How to tie out a Propertyware trust account every month
The four Propertyware reports that prove owner, prepayment and deposit balances equal the bank, what the Difference column means, and how to get it to zero.
Run five things as of every bank statement date and file them together: the completed bank reconciliation, the Portfolio Bank Reconciliation Balancing report, the Portfolio Security Deposit Balancing report, the Cash Suspect report and the Bank Balance Breakdown report. The two balancing reports compare what each portfolio is owed (owner funds, tenant prepayments, deposits held) with the general ledger balance of the bank account you select. The Difference column is portfolio money that is not in that bank account on the run date: payments never closed into a deposit, open deposits, or transactions posted to another bank. The month is tied out when the reconciliation difference is zero, Cash Suspect is empty and every Difference is zero or a deposit in transit. When it is off, find the transaction rather than posting an adjustment.
What "in balance" means in Propertyware
Three numbers have to agree: the bank statement, Propertyware's bank ledger, and the total of who owns the money (owner balances plus tenant prepayments for the operating account; deposits held for the deposit account). The reconciliation proves the first two. The balancing reports prove the third, and that is the step most users skip. Propertyware's help centre says portfolio and bank balances are not guaranteed to match, especially when portfolios share a bank account or ePayments settle to a different account than the default bank. A portfolio balance is the running total of every transaction assigned to that portfolio across all bank accounts, including Undeposited Funds and the escrow accounts; the balancing report compares it to one bank. Anything held elsewhere lands in Difference.
The reports and what each one proves
| Report | Where | What it compares | Clean month |
|---|---|---|---|
| Bank reconciliation | Banking, Reconcile | Statement ending balance to the bank ledger | Difference zero, no adjustments |
| Portfolio Bank Reconciliation Balancing | Reports module | Each portfolio's balance, including prepayments, to the selected bank's ledger balance | Difference zero on every row |
| Portfolio Security Deposit Balancing | Reports module | Deposits held per portfolio to the deposit bank's ledger balance | Difference zero on every row |
| Cash Suspect | Reports, Finance Reports folder | Each portfolio's funds to its default operating and deposit banks, including Undeposited Funds | Empty |
| Bank Balance Breakdown | Reports, Financial Statements folder | Bank balance by portfolio, with unreconciled items and the Ledger Book Balance | No negative rows; Ledger Book Balance equals the completed reconciliation |
Once a row is wrong, the General Ledger, filtered to one portfolio and one bank account, does the digging. Cash Suspect names the portfolio, not the transaction.
How the Difference column works
The Difference is the gap between what the portfolio is owed and what the selected bank account holds for it on the run date. Four things put money there:
- Tenant payments posted to the lease ledger but never closed into a deposit. They sit in Undeposited Funds, inside the portfolio balance but outside the bank.
- Payments in an open deposit, or in a deposit closed with a date after the run date.
- Income deposited to, or a bill or owner draw paid from, a different bank. Propertyware names this, and transfers recorded against the wrong bank, as the cause of a negative Difference.
- Owner-held security deposits applied to tenant charges, which drives the escrow held total negative.
Calling the column "transitional" money, as one forum post did, is half right. Payments in transit at month end are a timing item and clear once the deposit is closed with the real date. A Difference that repeats at the same amount every month is a wrong-bank transaction, and nothing on the reconciliation screen will fix it. The test: rerun the report once every deposit through the statement date is closed. Whatever remains is an error.
Month-end order of operations
- Post everything dated through the statement date: payments, paid bills, owner draws and contributions, bank fees and interest, and any returned payment marked NSF.
- Close every deposit under Banking, Bank Deposits, Payments to Deposit, dated the day the money reached the bank. Undeposited and open-deposit payments cannot be cleared in the reconciliation and will sit in Difference.
- Reconcile each bank account under Banking, Reconcile. If the difference is not zero at Save Reconciliation, choose Save and Finish Later, not Enter Adjustments.
- Run Cash Suspect as of the statement date and clear every portfolio listed: each has money in the wrong bank, in Undeposited Funds, or split wrongly between operating and deposit banks.
- Run both balancing reports as of the statement date: Portfolio Bank Reconciliation Balancing for the operating trust account, Portfolio Security Deposit Balancing for the deposit account. Difference should be zero on each row and the bank figure should equal the reconciled ledger.
- Run Bank Balance Breakdown for the same date and bank. Its Ledger Book Balance should equal the completed reconciliation, with no negative portfolio.
- Save it all as PDFs with the bank statement. That packet is your audit answer.
Finding the cause when a Difference will not clear
Work by portfolio, not by bank total: filter the General Ledger to one portfolio and one bank account and read every entry.
- Payment or check on the wrong bank: edit the tenant payment's deposit-to account, or the check or bill payment on the bank ledger. If the money really moved between accounts, post a journal entry on that portfolio's owner ledger, debiting one bank and crediting the other.
- Bank change done as one lump transfer under a single portfolio: move the funds per portfolio, one check or journal entry each, or Cash Suspect will never clear.
- Default bank settings: Cash Suspect reads the default bank and default security deposit bank on each portfolio and building. If a building's default differs from its portfolio's, deposits land in the wrong bank. Fix the setting, then the transactions.
- Move-outs: deposit funds not transferred to operating, transferred twice, or transferred without the refund or forfeit recorded on the lease.
- Dates: a deposit closed in the following month, a returned payment adjustment dated next month, a check voided after the statement end date.
- Unpaid bills: a 2014 forum poster suspected the balancing report was missing them. It is not. A bill does not touch the bank until it is paid, so it has no place in a cash tie-out; owner coverage of open bills is a separate check.
Why you should not plug it
Enter Adjustments creates a reconciliation discrepancy, and Propertyware's instructions post it to the management company portfolio. That forces the bank to agree while the error stays inside an owner's balance or a tenant's prepayment, exactly what a trust auditor looks for. The help centre itself says to find the source. The one clean use of a discrepancy is a bank error the bank reverses next month, with the offsetting discrepancy recorded then. A journal entry that simply moves a bank balance is no better: post one only when you know which portfolio and bank it belongs to, never to a dummy portfolio.
The same logic applies in other systems; see three-way reconciliation in Buildium, how to check if your books are audit-ready and the 15 red flags auditors look for.
FAQ
Is anyone actually reconciling Propertyware monthly?
Yes. Users who report no trouble share the same habits: a separate bank account per entity, every payment closed into a deposit before reconciling, and someone with an accounting background doing the close. Those with years unreconciled blame wrong dates and undeposited payments, not the tool.
The portfolio balance and the Bank Balance Breakdown disagree for one portfolio. Which is right?
Neither until you look. The portfolio balance includes every bank, Undeposited Funds and the escrow accounts; the Breakdown is filtered to one bank. The General Ledger for that portfolio will show a deposit not yet made, a transaction on another bank, or an owner-held deposit applied to charges.
My Security Deposit List and Portfolio Security Deposit Balancing disagree. Why?
The List totals deposits held on each lease ledger; the balancing report totals the security deposit accounts. The gap is deposits never moved to the deposit bank, moved out without a refund or forfeit on the lease, or recorded as management-held when the owner holds them.
Key takeaways
- A zero on the reconciliation screen proves the bank ledger, not the trust. The balancing reports, Cash Suspect and Bank Balance Breakdown prove who the money belongs to.
- The Difference column is portfolio money that is not in the bank the report is looking at. Timing items clear when deposits are closed; a repeating Difference is a wrong-bank transaction.
- Close every deposit with the real date and record NSFs before you reconcile. Trace by portfolio and bank, and never clear a Difference with an adjustment.
APM Help does this work for property management companies on Propertyware, including monthly three-way reconciliations and prepayment and deposit clean-ups. If you would like help, contact us.