Rental Owner Draw

In Buildium, a paycheck or disbursement of funds to a rental owner is called an owner draw. An owner draw is an equity transaction.

An owner draw is often one of the last steps in the accounting cycle. After you've collected tenant payments, paid bills and expenses, and collected your management fees, the remaining funds available should be what is paid to an owner. 

If the bank accounts you use in Buildium are enabled for ePay, you can pay disbursements to your rental owners electronically. The first step to paying a rental owner online is to make sure you've entered their payment information. Learn how to add rental owner ePay information.

NOTE: It's recommended to double-check your monthly transactions by running a Rental Owner Statement before completing an owner draw.

• How do I record a disbursement to a rental owner via check?
• How do I record a disbursement to a rental owner via EFT? 
• How do I adjust the Amount to Pay?
  • Adjust manually
  • Adjust automatically

How do I record a disbursement to a rental owner via check?

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

1. Navigate to Rentals, then select Rental owners.
2. Click the Owner draw button, and then select to pay by check.
3. On the Rental Owners drop down, select the property or owner you would like to record an owner draw for. You can also select any Groups you have access to, or select All rentals.
4. On the Include drop down, you can choose to include any or all of the following:
   • Properties with pending ePayments
   • Owners with no available cash balance
   • Items eligible for draw by EFT (only visible when paying by check)
     • This selection will allow you to include or exclude owners who have EFT information on file from being paid by check. If you would like to exclude owners with EFT information, uncheck this box.
   • Owners with no ownership percentage
5. Click Search. 
6. Use the checkbox to the left of the rental owner or property, or click the checkbox in the header row to select all. 
   • NOTE: Buildium calculates the available balance for each property automatically. If necessary, it will move money between properties for you as well.
   • Example: see Sally Walker in the image below. The software will move cash from 39 Franklin Street to cover the negative balance on 15 Main Street, then will pay Sally the remaining available funds.
7.  If necessary, you can adjust the amount to pay for each rental owner or property manually, or automatically with the Adjust Cash Balance option. Learn how to adjust Amount to Pay. 

8. Click Save.

How do I record a disbursement to a rental owner via EFT? 

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

1. Navigate to Rentals, then select Rental owners.
2. Click the Owner draw button, and then select to pay by EFT.
3. On the Rental Owners drop down, select the property or owner you would like to record an owner draw for. You can also select any Groups you have access to, or select All rentals.
   • NOTE: When paying by EFT, selecting "All rentals" will only include rental owners who have ePay information in Buildium.
4. On the Include drop down, you can choose to include any or all of the following:
   • Properties with pending ePayments
   • Owners with no available cash balance
   • Owners with no ownership percentage
5. Click Search.
6. Use the checkbox to the left of the rental owner or property, or click the checkbox in the header row to select all. 
   • NOTE: Buildium calculates the available balance for each property automatically. If necessary, it will move money between properties for you as well.
7.  If necessary, you can adjust the amount to pay for each rental owner or property manually, or automatically with the Adjust Cash Balance option. Learn how to adjust Amount to Pay. 
8. If necessary, select the bank account that should be used in the online transaction. Only bank accounts that have a merchant account and online payment capability will appear in the list.
9. Check the authorization box.
10. Click Save.

How do I adjust the Amount to Pay?

In the owner draw page, you can adjust the amounts to pay rental owners both manually and automatically using the Adjust Cash Balance option. 

To adjust manually

1. 1. On the Owner draw page, search for the properties or rental owners you'd like to include.
   2. Click the checkbox to left of any adjustments that need to be made.
   3. In the Amount to Pay column, click into the appropriate cell and type in the adjusted amount you wish to pay.
      • If you've manually changed this amount but would like to change back, you can click Use calculated amount to pay and the system will reset to the automatically calculated value.
   4. Proceed with your owner draw payout process.

To adjust automatically

1. On the Owner draw page, search for the properties or rental owners you'd like to include.
2. Click Adjust cash balance.
   
3. In the Adjust cash balance menu, you can choose to calculate adjusted cash balance with the following options
   • Cash available as of a specific date
     • Use this option when needing to calculate cash balances that were available at some point in the past. 
   • Subtract unpaid bills
     • Use this to withhold funds for bills yet to be paid against the rental owner's property.
   • Subtract pending incoming ePayments
     • Use this to withhold funds for any incoming ePayments that haven't yet settled. 
        
4. Once you've made your selections, click Apply.
5. Note that numbers in the Amount to Pay have been adjusted based on your selection. To get a breakdown of how these adjustments were made, click the plus button to expand the selection—giving you a view of any Property Reserve, Unpaid Bills, or Pending Incoming ePayments.
6. Proceed with your owner draw payout process.