Glossary: Property Management Software Terms & Vocabulary

Commonly used property management software terms and vocabulary to help Rentec Direct clients and users.

Which version of Rentec Direct property management software is right for you?

Rentec Pro

  • A version of Rentec Direct property management software is designed for landlords and investors who self-manage their own properties. The only features it's missing from Rentec PM are ones specifically designed for managing properties for others. Learn more: Rentec Pro

Rentec PM

  • A version of Rentec Direct property management software is designed for property managers and agents who manage properties for owner clients. Rentec PM offers all the features of Rentec Pro plus trust accounting, owner management, designated managers, and owner portal access. Learn more: Rentec PM

Who is financially responsible for the Rentec Direct account?

Rentec Direct Administrator

  • The administrator is the person financially responsible for the Rentec Direct account
    • Often the person who initially signed up for the Rentec Direct account and provided their billing information
  • The administrator can make changes and cancel the account
  • The administrator can add unlimited Managers and Users to their account with custom permission levels
  • If you are the account administrator and hire someone to help manage your properties, you can add them as Managers and Users to the account with full permission-level access.
    • Even if the administrator does not actively use Rentec Direct, they should still maintain a username and password so they can always access the account for billing and security purposes.
  • Providing every employee with their own username and password is the best way to keep your account secure.

Who else can I add to my account?

Rentec Direct provides unlimited user accounts for each account at no additional cost. The following terms relate to user roles within your Rentec Direct account provide clarification on the difference between an account administrator, subuser, manager, and user.

Subuser

Managers

  • Someone you designate with the manager title in your Rentec Direct account and associate with a property
  • To perform tasks within your Rentec Direct account, like marketing vacancies or running reports, a manager will need their own username and password
  • Manager designations, including property manager, maintenance manager, and/or marketing manager, are associated with a property
  • Learn how to Add Property Managers

User

  • Subusers and users are the same, and the terms are used interchangeably by the Rentec Direct support team and within the software.
  • Users are anyone added to the account with their own username, password, and permission
  • Users are able to make changes or entries in Rentec Direct as permission allows

Rentec Direct Property Manager

  • A property manager can be assigned to a corresponding property in your Rentec Direct account
  • The property manager's name will appear on tenant invoices
  • You can customize the permissions for each property manager so they only have access to parts of your account that are relevant to their job role

Rentec Direct Maintenance Manager

  • A maintenance manager can be assigned to a property
  • The maintenance manager's name will appear on workorders
  • You can customize the permissions for each maintenance manager so they only have access to parts of your account that are relevant to their job role

Rentec Direct Marketing Manager

  • The marketing manager designation typically belongs to someone who will be marketing, filling vacancies, and tracking leads
  • The marketing manager's contact information will appear on rental listings
  • You can customize the permissions for each marketing manager so they only have access to parts of your account that are relevant to their job role

How do I receive and make payments online with Rentec Direct?

Rentec Direct provides online payment options by incorporating a merchant services account into your software. These terms provide more details on processing online payments with Rentec Direct.

Electronic Payments or Online Payments

  • Electronic payments are any payment processed online through your Rentec Direct account. Online payments can be used to accept tenant rent payments and application fees, pay owner disbursements or vendors, and receive owner contributions.
  • Types of electronic payments made through Rentec Direct can include:
    • ACH payments
    • Credit card and debit card transactions
    • Electronic cash payments with PayNearMe + Rentec Direct
  • A manual payment is considered a cash payment or a paper check payment
  • You will need to be approved for a merchant account from CSG Forte in order to process electronic payments
  • Learn more about Online Payment Processing | Overview

Merchant Account/Merchant Services

  • You need a merchant account to accept any electronic or online payment. A merchant account with Rentec Direct is provided by CSG Forte, allowing you to facilitate electronic payments.
  • With a merchant account, you enable merchant services in your Rentec Direct account, allowing you to:
    • Collect rent online
    • Pay Vendors
    • Pay out owner disbursements
    • Allow owners to make contributions

CSG Forte

  • Rentec Direct partners with CSG Forte as our merchant services provider to process electronic payments such as ACH or credit card/debit card payments for online rent collection or ACH owner disbursements.
  • Rentec Direct will facilitate the application process with CSG Forte for our clients to add merchant services to their accounts.
  • Learn more about CSG Forte

ACH

  • Automated Clearing House (ACH) is an electronic fund transfer between banking institutions
  • Used to process requested withdrawals from a financial institution and deposit them into another financial institution using bank accounts and routing numbers (checking account)

Bank Routing Number

  • A nine-digit number used to identify a financial institution
  • The first four digits indicate which financial institution it is
  • The second four refer to which Federal Reserve bank it uses to process transfers
  • The ninth digit validates the first eight digits to detect errors that may have been introduced during the transmission

Batch Processing

  • Merchant service providers use batch processing to bundle transactions into a group(s) to be transmitted simultaneously at set intervals in batches.

Unrecorded Funds

  • A bank ledger that can be added and used to track physically received payments such as a check, money order, or cash, but is most commonly used to track payments received via ACH or CC. While the merchant account must be linked to the property, this allows deposits to be documented from unrecorded funds to the bank account to match the batch deposit from the CS Forte to keep accurate ledgers and ease of reconciliation. Unrecorded Funds

Transation ID

  • A number unique to a transaction that helps financial institutions, merchants, and/or consumers identify a transaction that occurred between parties

NACHA

  • The National Automated Clearing House Association, known by the acronym NACHA manages the development and administration of the ACH Network. As the administrator, they develop rules and standards and manage the development and governance of the electronic movement of money and data in the United States.

Can I send contracts for electronic signatures?

Through an integration with Dropbox Sign, you can send and sign documents electronically without ever needing to print out a copy for a wet signature. These terms provide more details on using the eSignature feature in Rentec Direct.

Dropbox Sign

  • Rentec Direct has integrated Dropbox Sign (formerly known as HelloSign) directly into the software, allowing you to send out documents such as leases and agreements that will auto-fill information from your Rentec Direct account and allow you to collect signatures and initials electronically. Learn about Forms, Leases, Agreements, and Eviction Notices

Envelope

  • When emailing or sending forms for signatures, the complete document is referred to as an envelope and is considered one.
  • The complete document is counted as one "signature"
  • Learn about Electronic Signatures

What is the best way to organize my financial records in Rentec Direct?

Rentec Direct offers complete property, tenant, and owner accounting, including trust accounting features, so you can stay compliant with your state regulations. In addition to reminders, each property, tenant, and owner has a file library to store copies of reports, insurance verification, and contractual and financial documents. Information in the file library can also be shared between Rentec Direct file libraries, allowing documents, contracts, financial documents, etc. to be accessible through the tenant and owner portal.

These terms provide more details on the accounting organization options provided in Rentec Direct.

Chart of Accounts

Note: You may want to speak with your accountant regarding the recommended chart of accounts for your account.

Products & Services

  • Charges to tenants, such as rent, late fees, and CAM, can have an industry standard or unique category assigned for detailed accounting.

Surcharges

  • Other charges to tenants that would be scheduled to go out with a product or service. An example would be rent + pet fee. They would both be charged to a tenant with their own category or chart of accounts as scheduled on one invoice. By doing this, you or your accountant can pull more detailed accounting reports.

Income & Expense Categories

Income and expense categories both have a selection of default categories and allow you to create custom categories as needed.

  • Income is most commonly posted to the tenant ledger, and by default, it also shows on the property they are placed on and the default bank account. Posted income is most common in the form of rental income but may also include income such as HOA payments, utilities, CAM, etc.
  • Expenses are posted to the property ledgers for repairs or maintenance, mortgage interest, etc., and for PM clients, this may also include expenses such as owner disbursements and management fees. There will be times when an expense could be charged to a property and the tenant, as the tenant is to reimburse the expense.

Reminders

  • Stay organized by setting reminders. Seasonal maintenance, reminders to renew contracts with owners, reviewing scheduled service rates, inspecting properties, and starting to prepare for tax time are just a few of the benefits of setting reminders. Notifications and Reminders | Notes

Undeposited Funds

  • Funds that are physically received, such as a check, money order, or cash, that have not yet been deposited. Deposits can be created in Rentec Direct to be deposited or recorded to match the deposit. Undeposited Funds & Bank Deposits

Unrecorded Funds

  • This can be used for bank accounts that are set up for online payments and for funds that are physically received. This option allows you to create deposits in Rentec Direct to match deposits made electronically and physically. Unrecorded Funds

Reconciliation

  • Reconciling your bank account is the act of verifying that the transactions within your Rentec Direct account match those on your bank statement. Reconciliations are saved for you in the bank account notes and history. Bank Account Reconciliation

File Library

  • A built-in electronic filing system affords safe storage for documents and reports. Files can be saved, and uploaded, and automated transactions such as reconciliation reports, insurance verification, leases, and contracts that were signed using Rentec Direct's electronic signature process can be stored in File Library | File Storage

Sticky Notes

  • Notes and History are on each property, tenant, owner, and bank account automatically documenting changes made such as move in/move out, changes in rent, when reconciliations were done with copies of reconciliation reports. This is also a great place to manually place notes that you can look back on. Sticky Notes

Transaction History

  • In the event that transactions need to be updated, if you would like to verify who made a change or what specific change was made, there is a transaction history log that will display all of this information, allowing you to review it and verify for accurate accounting and even as a training tool. Transaction History Audit Log

What are other Rentec Direct specific terms that would be useful to know?

Tenant, Property, and Owner Card

  • A "card" is a snapshot of information. If you click on the Tenant, Property, or Owner tab, you will notice on the right hand side is information about the highlighted property with clickable links that will take you to the screen where that information is stored and can be edited.

Rentec Labs

  • New features or pages within Rentec Direct that are just leaving the 'lab", our software developers' workshop. The new features have gone through rigorous internal testing and limited testing by clients outside our office.

Rentec Direct Client

  • Every user of Rentec Direct's software is considered a Rentec Direct Client.

Rentec Direct Success Team

  • The Rentec Direct Success Team provides customer service and ongoing support to your software. The Success Team can be reached at success@rentecdirect.com or (800) 881-5139 or via the chat tool in your software.

Rentec Direct Account Setup Assistance or onboarding

  • Every Rentec Direct client is offered a dedicated account setup specialist who will assist with getting your account setup accurately and quickly so you can get started right away. New clients can schedule time with an account setup specialist  at a time that is convenient.

Breadcrumb

  • As you navigate through your Rentec Direct account, you will notice in the upper left corner there are identifying details of the screen you're on. For example, if you edit a tenant, you will see "Edit Tenant"; directly below that, you will see Tenants/their address/Edit Tenant and, if enabled, the tenant's account number. The word "tenants" as well as their address are clickable. Clicking on "Tenants" will take you to the tenant tab; clicking on their address will take you to the tenant's ledger.

Pagination

  • The ability to customize and select how many line items to display on a page.

Profile Card

  • When you click on the Properties, Tenants, Banks, or Owners tab there will be a summary about the entity under the search filter referred to as a Profile Card. To change the displayed Profile Card, click on the specific line that you are interested in. 

Vendor vs Collected

  • A Vendor is a person or entity that was paid for services which you may want to include in 1099 filing and/or vendor reports
  • Collected is an individual whom a payment was made to, which could include refunds to tenants, that you may not want to include in 1099 filings and/or vendor reports

More standard industry terms can be found here RENTAL REAL ESTATE TERMS TO KNOW ABOUT PAYMENT PROCESSING

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