources earn their spend. We track a short list of numbers, monthly, and every one of them answers a question you already argue about:
| Number | The question it answers |
|---|---|
| Pipeline coverage | Are the next two quarters already sold, or merely hoped for? |
| Cost per closing | What does a deal cost to win, with splits and marketing included? |
| Net margin by lead source | Do referrals, portals or farming actually pay for themselves? |
| Personal burn vs retention | How much can the corporation keep this year? |
| Months of runway | How long could a dead market last before it does damage? |
The decisions follow from the numbers. An assistant hire is a capacity calculation: their cost divided by your margin per deal says how many extra closings the freed-up hours must produce, and the pipeline says whether those closings plausibly exist. A portal subscription that produces expensive closings gets cut, and the budget moves to the source that converts. None of this is exotic finance; it is the same discipline any well-run company applies, pointed at a commission business.
Decisions for when the market turns
GTA markets turn quickly, and the agents who come out of a downturn with market share made their moves early. A Fractional CFO engagement puts those calls on a monthly cadence: whether to cut ad spend or buy visibility while competitors retreat, whether the team survives a slow spring at current size, and when to arrange operating credit, which is before you need it, never after. Each month you get the refreshed cash view, the metrics above with what changed, and a short list of decisions actually due, so the meeting is about choices rather than charts.
The financing side is where our founder's background earns its keep. Walla Assaf spent years in banking and corporate finance before founding the practice, so lender conversations, credit files and Business Financing Advisory come from someone who has sat on the approving side of the desk. Scope and fee are quoted in writing after a free 15-minute discovery call.
