This article describes how to create and edit refundable deposits as well as the necessary permissions and configuration steps to implement refundable deposits in your workflow. In the Association > Assessments screen, you can use a Deposit type of charge to track refundable deposits that display on the Homeowners > Ledger Deposits tab.

If you track deposits by other means in Vantaca, see the "Transitioning to Refundable Deposits" article for information about the best way to implement this feature. 

Contents

• How to Use Refundable Deposits
• Create the Deposit Charge Type
• Assign Deposit Permissions
• Create a New Deposit
• Adjust a Deposit
• Partial Refunds
• Edit Deposit History
• Troubleshooting

How to Use Refundable Deposits

Refundable deposits allow deposit tracking on the homeowner level that does not impact their balance or Prepaid GL (as it would if tracking on the Homeowner > Ledger). This feature is designed for those who receive deposit checks in the office and then manually post them to the homeowner account. The deposit stays on the deposit ledger until refunded.

The Refundable Deposit Summary and Refundable Deposit by Unit reports allow you to see which owners in an association have a deposit. For more information about reports, see the "Types of Reports" article.

These transactions do not show on the owner portal or owner statements. Lockbox payments cannot be directly posted to the deposit tab of the ledger because deposits are often deposited into an account other than the association's operating account. Since portal payments and most lockbox integrations only post to the operating account, this presents a challenge to allow deposit payments in the portal or lockbox at this time.

Create the Deposit Charge Type

To begin creating new deposits, you must first create the Deposit Type Assessment:

1. Navigate to Association > Assessments and select +New Assessment.
   The Edit Assessment screen opens.
2. Provide the following information:
   
   
   
   
   • Description: Enter a description for this type of charge.
   • Type of Charge: Select Deposit.
   •  GL Account: Select the GL account.
     Important: We recommended that you use the same GL account for all three fields of this screen so that all deposit activity is tracked on the same GL account.
   •  A/R GL Override: Select the A/R GL Override account. For Accounting Deposits, after a new deposit payment is added to the deposit charge, the A/R GL Override is used to replace the Association's Settings GL for A/R. These overrides ensure accurate reporting and that the deposits do not adversely impact Account Receivable GLs. 
   • HO Credit GL Override: Select the HO Credit GL Override account. Deposits are held in a liability account to ensure that the funds do not impact the homeowner's balance, with the expectation that the funds are returned.
   • Fund: Select the appropriate option.
   • Billing Format: Select the appropriate billing format.
   • Subledger: Select the appropriate subledger.
3. Click Update.

Assign Deposit Permissions

Assign the permissions according to the functionality you want available to the user. 

Note: If you do not enable the permission, the associate button is not visible on the Homeowner > Ledger > Deposits tab, but users will still have access to the tab.

• New Deposit: Allows users to create a new deposit.
• Deposit Adjustment: Allows users to adjust existing deposits.
• Edit Deposit History: Allows users to manually add deposit beginning balance information or edit imported deposit information.

• The permission for the report is Refundable Deposit Summary.
  

Create a New Deposit

To create a new deposit:

1. Navigate to Homeowners > Ledger.
2. Click the Deposits tab, and then New Deposit.
   The New Deposit screen opens.
3. Provide the following information:
   
   
   
   
   • Bank Account: Select the bank account.
   • Deposit Date: Select the date the deposit is made.
   • Total Amount: Enter the total amount. Make sure the deposit distribution matches your entered amount by selecting the Payment column and distributing the funds as needed.
     Note: The Payment value must match the Total Amount value or an error will continue to pop up if you attempt to submit the form with the mismatched values.
     
     
     
     
     
   • Type: Select from the Deposit Type Assessments options.
   • CheckNo: Enter the check number.
   • Descr: Enter an optional description for this deposit.
   • Attachments: Attach files as needed.
4. Click Update.

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Adjust a Deposit

To adjust a deposit:

1. Navigate to Homeowner > Ledger.
2. Click the Deposits tab, and then Deposit Adjustment.
3. The Adjust Deposit screen opens set to Refund as the default.
4. Provide the following information:
5. Adjustment Date: Select the date of the adjustment. 
6. Type of Adjustment: Select the type of adjustment and provide the information. The screen is dynamic depending on the selected type:
   • Refund: Refunds the homeowner for the entered Adjustment Amount.
     
     
     
     
   • Reallocate: Reallocates funds from one Deposit Charge Type to another so you can track multiple types of deposits on the Deposit tab.
     
     
     
     
   • Move to Ledger: Moves a payment that has been applied to a Deposit to Charge in the Summary ledger.
     
     
     
     
7. Click Update.

Partial Refunds

If you need to partially refund a deposit:

1. Process the refund for the amount being refunded.
2. Select Move to Ledger to move the remaining amount of the payment as it is now collectable.
3. Add a charge to the ledger for the amount not being refunded (i.e. due to damages).
   This will not initiate a bank transfer, so if you need to move funds into your operating account (assuming it was originally deposited to a different account), you would need to make a transfer .
   
   
   
   
4. Click Update.
   
   

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Edit Deposit History

Editing a Balance's History allows you to manually add a Deposit's beginning balance information or edit imported Deposit information.

To edit deposit history:

1. Navigate to Homeowner > Ledger.
2. Click the Deposits tab, and then Edit Deposit History.
   The Edit Deposit History screen opens.
3. Click New History Item to create a new entry and provide information in the following fields. 
   Important: Enter credit payments as a negative number. If you add a credit as a regular charge, and then try to do a refund, it doubles the charge.
   
   
   
   
   • Transaction Date
   • Deposit
   • Payment Amount
   • BK XN#
4. Click Save History to save the entry.

Troubleshooting

Sometimes a deposit gets posted to the Homeowner > Ledger via lockbox or portal.

Within payment adjustments you cannot move a deposit from the main ledger to the deposit ledger. In this case, you can:

• Add a charge to negate the payment, and then post the payment to the Deposit tab.
• For portal payments (not lockboxes as they are batched), you can delete the payment from the Audit tab and then repost to the Deposit tab.

Note: If deposits should be processed to an account other than operating, you may need to make a transfer.