Buildium Training - Ep. 11 Paying Owners

Hey everybody, welcome back to APM Help Academy. Today we’re going to be talking about owner distributions. Definitely a really important part of using a property management software. So I’m going to give you all my little tips on, um, what to do when paying owner distributions and kind of how it works.

So, just to start, if I want to pay rent owners — and how I got here, by the way, is I clicked on Rentals, and then Rental Owners. Once you get to this page, you can click on Owner Draw up here. And there you go — it’ll have two options on your screen.

If you have EFT enabled on your bank account, which I recommend you do — EFT is a great service — it will say Owner Draw by EFT or Owner Draw by Check. You would use the check option if you’re paying people by other means other than EFT, and you just need Buildium to calculate the distribution for you. Maybe you’re going to pay the owners by check or a different electronic method of some sort. That’s when you’d use Owner Draw by Check.

Okay. But for most people, you’re going to use Owner Draw by EFT.

Before we even touch on that, one of the first things you’re going to want to do before paying owners is collect management fees. Now, if you’re an owner-operator, depending on how you’re structured, this might not apply. It all depends.

So, how do we collect management fees in Buildium? My favorite way is to click on Shortcuts, then Collect Management Fees. And by the way, the Shortcuts tool can also be used to do Owner Draw, too. You’ll see options for EFT or check there as well. Just a heads up.

Alright, so I get to the Collect Management Fees page. Keep in mind, this is a manual process. Just because I collect management fees in Buildium, it doesn’t mean it’s going to move the money in the real world. I actually have to move the funds.

The billing period here is very important — it covers the timeline for when you want to collect management fees. For this example, I’m just going to do one property to keep it simple. But it works the same way if you manage dozens or hundreds of properties.

Let’s say I’m running an accounting cycle for West Franklin Street. I personally like to do my management fees the day after I paid someone, up until the next time I pay them. So if I paid people on the 10th of January, I’ll run the accounting cycle from January 11th to February 10th.

And if I had my percentages set up… oh, the income showed… excuse me, the income showed for this property on the 13th, so I actually have to extend it to the 13th. Buildium only collects percentages off income, of course. So typically, you’d say 8% of $800, and that’s what it would collect.

If you’re wondering where Buildium pulls the income numbers from, it comes directly from the income statements. So if something seems off, just run the income statement for the same dates and double-check. That’s all you need to do. You can even pull up the general ledger if you want a breakdown transaction by transaction.

So yeah, that’s how the collect management fees tool works. Remember, it’s manual. Once you hit Collect Fees, it deducts the owner’s cash by that amount. In the real world, you move the funds however you need — transfer, print a check, whatever works for you.

Okay, once fees are collected and bills are paid, we can go to the Owner Draw page. Click Buy EFT. Only owners with EFT info will show up here. Every owner will show under Owner Draw by Check.

I like to do these in bulk to streamline things. Click Search, and it shows everyone’s current available cash and how much to pay.

Adjusted cash balance — you can subtract pending e-payments if, say, a tenant just paid today or yesterday. I usually check this because I don’t like paying someone money I haven’t gotten yet. You can also subtract unpaid bills, but this can make owner statements a bit confusing sometimes, so use cautiously.

Cash available as of this date comes from the rental owner statement. You can backdate it a few days to match your accounting cycle, but just be careful — it can confuse owners if not explained.

Click Prepare Payment, confirm totals, make sure you’re using the property’s operating bank account (rarely do you change this), and click Confirm Payment. EFT will send the funds automatically. Check option won’t send money — you just use Buildium to calculate and issue payments manually.

Sending Owner Statements

I like to send statements before paying owners, though some do it after — either works.

Go to Communication → Mailings → Create Mailing → Rental Owners. Use the template Rental Owner Statement. Set your period to match your accounting cycle — e.g., the day after last payment to the next payment day.

Include the income statement and optionally, transaction details (sorted by date or additions/subtractions). Add a short message for the PDF header, like “February Accounting Cycle.”

Add all owners — even for email, a mailing address is required. Click Create to generate the mailing, then Email PDF. Each owner gets only their statement, not anyone else’s.

Automated Payment Emails

When paying via EFT, owners with email addresses get an automatic Buildium email. To configure: Communication → Automated Email Settings → Rental Owners → Online Rental Owner Payment Confirmation. You can toggle whether it shows transaction details. Replies will go to your email, though the “from” address is mail@managebuilding.com.

And that’s pretty much it! The owner distribution feature in Buildium is great — makes bulk payments, scaling, and reporting much easier.

Thanks for watching! Don’t forget to subscribe, and feel free to reach out at apmhelp.com or info@apmhelp.com. Stay tuned for more videos!

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