Can I give my sub agents a credit limit so they can book now and pay me at the end of the month?

Yes, this is one of the standard ways agency software handles sub agents, and it is usually set per agent rather than as one rule for everybody. You give each sub agent a limit, and when they confirm a booking the cost is taken off their available balance instead of asking them for card payment at that moment. As they settle up with you, you record the payment against their account and their balance frees up again. If an agent reaches their limit, the portal stops them from confirming anything further until they pay or until you raise the limit yourself.

Alongside the limit you normally get a running statement for each agent, showing the bookings they made, the cancellations and refunds, the payments you have received and what is still outstanding. That is what saves most of the manual work, because you are not keeping a separate spreadsheet and trying to match it against bookings later. You can also mix the two methods, so some agents work on credit while newer ones pay by card or bank transfer for each booking until you trust them.

The honest limit is that credit is your own money at risk, not the supplier's. The supplier still has to be paid for the ticket or the hotel at the normal time, so a generous limit means you are funding those bookings until the agent settles. Some ticketing and instant purchase situations also need payment taken up front regardless of the agent's credit, and exactly which features you get can depend on your plan.

Before you open credit to anyone, decide what limit you are comfortable carrying for each agent and how often you will ask them to settle, then ask us to walk you through how that is set up in your portal.