Buildium Training - Ep. 7 Receiving Rent Payments and Automated Charges

Hey everybody, welcome back to APM Help Academy. Today, we're going to talk about receiving rent payments. This is, of course, a key part of Buildium and property management in general.

Banking & Online Payments

First, let's start on the Banking page in Buildium. Go to Accounting → Banking. Here you'll see all the bank accounts you’re tracking.

One of the first things you’ll want to do is set up online rent collection through Buildium’s ePay. If a bank account has ePay enabled, you’ll see a green checkmark here. That means ePay is active and ready to accept online payments for that account.

Once ePay is enabled, click into the bank account and select Payment Settings. Here you can:

• Set convenience fees for tenants.
• Choose which properties to enable ePay for.

This step is critical. If you don’t set this up properly, you might get charged EFT fees by Buildium without being able to recoup them from tenants.

Tenant Portal Overview

Next, let’s look at the Tenant Portal. You can sign in as any tenant right from their profile in Buildium.

With ePay enabled, tenants will see options to Make Payment or Set Up Autopay. They can also view their scheduled autopay payments here.

If a tenant has multiple leases (like a storage unit or multiple properties), they can switch between them by clicking their name in the top right. You won’t see this option when signing in as the tenant, so just keep that in mind.

For tenants who prefer mobile, the Buildium Resident Center app is highly recommended. It’s available on the Apple Store and Google Play, and tenants can switch between units easily.

Recording Manual Payments

If a tenant pays via check, money order, or cashier’s check, you’ll record it manually.

Go to the tenant’s Lease Ledger:

1. Look up the tenant’s name → click Lease Ledger.
2. Click Receive Payment.
3. Enter the payment date (the date the tenant gave you the payment, not the deposit date).
4. Select the payment method (cashier’s check, money order, etc.) and fill in the memo (e.g., Security Deposit).
5. Click Save Payment.

Keep in mind:

• The memo is visible to tenants in their portal.
• The payment is not automatically in your bank account yet. Go to Accounting → Banking → Record Deposit to reflect when the funds were actually deposited.

Auto Charges & Recurring Charges

Automated charges are important for rent and recurring fees:

• Rent Tab: Shows what’s considered rent for reports. You can adjust it for reporting purposes (e.g., combine rent + pet fees).
• Recurring Charges: Add additional charges like parking, pet fees, or other income. Set the start date for when the system should automatically begin charging.

For commercial properties, future rent increases can be scheduled:

1. Select the tenant or lease.
2. Enter the new rent amount and effective date.
3. Buildium will automatically start charging the new rent from that date.

Split Rent for Affordable Housing

If a tenant participates in affordable housing or Section 8, it’s best to split the rent:

• Enter the tenant’s portion (e.g., $200) as one charge.
• Enter the government portion (e.g., $600) as a separate charge.

Tenants see this breakdown in their portal, which avoids confusion about who owes what.

Late Fees

Most late fees are set under the global policy:

• Go to Settings → Application Settings → Late Fees.
• Overrides can be applied per property or per lease, but generally, global settings work best.

Common late fee issue:
Sometimes a late fee posts even if a ledger shows $0 owed. This usually happens when credits and charges exist under different GL accounts. Always check the ledger by account if a late fee seems unexpected.

That’s a wrap on receiving rent payments, recording manual payments, automated charges, split rent, and late fees.

Thanks for watching! Don’t forget to subscribe to APM Help Academy, check us out at apmhelp.com, or reach out at info@apmhelp.com if you have questions. Stay tuned for more videos.

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