Managing Owner-Related Financial Processes in Rentvine
Rentvine provides robust tools for managing owner-related financial processes, including posting fees, handling credits, and managing suppressed charges. Below are detailed steps and solutions for common scenarios:
Management Fee Configuration and Posting
Management fees will not appear or be withheld from owner payouts until they are billed and posted. To post management fees:
Navigate to the Management Fees posting area in Rentvine.
2. Post the bills for the relevant period.
3. Once posted, the fees will appear in Accounting>Manager> and be automatically withheld from the owner payout.
Handling Owner Credits and Payouts
Applying Credits to Bills
To apply an owner or vendor credit to a bill:
Navigate to the Pay Bills section.
Select the bill you want to pay.
Click Apply Credits at the bottom right.
Choose the credit to apply and save the application.
Post the payment to finalize. The bill will show a blue “Credit Applied” entry, indicating the amount deducted from the total owed.
Troubleshooting Credit Application Issues
Ensure the credit’s ledger matches the bill’s ledger and the payee matches the bill’s payee. If these criteria are not met, the credit cannot be applied.
If a credit was created with the wrong payee, void it and recreate it with the correct payee.
Correcting Overpayments
If a vendor is overpaid and will not return the funds:
Fund the portfolio with the overpaid amount from the management company.
Record an Other Receipt for the incoming amount to restore the owner’s balance.
Handling Cross-Portfolio Adjustments
For scenarios involving multiple portfolios:
Create a vendor credit in the portfolio benefiting from the adjustment and apply it to the vendor’s bill.
Mark the original charge in the other portfolio as paid using the “Other” payment method to avoid cross-portfolio fund movement.
Releasing Held Operating Funds
To release or reduce held operating funds:
Use an Owner Distribution to send the payout to the owner’s payment account.
Alternatively, issue the payout outside Rentvine and record it as a check or other payment.
To disburse an available owner credit:
Void the existing Owner/Vendor credit, as credits are meant to offset bills, not for direct disbursement.
Transfer funds between bank accounts outside Rentvine to fund the payout.
Record the funding in Rentvine by creating an "Other Receipt" on the relevant portfolio/property and tie it to the appropriate income GL account.
Disburse the funds to the owner through the normal payout process.
Chart of Accounts and Rent Portions
To ensure Section 8/Abode rent portions flow to income and payouts:
Edit your Chart of Accounts.
Ensure your Section 8 income is not tracked as prepayment
Be sure to use the add Tenant Receipt option to record these transactions.
Once the receipts are recorded be sure to associate the deposit to reflect when the actual funds were deposited into the bank account in real life.
Suppressed Fees and Owner Statements
Preventing Fees from Appearing on Owner Reports
To hide specific fees from owner-facing reports:
1. Add the related chart of accounts (GL) under Additional Management Fees.
2. Mark the fees as suppressed at the property level.
3. Update existing transactions by editing them to align with the new suppression configuration.
Applying Suppression Globally
To apply suppression across all properties:
Adjust management fee settings/templates to include the desired GL accounts under Additional Management Fees.
Set these accounts to suppressed in each template.
Apply the templates to ensure new or updated properties inherit the suppression settings.
Hiding Suppressed Fees in Ledger Reports
To exclude suppressed fees from the portfolio ledger report view:
Open the portfolio ledger.
Click the green “Edit Report” button.
Exclude suppressed fees from the report settings.
Visibility of Suppressed Fees
Suppressed fees are not visible to owners on their portal or on generated owner statements. They remain hidden from owner-facing documents.
Resolving Suppressed Fee Mismatches
Fixing Negative Suppressed Fee Mismatches
To resolve a negative suppressed fee mismatch:
Negative Mismatches are due to management fee over-billing due to the removal, adjustment, or return of tenant transactions.
Transfer the mismatch amount from your business operating account to your trust account.
Record an "Other Receipt" in Rentvine for the affected property, using the same GL code shown in Diagnostics.
Alternatively, create a vendor credit for the affected property and apply it during the next billing cycle.
Record a Journal Entry to recategorize the suppressed transaction under a different unsuppressed chart of account
To resolve a positive mismatch:Positive mismatches are due to suppressed charges being paid/funded, and no corresponding bill has been added.
1. Post and pay your current month's Management Fees.
2. Utilize the diagnostics hyperlinks to review the transactions if the charges are dated further back than the current or previous period that is allowed in the manager.
Correcting Unresolved Mismatches
If a mismatch persists:
Void the receipt you recorded.
Resuppress the affected GL code under the property’s management fee settings.
Repeat the chosen fix to ensure the mismatch clears.
Lease and Renewal Fee Application
To clear negative leasing fee balances for owners who paid the fee directly:
Record the owner’s payment as an "Other Receipt" on the owner/portfolio in Rentvine.
Pay the leasing fee from those funds to settle the negative balance.
Recording Vendor Refunds
To record a vendor refund check already deposited:
Open Global Search and select Record Other Receipt.
Fill in the fields, including the owner portfolio, vendor name, refund amount, and operating bank account.
Save the receipt. This increases the owner/portfolio balance and makes the refund available as a credit.