Suggested Workflow
Follow these ten steps in order:
Step 1 - Configure Management Fees
Management fees determine how much you charge owners and when. Create one or more management fee profiles in the system, then assign the appropriate profile to each property you manage.
If you worked with the onboarding team, this step is likely already complete. Verify your fee profiles are set up in Settings >> Management Fees.
In this video, you’ll learn how to:
Create a management fee profile
Clone a profile to create another
See How to Set Up Management Fees for more information.
Step 2 - Collect Rent
There are two ways to collect rent in Rentvine: automatically and manually.
Rentvine automatically records each payment a tenant makes through the resident portal.
Cash, checks, and money orders paid directly to you don’t go through the portal. Record them manually as tenant receipts.
In this video, you’ll learn how to:
Manually record a tenant receipt and apply it to charges
See How to Record a Payment for more information.
Step 3 - Deposit Money
Every payment received must be recorded in Rentvine as a bank deposit.
Payments that tenants or owners make through their portal are automatically deposited into your bank account and recorded as a settlement.
Cash, checks, and money orders paid outside the portal aren’t deposited automatically. After you take those payments to the bank, record the deposit manually so Rentvine matches your bank account.
In this video, you’ll learn how to:
Manually record a bank deposit and associate it with the proper payments
See How to Record a Deposit for more information.
Step 4 - Work Orders
Throughout the month, you track maintenance requests in Rentvine as work orders.
Requests that tenants submit through the resident portal become work orders automatically.
If a request reaches you another way, you add the work order manually.
Add an estimated cost to a work order, and Rentvine holds that amount back from the owner’s payout to cover the repair. You'll learn more about calculating owner payouts in Step 8 below.
Learn about work orders in the next Getting Started article, or for step-by-step instructions, see How to Add/Edit a Work Order.
Step 5 - Create Bills
Vendors send invoices throughout the month for the work they’ve completed. Enter each one in Rentvine as a bill in Accounting >> Money Out. Adding a bill records what you owe, but it doesn’t send any money yet. That happens in the next step.
For step-by-step instructions, see How to Add, Edit and Delete a Bill.
Step 6 - Pay Bills
With rent collected and deposited, you’re ready to pay what’s owed, beginning with vendor bills. Each bill is paid from the operating balance of the portfolio it belongs to.
The vendor’s default payment method comes from the information on their contact page, so make sure that’s filled in before you begin paying bills.
In this video, you’ll learn how to:
Select bills to pay and post the payments
Send, print, or download payments from a payment batch
See How to Pay Bills for more information.
Step 7 - Post Management Fees and Pay the Management Company (Yourself)
Next, collect your company’s fees. Rentvine calculates each unit's fee according to its management fee profile. Posting those fees creates bills, which you then pay out to your company, the same way you paid vendors in the previous step.
In this video, you’ll learn how to:
Post management fees
Pay out posted fees
See How to Post Management Fees for more information.
Step 8 - Pay Owners
With vendors and your management company paid, it’s time to pay your owners. Rentvine automatically calculates each portfolio’s distributable amount by subtracting unpaid bills, reserves, and open work order estimates from its operating balance.
The owner's default payment method comes from the information on their contact page, so make sure that’s filled in before you begin.
In this video, you’ll learn how to:
Identify portfolios with unbilled management fees or undeposited funds
Review each portfolio’s distributable amount and post owner payments
Send, print, or download payments from a payment batch
See How to Pay Owners for more information.
Step 9 - Send Owner Statements
An owner statement outlines what happened in a portfolio during the reporting period and how the payout was calculated. Statements aren’t generated automatically, so create and publish them regularly to keep your owners informed.
In this video, you’ll learn how to:
Customize owner statement settings
Create, review, and publish owner statements
See How to Send Owner Statements for more information.
Step 10 - Bank Reconciliation
It's finally time to reconcile! This is when you verify that the money in and money out recorded in Rentvine match the deposits and withdrawals on your bank statement.
Watch the Reconciliation Webinar recording, or see How to Complete a Bank Reconciliation for more information.