Refundable Deposits

Summary: The charge type 'Deposit' on the Association>Assessments will allow you to track refundable deposits on the new 'Deposit' tab on the homeowner ledger.

This article will explain what this feature is, what it is not, how to create and edit Refundable Deposits along with the necessary permissions and configuration steps to implement refundable deposits into your workflow. If you have been tracking deposits by other means in Vantaca, refer here to best practices of implementing this feature.

What is the intention of Refundable Deposits in Vantaca?

The goal is to allow deposit tracking on the homeowner level that does not impact the homeowner's balance or the Prepaid GL (as it would if tracking on the Homeowner>Ledger). This is designed for the use case of receiving deposit checks to the office and manually posting them to the homeowner account. The deposit would stay on the deposit ledger until refunded. There is a new report that will allow you to see which owners in an association have a deposit.

What are Refundable Deposits not intended for?

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. These decisions were made as 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.

Creating the Deposit Charge Type

1. You'll need to create the Deposit Type Assessment before you can begin creating new deposits, so the first step is to go to Association > Assessments and select +New Assessment.
   
2. On the Edit Assessment form, select Deposit as the Type of Charge.
   1. Provide information for the following fields as needed:
      1. Description
      2. GL Account
         1. NOTE: It is recommended to use the same GL accounts for all three fields of this screen. This is intended so that all deposit activity is tracked on the same GL account. 
      3. A/R GL Override
         1. These overrides will ensure that accurate reporting can still be achieved and the deposits do not adversely impact Account Receivable GLs. 
      4. HO Credit GL Override
         1. 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.
      5. Fund
      6. Billing Format
      7. Subledger
         

Deposit Permissions

There are multiple permissions available, each with separate functionality that can be enabled depending on what needs to be accomplished: Note: If not enabled, each respective button will not be visible on the Homeowner > Ledger > Deposits tab but they will still have access to the Deposits tab.

• New Deposit: Allows the user to create a New Deposit.
• Deposit Adjustment: Allows the user to Adjust existing Deposits.
• Edit Deposit History: Allows the user to manually add Deposit Beginning Balance information or edit imported Deposit information.

• The permission for the report is 'Refundable Deposit Summary'
  

Creating a New Deposit

1. Go to the Homeowner > Ledger > Deposits tab and select the New Deposit button.
   
2. Using the New Deposit form, provide information for the following fields, as needed:
   • Bank Account
   • Deposit Date
   • Total Amount: You'll need to make sure that 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 Amount value or an error will continue to pop up if you attempt to submit the form with the mismatched values.
       
   • Type: Only Deposit Type Assessments will be available as options.
   • CheckNo
   • Descr
   • Attachments.
3. Click Update to complete.

Adjusting a Deposit

1. Select the Deposit Adjustment button on the Homeowner > Ledger > Deposits tab.
2. The Adjust Deposit form will default to Refund but the following options are available:
   1. Refund: Refunds the homeowner for the inputted amount.
      
   2. Reallocate: Reallocates funds from one Deposit Charge Type to another. Meaning, you can track multiple types of deposits all on the deposit tab.
      
   3. Move to Ledger: Moves a payment that has been applied to a Deposit to Charge in the Summary ledger.
      • If the need arises to partially refund a deposit. First process the refund for the amount being refunded, then select Move to Ledger to move the remaining amount of the payment as it is now collectable. 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 funds need to be moved into your operating account (assuming originally deposited to a different account), then a transfer would still need to be made.
        

Editing Deposit History

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

1. Select the Edit Deposit History option on the Homeowner > Ledger > Deposit tab.
   
2. Select the +New History Item button to create a new entry with the following fields:
   • Transaction Date
   • Deposit
   • Payment Amount
   • BK XN#
3. Select Save History to finish and save the entry.
   

When the process is not perfect

1. A deposit gets posted to the Homeowner>Ledger via lockbox or portal.
   • Within payment adjustments there is not the ability to move a deposit from the main ledger to the deposit ledger. Under this scenario, you have two options:
     
     • Add a charge to negate the payment, then post the payment to the deposit tab.
     • For portal payments (not lockboxes as they are batched), you could delete the payment from the audit tab and repost to the deposit tab.
       *Reminder if deposits should be processed to an account other than operating, a transfer might need to be made.