The Expenses & Payments area allows posting of other transactions that are not already set up as a Management, Occupancy or Recurring Fee. It will also, if required, allow posting of any Payments that an owner has provided you. Once Statements are calculated, the Expenses & Payments area will show ALL postings made to an Owner Statement (those done manually & those setup as Management, Occupancy or Recurring Fees). Therefore, if any adjustments need to be made to an Owner Statement, they will be done in the Expense & Payments area.
How to Post Expenses & Payments
To Post an Expense or Payment proceed to the Expenses & Payments Menu and select the “New Expense” button that appears in the middle of the screen.
There are two ways to do postings in OA.
- Individual posting – Use this to select a specific unit(s) where the posting is to apply
- Expense to Property posting – Use this to apply the posting to the entire property based on 6 different options:
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Expense Factor – the amount entered will divide among a pool based on the Expense Factor that was set on the individual units.
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Revenue Factor – the amount entered will divide among a pool based on the Revenue Factor that was set on the individual units.
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Divided Equally – divides the amount entered equally among all the units. Therefore, if you enter $100 and you have 10 units, each unit will have a $10.00 expense posted to their unit.
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Same Amount – the amount entered is posted to all units. Therefore, if you enter $100 and you have 10 units, each unit will have a $100.00 expense posted to their unit.
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Revenue as Factor - bases the expense on the revenue on the actual unit, not overall revenue of the property
- Multi Unit Expense Posting - allows you to enter specific amounts to be charged to selected units
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Expense Factor – the amount entered will divide among a pool based on the Expense Factor that was set on the individual units.
Example of an Individual Posting:
Enter the following Information:
- Transaction Date – enter the date the transaction occurred
- Type – Is the posting an expense, a payment or other revenue?
- Code – Select the desired transaction code for the posting.
- Reference – enables input of more details about the expense or payment being posted. This information will only appear on the statement if the Show Expense Detail was set to YES on your Property Configuration Settings.
- Amount – Enter the amount you are charging
- Expense to Property? – do not place a check-mark in this box as we will be selecting specific Units where the expense will be applied. If left unchecked, a unit must be selected in the Unit/Owner Selection area by placing a check-mark next to the unit number.
Select Save & Close if you have finished posting the expenses, otherwise, select Save & New to move on to your next expense or payment posting.
After the posting is completed, the View Transactions by Batch screen will appear (Expenses & Payments > View Transactions by Batch), where postings can be reviewed.
Every time a posting is made, a Batch is created. By clicking on the Back to Batch List button at the top of the screen, a screen will open that displays a list of all Transactions by Batch. To view a batch, simply click on the View button beside the batch. Below we see that this batch was created on Feb 28th, 2008 at 3:14pm.
An entire batch can be deleted by selecting the Delete button to the right.
To delete a single transaction within a batch, select the View button next to the batch and then select Delete next to the transaction to be deleted.
To proceed with more postings, select the Expenses & Payments Menu.
Example of an Expense to Property Posting:
Enter the following Information:
- Type – Is the posting an expense or a payment? **NOTE: if posting Other Revenue to the Property or Unit select “expense”**
- Code – Select the desired transaction code for the posting.
- Reference – Allows more details about the expense or payment being posted to be entered. This information will only appear on the statement if the Show Expense Detail was set to YES on your Property Configuration Settings.
- Amount – Enter the amount to be charged
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Expense to Property? – place a check-mark in this box. This allows the posting to be applied to the entire property based on 6 different options:
- Expense Factor – the amount entered will divide among a pool based on the Expense Factor that was set on the individual units.
- Revenue Factor – the amount entered will divide among a pool based on the Revenue Factor that was set on the individual units.
- Divided Equally – divides the amount entered equally among all the units. Therefore, if $100 is entered, and there are 10 units, each unit will have a $10.00 expense posted to their unit.
- Same Amount – the amount entered is posted to all units. Therefore, if $100 is entered, and there are 10 units, each unit will have a $100.00 expense posted to their unit.
- Revenue as Factor - bases the expense on the revenue on the actual unit, not overall revenue of the property
- Multi-Unit Expense Posting - allows you to enter specific amounts to be charged to selected units
- Expense to Area – if you applying the Expense to a Pool, select the Pool Area where the posting will apply
After the posting is completed, the View Transactions by Batch screen will display. Postings can be reviewed here.
Every time a posting is made, a Batch is created. By clicking on the Back to Batch List button at the top of the screen, a screen will open that displays a list of all Transactions by Batch. To view a batch, simply click on the View button beside the batch. Below we see that this batch was created on Feb 28th, 2008 at 3:22pm.
An entire batch can be deleted by selecting the Delete button to the right.
To delete a single transaction within a batch, select the View button next to the batch and then select Delete next to the transaction to be deleted.
To proceed with more postings, click the Expenses & Payments menu.
How to Delete Expense or Payment Postings
To Delete an Expense or Payment posting, the first step is to locate the posting. There are 3 ways to locate a posting:
- Scroll through postings – proceed to the Expense & Payments Menu, and scroll through the list of postings to locate the posting to be deleted.
- Search by Unit # - while in the Expenses & Payment menu, enter the unit number where the posting is located into the Search by Unit # field and select Search to view all the postings to that unit.
- View Transaction by Batch – select the View Transactions by Batch and locate the batch where the posting is located. Select the View button beside the desired batch to view individual postings. NOTE: If desired, the Delete button next to a batch can be selected to delete the entire batch.
Once in a batch, the Search by Unit # feature can be used to locate the specific posting.
To delete a posting, simply click the Delete button next to the posting to be deleted.
IMPORTANT NOTES:
- Once a posting or a batch is deleted, it is gone forever. The transaction would have to be re-posted if it was deleted by accident.
- If a transaction that was setup as a Management, Occupancy or Recurring Fee is deleted, when Calculating the Statements, the corresponding box must be UNCHECKED. If it is not unchecked, the Management, Occupancy or Recurring Fee will re-appear on the Owner Statement. For example: if you delete a Housekeeping Fee (which is setup as an Occupancy Fee) from a unit. When you Re-Calculate your Statements you must un-check the “Occupancy Fees” box before selecting the “Calculate Statements” button. If you do not, the Housekeeping Fee will re-appear on the Owner Statement.
How to Calculate Travel Agent Commissions
When Room Revenue is imported from the PMS into Owner Accounting, Travel Agent Booking information is also imported. If Travel Agents are paid a commission and in turn, billed back to the Owners for the commissions paid, then use the “Post Travel Agent Commissions” feature in OA to charge the owners.
NOTE: The percentages charged on each reservation are based on the Commission Fees that are setup for each individual Travel Agent in the PMS under Operations > Travel Agent.
To view the Units that will have a Travel Agent Commission charged, proceed to Expenses & Payments > Commission Worksheet.
On this Commission Worksheet, note that under the Travel Agent column, Units 200, 201, 203 and 205 all had stays where a Travel Agent Commission was charged.
By selecting the View button next to Unit 201, we can see that there is a Yes under the TA column to indicate that a Travel Agent was attached to this Res ID 1280 in the PMS, and that the Commission paid to their Travel Agent is 10%.
To Post Travel Agent Commission to an Owner Statement, proceed to Expenses & Payments > Post Travel Agent Commissions.
Select the Post Travel Agent Commissions button in the middle of the screen to calculate the Travel Agent Commissions that are to be posted to each applicable unit.
After the Post Travel Agent Commissions button is selected, the View Transactions by Batch screen will open, where Travel Agent Commission postings are displayed.
If a Travel Agent Commission needs to be deleted, (if, for example a Travel Agent was mistakenly attached to a booking in the PMS), click Delete next to the desired transactions.
How to Calculate Credit Card Commissions
When Room Revenue is imported from the PMS into Owner's Accounting, bookings that were paid for using a Credit Card are identified within OA. If the Owners are to be billed for the commissions paid on Credit Card Transactions, use the Post Credit Card Commissions. feature in OA to charge the owners.
NOTE: Under the Configuration Settings menu, if Yes was selected for the option Set Credit Cards for All Bookings?, this means that all bookings imported into OA will be identified as Credit Card Commissionable Bookings. To view the Units that will have a Credit Card Commissions charged to them, go to Expenses & Payments > Commission Worksheet.
On this Commission Worksheet, under the Credit Card column there are several guests that paid with a Credit Card upon departure.
By selecting the View button next to Unit 221, notice that there is a Yes under the CC column to indicate that Res ID 1287 paid with a credit card upon check out.
To Post Credit Card Commissions to an Owner Statement, proceed to the Expenses & Payments > Post Credit Card Commissions.
Enter the Commission Percentage into the box below and then select the Post Credit Card Commissions button.
NOTE: The calculation will be based on the revenue made on a unit for the days where Yes appears under the CC column on the Commission Worksheet. Below, note the Total Revenue for Feb 7th is $171.35. If the Commission Percentage is 1.5% then the Credit Card Commission charged for this date will be $2.57.
After the Post Credit Card Commissions button is selected, the View Transactions by Batch page will open, where Credit Card Commission postings are shown.
To delete a Credit Card Commission, click Delete next to the transactions to be removed.
Viewing Transactions by Batch
Expenses can be viewed by batch, which can help locate a transaction the may need to be deleted. If desired, it also provides the option to delete an entire batch at once, by using the Delete button next to the corresponding batch.
To locate a batch, go to Expenses & Payments > View Transactions by Batch.
To view the units involved in a batch posting (ie: Transactions Listing), click on the View button next to the Batch.
All transactions in a batch can be deleted by selecting Delete while in the Transaction Batch List. Individual transactions within a batch can be deleted by selecting Delete in the Transaction Listings area.
