How to Configure Assessments and Association Charges on Model Association

Summary: This article will discuss how to do the the one-time set up of assessments and association charges on the model association.

Assessments and charges should both be set up on the model for only the assessments and charges that majority of the associations will use. However, the rules for the assessments and other charges should be set up per association not on the model.

Set Up Assessments on the Model Association

First, navigate to Association > Assessments and select the Model association.

Next, select + New Assessment and a window will open that will allow you to input the details of your Assessment.

• 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.
  • "Assessment" is charged on a specific time interval such as monthly and quarterly (i.e. assessments, special assessments).
  • "Fee" is charged based on parameters set for a certain day and based on certain charge balances (i.e late fees, interest).
  • "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).
• The GL Account field indicates which GL account charges and payments in this charge grouping will be applied.
• 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.
  • Selecting Coupon will allow this charge to be on either Coupons or Statements.
  • (None) does not have the charge appear 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.
• 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. * Setting is used on special assessments only and should not be checked on any other assessments. 
• 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. This will exclude the charge from BOTH entering collections, as well as escalating in the collections process. 
• 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 (-1 for manual allocation) becomes active if the Association Setting for Payment Distribution is set to "Custom Order". (Go to Association -> Settings -> AR -> Payment Distribution). When in Custom Order mode you can enter a number when editing an assessment which will determine how payments will be allocated. It will start distributing payments at the lowest number (zero or higher) and move up accordingly. Assessments that should be only manual can be marked so by entering value “-1”. Payments will never be automatically allocated to those assessments. When numbers are the same, the allocation defaults to “Oldest First”.

Once all of the relevant information has been input, click "Update" to save your changes.

If you set up an assessment, fee, or action item type, you will need to click the drop down next to the charge after setup and then click "New Rule" to setup the specific rules for that charge.

Visit What is the Model Association and How Does it Work? for more information about the model association.

Understanding Rule Copying Behavior

The Model Association handles assessment rules differently depending on how associations are created or updated:

Automatic Copying (New Associations)

When you create a new association using the Model Association, the system automatically copies:
- All assessment structures
- All assessment rules, including:
 - NSF (Non-Sufficient Funds) fees
 - Administrative charges
 - Late fees
 - Interest calculations
 - Violation fees
 - Any other custom rule types

This automatic copying occurs at the moment the association is created and ensures consistent billing configurations across your portfolio.

Manual Copying (Existing Associations)

When you use the Copy Assessment function to update existing associations:

1. Navigate to the target association's Assessments page and click Copy Assessment.
3. Select the Model Association as the source.
4. Select the Copy Rules checkbox to include assessment rules.
5. Select which assessments to copy.
6. Click Copy.

Important: For manual copying, you must select the Copy Rules checkbox. If you do not select this checkbox, only the assessment structure copies (no rules will be included).