Do you do all the Invoicing and then pay the Service Provider as a Vendor? So basically the Svc Provider is a Vendor of yours?
If so, I'd create a Sub Account under Income that is called Commissions Earned or something like that.
(If this is the only type of Income the company will *ever* make, you could just use the Income Acct.). And I'd create a second Sub Account called something like Service & Consulting Income.
Next I'd create Service Item called [your company name] Commission and point that item to the above Commissions Earned.
You will probably want to create Service Items for the contractors work. I would go with generic entries like Computer Consulting, Web Design, Computer Repair, etc. Whatever the generic services you're going to provide. You can then add the name of the company that actually provided the service at the end of the Description Line when you create the Invoice or remove the generic description all together and just put in the Company Name. It's not mandatory, but it would be a good thing for the Customer to see to realize this is for the work ABC Computer did for them.
When the invoice is paid, the Commission goes to your Commissions Earned Income Acct. And the other Income goes to the generic Services & Consulting Income.
For the Expense Account(s) where the Vendors are charging you. Again you can go with a single External Services Expense Acct. Or you can start with something like that as a Parent Acct and add more specific Sub Accounts if you want to easily see the differences.
If the people doing the work are not "Vendors" but you're just passing the money through to them. The you'll need to set up some Liability Accounts to show their money coming in and then you paying it out to them. I would have a talk with your Tax Accountant to see how they want this set up to make sure it does not appear to be Income to you. And if you are going to charge Late Fees, also discuss this when the Accountant. Do you get a cut of the Late Fee (Income) or does it all just pass through to the people doing the service.
ADDED: Giving it more thought, I'm thinking you probably cannot use Liability Accounts. I'm sure the IRS and probably your City and or State Tax Collectors are not going to let that slide. It would be to easy for taxes to get under reported. Again, check with your Tax Accountant. If you were not thinking about counting the Svc Providers as Vendors and all the money paid to you as Income, you may want to confirm that. I doubt that business plan is going to fly. But I just do Consulting for myself, so my business has to account for all the money going in and out.
