Those located in Asia-Pacific will use the term Trust Account, where customers located in Europe will use the term Client Account. For more information on regional terminology, refer to this article.
Once you have set up your arrears rules and templates, the system will automatically pick up any invoices that match the criteria specified in your rules. You will be notified via the Arrears dashboard tile if you have any arrears to be actioned.
Head to the Dashboard > Click on the Arrears Hub tile to manage the arrears notices.
Arrears Hub Tabs & Settings
The configuration of tabs is customisable and can be changed via Settings > Users:
1. Customise Arrears Tabs - set the frequency of each tab in the Arrears Hub
2. Property Management - set if the user is a Property Manager and sees their arrears or if they see all arrears on the Dashboard
The Arrears Hub
The Arrears Hub shows you the details of all Tenancy Arrears and enables you to send notices to tenants. Key details of the Hub are shown below:
- Bank Statement Status - This shows you the date and time of the last statement imported and whether there are any transactions or previous statements that have not yet been reconciled. This gives you an indication of whether the bank reconciliation process is up to date and whether there could be any rent payments that have not yet been reconciled against these outstanding invoices.
- Tabs - Multi-tab view of arrears by days. Actionable tenancy arrears are arrears with rules applied to them and notices requiring action. Tab frequency is customisable and are part of User Settings
- Company - Choose whether to show arrears for a single company or all of your companies.
- Property Manager - Choose whether to show arrears for a single property manager or all of your property managers.
- Owner - Choose whether to show arrears for a single Owner or all Owners. Note that Owner is NOT a mandatory field in the system. If a search filtered by Owner returns no results, it may be because an Owner isn't listed for that property
- Rules - Filter by the arrears rule sets you have created
- Filter by Account - Show only those tenancies with overdue invoices that include one or more selected expense accounts. If one line item on an invoice uses one of the selected accounts, the entire invoice amount that is overdue will be included in the arrears amount for the tenancy. The Filter by Account box allows you to choose multiple accounts to search by
- Tenancy Ledger Balance - Choose whether to show the Available Tenancy Ledger Balance for the tenancy. Note that the Tenancy Ledger Balance will only show for Trust Accounting Companies. Click on the balance on screen to take you to the Tenancy Ledger. For the UK the Tenancy Ledger Balance will always be defaulted to be checked ON.
- Unallocated Credits - Choose whether to show any Unallocated Credits against the tenancy (ie. credits that haven't been applied to an invoice yet). Click on the credit amount on screen to take you to the Tenancy Invoices area to view the unallocated credit note(s). For the UK the Tenancy Ledger Balance will always be defaulted to be checked ON.
- Tenancy - The tenancy name, address and area are displayed here with a link back to the tenancy
- Outstanding Invoices - The total amount the tenancy is in arrears is shown here, with the number of days overdue (from the due date of the oldest overdue invoice) and the number of invoices overdue.
- Total Tenancy Arrears Position - This is the total of Outstanding Invoices minus Unallocated Credits.
Setting an Arrears Status
Setting an Arrears Status on a Tenancy provides a quick visual cue to the reason the tenancy is in arrears without using a note to do so. The Status will show in the Arrears Hub and both the Arrears Report and the Aged Arrears Report.
To set an Arrears Status, go to the Tenancy Details page and choose from one of the options in the dropdown, then click SAVE at the bottom of the screen.
Once you have saved your selection, the Arrears Status will show on the Tenancy Summary page and is included when you print the Tenancy Summary page.
Setting a Note Type to show in the Hub & Reports:
The Arrears Hub and both the Arrears Report and the Aged Arrears Report can show the latest note for a Tenancy. To start you must define which Note Types you'd like to show (you can choose one or multiple)
Go to Settings > Note Types:
Select the Note Type and tick the Display this Type of Note in the Arrears Hub & Reports:
Any existing notes of that type for a Tenancy in arrears will be shown in the Hub and reports. This note can be edited or a new note added through the Arrears Hub.
Dismiss Action
On the Actionable Tenancy Arrears tab only, you can Dismiss an Action. Whilst you can action the arrears notice from any tab within the Arrears Hub, the Actionable Tenancy Arrears tab shows arrears that are triggered as part of an Arrears rule that has been set.
By clicking on Dismiss Action, you are choosing not to send an arrears notice and it skips sending the arrears notice until the next rule is triggered. Once you have Dismissed an arrears notice, if you have made a mistake or circumstances change, you can always send an arrears notice from the All Arrears tab.
Action
On the All Arrears tabs, you are able to click Action to send an arrears notice to the Tenant. Once you have made your selection and clicked Continue at the bottom of the page you will be taken to the Arrears Correspondence page to review the contact details & method of delivery. If you do not click Action on an arrears item, no correspondence will be sent.
Arrears Correspondence
Once you have chosen which arrears notices you will send and which will be dismissed > click Continue, you will be taken to the Arrears Correspondence page to check the contact, delivery method and to attach invoices/credit notes. Dismissed items will be shown in grey and no arrears correspondence can be chosen or sent to them. By clicking Cancel, your choices will be reset and you will be returned to the Arrears Hub to make your selections again.
Include All Credit Notes / Invoices - You may wish to send all invoices in arrears &/or credit notes to the Tenant. By clicking these boxes, all Tenancies on this page will receive the relevant Invoices &/or Credit Notes for the Tenancy. By deselecting, no invoices &/or credit notes will be sent to the Tenant. Note that invoices &/or credit notes cannot be selected and sent if the Delivery Method is Text Message.
Attachments - individually select whether you'd like to send Invoices &/or Credit Notes to the Tenant
Send To - The Account Contact plus any other contact(s) for the Tenancy that have opted to receive Arrears Notices will be listed as the Send To Contact. Both Contacts will receive the same information. Click the tenant's name to view or edit their contact details.
Delivery Method - This shows you how the arrears notice will be sent to each tenancy contact. This depends on whether the contact has an email, mobile or postal address available if the permission to email notices option has been checked on the contact details page, the delivery method selected in the arrears rule. These settings can be edited here by clicking on the delivery method link.
Once you have reviewed and finalised your selections click on Complete. Note that only notices selected on the current page will be sent. You will receive an email when the Arrears correspondence has been generated.