How do I pay bills?

A bill is a short-term liability that represents money owed to a vendor for services performed at the property. Bills are a common way to record an expense.

Synonyms include accounts payable or invoice.

For example:

After fixing our leaking septic tank, Johnny's Professional Services issued our company a bill that needs to be paid.
Since our company uses accrual based accounting, we use Buildium to keep track of our unpaid bills.

I just received an electricity bill in the mail.

In this article, you'll learn how to:

Pay bills partially by check or EFT
Edit a partially paid bill
Partial bill custom allocations
Pay bills in full
Apply a vendor credit to a bill

1. Pay bills partially by check or EFT

If you are paying a vendor in installments, you are able to create a bill for the full amount then partially pay the bill each time you need to make a payment.

Note: Vendor credits do not work with partial bill pay. If you need to use a vendor credit on a bill, create a separate bill in the amount of the vendor credit, apply it, then have the remaining balance on the bill you want to pay partially.

To partially pay a bill:

Navigate to Accounting > Bills.
On the bills page, a list of unpaid bills will appear.
Click on the bill you'd like to partially pay.
Once you've opened the bill, click Make A Payment

In the Review payment section, enter the payment information.

Choose a bank account in the Pay from field.
If you're set up for ePay, you can toggle the Pay by field and choose Check or EFT; otherwise, this field will display Check.
Enter the Date the check was written.
Enter the Memo (optional)
Enter the Check number (optional).
Enter the total payment Amount.
Check the Queue check for printing check box if you'd like to print the check.
Select to display property allocations.
Click Confirm Payment

The Bills page will now show the Partial payment and Remaining balance beneath the partially paid bill.

Edit A Partially Paid Bill

Previously you were unable to edit a partially paid bill, and now you are able to do so when certain scenarios come up:

The remaining balance of a bill no longer needs to be paid
The amount of the bill changes

Now you have the ability to edit the amount of any partially paid bill. This added edit functionality, provides you with a more accurate depiction of your books, and eliminates the need for any adjusting entries.

To edit a partially paid bill:

Navigate to Acccounting > Bills
Select the bill you want to edit.
Click "Edit"
Update the Intial Amount box to the new total.

Click Save

Custom Allocations

To further provide flexibility when paying partial bills, we allow you to toggle between Automatic and Manual options for payment allocation.

Automatic Payment Allocations

When using the Automatic allocation, you are able to change your payment amount in the total payment amount field. The payment will either pay the entire balance on each line item, or when making a partial payment, the payment will be split evenly amongst the line items.

Manual Payment Allocation

When you toggle the allocation method to Manual, the outstanding items will expand automatically allowing you to make changes to the amount to pay. Selecting Clear Payments allows you to enter a custom amount into the "amount to pay" box, for each line item.

To Make a Custom Partial Payment:

Accounting > Bills
Select the bill you want to pay.
Click Make A Payment
Click Manual under Allocation Method.
Click Clear Payments
Enter custom amount to be paid for each line item.
Click Confirm Payment

2. Pay bills in full

Save time! Access this feature from any screen using the shortcuts menu.

Navigate to Accounting > Banking.
Click Pay bills by check or Pay bills by EFT if you are enabled for ePay and would like to make electronic payments.

In Step 1 of 2: Find bills to pay, choose the bills you'd like to pay by selecting the appropriate options:

All properties and all vendors
A specific vendor
A specific property.
In the Cash balance field, use the check box to include only those bills that can be paid with the available cash balance.

Note: Buildium selects the bills to pay based on chronology--that is, the oldest bills get paid first.

Click Generate list of bills.

In Step 2 of 2: Select a bank account and bills to pay, enter the payment information.

In the Bank account drop-down box, select the bank account from which the check will be drawn.
If you have local or remote check printing enabled, in the Check printing field, select the check box to queue the check for printing.

Selecting the check box will also automatically enter the check number as PRINT, indicating that the check number will be generated when the check is printed.

Select the bills you would like to pay by selecting the check box next to each bill.
In the Ref No-Memo column, enter the memo for the check. Enter the check number (if not printing the check from the Buildium system) and the payment date.
Click Save.

3. Apply a vendor credit to a bill

If you have a credit for a vendor that you want to use for a bill, you can do so by following the same initial steps you would if you were paying the bill outright.

Navigate to Accounting > Bills.
Click Pay bills by check or Pay bills by EFT if you are enabled for ePay and would like to make electronic payments.