Those located in Asia-Pacific will use the terms Trust Account and bonds, where customers located in Europe will use the term Client Account and deposits. For the purpose of this article, we will refer to it as a Trust Account and bonds. For more information on regional terminology, refer to this article or contact support.
If you hold your deposits in a separate client account, you will need to:
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Make sure that you have set up the trust account on Re-Leased in order to manage those deposits
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Create an owners ledger under the deposit client account
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Set up a deposit authority contact for your separate deposit client account
Then, once you have a deposit to lodge for a tenant you would:
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Go to your tenancy > Bonds tab
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+ New Bond Invoice - choose for the deposit to be held by a Bond authority > select the tenancy Bond scheme as your deposit Trust account (which you'd set up as a bond authority) > enter all further details > save & create approved invoice
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Reconcile the money received from the tenant against the bond income invoice
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Disburse funds to pay out the bond money from your main client account
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Physically transfer the bond money from the main client account to your bond account
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Reconcile the payment from the main trust account with the disbursement you made
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+ New Income Invoice which will be to the bond authority you set up, it should detail in the description the name & property the bond is in relation to, the COA is the bond one and the ledger should be detailed as the owner ledger you set up under the bond client account
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The bank receipt into your bond client account should be reconcile against the income invoice raised in point 7
In order to refund the deposit you have two options:
To refund the deposit directly from the deposit client account
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Go to the tenancy > deposits screen > (three grey lines) prepare to refund
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Put the amount being refunded to the tenant in the first box and tick 'deposit authority has sent funds directly to tenant' > continue
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Add an expense invoice on from the tenant (no need to detail property or tenancy), clearly put a description of what deposit this is in relation to, COA is the deposits one, ledger should be the separate deposit account ledger (where the money is held)
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Disburse funds from the deposit client account using a disbursement profile that includes creditor payments
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Physically refund the funds from your deposit bank account to the tenant
To refund the bond via your main client account
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Go to the tenancy > bond screen > (three grey lines) prepare to refund
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Put the amount being refunded to the tenant in the first box > continue
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Add an expense invoice on from the bond authority (no need to detail property or tenancy), clearly put a description of what bond this is in relation to, COA is the bond one, ledger should be the separate bond account ledger (where the money is held)
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Disburse funds from the bond trust account using a disbursement profile that includes creditor payments
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Physically transfer the funds from your bond bank account to your main trust account
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Reconcile the bank payment with the disbursement on your bond trust account
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Reconcile the bank receipt in your main trust account with the bond income invoice created after performing point 2. This will create an expense invoice automatically to refund the tenant
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Disburse funds from the main trust account using a disbursement profile that includes bond payments to pay the tenant's bond back to them
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Physically refund the funds from your main client bank account to the tenant