The APM Help Blog

Trust accounts are used to hold money for other people until a trigger of some kind releases it. In the property management industry, these accounts hold funds for customers who are entitled to the money being held there. However, some bankers make a common mistake by opening a general business account and calling it a trust account. This article covers the terminology and regulation of trust accounts in the property management industry to ensure that property management companies and their clients are protected.

We are thrilled to announce that APM Help has received over 70 reviews on Trustpilot with a TrustScore of 4.9/5! We couldn't have done it without our amazing customers, and we wanted to take a moment to thank them for their continued support and gracious comments on our services and outstanding team members.

The switch from a software you've been using for years to a new solution can be exciting and challenging. Read how to make the transition less overwhelming!

We handle maintenance emergencies every day, but sometimes they aren't straightforward. Read this client testimonial about a mysterious clog...

Property management is full of competition. We'll share some important things potential renters need from you and your rental properties.

Did you acquire a new property with an Owner Held Security Deposit? Make sure you process the move out accounting properly!

We're here to help you determine the best options for managing your vacation rentals in AppFolio in today's blog!

All about the Positive and Negative Additional Fee section of the Financial Diagnostics report.

How can you keep bookkeeping simple in the property management industry? Here are some of our tips and tricks.

Collecting and reimbursing NSF fees from tenants in AppFolio is easy! Here are our step-by-step instructions.

What does this mean to double dip on lease fees and management fee commissions at move-in? Let’s start with where the issue begins.

AppFolio's "Pay Owners" feature could accidentally cause you to commingle funds. We'll teach you how to prevent this!

You can customize online payments for specific tenants AND properties in AppFolio! Continue reading to learn how.

Accrual basis accounting is when revenue and expenses are recorded at the time they are “earned”, regardless of when the money was actually received or paid. Cash basis accounting is when revenue and expenses are recognized at the time they are received or paid. ‍

In an ideal world, your owners would never be paid too much or too little. They would be paid "just right". In today's blog, we are going to explore reports and work flows that will make your owners Goldilocks-happy.

A major source of confusion in the Property Management World is when there is a need to post charges to a Tenant Ledger. Any money received from a tenant is income and should be coded to an income GL account. For the purpose of this discussion, we will use the example of a duplex at…

Once the charge is posted, make sure that the tenant payment is applied to the clearing charge.

The first step is to diagnose the issue as either negative or positive additional fees.

You can only pay management fees once the rent has been received. The system will not calculate percentages before income has been paid on the property

Ideal bookkeeping is good judgment and intelligent organization within the bounds of regulation. While consolidation is often the key to organization, in some cases modest additional detail, or extension of a process can drastically improve property bookkeeping processes. Sensible choices when setting up the company banking and chart of accounts will put the books on track for smooth upkeep and painless auditing, internal or third party, but not all best practices are applied through the bookkeeping itself.

We recommend recording the deposit via JE on your corporate property (a zero unit multi-family property for recording errors like this) by debiting Operating Cash/your main cash account, crediting some offset like Retained Earnings (it doesn't matter because it will cancel out)

1. Run a General Ledger, add a "Created By" and "Created At" Columns, and under Grouping select "Created By". Set the date range to your desired window of time, check "Show Reversed Transactions" and that will provide a report of every entry and reversal in the system in your 30 day period.

1. Go to Setup > Customize > Charts of Account2. Click on New AccountAccount Type = Credit Card3. Fill out the remaining fields

A quick guide on how to enter pet information in the tenant's application.