How to Set Up a New Charge or Assessment

Objective: To create a new charge for the application to homeowner accounts, with that charge being mapped to the correct GL account that the charges and payments are to be applied against.

To add a new charge for an association, go to the Association > Assessments screen.

From the Association > Assessments screen, press the New Assessment button. In the pop-up box that appears, you will enter the information for the charge you want to set up.

• The Description is the name of the charge as it will appear on the owners ledgers (i.e. Assessment, Special Assessment, Late Fee, Interest). 

• The Type of Charge is defined by how the charge is to be applied.

  • Action Item would be the type you would select for charges that you would want to be automatically applied during the stepping of an action item process. This means that you can configure the Violations action item to apply a Violation Fine to a Homeowner Account upon the stepping of the Violations action item to the Daily Fine step, for instance. For more information on this, please review our How to Set Up Action Item Charge Type Rules article.

  • Assessment is charged on a specific time interval such as monthly and quarterly (i.e. assessments, special assessments).

  • Deposit allows funds to be added to the Refundable deposits through the Homeowners > Homeowner Profile > Ledger > Deposits subtab.

  • Fee is charged based on parameters set for a certain day and based on certain charge balances (i.e late fees, interest). Note: Charges with Fee as the Type of Charge will be waived if auto waivers are enabled via Association > Settings > Accounting (Auto-Waive Fees) > # Days After Fee to Auto-Waive. For more details see Auto Fee Waivers in Vantaca.

  • Manual Charge is just a charge with no rule set, which will just be charged manually to a Homeowner account or by an import when needed (i.e pool fobs, misc. charge).

  • Owner Transfer Charge is a charge applied as a result of an ownership transfer or property conveyance (i.e. working capital).

  • Rent allows rent charges to be collected.

• The GL Account field indicates which GL account charges and payments in this charge grouping will be applied.

  • This is the income account for this charge type. While there may be instances where this GL could be something other than income, please note this should never be the Accounts Receiveable GL.

• The Fund is the fund which the money will deposit into. (i.e. Reserves)

• The Billing Format is where you define how Assessments will be billed.

  • Selecting Statement will allow this charge to be included in Statements but will not be included on Coupons.

  • Selecting Coupon will allow this charge to be on either Coupons or Statements.

  • (None) Does not show on statements or coupons.

  •  Coupons (Breakout)/(Combined) allow third-party coupons to add multiple charges to the same coupon. (Ex: regular monthly assessments and a monthly special assessment.) 

• The Subledger dropdown allows you to select which subledger will be used for charges and payments to this charge. For more information on Subledgers, visit Creating a Subledger

• The Coupon Code field is only needed if the charge is set to the Billing Format of Coupons and should be 100 for the first charge with coupons, 200 for the second, and so on. The Coupon Product Code is the product code used in SouthData to reference.

• The Include in ACH check box will include that charge in the owners ACH draft if they are enrolled in ACH. *This setting is applicable for Vantaca ACH, Zego ACH if the owner chooses 'Variable Auto Pay', and in ClickPay ACH if the owner drafts the 'Balance Due'.

• The Keep Credit Balance field will hold a credit balance designated for that charge and not allow that money to be reallocated to any other charge groupings if there is a credit balance in that category. This setting overrides the system's nightly credit reallocation process.

• The Primary Charge field should be checked if you are setting up the primary assessment or late fee for an association. Those are the only 2 charges that should have that box checked.

• The Exclude from Collections field should be checked if you would like to exclude an assessment or charge from the collections process of your association.

• The Exclude from Collections Balance Threshold box should be checked if you do not want a charge to go toward the threshold an association has, before it advances an account through the collections process

• The Exclude from Lien Threshold should be selected if you do not want an assessment or charge to count towards the threshold that an association has set up, which when reached, an account is sent through the process of having a lien applied.

• The Payment Order field determines how payments are allocated to this charge. (Go to Association > Settings > A/R > Payment Distribution to configure the association's Payment Distribution setting.) 
  When the association's Payment Distribution is set to Custom Order, the Payment Order number controls the sequence in which charges receive payments starting at the lowest number (zero or higher) and moving up. When Pay Order numbers are the same, the allocation defaults to Oldest First.
  Entering a value of -1 excludes the charge from automatic payment allocation entirely. A charge with Pay Order -1 is always reserved for manual allocation only, regardless of the association's Payment Distribution setting, whether set to Custom Order, Oldest First, Pay Fees First, or Pay Assessments First. The Payment Distribution setting only controls the order in which non-excluded charges are applied.

If you set up an assessment, fee, or action item type charge, you will need to click the drop down next to the charge after setup and then click "New Rule" to set up the specific rules for that charge. For more information on the set up of the rules for these charge types, please visit the following articles.

How to Set Up Assessment Rules

How to Set Up Late Fee and Interest Rules

How to Set Up Action Item Charge Type Rules

Note: All Assessment & Fee type charges will auto-populate on the association calendar.

FAQ
 

Q: How do I remove an assessment from all owner accounts in an association at once?

A: To remove an assessment charge from all owners simultaneously:

1. Go to Association > Assessments
2. Locate the charge you want to remove
3. Click the caret (▼) to the left of the charge name
4. Click the Generations tab
5. Find the charge entry by its Charge Date
6. Click Delete

This will remove the charge from all owner accounts that received it. Note: Mass removal of charges is only available for Assessment and Fee Type charges. To mass remove any other charge type, contact Vantaca Support for assistance.

Q: How do I stop an owner from being charged an assessment?

A: To stop an owner from being charged an assessment without changing the assessment Rules, set a distant future date in the Billing Start Date field.

To update the Billing Start Date:

1. Navigate to Homeowners > Homeowner List and select the account
2. Go to Homeowners > Homeowner Profile > Payment Method.
3. Click Enroll (or Enroll/Update All Accounts if the owner has merged accounts and all should stop being charged)
4. In the Billing Start Date field, enter a future date
   • To stop billing indefinitely, use a date like 12/31/2099
5. Click Update to save

This will prevent the owner from receiving charges going forward. For more information, review our How do I stop billing on an owner's account until a specific date? article.

Q: How can I let owners enroll in ACH on the portal if they have an outstanding balance?

A: You can allow owners to enroll in ACH even with a balance by following these steps:

1. Go to System > System Settings
2. Click the Web Portal tab
3. Locate the Payments section
4. Check the box next to Disable $0 Balance ACH Enrollment Validation
5. Click Update at the bottom of the screen

Once enabled, owners can enroll in ACH regardless of their account balance.

Q: A charge marked as "Include In ACH" was not drafted from an owner's account. Why?

A: This typically happens when a charge is added to an account after the association has already processed their monthly ACH draft, and the association's ACH Include Charges setting is set to "Current Month Charges Only" rather than "All Charges Since Last Draft Day" (found in Association > Settings > ACH).

To resolve this: Process a one-time ACH payment for the affected accounts by going to Homeowners > Homeowner Profile > Payment Method. This will draft the charge without having to change your association's ACH settings.

For step-by-step instructions, see our article: Set Up an ACH Payment Plan

Q: A change was recently made to an assessment. How can I see who made the change and when?

A: Changes made to assessments are logged in the Association > Activity Notes screen. To find the change made to the specific assessment, type its name in the Comment/Note field to filter results.

Note: The Date Range filter at the top of the screen defaults to Last 90 Days. If the change doesn't appear, adjust the date range to ensure the activity log covers the time the change was made.