Enhance ability to real-time reconcile payables
Here's a suggestion that will save manager payers a lot of time.
1. The Prop Mgt function step 3 leads to "Pay Owner Distributions," however it adds mgt fees to that. Therefore, you cannot quickly tally that total owed just to owners. Additionally, this info is html format that will not paste into linear columns in Excel (so there's no doing quick math that way).
2. Moving from Prop Mgt to Paybles screen, we have a similar problem. The payables tab is not parsed by "Mgt Fee" type. Therefore, there is no way to align with the Prop Mgt Distributions since Distributions are only for a specific payment type. Therefore, you also cannot quickly "pay" items or do anything such as copy paste into Excel here since the formatting type is also an impediment to that.
3. Therefore, there is still needing someway to quickly check, balance, or reconcile proceeds which is a standard practice to ensure a number of payment or lease / billing entry errors did not occur at any point.
4. The best simple solution might be adding a checkbox feature to Owner Proceeds and Payables section with a running total. For example, if you check 10 of the 20 items, then that running total will add the 10 only just for convenience and troubleshooting for the manager. Otherwise, we have to lift the numbers manually one by one into Excel or similar just to perform a simple adding action.
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Hey, I think there could be a misunderstanding on things. I'll try to address these, but it may help if you can share the overall objective that's looking to be accomplished here.
1. The owner distribution is the last and final value that is to be paid to owners. There should absolutely be no other calculations necessary to determine the payout to owners. If you're having to do any other calculations, something else isn't right. The management fee is taken into account in the distribution amount when calculated. You would not have to deduct the management fee from the owner distribution amount.
2. You should be able to pay these management fees on the "Property Management" page. There isn't a way to filter the Payables based on a GL Account because a payable is a "bill" essentially that may have multiple associated expensed items to various GL Accounts. There is an excel export option at the top right on the Payables page, as well as most pages within the system.
3. This is the purpose of owner statements, they should always zero out for a given period. You can also check the owner balance to see what the remaining amount is.
4. I'm thinking the above should address the need for this now. Can you confirm or let me know where additional questions remain?
Thanks!
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Good info, but here's the rationale.
All mgt companies will have different banking arrangements. For example, we have accounts for individual owners + a general account for receivables. Also, owner needs vary, and never could we have all agree to one remittance once a month, as would be the happy path. So, what we do is as follows:
1. Have multiple bank accounts and must often transfer out of the general which a tenant may pay directly to via a branch without informing us.
2. We must be able to be fluid in ensuring no addition deposits or debits where made. The only way to do this is being able to real-time audit to zero.
3. The software supports #2 above but only on a monthly basis (period basis, to be exact). What we are doing to make the software work is making the "period" not a rental period but an "EFT period," meaning each period will end when an EFT is paid to various owners whose funds came within that period. This is a more complicated application, but it's a reality for us and cost of doing business and pleasing clients.
4. We cannot drill down to zero in a given period easily given our overlaying needs unless we can quickly calculate sums of funds owed.
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One way that the software could support our method is by allowing multiple payment dates for a "monthly" period to where it nets out what is marked as "paid" even when Prop Mgt is re-generated. That add on feature of netting out those items marked as paid would be a terrific feature.
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I think maybe if I understand the greater goal I can offer a best suggestion for the issue. I think that's the issue here with the confusion. That said, most management companies pay out once a month. It's rare that distributions are done more than once a month. I can say this as I've seen thousands of companies over the years and their way of doing things. The more common case where owners want funds faster is that a management company will deposit direct to an owner's account. We don't recommend this either as it presents just as many issues, if not more.
As for the "EFT Period", this is certainly an option here. However, there is another option. You could generate for a period, mark a distribution as paid to an owner, and then re-generate for that same period after recording more revenue throughout the month. The system will take into account any previously recorded expenses to an owner (distributions being one). Maybe try this and see if that helps? You'd just use the "re-generate all" option at the top of the "Property Management" page for this.
Hope that helps!
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The issue is that novice owners need payments in time to pay their mortgages. Experiences landlords like cash for other projects so that want it rather than waiting until the 15h. Also we have many bi-monthly payment arrangements that fall into that.
Your suggestion is what we tried, but you are correct that "regenerate all" overwrites the payables and expenses. But manually adding is not feasible because that would defeat the auto-assessment of mgt fees, etc.
If you have any ideas about the "EFT period" scheme we're going to employ, please share. So far, only issue seems that we must just make the "recorded date" the end date of a period, as any "recorded date" after a period end date will be a bonafide new period with no over-write issue.
But as I said above, it would be great to be able to support multi-payment periods and net them out, as that's a practical application.
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Another option here is that you could run an owner statement report. They're dynamic in nature, meaning hard copies aren't produced, you can just run them to see the revenue/expense rundown. With this, you could see how much money you need to issue to an owner, then issue that amount. Then at the end of the full period, you can run a real statement range where you get your management fees and then the final distribution payable.
I'm assuming you wouldn't need to make it perfect with your management fees for multiple payments within a period? If that's the case, then 2 statement ranges seems appropriate and expected in my opinion. Whereas, if it's not, just a distribution expense where you get the amount from a report should be sufficient as an "advance" to the owner mid-period.
Let me know if that may work better for you. I'm happy to elaborate if needed too.
As for the a recorded dates within a period. I would leave the recorded date within that period, else it won't appear on the statement for that period.
Thanks!
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You wouldn't have to remember b/c you'd add the expense within the system expensed out to that owner. Then, when you went to run your statements for the period, it'd take that into account and calculate it accordingly. It'd show the other expensed distribution on the statement as well, offering you an itemized statement. Maybe try it out. I think that could also work well depending on what you'd prefer.
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That's correct. I'm just suggesting the Reports > Owner Statement; running a report there for the specific owner, getting a number on what's to owned and manually recording a distribution for that amount. Then, at the end of the period, run the real, hard copy statements with the management fees, etc. (Accounting > Property Management).
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We opted to us periods as EFT periods, since manual entry of that many expense EFTs would be cumbersome. That said, here are two things we foresee as needed:
1. Put the total of owner proceeds on the Prop Mgt generation for a period, just as the Mgt fees includes a total (see image). This is important because we can also look back per period and quickly reconcile period grand total. It is also important for being able to real time spot check reconcile deposits and bank balances. If possible, please add total:
Pay Owner Distributions
as done here:
- Est. fees for period:
- $X,XXX
2. I'm guessing we'll make 2 to 6 EFT remittance periods per month, but also could be more b/c of different fee structures. That said, my period drop-down menu will soon be massively populated, so perhaps a nested menu by month or quarter / year and sort the list from in descending order (most recent date / period always top of menu) is the best answer for that.
totalmgtfees.PNG
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