Ask an agency owner how much commission is still outstanding this month, and the answer usually begins with "let me check the file."
Not carelessness. A commission simply has a long life with several milestones, while most agencies track it in a spreadsheet.
What a census date is
When a student accepts an offer, the agency has not been paid. The school confirms enrolment at a point called the census date — often several weeks after the course starts. If the student withdraws before it, no commission arises.
So between "the student enrolled" and "the agency has the money" there can be months, crossing a milestone nobody remembers without tracking.
Four stages, and the one usually skipped
Visatory models the life of a commission as four explicit stages:
- Recorded against each school's rate card the moment the student accepts — not remembered when money lands.
- Held through the census date.
- Invoiced to the school.
- Reconciled against what actually arrives.
Stage 4 is the one most often skipped, and the one that catches underpayment. Without it, a few percent short repeated across many files stays invisible.
The more dangerous part: sub-agent splits
For agencies working through a partner network there is a specific cash-flow trap: paying a sub-agent against a commission the school has not transferred, then carrying the gap in your own cash for months.
The principle Visatory applies is simple and effective: the payable is tied directly to the receivable — the agency never owes a partner money it has not itself been paid.
And versioned fee schedules
Student-side service fees are published with a refund policy and versioned. When a fee is disputed, both sides look at the version the student read at signing — not the current one.
Explore it at visatory.com.
