Payment Allocations - Step 2 In Payment Processing

The Payment Allocations screen is where you will be able to see all wallets in the system - after the funds were received and mapped from the Banking environment.

This screen displays a wealth of information and is the main space for you to access wallets to allocate payments, it will also default to only show you wallets that have funds available. This article focuses on how to do the actual payment allocations from these wallets, and not necessarily on explaining what is displayed on the screen and what setup needs to be done.

At this stage, you have already mapped funds from Banking (Step 1) and you are ready to allocate the payments with the received funds (Step 2). To see more about Step 1 in the Payment Process, you can read the following article: The Banking screen - Step 1 in Payment Processing.

Instructions for doing Payment Allocations - Step 2:

Navigate to the Payment Allocations screen
Click on the word "Allocations" on the right side of your screen to view and access a wallet.
Now that you are in the wallet, there are a few different scenarios that can occur: The tenant paid short, the tenant paid exactly the correct amount, or the tenant paid too much (in credit). Each scenario will be explained in more detail below, but every scenario will call for the next step:
Click on the Suggest Payments button at the top right, OR manually allocate payments with the money note icon if the situation calls for it.
Once the payment instructions are created, click on Submit All to submit the instructions to the next step in the process, Approvals.

The three different scenarios explained:

Scenario 1: The tenant made a short payment - they are still owing an amount.

If you click on Suggest Payments, the system follows its algorithm will follow this sequence: It takes the portion of funds that must go towards rent (so only rental income) and begins to first pay your Landlord Expenses in the sequence of your categories from top to bottom. After landlord expenses are paid, it takes the remainder of the funds and pays it towards your tenant expenses – also in the sequence of how the categories are loaded. Tip: This sequence can be customized by you.

Often if you have a significant amount outstanding, Suggest Payments will not necessarily give you what you want, e.g., the amount you have available in the wallet is just for the tenant deposit (the tenant must still pay their rental), and should not be used to pay Landlord Expenses.

This brings us to the second and best-suited option for this scenario: doing a manual allocation.

This Manual Allocation with the Money Note icon will allow you to create any payment instruction that you would like – not connected to any algorithm or automatic suggestion at all. So you would typically use this if the money in the wallet needs to go towards a specific invoice, or when you want to edit an amount.

So when a tenant paid short, you can use suggest payments (if you are happy with the sequence), or you can do a manual allocation to fully control the instruction you want to create.

Scenario 2: The tenant paid the correct amount.

This scenario is ideal and means you can just press the Suggest Payments button and your payment instructions will be created.

Scenario 3: The tenant paid too much - they are in credit.

One of the great functionalities of the wallet is its ability to retain funds (like credit payments). This allows you to keep funds in the wallet until you are ready to pay it out eventually, and of course, this would also mean that you can receive multiple payments in the wallet and gather it as one collective amount until you want to make payments.

When you click Suggest Payments, the credit will by default in the wallet – with a clear record of the credit. The tenants will also see this on their statements. It is also possible to pay that credit out to the landlord if you do not wish to keep it in the wallet – let us know if this is something you are considering for further advice.

Bonus: What user permissions has to do with the Payment Process?

The user permissions section is accessible from the Portfolio & Permissions tab for a specific user under the Company Settings menu option. Provision has been made for the following distinct permissions which can be enabled on a per user basis:

Map and Submit Bank Payment - a user with this permission enabled can map credit bank payments received via the banking interface to tenant and landlord wallets. In addition a use with this permission can submit single or in bulk mapped payments for processing. Note that if the Auto Payment Allocation and Approval process has been configured on the back-end, a user with this permission will initiate the process to auto allocate and submit payments received for approval on the Approvals Dashboard.
Allocate Payments - a user with this permission enabled can access the Allocations Dashboard to allocate and submit payment instructions for approval.
Approve Payments - a user with this permission enabled can access the Approvals Dashboard to review and approve submitted payment instructions for payment via the Banking interface
Allocate and Approve Payments - a user with this permission can access the Allocations Dashboard to allocate, submit and approve payment instructions in one step for payment via the Banking interface. This will not give you the option to double check on the Approvals screen. Once you submit and instruction from the wallet, to will automatically be approved.