Remove Convenience Fees From Trust Account

Rentec Direct allows you to set and charge tenants a transaction fee for using an online payment option. When the payment is received, the fee payment, along with their payment for rent, products & services, is deposited into the account as configured with CSG Forte. The system defaults to displaying those fees on the property, owner, and bank ledger in the software. 

If that deposit account is your trust account, and you've configured the software to keep those fees off the property ledger (see below to configure), to maintain proper trust accounting, you will want to remove those fees from the actual trust account and document the transaction in your software. 

This article will guide you through:

• Setting your online default to keep the fee off the property ledger
• Creating a Merchant Fee expense category for accurate accounting
• Transferring Merchant Fees From Your Bank Account

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Keep Convenience Fees Off the Property Ledger

Although the system is designed for transparent accounting and defaults to show online tenant payment convenience fees on all appropriate ledgers, you have the option to keep those collected fees off the property ledger. 

In your Rentec Direct account: 

1. Click on Settings
2. Under Financial, click on Online Payments
3. Under Processing Settings, set Apply Tenant Fees to Property? to No
4. Click on Save Changes

Now that you've changed the default to keep the tenant fees off the property, you will want to create a new category to use when you remove those fees from your trust account ledger. 

Create Merchant Fees Expense Category

To begin removing fees from the trust account ledger, you will want to create a Merchant Fee Expense category. You only have to do this once. If you have already created this category, skip down to the next section. 

In your Rentec Direct account: 

1. Click on Banking, then Chart of Accounts
2. Click on +Add Account
3. Enter the details of the new category:
   1. Add a description (example: convenience fee) 
   2. Type: Expense
   3. Class: Standard
   4. Schedule E Item: No
4. Click on Save New Account

Transfer Merchant Fees from Your Trust Account

Now that those fees are not being posted to the property ledger, when you transfer or payout those fees from your trust account in real life, you will want to use the above category to remove them from the trust account ledger in the software. 

If funds were transferred to an account that is also in your software, click here for steps to document Transferring Funds Between Bank Accounts.

The following steps will guide you through documenting funds that were paid out or expensed out of the trust account.

In your Rentec Direct account:

1. Click on Reports
2. Under Accounting, select the Category Ledger Report
3. Select the Report Period and Bank Account (Trust Account)
4. Select the Transaction Fee Income Category that was applied to the income. This is the tenant fee income category default defined in Settings, then Online Payments Options.

5. Click on Submit. Make note of the Income total. You'll use this value in the next step.

   System Note: To pull a report showing both the Income and Expense Convenience Fees, hold down the CTRL key to select each category. This report should show Income, but no Expenses unless you have previously completed the steps below for that date range. 

6. Click on Banking
7. Right-click on the Account and select Post Expense
   1. Enter the details of the actual expense made from your Bank Account using the Merchant Fees Expense Category you created above and the Amount from the report you pulled in step 3.

Recommendations

• Print your category ledger report with the proper date range showing both the income and expense of these convenience fees, and save it in the folder with your monthly bank reconciliations and three-way worksheets.
• Do not alter/edit the income/expense after reconciliation. It's best to journal any corrections if needed.
• Best practice is to pay out these fees on a regular basis when paying out management fees.