Payment Processing Settings | Preferences

Rentec Direct property management software allows you to customize the types of online transactions you allow. It's important to configure the default settings to your specific business needs. 

The following video will walk you through customizing your settings. Step-by-step instructions are written out below.

Online Payment Processing Settings | Rentec Direct Training Series from Rentec Direct on Vimeo.

Payment Processing Settings

The following steps will walk you through customizing your online payment processing settings. 

In your Rentec Direct account:

  1. Click Settings
  2. Under Financial click Online Payments

The information below will help guide you through each setting to understand why these configurations are important to consider.

Processing Settings Explained

Send emails on payment failures - Do you want to be notified of failed Online Payment transactions?

  • We highly recommend this be set to Yes, which will allow you to be notified when Online Payment transactions fail. For instance, if the tenant does not have sufficient funds, or has closed their account allowing you to follow up promptly.

Important Note: If this is switched to NO, you will not receive any notifications of failed payments.

Payment Notification Email Address - Where would you like Online Payment-related notifications to go?

  • The email address entered can be the same or different from your primary Rentec Direct email found in Settings, Your Contact Information
  • If this field is left blank, emails will be sent to the property manager

Tenant Fee Income Category - The system default Category is the industry standard 4000 

Send upcoming payment reminders to tenants - Would you like a reminder emailed to your tenants of an upcoming scheduled payment?

  • Tenants will need to have a valid email address

Apply Tenant fees to property - When an online payment is received, would you like the convenience fee indicated on the property?

  • It's most common for clients to allow the convenience fee income to be indicated on the property for full transparency
    • If you allow the convenience fee income to be indicated on the property, but actually keep the funds to reimburse yourself, you will want to create a convenience fee expense category as a manager, then post an expense to the property. Click here for more information on expensing out management and convenience fees Property Manager | Paying Out Convenience Fees and Late Fees
  • If you, as the landlord or property manager retain the fee and do not want the convenience fee income to show on the property, change the setting to No

Default Tenant Payment Policy -  There are three options for the default online payment policy. You have a choice of policy that will apply when a tenant pays online. 

Allow Any - Allows online payments in any amount

Require Rent - 

  • Allows online recurring rent payments to be set up for amounts no less than their rent amount
  • Allows one 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. 

Important Note: Tenants will be able to make a one-time online payment in amounts less than their rent if the payment is made prior to their rent charge being posted.

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. 

System Advice: Changing default settings will automatically apply to future tenants added. Click here for information on changing preferences per tenant. Enforcing Full Rental Payments

ACH Settings

Enable online ACH payments - This must be set to Yes 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 is set to NO

User Forte Verify to validate ACH entries - When set to YES, the system will use the Forte Verify service to verify the legitimacy of account data entered into the system. This will happen automatically for accounts entered. In compliance with ACH processing regulations, the software is designed to interface with Forte Verify to validate ACH payment information when entered into the system. If this is set to NO, per Nacha rules, you must perform your own validation of bank account data.

Default Tenant ACH Fee

  • You are not charged a fee for incoming tenants rent payments made by ACH
  • Enter the fee you wish to charge a tenant for the ACH transaction
  • This fee should be disclosed within your renter ACH authorization form
  • The default amount can be changed on a per-tenant basis in the tenant's Online Payment settings
  •  Indicate 0.00 to disable the fee

Tenant Provides ACH Authorization by - We encourage all clients to obtain written authorization from each tenant regardless of which method the payment will be made. Authorization may be indicated in a rental agreement or separate authorization form, whichever you prefer.

  • Written Document - This indicates that you have a written document allowing you to schedule payments for tenants
  • Tenant Portal - This indicates tenants will access the authorization and schedule their own payment through their tenant portal

Tenant ACH Authorization Form  

  • An authorization form can be uploaded here as a MS word (.doc) or (.pdf) and will be available for tenants to access through their portal
  • You can find a sample authorization form in your Rentec Direct account.

Credit/Debit Card Settings

Important Notes:

  • If you would like to require application fees with online applications, online credit/debit card processing will need to be available on your merchant account.
  • You can choose to only allow Credit/Debit card transactions for online application fees and not tenant rent payments
  • If you only applied for ACH processing and would like to add Credit/Debit card transactions reach out to success@rentecdirect.com and our team will be happy to walk you through how to add card options.

Enable Credit Card Payments - This option will be available, if your merchant application included credit card processing. 

  • If you would like to allow rent payments and application fees to be made by Credit/Debit cards change the setting to Yes
  • If you would only like to allow online application fees to be processed by Credit/Debit Cards and not rent payments change the setting to NO

Accept Card Payments - If you allow any type of Credit/Debit card payment

  • Check the box next to each card type that you would like to accept

Credit Card Convenience Fee - The convenience fee can be a % of the transaction or a flat rate

  • Using the dropdown select your preference of % option or $ Flat Fee option for the convenience fee to be applied when online payments are made with a Credit/Debit card

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. Click here for more Information about Credit/Debit Card Transactions Fees 

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 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

Rentec Direct provides resources 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.

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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