Receipts Overview

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Money can only enter the Aspect Property Manager as a Tenant Receipt or a Landlord Receipt and receipts from either can be entered from their respective transactions grids.  However, the volume of receipts from tenants warrants a bulk entry capability found on the Tenants menu > Receipts which speeds up entering receipts manually and even faster the Tenants menu > Receipt Import facility which automates receipt creation.


Receipts from Tenants
With a tenant receipt money is generally on the way to one or more of the first four accounts below bestowing some benefit(s) on its way.  However, money may also be placed into the Tenant Held account while you work out where it should be assigned and under certain circumstances it may even be "forced" into the Tenant Held account, see more in the Tenant Held and Bond Processing topics.
  • Landlord account
  • Management Fee control account
  • Letting Fee control account
  • GST control account
  • Bond control account
  • Tenant Held account

    A landlord receipt on the other hand usually leaves most, if not all, of the money in the landlord account.  Some may be deducted as management fees and GST.  A direct landlord receipt can affect these three accounts only:-
  • Landlord account
  • Management Fee control account
  • GST control account

    With a tenant receipt the same data entry screen is used whether you are entering a single receipt from the tenant transaction grid or using the bulk receipting facility.  The only difference being the bulk entry process lets you select the tenant, while the tenant selection has already been made when you are entering a receipt from the transaction grid.

    When a tenant receipt is entered the total amount received must be allocated to one of five specific uses, payment of rent, or debt, or letting fee, or bond or held, or any mix of the five.  As can be seen in the Accounting Primer, the rent and debt amounts go to the landlord's account where the management fee and GST are stripped off it and go into their respective control accounts.  The letting fee is broken into two pieces, the letting fee portion and the GST portion, and they too go into the respective control accounts.  Bond goes to the Bond control account.  Any Tenant Held winds up in the Tenant Held control account.

    The receipt requires that the type of payment made, AP, EFTPOS, cash or cheque is selected.  AP has been used to mean any type of electronic transfer which places money in your trust account other than EFTPOS.

    The Aspect Property Manager will print a plain paper receipt which can be handed to the tenant when money is received "over the counter".  You may choose to print receipts received as  EFTPOS, cash, cheque or even AP using the choices on the Setup menu > Preferences > Receipts tab.  Currently the system has one layout of receipt for New Zealand use and one suitable for Australian use.  Both are designed to print on A5 stationery.  Other formats will be added as requested.

    When the overnight receipts are created using the Tenants menu > Import Receipt program the total received may be assigned to rent, debt, letting fee, bond, or held.  When the exactly same amount is received as the last receipt, the system will automatically perform the same split.  If it is not the same amount the full amount will be assigned to rent which may be split afresh or alternatively the rent receipt created can be edited in the tenant's transaction grid and the amount reallocated.  Receipts which represent money from several tenants or a landlord must be entered manually.



    When to Enter Cash and Cheque Receipts
    This is a contentious issue.
  • In my view any money received "over the counter" should be entered into the system straight away for the following reasons:-
  • The money is in the system and is less likely to go astray
  • It credits the tenant's account so their records in the system are correct
    If you don't want to give the landlord the money receipt it as Held
  • A receipt should have been issued from a receipt book or the system     XXXX    link reqd    for any cash or cheque so there is a check on the money handling procedures in your office
  • There is no necessity to dash off to the bank every day.  You simply can not present the receipt until you empty the sock and the deposit in the bank when it then appears on the bank statement.  So there is yet another check on the cash money.
  • If you handle volumes of cash and cheques it allows you to use the Banking List process.

    Some users wait until the money appears on the bank statement before entering it into the system which to me risky to say the least.

    The one possible downside to immediate entry is when several receipts are in one deposit and appear on the bank statement as a single value but the same issue arises when receipt entry is held off.  You still have to split the $1567 between the tenants who paid it by reverting to the receipt book or, even worse, memory. 


    Receipts from Landlords
    Landlord receipting has no bulk entry facility but has its own data entry screen accessed from the landlord transactions grid.  The full amount is usually credited to the landlord account unless management fees are taken by ticking the Fee Override box and entering the fee.  GST will be calculated and both the fee and GST will go to their respective control accounts and the landlord will receive the reduced figure.  As with tenant receipts the type of payment made, cash, cheque or electronic transfer, needs to be identified correctly.  A direct landlord receipt can affect these three accounts only:-
  • Landlord account
  • Management Fee control account
  • GST control account

    Landlord receipts will usually be money received from the landlord to pay for expenses which exceed, or are going to exceed, the rent income from their property(ies).  Occasionally it may be some other sundry receipt which can not pass through a tenants account where it must be categorised as rent, debt, letting fee, bond, or held and would therefore upset the tenant's financial status.  An example would be where you have received rent or debt from a long departed tenant who is no longer on the system.  Receive the money as a landlord receipt and enter your fee in the Fee box.


    Receipts from Suppliers
    There is no mechanism to receive money from suppliers which could occur if you managed to overpay a supplier and the money is being returned.  Enter the money returned by the supplier into their account as a minus value payment.  If the landlord was charged twice and the second invoice is in the current period simply delete the invoice.  If the invoice is in a past period it must be reversed.  Both methods will put the money back into the landlord's account.  If you reverse an invoice before receiving the money back from the supplier it may of course overdraw the supplier account in which case the system will "short pay" the supplier next time.  Some suppliers will be happy with that others will prefer to return the overpayment.  If you can not recover the money from the supplier you will need to make a transfer from your trading account and handle it as above.



    Getting the tenant to pay on time
    Getting the tenant to pay the rent on the day the system says it is due is sometimes a bit of a problem because the day the rent is due is not necessarily the day the tenant gets paid.  This problem can be alleviated by requiring the tenant to pay by Automatic Payment on the day they get paid.  See Synchronising rent day to pay day for more details.

    You can also encourage tenants to pay their rents by A/P by having two rental rates - pay by A/P and the rent is $400, pay by any other means and the rent is $410.  This is easily cost justified when the tenant pays in cash or by cheque as you may have a cash handling fee charged, there is a clearance fee on the cheque and you have to go to the bank and in some areas that's not such a happy trip.

    When the tenant wants to pay by direct deposit into your account those arguments may not stand up so well but apart from the initial setup fee the transaction charge is probably the same to them but you are now relying upon the tenant to make the rent payment on the right day so your risk of late and unpaid rents is the same as if they pay cash.

    Have a clause in your rental agreement that payment must be by automatic payment.  Cover the situation where the tenant decides to stop the A/P and do it manually.


    Related Topics
    Tenant Receipt
    Tenant Receipt Import
    Landlord Receipt
    Transactions