Payment Processing Settings | Preferences

Once you have been approved for a merchant account, it is important to configure the default settings to your specific business needs. 

Payment Processing Settings

Getting to your payment processing settings is easy. 

In your Rentec Direct account:

1. Click Settings.
2. Click on the Online Payments option.

You will be presented with the screen below.  Please verify that these settings are configured to your satisfaction. The information below this graphic will help guide you through each setting to understand why these configurations are important to consider.

Processing Settings Explained

Email Notification Address
Enter the email address where you would like us to send the payment notifications.

Important Note: If this is left blank or switched to NO, you will not receive any notifications such as payment failure notices. 

Tenant Fee Income Category
The system default for tenant income is 4000 Rental Income. If you prefer a different income category, you will need to create one in the system. 

Information for creating new categories can be found here:  Setting Up Categories | Chart of Accounts

Default Tenant Payment Policy
You have a choice of policy that will apply when a tenant pays online. 

Allow Any - allows any amount.

Require Rent - allows one-time transactions equal to or greater than a tenants default rent amount, unless they have a balance for the period less than their rent amount. For recurring transactions, the amount must be no less than their rent amount. 

Required balance - allows one-time transactions of amounts equal to or greater than tenants balances. For recurring transactions this setting has the same effect as Require Rent. 

You may override this selection on a per tenant basis within the tenants payment processing settings. 

Credit Card Settings

Enable Credit Card Payments
If you applied for credit card processing, selecting the  Enable Credit Card Payments in Tenant Portal option to YES, will allow your tenants to start using a credit card to pay rent. 

Accept Card Payments
Check the box next to each card type of credit card that you would like to accept.

Credit Card Convenience Fee
Enter the convenience fee percentage you wish to charge your tenants at the time they make their payment. 

Note: You will be charged 2.95% (higher for Amex) but are able to pass along a convenience fee percentage to your tenants to recover your costs.

Information regarding credit card processing transaction fees can be found here: Credit/Debit Card Transactions Fees 

ACH Settings

Enable ACH Processing
Enable ACH processing by selecting YES on the Enable ACH Payments in Tenant Portals option if you are ready for tenants to be able to pay by ACH. 

System Advice: Tenants will not be able to pay online if this setting is set to NO.  

ACH Transaction Fee
Although you are not charged for any incoming ACH transactions, you do have the ability here to charge your tenants an ACH transaction fee if you wish. 

Tenant ACH Authorization
You have one of two options for tenant authorization and payment setup. Choose the  Tenant Provides ACH Authorization by option:  

• Tenant Portal will allow your tenants to enter their bank information themselves and schedule their own online payments through their online portal.
  
  Information on setting up a tenant portal can be found here:  Tenant Portals
• Written Document will require you to enter your tenant's bank information yourself. With this option, you will want to create your own Tenant Authorization Form -- you are welcome to download our application examples as a template in order to create your own form.  

In compliance with ACH processing regulations, the software is designed to interface with Forte Verify to validate ACH payment information when entered in the system.

More information on this process can be found here:  Verify ACH Account Information

Testing a New Merchant Account

After your merchant account has been established, you may wish to test out the feature. To test your new merchant account follow these instructions here:  Test Your Merchant Account

Payment Processing Reports

Rentec Direct provides reporting of all the transactions; however, CSG Forte also provides you with a Virtual Terminal reporting system called DEX that can be used for additional reconciliation or for double-checking any transaction's processing status. 

To learn how to use CSG Forte's virtual terminal, join their weekly training webinars here: Dex Training

Schedule a Tenant Payment

If enabled, a tenant can authorize and schedule payments within their tenant portal. If you are scheduling a payment for a tenant that would be done directly for each Tenant. 

The Tenant Online Payments screen appears as below where you can enter the routing and account number and ACH fee (if any) you wish to charge them as well as set up one-time or recurring transactions.

System Advice: Be careful while making changes, as the system is live, any charges entered into the system will process from this point forward.

Full instructions for scheduling online payments for your tenants can be found here:  Scheduling Online Payment Transactions for Tenants

Resources have been compiled to help you communicate with your tenants about using their portal, welcoming them to the system, and video training on how to make a rent payment.

You can find and customize those resources for your business needs by going here:  Tenant Resources for Rentec Direct Clients

Submit an Owner Disbursement

You can also pay your owners with ACH using the Pay Owner Disbursement Wizard.

Full instructions can be found here: Pay Owner Disbursements 

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