Property Manager | Paying Out Convenience Fees and Late Fees

Rentec Direct refers to fees associated with online payments made through the software using your csgForte merchant account as Convenience Fees. The steps outlined in this article also apply to Late Fees and other fees that you, as a manager, keep all or a portion of.

You are charged a Convenience Fee for credit and debit card payments made online (There is no fee for payments received via ach). You can then include a charge to tenant payments in Processing Settings to reimburse yourself. When the payment is received, you can pay one or all fees to yourself in one easy transaction.

This article reviews how to:

1. Create an Income and Expense Category
2. Post Expense to the Property Ledger in the amount of the fee, allowing you to pay one or multiple Convenience Fees from the Bank Account at a later date.
3. Pay out Convenience Fees
4. Pay out Convenience Fees That Were Left off the Property
5. Frequently Asked Questions

Create an Income and Expense Category

The following steps will guide you through creating new categories. Convenience Fees will require an Income and Expense category, some fee categories, such as late fees have a default income category and will only need an Expense Category created. Once created, add the Convenience Fee Income Category to the Processing Settings of your Online Payments page as your default.

In your Rentec Direct account:

1. Click on Settings
2. Under Financial, click on Chart of Accounts
3. Click on +Add Account
4. Enter a Description that will be easy to identify (Convenience fee, processing fee etc)
5. Use the Type dropdown to select Income/Expense
6. Use the Class dropdown to select
   1. Standard for the Income Category
   2. Management Fees for the Expense Category
7. Enter a Reference Number or allow the software to Auto Number
8. Typically, this will not influence Schedule E
9. Click on Save New Account

Post an Expense to the Property Ledger

When payments are received, you will post an expense to the property ledger using the Convenience Fee, Late Fee, or other Expense Fee category, as formatted in the example below. Notice the Payment Type, Payee, and Bank are not designated.

The following steps guide you through posting an expense for the Convenience Fee or Management Fee to the property.

In your Rentec Direct account:

1. Click on Properties
2. Right-click on the Property and click on Post Expense
3. Enter the Date
4. Use the Payment Type dropdown to select Other
5. Leave the Payee as None
6. Use the Bank dropdown to select None (the transaction will automatically show on the property's default bank account)
7. Use the Category dropdown to select the appropriate Expense Fee that you created.
8. Enter the Amount
9. Leave Charge Tenant as None
10. Click on Post Expense   

Pay Out Convenience Fees

The Pay Property Manager feature of Rentec Direct allows you to pay out all or select individual Convenience Fees and other Management Fees easily.

Pro Tip: Paying the fees out monthly before paying out Owner Disbursements helps ensure accurate bookkeeping and ease of reconciliation.

The following steps will guide you through paying out convenience fees

In your Rentec Direct account:

1. Click on Banking
2. Right-click on the Account and click on Pay Property Mgr
3. Enter the Begin and End Date to narrow down the transactions
4. Check the box next to Date to select all transactions or individual transactions
5. Click on Next
6. Verify that the Payment Type, Payee, and Amount are accurate.
7. Click on Post Expense

Pay out Convenience Fees That Were Left off the Property

The following steps will guide you through paying out convenience fees from the bank when you've selected to not show tenant fees on the property in the Processing Settings for Online Payments.

There are two quick steps:

1. Print a Category Ledger Report for Convenience Fee Income and/or other income that you retain.
2. Post an Expense to the Bank Account ledger

Print a Category Ledger Report

In your Rentec Direct account:

1. Click on Reports
2. Under Accounting, click on Category Ledger
3. Select the Report Period for which you are going to pay out Convenience Fees and other Management Fees
4. Use the Bank Account dropdown to select the fees to be paid out of
5. Under Categories, select the Income Convenience Fee and any other Management Fee category you will be paying out.
6. Click on Submit

Pro Tip: It's a good idea to save a copy of this report for your records

Post an expense to the Bank Account ledger

In your Rentec Direct account:

1. Click on Banking
2. Right-click on the Account and select Post Expense
3. Enter the Payee (Your Company or Name)
4. Property should be set to None
5. Use the Category dropdown to select the Expense Convenience Fee and other Management Fee categories to be included
6. Enter the Total Income Amount from the Category Ledger Report
7. Click on Attach Files to attach a copy of the Category Ledger Report if you'd like
8. Click on Post Expense

Frequently Asked Questions

Q) Can the fees be paid from the property?

A) Yes, individual fees can be paid out using the steps in Posting Expenses.

Q) How can I be sure I paid out all of the convenience fees?

A) We always recommend printing a category ledger report for Convenience Fee income prior to paying out the fees, and make sure the amounts are the same.

Q) How do I pay out convenience fees that were left off the property?

A) You can use the steps outlined above or Remove Convenience Fees From Your Trust Account