Buildium owner draws: holding back bills and pending ePay

By default, Buildium offers each owner their full available cash, and that figure ignores bills you have entered but not paid and counts tenant ePayments that have not settled. The fix is on the owner draw screen: click Adjust cash balance, tick Subtract unpaid bills and Subtract pending incoming ePayments, and check the Adjusted Cash Balance column before you save. Add a fixed draw-day routine (pay bills, collect management fees, then draw, after the month's rent has funded) and most of the manual cross-checking goes away. Work that is approved but not yet billed still needs a hand adjustment, because Buildium has no estimate hold.

Why the suggested amount can be too high

Available cash in Buildium is a ledger figure: income recorded, less expenses recorded, plus or minus equity entries such as draws and contributions. It is not a bank figure, and three gaps cause most overpayments.

• Entered bills do not reduce it. Buildium's bills article says entering a bill only records that money is owed; the expense does not reach the owner statement until it is paid. Switching to accrual does not change this.
• Pending ePayments are included. A tenant's EFT shows as pending until it funds, but it is in available cash the moment it is recorded.
• Early rent is income unless you use prepayment automation. Rent paid before the charge posts lands as income, a management fee is calculated on it, and the owner is offered all of it.

The property reserve is the only standing hold-back Buildium applies on its own. Everything else is a choice you make on draw day.

The draw-day routine

Run the whole sequence on one day, in this order, after rent has had time to fund. Done in pieces, a bill gets paid after the owner has been sent the money.

1. Enter bills as they arrive. Record them from the work order (click Enter bill) so the task, bill and invoice stay together, and keep the task open until the bill exists. Give vendors a monthly cut-off date.
2. Pay the bills. Accounting, Banking, then Pay bills by check or Pay bills by EFT. The Cash balance checkbox in step one lists only bills the property can cover; what it leaves out needs an owner conversation, not a draw.
3. Collect management fees. On the Rental owners page, click Collect management fees and use the same date range every month. Buildium recommends "one month ago to yesterday" and warns that nothing stops a fee being charged twice if ranges overlap.
4. Run Unpaid bills by property from the Reports menu with Property balances included. Anything still unpaid is now a deliberate hold, and this report is your record of it.
5. Open the draw. Rentals, Rental owners, Owner draw, then by check or by EFT. In the Include drop-down, untick Properties with pending ePayments to skip those properties entirely this run.
6. Click Adjust cash balance. Tick Subtract unpaid bills and Subtract pending incoming ePayments. Set Cash available as of your statement date so the draw matches what the owner reads. Click Apply. Treat this as a per-draw action: confirm the Adjusted Cash Balance column every time, whether or not Buildium remembers your last choice.
7. Review the breakdown. The plus on each property shows its reserve, unpaid bills and pending ePayments, and reveals any property Buildium is covering with cash from the owner's other properties.
8. Edit Amount to Pay by hand for approved but unbilled work. Type the lower figure in the cell; Use calculated amount to pay resets it.
9. Save, then send statements with the same as-of date. See how to generate owner statements in Buildium.

Holding back for work not yet billed

The adjustment handles bills that exist. An approved estimate, a turnover in progress or an owner who sent money for a rehab still needs a manual hold.

If you raise a reserve, note the normal amount and the reason where you will see it on the next draw.

Early rent and owner advances

For tenants who pay early, turn on prepayment automation: Settings, Application settings, Residents, Prepayments. Early money then sits in the Prepayments liability account until the charge posts, so it is not owner income, no fee is calculated on it, and it is not offered on the draw. It is not retroactive; existing prepaid balances must be moved to the automated account.

For an owner who sends money for a repair, record an owner contribution, deposit it, and raise that property's reserve by the same amount until the work is paid. Otherwise the next draw hands it straight back.

When a payment reverses after the draw

The owner is paid on the 10th and the tenant's EFT is returned on the 11th. Shorter hold days do not prevent this. Hold days only control when the money lands in your account; the tenant's bank can still return the item days later.

1. Let Buildium record the return. With Returned Payment Automation set up under Application settings, Buildium posts the reversal when the payment is marked returned, charges your returned payment fee and any late fee, records the bank fee, and emails the tenant.
2. Check the owner balance. If the reserve covered the reversal, the next draw absorbs it. If not, the owner is negative and the trust account is short by that amount.
3. Never leave the trust short. Cover the shortfall the same day. Some states let a broker keep a limited amount of company money in the trust account for this; check your state's limit first. Then ask the owner to replace the funds and the tenant to pay in certified funds.
4. Reverse the management fee taken on the returned payment.
5. Move the draw date. If this happens more than once a year, draw day is too close to rent day.

How to prove the draws were right

• Rental owner ending balances (Reports menu) with the Available cash filter. No owner should be negative, and the reserves shown should match your intended holds.
• Unpaid bills by property as of draw day, filed with the draw. Every line should be a hold you chose.
• Three-way reconciliation at month end. A draw that sent out pending money shows up as a bank balance below the books. The method is in three-way reconciliation in Buildium.

For EFT setup and scheduling, see owner draw processing in Buildium; for the compliance side, the correct owner distribution workflow in Buildium.

FAQ

Does switching to accrual make Buildium hold back entered bills? No. The draw works from available cash on either basis. Entered bills only reduce it when you tick Subtract unpaid bills on the draw, or when you pay them.

Can I cap an owner's draw at a fixed amount so the reserve grows each month? Not automatically. The reserve is a fixed dollar amount, not a cap; type a lower Amount to Pay each month instead.

Will shorter ePay hold days stop reversals? No. The default for EFT deposits on accounts opened since late 2016 is one hold day, and a shorter hold only means the money arrives sooner. The only protection is the gap between rent day and draw day.

Key takeaways

• Available cash ignores unpaid bills and includes pending ePayments and early rent.
• Adjust cash balance on the draw screen fixes the first two; tick both boxes every run.
• Pay bills, collect fees, then draw, on one day after rent has funded.
• Unbilled work needs a manual hold: edit the amount or raise the reserve with a note. Never record-and-void a check.
• Prepayment automation keeps early rent out of the draw and the fee calculation.
• A reversal after the draw is covered the same day, then the draw date moves.

APM Help does this work every month for property management companies on Buildium, from the draw-day routine to the three-way reconciliation that proves it. If your draws need a second set of eyes, get in touch.