Commission invoiced and chased while the team sleeps
Every night, Travel Places' operations platform raises the commission invoice for each stay that has ended, sends it to the hotel and chases the ones still unpaid at set intervals, so the accounts team records payments instead of writing reminders.
- Client
- Travel Places
- Built
- Commission invoicing and chasing
- Runs
- Every night
- Alongside
- Supplier payments and client POs
Commission earned is not commission collected.
The problem. Travel Places earns commission from the hotels it books, and it is only collected if someone claims it. Each claim meant raising an invoice after the stay, sending it to the right person at the hotel and following it up weeks later, booking by booking, alongside supplier payments and the purchase orders clients raise.
The approach. We moved that work into the platform the bookings already live in. The invoice raises and sends itself once a stay has ended, the chases follow at set intervals, each one logged on the booking, and the accounts team sees tonight's batch before it goes. When a hotel pays, recording the payment closes the booking.
Travel Places' operations platform, rebuilt with invented data: the Commission Chases screen previewing tonight's chase emails, with counts for the first, second and final chase, and for each booking its hotel, reference, lead traveller, invoice and due dates, the amount, the days since the invoice, the addresses the email goes to and, from the second chase, the booking's owner on copy.
Invoiced without anyone asking
Two days after checkout, a nightly job raises the commission invoice and emails it to the hotel.
Chased on schedule, every night
Up to three reminders from day 46, one per booking per night, each logged on the booking.
Money and POs in one place
Commission received, supplier payments and the client's PO numbers sit on the same platform.
Invoiced, chased and paid, in one place.
Travel Places' operations platform, rebuilt with invented data: tonight's commission chase emails filling stage by stage; a Lisbon hotel's second chase with its recipients and the booking's owner on copy; the Commissions list with the Record Payment dialog, a payment recorded in pounds and the booking closing; and the Pending Payments list with a supplier payment moving from Requested to In Progress to Paid.
Tonight's batch, before it sends
Two days after a stay ends, the commission invoice is raised and emailed to the hotel. From then on the platform does the chasing, at most one email per booking each night.
Accounts can see tonight's batch before it goes, grouped by stage: the first chase from day 46, the second from day 76 and the final one from day 106.
Each chase to the right people
A chase goes to every address the hotel has given: billing, reservations and its other contacts. From the second chase, the booking's owner at Travel Places is copied in, and every email sent is logged on the booking.
Paid, checked and closed
When the money arrives, Accounts record it in pounds against the booking. The platform checks it against what was due, allowing up to 2% short on a sterling invoice and 12% on one in another currency, and closes the booking when it is inside.
Supplier payments, start to finish
Payments out run on the same platform. An agent requests one from the booking, and Accounts check it, send it on and mark it paid: Requested, In Progress, Paid.
Each booking also keeps the client's PO numbers against its sale value, with what is covered and what remains.
What runs every night, and what the accounts team sees
Commission worked out the way Travel Places books, by rate, nights and quantity, with VAT where it applies.
- Commission invoices raised and emailed to the hotel two days after checkout, from the commission mailbox
- Up to three chases at set intervals, never more than one a night for a booking, each logged on the booking
- Tonight's batch on screen before it sends: every email by stage, with who it goes to and who is copied
- Recording a payment checks it against what was expected, and closes the booking when it matches
- Supplier payments from request to paid, with the agent told in Teams when theirs has gone
- Client purchase orders recorded against an event's sale value, with what remains
- Exchange rates refreshed every morning, and exports in the formats the accounts team already used
One booking, from invoice to paid
A Lisbon hotel's commission on a rugby squad's autumn tour, counted in days from the invoice.
An invented booking's commission on a timeline: the invoice raised and emailed to a Lisbon hotel at day 0, a first chase at day 46, a second chase with the booking's owner copied at day 76, and the payment recorded at day 83, when the booking closes.
- Day 0: Invoice raised and emailed. Two days after checkout, the invoice goes to the hotel as a PDF.
- Day 46: First chase. A reminder to the hotel's billing and reservations addresses, logged on the booking.
- Day 76: Second chase, owner copied. The same reminder, with the booking's owner at Travel Places on copy.
- Day 83: Payment recorded. £1,802.50 against EUR 2,186.40: inside the 12% allowed on a euro invoice, so the booking closes.
Where it stands
Commission claims and chases go out every night without anyone writing a reminder, and the accounts team's day starts with payments to record rather than emails to send.
The money sits in the same platform as the bookings, so a booking's commission, payments and purchase orders are on the booking itself.
What we used
- SupabaseThe nightly jobs that raise and chase, and the log of every email sent
- Next.jsThe accounts screens: commissions, chases, payments and fees
- n8nSending from Travel Places' own mailboxes, and telling agents in Teams
- Microsoft 365The mailboxes every invoice and chase comes from
