Announcing: Outgoing EFT request approvals (Beta)

This feature is currently in Beta testing and must be enabled in your account. To enable this feature, navigate to 

1. Settings >> Application Settings >> Beta features
2. Switch the toggle on in the Beta opt-in tool. 

Introducing Outgoing EFT request approvals

This new feature allows you to be aware of and approve outgoing EFT transactions, to ensure your funds and your clients' funds are safeguarded against anyone trying to make outgoing fraudulent payments.

1. Set the proper user permissions, if necessary.
   
   All staff with Administrator user roles will receive EFT approval request emails and be able to approve EFT approval requests by default. We recommend you limit the approver capability to a limited number of trusted staff as this will give you the most control.
   
   If a staff member user has been given an Administrator user role, but you do not want them to be an approver, you will want to reassign their user role. In some cases, you may need to create a custom user role to assign to that staff user, depending on your needs.
   
   The user role permission that controls whether a user is an Approver or not is the EFT Approvals permission set to the EDIT level. You can find this under the Accounting section of a specific user role.
   
   All user roles outside of Administrator will have permission defaulted off completely, but can be given View or Edit access as you see fit.
   
   Settings > User Roles > Select a user role > Edit the Accounting section
   
   
   1. Check off the EDIT column box in EFT Approvals and save to give a user role Approver permission. Approvers can view and take action on requests.
      
   2. Check off the VIEW column box in EFT Approvals only and save to give a user role read-only access to requests.

2. Set the global EFT Approval rule

1. Administrator users can navigate to Accounting > EFT Approvals (new) > Configure Approvals. You will be prompted to pick a setting, which will vary by each business’ need:
   
   
1. No EFTs require approval - this will leave your account as is.
   
   
2. All EFTs require approval -  this will cause all EFT payments to require approval before processing. Depending on your outgoing EFT volume, this could cause more work for approvers, but will give your account the most control and security over payments.
   
   
3. EFTs over $X require approval) - only EFTs over the value you input will require approval. We recommend using this setting, as it will allow you to enter an amount that will be protective, but not prohibitive of the flow of regular payments.
   
   Once the rule is saved, any outgoing EFTs made by your staff will be subject to this rule. They will be alerted In the normal process of creating these transactions whether one or more transactions will require approval and will be asked to submit requests for approval.
   
   When EFT approval requests are submitted, three things will happen:
   
   
1. The transaction will be prevented from being processed until approved.
   
   
2. The request will show up in Accounting menu > EFT Approvals, where action can be taken on those requests by approvers.
   
   

Approvers (as designated by the EFT Approvals permission) will receive an email notifying them of the request and linking them to that request in the Buildium account

3. Approving and rejecting EFT requests

• Approvers can get to a request by using the link in the email notification they received for that request or by navigating to Accounting Menu > EFT Approvals and selecting the specific pending request.
  
  If they approve the request, the transaction will be processed immediately through the normal outgoing payment channels, the request status will change to approved, and the requester will be notified by email.
  
  If they reject the request, they can leave a brief note as to why it was rejected. The request status will change to rejected, and the requester will be notified by email. The transaction will remain unprocessed.
  
  *While requesters will see normal trust account warnings when making transactions, we have implemented the warnings for approvers as well, knowing that balances could change in between the time a request is made and the approver taking action. You will see examples of this in the next two videos.

4. EFT Approvals and Bills

• If an EFT payment for a Bill requires approval, we will lockdown bills from being edited and from having other payments made for them. This will keep the integrity of the information on the bill at the time the bill was paid and the approval request was submitted, allowing an approver a chance to review the bill with the same information that the requester had before taking action on that bill.
  
  Once the EFT is approved or rejected, the bill will open back up for editing as normal (following all the previous rules in place for editing paid/unpaid bills).