How do I settle an owner’s account and pay out what they are due?

The owner settlement is the summary of your month’s work: what you collected, what you deducted, and what you remit to them.

Steps

1. Open Property Rental → Owner accounts and settlements — Figure 1.
2. Press New settlement — Figure 2 — and pick the owner and the settlement period (from date, to date).
3. The system totals the gross collections on their units in that period.
4. It then deducts the office commission at the management agreement rate, the building expenses charged to them, and the maintenance deductions.
5. The net payable appears. Review the lines, then approve the settlement.
6. Record the payout and print a statement for the owner.
7. To follow any owner’s running balance, open Owner account — Figure 3.

Notes

• Do not approve the settlement before every receipt and expense for the period is recorded; correcting it afterwards is tedious.
• Send the owner the statement before the payout, not after; an objection before the transfer is easier than clawing money back.
• The settlement is built on what was actually collected, not what was due; an unpaid instalment does not enter the owner’s account.
• Keep to a fixed date each month; owners judge an office by the regularity of the remittance as much as its size.