Auto Fee Waivers in Vantaca

The Automatic Waiver feature for fees was created to prevent homeowner calls and emails that you might receive because of a payment on a charge. This article outlines how automatic waivers for fees works, how to set it up, and how you can use a Fee Waiver action item to communicate this information to owners. 

Note: Auto-fee waivers apply to any assessment configured with a Type of Charge set to Fee.

Table of Contents

• How Auto Waivers Work
• Setting Up Auto Waivers
  • Example
• Auto-Fee Waiver Action Item

How Auto Waivers Work

The Auto Waive function allows Vantaca to remove late fees if a payment was made within a specified number of days per period per owner, to avoid calls or emails from upset owners who made their payment at the last minute.

The fee is only waived based on the Auto-Waive Balance setting configured in Association > Settings > Accounting (Auto-Waive Fees):

• Total Balance (default): The fee is waived if the homeowner's account balance equals only the late fee amount
• Late Fee Rule: The fee is waived if the charges specified in the late fee rule's Balance Includes field no longer meet the rule's minimum requirements

For example, a homeowner's mailed payment is postmarked before the late date, but postal delays get it to the lockbox the day after it's late. If their payment doesn't show up on the day that it's marked late, Vantaca places a late fee on that owner's ledger. The owner may then call or email to complain about the late fee, and request that it be removed because their payment was actually made on the day before it was late. This takes up valuable time for management companies and can be avoided by implementing the auto waive fee.

Each night during the set period, Vantaca reviews the account ledger according to the Auto-Waive Balance setting and waives eligible fees. A Courtesy Fee Waiver adjustment is added to the Homeowner's Ledger.

Vantaca then creates an Auto-Fee Waiver action item on the account which communicates the late payment to the homeowner and notations to the account. 

Back to Top

Setting Up Auto Waivers  

To set up an Auto Waive of the fee:

1. Navigate to Association > Settings and go to the Accounting (Auto-Waive Fees) section.
   
   
    
2. Click Edit next to any of the settings to open the Edit Association Data screen.
   
   
    
3. Provide the following information:
   • # Days after Fee to Auto Waive: Select if you want to turn off the Auto-Waive function or  select the number of days after the late fees generate for a late fee to be auto-waived.
   • Limits - # of Times Per Period: Select the limit for the auto waive function. This specifies how many times in a certain period owners can have their late fees automatically waived from their account.

   • Limits - Period: Select either No Limit Period, or if you want to have fees waved once every 30 days (Per Month), once every three months (per quarter), or once every 12 months (Per Year).

     Per Month means within the last 30 days. For example, if a homeowner already had a fee waived within the last 30 days they will not be eligible for another waiver until 30 days has passed.

     The Per Year period is a rolling 12 months, not the fiscal/calendar year. For example, if the limit is set to 1 Time Per Year and the owner has a waiver processed in June, they will not be eligible for another waiver until the following June. 

   • Auto-Waive Balance: Select how Vantaca evaluates accounts for auto-waiver eligibility:
     • Total Balance (default): Vantaca evaluates the entire account balance. If the balance equals only the amount of the late fees charged and payment is made within the auto-waiver time period, the late fee is waived (original functionality).
     • Late Fee Rule: Vantaca evaluates only the charges included in the Balance Includes field of the late fee rule that generated the fee. If those specific charge balances no longer meet the late fee rule's minimum requirements after payment, the late fee is automatically waived. When multiple different late fees are charged, Vantaca evaluates the Balance Includes field of all applicable late fee rules
   • Auto Waiver Language: Enter the verbiage that you want Vantaca to populate the Description field on the Homeowner's Ledger whenever Vantaca auto-waives a fee.
4. Click Update.

Example

The association's late fee is set to the 15th and although the owner paid, it hasn't posted yet and so they get a late fee on the 15th.

The owner payment posts to their account on the 17th, leaving only the late fee charge on the account.

When the auto-waiver runs overnight on the 17th, it waives that owner's late fee because the payment was received within the auto-waive period.

Back to Top

Auto-Fee Waiver Action Item

In addition to waiving the fee, this can trigger an Auto-Fee Waiver action item on the homeowner's account. This allows you to better track who is receiving the auto waivers, and also proactively sends the homeowner an automated message to let them know that a fee was waived.

See the following image of a default Fee Waiver Notification email: 

You can customize this template to fit the dates and times as you've set them up in the Association Settings. Ultimately the customer is encouraged to make payments sooner or to sign up for automatic payments through the Web Portal, to avoid future late fees.

To customize the email template for the Auto-Fee Waiver action item:

1. Navigate to Settings > Action Types/Steps.
2. Click the caret to the left of the Category name to expand and view its steps.
3. Click Rules next to the desired step.
4. Click Email Template on the left-hand side of the Rules screen.

For more information on configuring action type rules, see the "Action Type Rules" article.

Back to Top

FAQ

Q: Why was an owner charged a late fee when their payment was made on time, and why wasn't it waived?

A: Late fees in Vantaca are triggered based on when a payment enters Vantaca, not when the bank posts it. If there's a delay between those two dates — due to a delayed lockbox commitment or a mailing delay for check payments — a late fee may be assessed even if the bank received the payment on time.

How to verify this: Open the owner's ledger (Homeowners > Ledger) and check the Created column on the Audit tab. This shows the date the payment actually entered Vantaca, which may differ from the payment date displayed on the ledger (the bank posting date).

Example:

• Late fee charged: 15th
• Payment date shown in Vantaca: 12th (bank posting date)
• Created date: 19th (date payment entered Vantaca)
• # Days After Fee to Auto-Waive: 3 Days

In this case, the payment entered Vantaca on the 19th — four days after the late fee was assessed — which falls outside the 3-day auto-waive window, so the fee was not automatically waived.

Why the fee may also not be waived: If the owner has exceeded the waiver limits set in Limits - # of Times per Period or Limits - Period, automatic waiving will be blocked regardless of timing.