How do you track commissions & splits - New here

Hey everyone,

My dad and I are just getting started building a small real estate business and I’m trying to understand how people handle commissions in the real world.

Right now we’re looking at:

• Different commission rates per agent
• Agent/broker splits
• Deals where multiple agents are involved (team deals / referrals)
• Maybe some tiered structures if someone hits certain volume

If you’re running a small brokerage or team:

• How are you actually tracking all of this today?
• Is it mostly spreadsheets? Your brokerage’s back office software? CRM?
• What’s the most annoying/fragile part of your current setup (mistakes, disputes with agents, time wasted, etc.)?

We looked around and saw that some use spreadhseets and some use other tools which looked expensive to me. I would love your advice as a total beginner.

Thanks in advance!