Refundable Deposits

Objective: To enter refundable deposits into Vantaca.

Your boards may require homeowners to make refundable deposits on things, such as reservation holds, ARC deposits, or pet deposits. Or perhaps you keep track of refundable deposits submitted by tenants. Follow these steps to enter these deposits without changing the balance on the homeowner's ledger.

Option 1: Place a payment to a charge

If you would like to be able to refund a deposit for a homeowner directly on their ledger, you can place a charge for the refundable deposit on the homeowner's ledger and then place their deposit as a payment to that charge. That will tie out the charge with the payment and the owner's balance will not show as higher or lower than it really is.

How to Setup a New Charge or Assessment

How to Add a Charge to An Individual Homeowner's Account

When the deposit is ready to be refunded, simply refund their deposit "payment" and write off the charge on their ledger.

Homeowner Charge Adjustments - How to Waive a Charge

Processing a Homeowner Refund

Option 2: Add the deposit to Transaction History (Recommended)

It is also possible to track and manage these through History items. In this scenario, the money itself is tracked outside the system and the Homeowner-facing records only appear on statements for the Homeowner's peace of mind. 

• These amounts hit the Homeowner Ledger Transaction Tab
• This amount is reflected on statements
• Does not affect the GL

When using this method to keep track of refundable deposits, it can be helpful to import homeowner tags on these homeowners to have an easy way to keep track of which owners have a deposit on their ledger. For more help on importing Homeowner Tags, read this article Importing Homeowner Tags to an Association.

Manual Transaction History

• Navigate to Homeowner>Ledger and click on the Transaction tab.
• Select "Edit History" and add the information for the Refundable deposit.
  • Since simply adding a "payment" will reduce the owner's balance on statements, and potentially confuse homeowners, it is best to also include a "Deposit Charge Placeholder" or similar "charge" item to offset. 
• Adding items to the Transaction History will not impact financials, and simply appear to homeowners through statements and their Portal.

Refunding the Deposit

• Return to the Homeowner > Ledger > Transactions and select Edit History
• Add a new item for the Deposit Refund.
• Delete the "Deposit Charge Placeholder"

Import Transaction History

Some key points of the Homeowner Transaction History Import:

• Used for New Association imports, not day to day posting; can be used for refundable deposit balances as well
• 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)

How To Import Homeowner Beginning Balances (Two Imports)