How To Import Homeowner Beginning Balances with Full History (Two Imports)

In Vantaca, there are two options for creating Homeowner Beginning Balances: 

1. Beginning Balances marked as "Initial Balance"

2. Beginning Balances with a full charge and payment history

This article explains how to import homeowner beginning balances as a complete list of Historic charges and payments, using two separate imports. Importing Homeowner Beginning balances with two imports the entire transaction history. This is done using the Charge Balances Import AND the Homeowner Transaction History Import.  

Alternatively, to import only the "Initial Balances" with no history prior to your Initial Balance posting date, you will want to use the Charge Balance Without History import. Instructions on this import can be found here: How to Import Homeowner Beginning Balances (One Import).

Note: Two sample Excel spreadsheets, one for each type of import, are attached to the bottom of this article.

Instructions:

In order to import the Homeowners' beginning balances, you must first create and import two Excel spreadsheets:

1. Homeowner Transaction History Import
2. Charge Balances Import 

Notice that the totals from the Charge Balances Import sum up to equal the amount listed in the Homeowner Transaction History Import, given as the beginning balance for each account. This is true unless the owner has a credit balance, in which case the two imports should sum up to equal zero.

To import these spreadsheets, hover your cursor over the Settings drop down menu and select the Import screen.  Click on the New Import Button, and choose the Import Type, the Association, and the Posted Date (the last day of the last fiscal period). Keep (No Conversion) in the next drop drown menu, and then click on the Select Files button to upload the spreadsheet from your system.

Once this loads, you will be taken to the final import screen.  From here, any errors on your spreadsheet will show up in RED.  Notice at the top that Import Mode is set to Append. Always Append the Import. The Association is in the box to the right, and in this example of a Homeowner Transaction History Import, you are validating two records.  Click the Commit button to complete the Import.

Some key points of the Homeowner Transaction History Import:

• These amounts hit the Homeowner Ledger Transactions Tab
• This amount is reflected on statements
• Does not affect the GL
• Used for New Association imports, not day to day posting
• Posted date should match the date used for the Charge Balance
• Date in the spreadsheet has to be a date prior to the posted date chosen on the Import screen
• Association Specific (select that prior to upload)
• Multiple rows per owner is okay, can populate the whole history

Spreadsheet Columns used for the Homeowners Transaction History Import:

1. Date
2. Account or OldAccount
3. Description
4. ChargeAmount (positive values)
5. PaymentAmount (positive values)

Some key points of the Charge Balances Import:

• Use the Translation screen to ensure that the charges have been translated to the correct charge in the system
• Association Specific - Will select an Association prior to uploading
• Posted date should ideally be the date that the charge will hit the Ledger
• This will not hit the GL, only the Homeowner Ledger on the Summary Screen. The Summary screen ties to the AR and Prepaid Reports
• Used for New Association imports, not general day-to-day
• Use a negative number for credit balances
• For credit or prepaid balances, use "prepaid" as your charge description
• Recommended to have one line per Assessment type, but can pull more if we want to

 Spreadsheet Columns used for the Charge Balance Import:

1. Account or OldAccount
2. Charge
3. Amount (Positive values for charges or balances, negative values for credit balances)

Important Notes:

To reiterate: On the Transaction History Report, ALL VALUES ARE POSITIVE. On the Charge Balance Import, POSITIVE VALUES ARE FOR CHARGES OWED; NEGATIVE VALUES ARE FOR CREDITS. 

Prior to running these Imports, you must first setup the assessments, fees and any other charges that are listed in these reports.  You can do so by hovering your cursor over the Association drop down menu, and selecting the Assessments screen.

The names of these assessments and/ or charges on the Charge Balance Import must exactly match the names of the assessments and/or charges setup on the Association -> Assessments screen, so that when you run your Import, the system can recognize the appropriate charges being presented.

Click here for our tutorial on How to Setup a New Charge or Assessment.

FAQ

Q: Why are transactions only appearing on the Summary tab and not also on the Transactions tab after doing an initial balance import?

A: The two import method requires both the Charge Balances and the Homeowner Transaction History imports to be committed to have transactions appear on the Summary and Transactions tabs respectively.

Q: Why am I receiving the error "Translation for Charge has not been set" when trying to commit my import?

A: This error occurs because a Charge name in the import file has not been mapped to its corresponding charge in Vantaca. To resolve it:

1. Navigate to Settings > Import and click the Imports tab.
2. Locate the import in question and click Review.
3. On the import review screen, click the Translation tab at the top of the screen.
4. Find the Association Charge triggering the error and click within its Translate To column.
5. Select the correct charge from the dropdown and click Save Changes above the Old Value column.
6. Once saved, click the Spreadsheet tab — the error will be cleared and you can click Commit to complete the import.