Pending EFT's - new reporting

[Eric Boyd]

Hi all:

If you've logged in to Buildium today, you've likely seen that they've implemented a change to the way EFT payments are reported.  http://www.buildium.com/reporting-on-epay-transactions/  This sounds like it's a good thing.  One thing the announcement doesn't reference is whether those Pending funds are actually withheld from the "Available" balance, and are not able to be inadvertently disbursed until they are truly cleared.  I just did a quick search on one of the Pending EFT's and found that to NOT be the case.  A tenant made an EFT payment on Friday, the GL shows that payment as a Pending EFT, but it also shows as Available to the owner.  So, even though Buildium knows the money isn't there, we still need to make sure we don't send it until it is no longer on the Pending column.

Thanks for the heads up, Buildium.

 
- -
Eric M. Boyd, Owner/Broker
Step One Realty, LLC
Jacksonville, FL
Residential Sales and Property Management
http://www.StepOneRealty.com
cell: 904-813-5010 fax: 888-345-5054
mailto:Eric...@StepOneRealty.com

[JoanAlyce Lugert]

Ugh, that's the one thing I wanted corrected.

******************************************

JoanAlyce Lugert - General Manager - GREEN REALTOR®
Lugert Realty, LLC - Shamrock Property Management 
Serving the Austin community since 1980
Member : BBB - NARPM - NFIB
PO Box 580

Del Valle, TX  78617
512-478-5588 - Office

512-694-8451 - Cell

www.AustinShamrock.com

Texas law requires all real estate agents and brokers to provide the
information about brokerage services contained in this link:
http://www.trec. state.tx. us/pdf/contracts /op-k.pdf

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[Glenn Lehman]

Thanks Eric - Because I am quite I posted this reply to their blog post:

I understand the concept Marc, but why if I "pay owner by check" or "pay owner by EFT" is the amount of "Pending EFTs" included in available cash? This is a bad situation that could cause me to send funds to an owner that are still pending transfer in. Unless of course I run the pending EFT report and manually subtract out the amount Buildium already knows is not there.

[Eric M Boyd]

I almost put something there, as well. Glad you did. :-)

Eric M. Boyd, Broker 
Step One Realty LLC 
Jacksonville, FL 
www.JacksonvillePropertyManager.com 
eric...@StepOneRealty.com 
 
Sent from my BlackBerry Passport 

From: Glenn Lehman Sent: Tuesday, July 28, 2015 8:31 AM To: Buildium-NARPM users Reply To: buildium-n...@googlegroups.com Cc: j...@austinshamrock.com Subject: Re: Pending EFT's - new reporting

Thanks Eric - Because I am quite I posted this reply to their blog post:

I understand the concept Marc, but why if I "pay owner by check" or "pay owner by EFT" is the amount of "Pending EFTs" included in available cash? This is a bad situation that could cause me to send funds to an owner that are still pending transfer in. Unless of course I run the pending EFT report and manually subtract out the amount Buildium already knows is not there.

[Dana Brannon]

Just had a long discussion with building regarding this issue.  Thought you would be interested to see the replies I got from Buildium support.  At first I thought they had a solution for me with the shorter hold days but that was not the case.  Start reading from the bottom where I send my first question to Buildium. 

Dana Brannon

Jim Charpie Property Management, LLC

Hello Dana!

We think we’ve got it! We just wanted to let you know that your support request (#124028) has been updated. Still have questions pertaining to this matter? No worries. Simply reply to this email, or click the link below, and we will be happy to review:

http://support.buildium.com/hc/requests/124028

Shea Allard (Buildium) Jul 24, 4:19 PM Hi Dana, Sorry for the confusion. To clarify, hold days have no affect on your tenant's bank account balance or how those transactions are processed by their bank, and will therefore have no bearing on reversed payments. The functionality in Buildium where pending payments show as available for owner draws is something we are aware of, and may change in the future. I suggested changing your hold days to avoid the payments being in pending status for longer than they have to, that way if you are processing owner draws shortly after, the money is actually there to use(although a reversed payment would debit it back out). I understand your concern though. Have a great weekend! Shea Buildium Support Buildium | Property Managed. buildiumstat.us

Dana Brannon Jul 24, 3:52 PM I am really not trying to be difficult, I am trying to find a solution to my problem. From your latest answer it appears that your suggestion of changing the hold days does not help me because a reversal could still occur whether Forte fronts me the money or not. My issue goes back to I am going to have to back out the pending EFT's manually because the amount Buildium calls "available cash" is not accurate. That would be the solution and hopefully Buildium will put that at the top of their list to not show pending items as available. Thanks for your help! Dana

Shea Allard (Buildium) Jul 24, 3:18 PM Hi Dana, The hold days on incoming EFTs mean they will fund faster into your bank account. In essence, what happens when you have shorter hold days, is Forte fronts you the money into your bank account while the actual bank account(the tenant's) is still processing the payment. Because 3 days is a standard processing timeframe for EFTs with banks, to answer your question, yes, the transaction could still come back as NSF or rejected after a couple days. Usually even with shorter hold days, I suggest holding off on owner draws for a day or so after they fund in order to ensure they don't get reversed out. Let me know if you have any more questions. Thanks, Shea Buildium Support b Buildium | Property Managed. buildiumstat.us

Dana Brannon Jul 24, 2:08 PM Shea, I called Buildium just now because I thought my question would be more extensive than what I could ask in an email but now they have me more confused. I spoke with Shana who said it doesn't matter how long your hold days are, the tenants bank can still reverse it at anytime. Help! Dana

Shea Allard (Buildium) Jul 24, 12:15 PM Hi Dana, If you navigate over to accounting>>banking>>click your epay bank account>>click epay settings tab>>edit echeck/eft>>change hold days, that is where you can apply for lower hold days. If approved for the change, the fees for EFTs is a sliding scale based on how many hold days you are approved for. For 2 hold days, those EFTs are billed at $.70 each For 1 hold day, those are $.85 each for zero hold days, those are $.95 each. You can also apply to change hold days on outgoing EFTs as well on the same page. I know in the pastI have seen people charge convenience fees to their tenants in order to cover their costs for lower hold days. I can walk you through setting up convenience fees as well. Let me know if you have any further questions. Thanks, Shea Buildium Support Buildium | Property Managed. buildiumstat.us

Dana Brannon Jul 24, 11:51 AM Yes if you could please explain how the lower hold days work that would be great and then how to apply for that

Shea Allard (Buildium) Jul 24, 10:36 AM Hi Dana! Thanks for contacting Buildium Support! My name is Shea and I am here to help. I understand the frustration here and our team is aware of how pending incoming payments are marked as available cash before they fully fund. That being said, I know the product team just altered the balance sheet to include a line item for pending payments, so that might be helpful to take a look at before you initiate an owner draw. I have also seen other property managers lower their hold days on incoming payments to help avoid this. I can walk you through applying for lower hold days if you would like. While I can't give you a definite timeline as to when the functionality regarding pending payments will be changed, please know that we are aware of it. Let us know if you have any further questions! Thank you, Shea Buildium Support Buildium | Property Managed. buildiumstat.us

Dana Brannon Jul 24, 10:09 AM It seems there is a flaw in the Buildium system. Why does pending EFT's show as available cash? I just paid an owner yesterday and by the afternoon I had a reversal on an EFT on one of his properties. This causes accounting issues because you have paid out management fees on this EFT, paid out management income accounts on this EFT and paid the owner. You now need the owner and the property management company to return money because the EFT did not go through. Really we shouldn't be paying out money we don't know that we definitely have yet. What is Buildium's thoughts on this? Thank

Thanks!
Buildium Customer Care

[Glenn Lehman]

It seems to me there answer to shorter times, is like saying pay us more and we can fix this.

In 8 years we have never used buildium suggested distribution.

glenn ... mobile

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[Eric M Boyd]

Well, I guess I'll be going back to the 3-day hold for inbound EFT payments now. Thanks for sharing all that with us, Dana.

Eric M. Boyd, Broker 
Step One Realty LLC 
Jacksonville, FL 
www.JacksonvillePropertyManager.com 
eric...@StepOneRealty.com 
 
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From: Glenn Lehman Sent: Sunday, August 2, 2015 8:32 PM To: buildium-n...@googlegroups.com Reply To: buildium-n...@googlegroups.com

Subject: Re: Pending EFT's - new reporting

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[JoanAlyce Lugert]

Yes, thanks Dana.  This is a very important issue that Buidium has been "aware of" for some time but it just doesn't seem to be of importance to them.

******************************************

JoanAlyce Lugert - General Manager - GREEN REALTOR®
Lugert Realty, LLC - Shamrock Property Management 
Serving the Austin community since 1980
Member : BBB - NARPM - NFIB
PO Box 580

Del Valle, TX  78617
512-478-5588 - Office

512-694-8451 - Cell

www.AustinShamrock.com

Texas law requires all real estate agents and brokers to provide the
information about brokerage services contained in this link:
http://www.trec. state.tx. us/pdf/contracts /op-k.pdf

[Eric Boyd]

I just went to make the change request to my hold days (going back to 3 days, I guess), and found this message:

Caution: Lowering your deposit hold days below 3 gives the payment processor less time to catch errors — a tenant mis-typing their bank account number, for example. These errors are typically caught within 2 days, so lowering your hold days increases the likelihood of money getting deposited in your account only to be withdrawn again.

The message has probably been there for quite some time, though, and I haven't been to this screen in a couple of years.  But, in any event, I just don't see a reason to have a lower number of hold days, now that I know it really doesn't make a difference as far as NSF's are concerned.  Part of me wonders if we were sold on a lie, being made to think this was actually giving us the true funds in a shorter amount of time.  Seriously, had I know they didn't actually have the funds, I wouldn't have be paying the additional $35-40/mo, and for a few years now, to "rush" them.  Besides, due to the language in my management agreement, I have no reason to rush the processing of the rent income anyway.  I give myself 5-7 business days before sending owner proceeds.

 
- -
Eric M. Boyd, Owner/Broker
Step One Realty, LLC
Jacksonville, FL
Residential Sales and Property Management
http://www.StepOneRealty.com
cell: 904-813-5010 fax: 888-345-5054
mailto:Eric...@StepOneRealty.com

[Glenn Lehman]

I am confused in that most situation that pull information would verify the pull when it starts the process. So, if the funds transfer process takes 3 days to move the money which day do they verify the account number on? If I give someone a bad card number the figure it out instantly.

Glenn D. Lehman

President

Lehman Property Management

2740 Penbrook Avenue

Harrisburg, PA 17103

www.RentCentralPa.com

Follow us on Twitter @RentCentralPa

P: 717-652-4434

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[Eric Boyd]

Glenn,

I'm not aficionado on this, but I'm fairly certain that credit cards are processed differently than these EFT (ACH) payments.  Credit card payments are essentially immediate payments, whereas ACH's are processed in a large batch with all submitted bank account information.  So, maybe it takes a few days for the incorrect account info or NSF information to be sent back through the Clearing House system and reach Forte/Buildium.

 
- -
Eric M. Boyd, Owner/Broker
Step One Realty, LLC
Jacksonville, FL
Residential Sales and Property Management
http://www.StepOneRealty.com
cell: 904-813-5010 fax: 888-345-5054
mailto:Eric...@StepOneRealty.com