How do I create custom payment allocations?

Custom payment allocations allow you to choose how you want a resident's payment distributed across their balances.

In this article you'll learn:

1. About payment allocations
2. How to set up custom payment allocations globally
3. How to set up custom payment allocations for a specific property
4. How to set up custom payment allocations for a specific association
5. How to set up custom payment allocations for a specific lease

1. About payment allocations

When you receive a payment from a resident, Buildium's default is to apply payments to the largest outstanding balance first.

By setting a custom payment allocation order, you can choose which general ledger accounts the money is distributed across first. General ledger accounts are the accounts used to sort accounting transactions—things like rent income, security deposit liability, and repairs expense.

If you decide to set up custom payment allocations, there are a few things you should know before hand:

• If you have a general ledger account in your custom allocation order that has no balance owed, the system will skip over this account and move to the next account in the custom order that has a balance.

  For example, if you set up your custom allocation so that all payments go to rent income first, and late fee income second, the payment will automatically go towards late fee income if there is no balance owed for rent.
  

• If there are still outstanding balances on a resident's ledger after a payment has been applied to the balances of every general ledger account in your custom payment order, then the remainder of the payment will be applied to the largest balance left on the ledger, even if that account is not included in your custom payment allocation.

• If a payment is made that exceeds the total of all balances on the resident's ledger, the overpayment amount will go to the first general ledger account in your custom order.

  This means that if the payment received from a resident is more than the charges listed on their ledger, the extra money will be applied to the first account in your custom list.

• If an ePayment is made and resident convenience fees are enabled, the appropriate amount of the ePayment will be allocated to convenience fee income even if the account is not listed in your custom payment allocation order.

• At this time custom payment allocations are not available for specific association owners, you can only set them on the association level.
  
  

2. How to set up custom payment allocations globally

If you want to set a single custom payment allocation to be applied across all of your residents in Buildium, you want to set it up globally.

To set up a global payment allocation:

1. Navigate to Settings > Application settings.
2. Click Residents.
3. Select Edit payment allocations.
4. Choose which general ledger accounts you want payments to be applied to, and reorder the accounts by dragging and dropping.
5. If you need to remove an account, click x to the right of the account name.
6. Once you've finalized your list, click Save.

3. How to set up custom payment allocations for a specific property

You can set up different payment allocation lists for different properties.

To set up a custom allocation for a property:

1. Navigate to Rentals > Properties.
2. Click the name of the property you want to create the custom allocation for.
3. From the property summary page, select Financials.
4. Click Lease payment settings, then Override payment allocations.
5. Set up your property specific allocations
6. When you're done filling out the form, click Save. 

4. How to set up custom payment allocations for a specific association

You can set up different payment allocation lists for specific associations.

To set up a custom allocation for an association:

1. Navigate to Associations > Associations.
2. Click the name of the association you want to create the custom allocation for.
3. From the association summary page, select Financials.
4. Click Account payment settings, then Override payment allocations.
5. Set up your association specific allocations
6. When you're done filling out the form, click Save.

5. How to set up custom payment allocations for a specific lease

You can set up different payment allocation lists for specific leases, too.

To set up a custom allocation for a lease:

1. Navigate to Rentals > Rent Roll.
2. Click on the lease you want to create the custom allocation for.
3. From the lease summary page, select Financials.
4. Click Payment settings, then Override payment allocations.
5. Set up your lease specific allocations.
6. When you're done filling out the form, click Save.