Australian Real Estate Chart of Accounts for Xero (Commission + Vehicle)

A real estate agent’s books are built around two lines: the commission that comes in and the car and marketing that go out. This is an Australian real estate chart of accounts built for Xero, with commission, recovered marketing, property marketing, and vehicle accounts coded for the way an agency actually trades. It ships as a readable reference (CSV) and a Xero import CSV.

Commission and recovered marketing

The revenue side has two parts that must not be netted. Commission income defaults to GST on Income, because a registered agent charges 10% GST on commission and registers once turnover reaches A$75,000. Recovered marketing income gets its own account, because marketing recharged to a vendor is income, not a reduction of the expense. Keeping the recovery separate from the spend is what lets you see both the gross marketing cost and what was passed on, with the right GST on each.

Property marketing and styling

Marketing is the defining cost of selling a listing. Property marketing and advertising (portal listings, photography, signage, brochures) and styling and staging sit in cost of sales, defaulting to GST on Expenses. These are the costs the recovered-marketing income is usually recharged against, so the two accounts work as a pair: spend in cost of sales, recovery in income.

The vehicle line, and FBT

High mileage between listings and inspections makes the car central. Motor vehicle running costs default to GST on Expenses and carry a note recording the choice every agent faces: the cents-per-kilometre method pays 88 cents per kilometre for 2025-26, capped at 5,000 business kilometres per car, above which the logbook method lets you claim the business-use percentage of all running costs. The note also flags that an agency-provided car available for an employee’s private use can attract fringe benefits tax, which is a cost on the agency rather than the agent. The chart gives the question a home; it cannot keep the logbook for you.

Licences and statutory fees

Agent licensing and registration is a real cost, but government licence fees are commonly GST-free or outside scope, so the agent licences account defaults to BAS Excluded with GST on Expenses as the alternative. The account deliberately does not assume a claimable credit, with a note to check each invoice. Statutory charges vary between states and between the agency licence and an individual representative’s registration, so a single blanket code would be wrong as often as right. Coding each fee from the invoice keeps the BAS clean and stops a non-claimable government charge quietly inflating your input credits.

How to use it

1. Open the CSV: each account carries its class, a default Xero GST code, the alternatives, and a note.
2. In Xero, go to Accounting, then Chart of accounts, then Import, and upload into a demo organisation first.
3. Confirm the rates exist in your org.
4. Brief whoever codes income that commission and recovered marketing are separate accounts, and set up the vehicle method before the first car claim.

The day-to-day load is fuel, marketing, and software receipts captured between inspections, which is what capture removes:

• Hubdoc pulls recurring portal and software invoices into the file.
• ExpenseFlow captures each receipt and tax invoice from a phone photo or forwarded email, attaches the source, and posts it into Xero, while keeping the marketing and running-cost receipts with the transaction and flagging vehicle costs as needing a business-use apportionment and a possible FBT question.
• Dext applies supplier rules for repeat marketing suppliers.

Choosing cents-per-km versus logbook, keeping the logbook, and calculating FBT stay with you or your accountant. For the full picture, see the Australian real estate expenses guide. On QuickBooks instead? See the Australian real estate chart of accounts for QuickBooks.