Buildium, a RealPage Company FAQs

We know that as your business changes and grows, sometimes your physical company address may change as well. Having you correct company address on file is crucial, especially when it comes to taxes and state specific laws and regulations.

To update your company address:

Settings > Account and Billing, then click Edit account information.

We know that when youre searching for information, you need it now, so weve made some big changes to our search tool to get you more results, faster.

We are very excited to announce a new way to search and navigate in Buildium with our new global search tool.

If you don't see the new search in your Buildium account, keep an eye out! We are in the process of rolling this out to accounts in the coming weeks.

Whats changing?

A bigger, more focused search area: Now when you click search you will be presented with a larger search area that will display more information in an easy-to-use layout.

More results page: Queries will now provide you with more search results. You will be able to find everything related to your search in one place by clicking View all. Results will be broken down by category.

More things to search for: All the current items you could search by are here to stay, but per your feedback, weve also added additional items! You can now search for vehicles and association tenants.

Categories: Weve added categories to help you get more specific results in your search. Now you can search and filter by:

Applicants

Associations

Association owners

Association tenants

Rental owners

Rentals

Tenants

Units

Vehicles

Vendors

Note: For now, transaction search is limited to Bills and Vendor refunds only.

For new categories and search queries, what can I use to search?

Transactions (bills and vendor refunds)

Dollar amounts

Vehicles

Make

Model

License plate

Tasks

Subject

Number

Introducing Resident reminders - Your automated solution for renters insurance.

This new suite of features makes it easier to implement a renters insurance program or requirement for your residents by solving the number one pain point our customers identified: following up with residents to purchase a policy or provide proof of coverage.

Protecting your properties shouldnt require endless phone calls, email follow-ups, and chasing your residents just to get a handful of them to get insurance coverage. To save you the headache and give you time back, were automating that process for you with resident reminders. Now Buildium will:

Automatically email residents whodon'thave insurance information on file in Buildium once per week. This email is fully customizable so you can match your brand and your insurancecompliance messaging.

Remind residents whodon'thave insurance information on file to either purchase a policy with MSI or provide proof of existing insurance when they visit the resident site

All recent policy updates in the system will be delivered to you via a daily summary email if you so choose - updates will include new policies created, expired or cancelled policies and changes to coverage.

Weve also updated the settings for Renters insurance, powered by MSI to give you more flexibility to choose who the automatic interested party will be on new policies moving forward.

To get started:

Resident reminders will be on automatically for your residents as long as you have renters insurance turned on in your resident site.

Reminders will begin on December 19th.

Reminders can be turned off at any time through the renters insurance settings page.

Navigate to Communication > Resident site settings > Value-add services: Renters insurance

Switch the resident reminders toggle to off. This can be turned back on at any time

When resident reminders are enabled, residents without an insurance policy on file in Buildium will receive the following email:

Customize the reminder email:The resident reminder email for renters insurance can be customized to match your brand and compliance messaging to stay consistent with how you talk to your residents about renters insurance.

To customize the resident reminder email template, navigate to:

Communication >> Mailing & Email Templates >> Missing renters insurance email

Additionally, residents will see a notice when they log into their resident site asking them to either purchase a policy or provide proof of insurance. Once they do, that information will be saved to Buildium.

If a resident dismisses the alert or doesnt complete the action, theyll continue to see a reminder in their resident site.

Once the resident has proof of coverage on file in Buildium, the reminders will automatically stop.

It's almost time to file your 1099s for the 2019 tax year. We are excited to announce that we are giving Buildium customers early access to our 1099 e-Filing service so you can start preparing your 1099 Misc forms ahead of time and make filing in January faster and easier than ever.

As of December 2nd, you have access to create 1099 batches before IRS filing becomes available on January 1st. Early access will allow you to verify your tax numbers and view any recipients with missing tax information before you actually file.Youll also now be able to run reports easily from the batch, making sure that recipient totals are accurate.

When you create and save a 1099 batch early, Buildium will automatically update totals when you return to the batch to file later.

As of 12/1, residents in Maryland now have the option to include water backup coverage when purchasing a policy through Renters Insurance powered by MSI.*

*This will only be available if you have renters insurance turned on in your resident site.

What is water back up protection?If a drain, sewer, or sump pump backs up and causes flooding, policy holders would be covered.Water backup protectionwould cover personal property losses and emergency living expenses determined by the amount of personal property coverage selected by the resident.

The option to include water backup coverage is consistent with Maryland regulations and requirements for renters insurance policies.

Note: the personal property losses up to amount is pulled from the personal property coverage amount that the resident selects when purchasing the policy - 10K/20K/30K. The emergency living expenses coverage for this amount is 20% of the personal property coverage amount ($2,000 for $10k, $4,000 for $20k, $6,000 for $30k)

Youve been asking for the ability to set up recurring journal entries - and now were excited to say, you can!

With the ability to set up journal entries that record on a recurring basis, youwon'thave to worry about repeatedly recording multiple transactions manually every month - saving you time, ensuring accuracy, and preventing missing entries on your books.

Common scenarios where a recurring journal entry might be used are:

An association that transfers funds from an operating bank account to a reserve bank account on a regular cadence in accordance with their annual budget.

A rental property manager who moves available cash off the books into a liability holding account to pay for taxes and another annual expenses on a later date.

You will find recurring journal entries on the recurring transactions page.

You can set up a journal entry with the following frequencies:

Daily

Weekly

Every two weeks

Monthly

Every two months

Quarterly

Every six months

Yearly

One time (helpful when scheduling a future transaction to automatically post to the ledger)

Note:

You must have two line items (two accounts) with at least one debit and one credit.

Total debits and total credits must match

Each journal entry can only be tied to a single property (single set of books)

Note:

When you enter a next date in the past, you will be prompted to confirm they would like to backdate and post all***(see note below) entries that should have already posted to the ledger immediately.

***We will be limiting the number of backdated transactions added at one time to 500.

Clicking save & add another will default the next date to match the date on the previous entry

Permissions:

In order to create, edit or delete recurring journal entries you will need to have your permissions set to allow you to edit or delete recurring transactions.

Assigning a manager to rental properties gives other staff users in Buildium easy access to see who they can contact about a particular property, so they don't have to go searching through the office, or keep track of the list in a separate spreadsheet.

This is a simple way to add and view the property manager of properties in their summary pages, as well as a new properties grid column to show the manager.

Assign manager from the property summary details

User with edit properties permissions clicks Edit.

Select a staff member in the modal that pops up.

On Save, Staff member name should show up on property summary details and in properties grid

*Users with view property permissions can only see the manager/manager card, does not see the "Edit" option for Assigning a manager

Assign a manager from Add New Property flow

User clicks "Add Property" from properties grid

When filling out the form, they will have the opportunity to select a staff member to assign as manager

On Save, staff member name should show up on property summary details and in properties grid

New Announcements Beta Feature:

Be the first to test our new mobile-first Announcements feature! To opt in to the beta:

Go to settings >> application settings >> beta features

Toggle Announcements beta to on

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Communicating with residents is the backbone of property management. We've changed Announcements to make it easier and more effective to communicate with entire properties!

By opting into this beta, you can:

Write a message once and automatically send it via text (SMS), Email, and the Resident Center.

Get important information out to residents more quickly than ever before.

Increase the likelihood message are read via mobile channels.

Guard your inbox from sudden spikes in incoming messages.

Note:

If opted into the beta, this will replace Resident Site Announcements.

All messages are from a DoNotReply sender.

Delivery may vary based on resident and system preferences.

The texting portion of Announcements is only available for U.S. numbers.

To create an announcement:

Navigate to Communications >> announcements

Click create announcement

Choose a sender name.

The sender name will show up when residents receive the announcement via SMS.

You will only need to do this the first time you create an announcement.

The sender name can be changed later.

Select the property or properties you would like to send the announcement to

Write a subject line

Compose your message - you will be limited to 140 characters for the announcement.

Next you will see a confirmation page where you can see which properties will be receiving the announcement before you confirm and send.

Click send and your announcement will be sent to all residents in the properties selected.

(Optional: Send an email copy to association tenants)

Recipients will be all active residents at the selected properties

We work hard to make sure our features are constantly improving to help make running your business easier and more efficient. This page includes the latest new features, product improvements, and major bug fixes for the month of November, 2019.

Recurring journal entries

Search enhancements

Announcements beta

Assign managers to rental properties

Record alternate policies on signed leases

Renters insurance event history

General ledger excel export improvements

Security: Removed Facebook log in option

Recurring journal entries:

Youve been asking for the ability to set up recurring journal entries - and now were excited to say, you can! With the ability to set up journal entries that record on a recurring basis, youwon'thave to worry about repeatedly recording multiple transactions manually every month. Saving you time, and ensuring accuracy, and preventing missing entries on your books.

Learn more

Search enhancements (Coming Soon!)

We are very excited to announce a new way to search and navigate in Buildium with our new global search tool. Improvements include:

Bigger and more focused search page with more results

Search and filter by categories

View all page for more search results broken down by category

Adding more things to search for like vehicle info.

Search enhancements will be available in the coming weeks.

Learn more

Announcements beta

Be the first to test our new announcements feature! The new announcements feature allows you to send announcements at the property level to all residents of that property at one time.

Announcements will be broadcast across all available channels to ensure your message gets through when you need it to, including SMS, push notification, email and the resident site.

Learn more

Assign managers to rental properties

Assigning managers to specific rental properties gives other staff users in Buildium easy access to see who they can contact about a particular property, so they don't have to go searching through the office, or keep track of the list in a separate spreadsheet

Learn more

Renters insurance

Record alternate policies on signed leases

If you have insurance information on hand for a tenant when you are creating the lease in Buildium, you can record this information during lease creation on the add lease page so you don't have to go back and edit the lease summary information after the fact.

Learn more

Renters Insurance on Event history

We've added policies that have been purchased through MSI and policies from other providers recorded by residents to event history. This will allow you to refer back to policy information for a resident even after the policy has ended or has been removed from Buildium. With policy information recorded in event history you can check on policies that have been purchased or added at your convenience.

General ledger excel export improvements

We heard feedback that the information on the report was difficult to read.As a result, we identified a few improvements we could make to the Excel exports which include:

Added spacing between each general ledger account

Changed amount format to number so you no longer see multiple alerts on the amount cells

Added a unit column to show the unit a transaction is tied to if available

Security:Removed Facebook log in

As part of our continued effort to keep your data and account as secure as possible, we have decided to remove Facebook log in as a sign in option from all Buildium accounts.

UPDATE: We have implemented a fix for the below issue. However, currently only admins are able to process application fees. We are currently working on a fix to restore user permissions appropriately for application fees.

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We have discovered an intermittent issue where some Buildium customers are not receiving payment information for applicant fees paid by credit card.

Note: This issue only affects applicants who attempt to pay an application fee via credit card, not EFT.

Weve identified the cause of the issue is payment timeouts. Our developers are actively working to reduce the number of timeout sessions, and will continue to do so until it is resolved.

No applicant detail information is lost in this process, and the application will still appear in your account. This will only affect what you see on the fee tab, as seen in the screenshot below.

Should your applicant run into this error, we will automatically retry the application fee information a total of 3 times automatically within two minutes. This will not charge the applicants payment method, as you still need to manually process fees in Buildium. If the payment information is still unsuccessful, applicants will be directed to contact your company to process another form of payment.

Record renters insurance information during the leasing process:

If you have insurance information on hand for a tenant when you are creating the lease in Buildium, you can record this information during lease creation on the add lease page so you don't have to go back and edit the lease summary information after the fact.

Once this information has been added, it will be saved on the lease summary page.

Note: Currently this can only be done on signed leases. We will be adding this functionality for unsigned leases soon.

To add a recurring general journal entry go to

Navigate to Accounting > Recurring transactions

Click Add recurring journal entries.

Complete the form.

In order to set up a one time scheduled journal entry, select the one time frequency and enter the date of the transaction and the day you would like it to post to the ledger. Your journal entry must balance. That is, the sum of all debits must equal the sum of all credits.Your journal entry must have at least one debit and one credit.

Click Save.

The state of California has a law that requires property managers to withhold a percentage of rental income earned by rental properties located in California by rental owners who live out of state. This tax is usually paid quarterly to the state.

Create a new expense account on your chart of accounts called "CA withholding tax expense". Also create a new liability account called "CA withholding tax liability".

Calculate how much tax needs to be withheld.

Each month, enter a general journal entry with the following details:

Debit CA withholding tax expense: $100

Credit CA withholding tax liability: $100

OR

Set up a journal entry by going to Accounting>General Ledger

Click Add general journal entry and set up the following

CA withholding tax expense Debit $100

CA withholding tax liability Credit $100

If the amount to be withheld will be the same each month, use a recurring journal entry instead.

FIRPTA Withholdings

Things to think about:

Buildium does not currently offer a way to calculate the check based on a percentage. You'll need to manually calculate the amount.

If the amount is the same each month, consider using a recurring journal entry

You can use the guidance above for .

Article #:

111175

These topics provides a way of tracking asset transfers into a reserve account for an Association on a budget.

This solution is not GAAP compliant; reserves should be an asset account. Buildium's budget capability does not currently track asset transfers. We offer this as a work around to meet a specific need presented by our customers.

Set up to track association reserves on a budgetShowHide

Navigate to Accounting > Chart of Accounts.

Click Add account.

Create an income account called Budget Reserves Income. Other Bank Transactions

4. Create an expense account called Budget Reserves Expense.

Moving money to track association reserves on a budgetShowHide

This guidance is for this specific goal only. Normally, you'd use another method to transfer money between bank accounts. see "Transfer money between bank accounts"

Use an "Other Bank Transaction" to take money out of the association's operating bank account. see " Other Bank Transactions "

Choose Budget Reserves Expense as the offsetting account. Decrease the bank account balance.

All other attributes of the transaction should match the real world situation.

2.Use an Other Bank Transaction to put money into the association's reserve bank account. see ""

Choose Budget Reserves Income as the offsetting account. Increase the bank account balance.

All other attributes of the transaction should match the real world situation.

If you need to move money the other way, reverse the Increase/Decrease options in the Other Bank Transactions.

Things to think about:

The Budget Reserves Income and Budget Reserves Expense will appear on reports such as the Income Statement, Property Statement, and Budget vs Actuals.

These two items will "wash out." That is, subtracting the Budget Reserves Expense from theBudget Reserves Income should equal $0.

At tax time, remember to exclude both the Budget Reserves Income and Budget Reserves Expense from income and expense totals.

Set up a recurring bank transfer for reservesShowHide

To add a recurring general journal entry:

Navigate to Accounting > Recurring transactions

Click Add recurring journal entries.

Complete the form.

Credit the operating bank account where the funds are being transferred from

Debit the Budget reserves expense account

Debit the reserve bank account where the funds are being transferred to

Credit the Budget reserves income account

A general journal entry is the core accounting transaction behind every financial transaction you create in Buildium. Using this feature is an advanced use of Buildium.

Synonyms include GJE, journal entry, and accounting journal.

For example:

Buildium is great because I rarely need to record any general journal entries! It has specialized features for nearly every situation.

Since Ihave a strong accounting background, recording general journal entries does not frighten me in the least.

A general journal entry requires recording at least one debit and one credit.

Add a general journal entryShowHide

Navigate to Accounting >General Ledger.

Click Record general journal entry.

Complete the form.

The form will add more lines to your journal entry as you select the Account.

Each journal entry can have only one occurrence of an account. For example, Repairs Expense could only appear once in the transaction. If your transaction has multiple occurrences of a single account, you should combine them before entering the journal entry. Your journal entry must balance. That is, the sum of all debits must equal the sum of all credits. Your journal entry must have at lease one debit and one credit.

ClickSave.

Learn more about recurring journal entries

Edita general journal entryShowHide

Navigate to Accounting >General Ledger.

Search for the transactions using the available fields, then click the row of the general journal entry that you want to edit.

The General Journal Entry pop-up window appears with details of the journal entry.

Make your changes.

Each journal entry can have only one occurrence of an account. For example, Repairs Expense could only appear once in the transaction. If your transaction has multiple occurrences of a single account, you should combine them before entering the journal entry. Your journal entry must balance. That is, the sum of all debits must equal the sum of all credits. Your journal entry must have at lease one debit and one credit.

Click Saveto save the new general journal entry information.

Delete a general journal entryShowHide

Navigate to Accounting >General Ledger.

Search for the transactions using the available fields, then click the row of the general journal entry that you want to edit.

The General Journal Entry pop-up window appears with details of the journal entry.

Click Deleteat the top of the pop-up window.

A confirmation pop-up window appears, prompting you to confirm the deletion. Click OK to delete the general journal entry and return to the General Ledger page.

Reverse a general journal entryShowHide

Buildium isn't equipped with a function to automatically reverse a general journal entry. You can create a reversing entry by adding a second general journal entry to your account.

Generally, reversed general journal entries are dated the 1st of the following month.

Recurring Journal EntriesShowHide

With the ability to set up journal entries that record on a recurring basis, youwon'thave to worry about repeatedly recording multiple transactions manually every month - saving you time, ensuring accuracy, and preventing missing entries on your books.

Article #:

112277

Using ePay with Buildium allows tenants to pay you electronically by EFT, debit and credit card, and allows you to pay your bills electronically. Plus, ePay will cut out 70% of the time you used to spend on processing payments.

Before you apply for ePay, there are a few things you should know about the process.

Click here to check out a video tutorial about ePay on Buildium Academy!

In this article you'll learn about:

Why ePay

ePay cost

ePay hold days

ePay transactions and monthly limits

1. Why ePay?

Offering ePay as a service gives your residents the ability to pay rent online through our portal from any computer, laptop or mobile device. They can set up one time or automatic recurring payments through checking or savings accounts, as well as pay by credit cards, helping them to stay on time and out of late fees.

The benefit of ePayisn'tonly to the residents. While its really easy to manually record payments into Buildium, it can get time consuming as you have more and more people that you need to record payments for.

When a resident initiates an online payment through ePay, those funds will automatically be transferred from their bank accounts to yours in the real world. Buildium will then record all of the transaction records for you, so youwon'thave to manually receive or deposit payments.

The more residents you can get to pay electronically, the less time youll spend doing data entry and driving to the bank.

You can also pay rental owners and vendors using ePay.

EFT/eCheck

Credit cards

Receive tenant payments

Tenants can pay their rent, late fees, and other charges online through the resident site. They can make a one time payment or set up a regular, scheduled payment.

Yes

Yes

Receive association owner payments

Association Owners can pay their association fees, late fees, and other charges online through the resident site. The can make a one time payment or set up a regular, scheduled payment.

Yes

Yes

Process a rental application fee

Collect a rental application fee from prospective applicants. Applicants enter their bank information through your public site's online rental application.

Yes

Yes

Pay vendors

Pay vendors electronically without printing a single check.

Yes

No

Pay rental owners

Pay rental owners electronically without printing a single check

Yes

No

When you sign up for ePay on a bank account, youre approved for a merchant account. A merchant account allows EFTs to be deposited to and withdrawn from a bank account. Only one bank account can make online payments for a single property.

If all of your tenants pay their rent into one bank account, thats the account youd want to setup for ePay.

If you have tenants paying into multiple bank accounts, youll want to set up a merchant account for each one youd like online payments for.

2. ePay cost

The cost to sign up for ePay is a one-time, $99 application feeper bank account.

If you have multiple bank accounts that you want to set up with the ability to make and receive online payments, each account will need its own merchant account, which comes along with a separate application fee.

If you're on Buildium's Pro subscription plan, your first 5 bank accounts approved for ePay are included for free.

After the initial setup, you are only charged when you use ePay.

Beginning August 1st, 2019:

Incoming payments by EFT/eCheck cost $1.00 per transaction, and outgoing payments by EFT/eCheck cost $.50 per transaction. If you are on Buildium's Pro subscription plan, incoming EFT/eCheck transactions will remain free.

Incoming payments by credit or debit card cost 2.95% of the total transaction cost.

For current transaction costs, please see the ePay settings page of your bank account in Buildium.

All associated fees are charged to your Buildium subscription, which can be found by navigating to Settings > Account and billing.

Note: Some of these fees are waived for customers on Buildium's Pro subscription plan. Please see our website for further pricing details.

You can set up convenience fees to offset the costs of ePay.

Click here to learnmore about convenience fees

3. ePay hold days

When you are first approved for ePay, you will be approved for a certain amount of hold days for deposits and withdrawals. Hold days control how long it takes for the cash for an EFT or credit card transaction to move electronically between bank accounts.

The hold days every merchant account is approved with are as follows:

Deposits

Withdrawals

EFT/eCheck

1hold day

1 hold day

Credit cards

1 hold day

N/A

You do have the option to request lower hold days if you need to.

Click here to learn how to apply for a hold-day change, or if you wish to review hold-day fees.

Why are there hold days?

Hold days are a security precaution that protects the people involved in the EFT/eCheck transaction. From time to time, something goes wrong and the bank needs to ask for the money back to correct a mistake.

If the cash was sent immediately, it could be spent immediately. Should the EFT/eCheck need to be corrected, taking the money out could cause an overdraft.

By holding the money for a short time, the banks are given time to sort our their possible issues before the money can be spent. Hold days minimize the likelihood that the funds will need to be returned.

Click here to learn more about returned or reversed payments.

In general, banks will only process online payments in an overnight batch process. This means that you'll usually need to add an additional business day to timeline. Here are a few examples below.

Timeline of an EFT deposit

Timeline of a EFT withdrawal

Monday - a resident logs into Buildium and makes a payment*

Monday - you pay a vendor through Buildium*

Tuesday - Hold day 1; at close of business the funds are released

Tuesday - Hold day 1; at close of business the funds are released

Wednesday - the funds will be deposited into your bank account

Wednesday -the funds will be deposited into your vendor or owner's bank account

* assumes that the EFT was made before 6pm Central Time and that Monday is a day that the banks are open for business that day. EFTs do not process on weekends or federal holidays.

Buildium shows the "funded" date. This is usually one business day before your bank will acknowledge the funds. For example, if Buildium shows that the transaction funded on Monday the 1st, you'll see the money in your real- world bank account on Tuesday the 2nd.

EFT transactions are processed the same day if they are entered by 6pm Central Time.If an EFT is made after 6pm Central Time, the next business day will be considered the initiation day.

Credit card transactions are processed the same day if they are entered by 11:45pm Central Time.

4. ePay transactions and monthly limits

Every merchant account has limits that control how much money can be moved. Your merchant account has four limits:

Per deposit transaction limit

Per withdrawal transaction limit

Monthly deposit limit

Monthly withdrawal limit.

Limits can be adjusted as your requirements change over time.

Why are there limits?

A landlord who collects $800/month in rent from a single unit doesn't need to collect $250,000 each month. If that happens, something else might be going on.

The limits on a merchant account minimize the amount of risk that you need to take on should a transaction be recalled.

Limits are a security precaution that protects the people involved in the EFT/eCheck transaction. The rules that govern EFT/eCheck transactions allow banks up to four business days to audit a transaction and many banks take full advantage of that time. If the money is deposited sooner, it could be withdrawn by the time the bank asks for the money back. Should that happen, you'll be responsible for returning the money. The limits help to keep those amounts manageable.

A per transaction limit controls the maximum amount of money that can be moved electronically at one time. For example, let's say you have to pay a vendor $1500. If your merchant account has a per withdrawal transaction limit of $1000, you would have split the payment into two parts - $1000 and $500.

A monthly limit controls the maximum amount of money that can be moved electronically over a calendar month. It should be large enough to assume that all of your residents pay online. The per transaction limit should be 2-3 times your largest resident payment, in case someone pays in advance.

Higher limits usually require more backup documentation for your merchant account. For example, a transaction limit of $5000 per transaction and a monthly limit of $100,000 per month usually require two years of financials.

Click here to learn how to apply for ePay for rental properties you own or manage

Click here to learn how to apply for ePay for associations

Click here to learn how to get started with ePay once you're approved

Article #:

200689378

To improve security and provide you with a more branded first impression for your residents, we've made some great improvements to the welcome email for tenants and association owners. This customizable email is sent to tenants or association owners to introduce them to the resident site.

Improved Security:

We are improving overall security and the log in experience by providing residents with a password reset link rather than a temporary password that needs to be reset later. This will allow residents to reset their password right from the welcome email the first time they log into the resident site.

Branding:

Well now include your resident site logo in the welcome email as well as match the color of the "activate account" button to the colors you have selected for your resident site to provide a consistent, branded experience that looks and feels like your business. If youdon'thave a logo set up for your resident site, be sure to set one up under the resident site settings page in Buildium. If there is no logo set up, well default back to only display your company name.

Updated messaging:

We've updated the messaging in the welcome email to better highlight the key points of value the residentsite brings to your tenants and association owners in a clear and concise way.

Note:If you have made any customizations to the welcome email template, these changes will not go into effect until November 11, 2019. At which point, any customizations that have been made to your welcome email template will be reverted to the new default. We recommend taking this extra time to make note of any customizations you have made in the past so that you can again make those changes once they are reset on 11/11.

To view your current welcome email template and customizations you have made, navigate to:

Communication

Automated email settings

Find tenant welcome email or association owner welcome email

Were excited to announce that we have drastically simplified our renewals process and added more automation to take work off of your plate.

Now, you can:

Renew existing leases without juggling multiple lease ledgers or transfers

Schedule renewals and related charges months in advance

Store historical information, like initial lease dates, in a single place

Renew Expired leases

Table of contents:

Renewing Expired lease

Current and proposed terms for lease renewal

Entering custom terms on a lease renewal

Moving in new tenants / adding new cosigners when renewing a lease

Moving out tenants when renewing a lease

Changing and updating recurring charges when renewing a lease

Stop recurring charges after a renewal

Rent Proration on lease renewal

Expired lease

You can now renew an expired lease going back 240 days. Expired leases will show on the renewals page. You can renew leases multiple times.

Note: you will not be able to renew future leases, at will leases, and past leases.

Current and proposed terms for lease renewal

When renewing a lease, the current terms will display the property, unit, start-end rent and lease type of the current lease (prior to the renewal) for reference. This information is read only and cannot be edited.

The rent will pull from the rent that will be effective at the end of the current lease term

Underneath the section for renewal terms, you will see the option to select one of the two proposed terms entered on the previous page which will default the new lease end, type and rent.

PLEASE NOTE: you cannot enter split rent charges using the proposed terms section. This should only be used with single rent charges. If the have a more complex rent set up, you can use the option for entering custom terms.

Entering custom terms

When you select the option to enter custom terms, you can specify the lease type, end date (if applicable) and rent.

If the rent is split into multiple charges, you can set this up under the custom terms option

You will be able to select any income account under the rent section

The rent will start on the renewal date and will charge according to the next due date entered on this page. Posting days will use the global default. The next due date must be on or after the renewal date.

The memo will default to rent unless you enter a new note

Moving in new tenants / adding new cosigners when renewing a lease

Move in dates will allow you to accurately record who is living in the unit and when outside of the lease start date and track move-in dates and move out dates in the event history report.

A new tenant or cosigner can be added during the renewal by clicking on the + card

When a new tenant is added and saved, you will see the move in date on the tenants card and the date will default the lease renewal date

The move in date must be between the current leases start and renewed leases end date.

The move in date can be edited if you need to make changes

Move in dates are not applicable to new cosigners

Show move in date on tenants tab

You will now be able to see a move in date on the tenants tab of a lease that can be edited.

When you move a new tenant in while recording a lease renewal, you will enter the move in date

Any existing tenants on a lease will also have a move in date field which will default to the lease start date.

The move in date field can be edited from this page if you need to update it outside of the renewals flow.

You can also enter a move in date when you move someone in from the tenants tab on the lease

If a tenant has already been moved out of a lease, they will already have a move out date so we will now show [move in date] - [move out date]

Moving out tenants or removing cosigners when renewing a lease

If the person is a tenant, their profile can be edited or they can be moved out (previously, this was an option to remove rather than move out since a new lease was created.)

The tenants move out date must fall between the original leases start and renewed leases end date

When a tenant is moved out they fall into a former section. Their move out can be undone if it was done by mistake and need to move the tenant back onto the lease

If the person is a cosigner, their profile can be edited or they can be removed from the lease

If the cosigner is removed, they fall into a former section. Their removal can be undone by clicking restore if it was done by mistake and need to move the cosigner back onto the lease

Changing and updating recurring charges when renewing a lease

Any recurring charges that are set to post until end of term on the existing lease will show under the recurring charges section

In order to make adjustments or stop the recurring charges on the lease, you can toggle this section to yes

Saving adjustments to recurring charges

When you make a change to an existing recurring charge, the system will create a brand new recurring charge to begin on or after the renewal date

The existing recurring charge will continue to post until the renewal date

Existing recurring charges that were edited will continue to post unless the next due date is on or after the renewal date

If you have multiple recurring charges in this section, select yes to change

You can make changes to some or all of the recurring charges

Charges with edits will have a new recurring charge created

Changes with no changes will continue to post for their entire duration

You can add a new recurring or one time charge while renewing, and the next due date for new recurring charges must be on or after the renewal date (but can post in advance)

New recurring charges will use the default posting day (which is set in the global resident defaults)

Things to note:

New recurring charges cannot hit our default rent income account or any sub accounts of it (rent should be set under rent)

Customers can add a new one time charge

If the next due date minus post days is on or before today the charge will post to the ledger immediately

If the next due date minus post days is after today, the charge will be set up as a scheduled one time recurring charge

Stop recurring charges after renewal

You will be able to say that a recurring charge should stop posting after the lease is renewed. When you stop a recurring charge, the system will use the next due date to determine if it should or should not post.

NOTE:

If the next due date is before the renewal date, the charge will post

If the next due date is after the renewal date, the charge will not post

If the next due date is after the renewal date but is set to post in advance, the charge will not post

IMPORTANT NOTE: Rent Proration

The current rent proration functionality will not work when extending the existing lease

If you would like to enter in prorated charges, you can do so manually by utilizing the one-time charge function

Improving security with Biometrics

In an effort to continue to keep your data as secure as possible, we are introducing the ability to use biometrics to verify your identity before accessing your account through the manager mobile app.

This will give you the option to use Face ID or Touch ID on iOS devices and Fingerprint on Android devices.

Please note that the user's first login will still require an email and password. After logging in the user will be prompted to enable biometrics for future launches of the app.

You can opt-in or opt-out at any time via the More menu (More menu Settings). When opted in, you can dictate how often you want the app to require biometrics. The optional increments will be:

Immediately

15 minutes

30 minutes

1 hour

4 hours

If you close the app, you will need to be inactive for the set time you have selected in order to force the face id or touch id to launch.

NOTE: Uninstalling the app will remove all biometric setups. you will be prompted to set up again upon re-installation

NOTE: Android only supports fingerprints for app security and does note provide an option for facial recognition for app security.

Move in dates will allow you to accurately record who is living in the unit and when outside of the lease start date and track move-in dates and move out dates in the event history report.

Moving in new tenants / adding new cosigners when renewing a lease

A new tenant or cosigner can be added during the renewal by clicking on the + card

When a new tenant is added and saved, you will see the move in date on the tenants card and the date will default the lease renewal date

The move in date must be between the current leases start and renewed leases end date.

The move in date can be edited if you need to make changes

Move in dates are not applicable to new cosigners

Show move in date on tenants tab

You will now be able to see a move in date on the tenants tab of a lease that can be edited.

When you move a new tenant in while recording a lease renewal, you will enter the move in date

Any existing tenants on a lease will also have a move in date field which will default to the lease start date.

The move in date field can be edited from this page if you need to update it outside of the renewals flow.

You can also enter a move in date when you move someone in from the tenants tab on the lease

If a tenant has already been moved out of a lease, they will already have a move out date so we will now show [move in date] - [move out date]

You now have full control over the emergency contact information and language used in the Resident Center.

This information is on the request form in the Resident Center desktop site and mobile app.

You now have the ability to toggle this information off all together or customize the language used.

To change the emergency contact information and language on the request form:

Navigate to communication>>Resident Site settings

Select the requests page

Scroll down to "Emergency contact information"

You can choose to displya emergency contact information or toggle it off

Click edit to change the information.

Click save

We heard feedback that in some cases including a permission to enter question on maintenance requests can cause confusion for both residents and property managers. Especially when some leases contain language that states permission to enter is not necessary.

To help avoid any confusion we are now giving you the ability to hide the permission to enter questions including:

Do we have permission to enter the property if you aren't home?

Do you have pets?

Any other entry notes?

Note, if you choose to hide the permission to enter question, it will automatically also hide the pets and other entry notes questions.

To hide the permission to enter questions:

Navigate to communications>>resident site settings

Select the requests page

Find "entry questions" under settings

Toggle it to off

October 2019 Release notes

We work hard to make sure our features are constantly improving to help make running your business easier and more efficient. This page includes the latest new features, product improvements, and major bug fixes for the month of October, 2019.

Resident Center updates:

Payment warning

Remind residents of upcoming payments

Permission to enter optional

Customize in case of emergency

Welcome email updates

Mobile Updates:

Biometrics manager app

Resident Credits in bulk

Renters Insurance updates & beta

Daily summary emails

Resident Reminders Beta test

Resident Center Updates:

Payment warnings for residents

In order to mitigate duplicate or accidental payments by residents, we have introduced a new payment warning for residents. When a resident already has a scheduled payment pending and attempts to make any additional payment, they will receive a pop up message in the resident center, both on the mobile app and the desktop site, warning them that they already have a payment in place and asking them if they would like to proceed with making the payment.

Resident payment reminders:

In order to mitigate duplicate or accidental payments by Residents, we have introduced a new payment reminder email for residents. Now residents will receive an email 2 days before their scheduled payment date letting them know that they have an upcoming scheduled payment and can edit that payment from their resident center mobile app or desktop site.

Learn more

Permission to enter

We heard your feedback that in some cases including a permission to enter question on maintenance requests can cause confusion for both residents and property managers. Especially when some leases contain language that states permission to enter is not necessary. To help avoid any confusion we are now giving you the ability to hide the permission to enter questions on the request form. This change applies only to the desktop resident site at this time.

Learn more

Customize emergency contact information:

We heard your feedback that you would like the ability to either hide or edit the in case of emergency language on the resident center request form for residents. You youll get full control over this and will be able to toggle it off altogether or customize the language.This change applies only to the desktop resident site at this time.

Learn more

(Coming 10/24)Tenant and Association owner Welcome email updates

To improve security and provide you with a more branded and professional looking first impression for your residents, we've made some great improvements to the welcome email for tenants and association owners. Updates include

Improved security with password reset links

Improved branding to better match your company

Updated messaging

Learn more

Manager Mobile app updates:

Improved security with Biometrics

In an effort to continue to keep your data as secure as possible, we are introducing the ability to use biometrics to verify your identity before accessing your account through the manager mobile app. This will give you the option to use Face ID or Touch ID on iOS devices and Fingerprint on Android devices.

Learn more

Resident Credits in Bulk

Were excited to announce that Buildium now has a bulk credits tool that can apply credits on multiple resident ledgers at one time.

This tool is great for common area maintenance (CAM) reconciliation for multi-unit apartment buildings and commercial properties.

Learn more

Renters Insurance updates and beta test:

Daily summary emails for renters insurance

To make it easier for you to keep track of changes regarding renters insurance policies, we are introducing daily summary emails for renters insurance. All recent policy updates in the system will be delivered to you via a daily summary email. Updates will include new policies created, expired or cancelled policies and changes to coverage.

Learn more

Resident Reminders Beta test

We know trying to get your residents to comply with a requirement to have renters insurance coverage can be nearly impossible and take up valuable time chasing people down. So to save you the headache and save you time, were automating that process for you with new automated resident reminders - now in beta testing.

With resident reminders we will automatically follow up with residents who do not have any insurance information on file in Buildium and ask them to provide proof of coverage so youdon'thave to.

Whats in the beta test:

New renters insurance settings page where you can:

Edit the interested party on all new renters insurance policies created

Turn resident reminders on or off

Interested in trying it out?

Learn more

To make it easier for you to keep track of changes regarding renters insurance policies, we are introducing daily summary emails for renters insurance.

All recent policy updates in the system will be delivered to you via a daily summary email.

Summary emails will include:

new policies created,

expired or cancelled policies

changes to coverage

To turn renters insurance daily summary emails on or off:

Navigate to my settings

Scroll to email notifications

Find renters insurance

To turn on, check the box for "Daily summary of recently created, updated, and expired policies"

If you would like to turn these emails off, un-check the box

Buildium now has a bulk credits tool that can apply credits on multiple resident ledgers at one time.

The bulk credits tool is only available per property, it will not add charges across several different properties.

This tool is great for common area maintenance (CAM) reconciliation for multi-unit apartment buildings and commercial properties. You can also use bulk credits to credit tenants for meter readings that show that the tenant was overcharged.

To add Resident credits in bulk:

Navigate to Rentals > Rent roll or Associations > Ownership accounts.

Click Enter bulk credits from the drop down menu.

Choose a property, select an account type, and enter the due date.

Choose a credit action

Issue credit to waive unpaid charges

Issue credit in exchange for goods or services or to write-off unpaid charges

Issue credit for payments previously deposited

Choose a frequency and common expense allocation. You can choose a custom allocation thatyou'vecreated, or you can choose to allocate by size or to allocate evenly.You can also opt to use no allocation, and enter the information for each unit manually. If you choose an allocation, enter the total credit, and Buildium will apply the total amount across each of the units.

If you decide to opt out of using an allocation, enter the amount of the credit for each unit in the amount column. You can enter a memo in the memo column, and have the option to apply the memo to all credits.

Whenyou'vecompleted the form, click Apply credits.

Note: You can use the bulk credits tool to add many credits at once, but any changes that need to be made once the credits are posted will need to be completed one at a time.

When a resident has a one-time or recurring payment scheduled they will receive an email seven days in advance notifying them of this upcoming payment.

This email will be sent from [email protected]. Once the email sends it will appear on the emails page. You can see a template of the reminder under the Tenant and Association owner categories of the automated email settings page.

We are always listening for feedback from our customers and users. It's the best way to make sure we are meeting your needs and providing you with the features and experience you want and need to run your business. Thats why we are excited to announce our new self-serve beta program.

With the beta test page in Buildium, you will have the ability to view and opt-in to available new features that are currently in beta testing. Youll be able to turn these features on in your account, test them, and then provide any feedback you might have. When you test our new features and provide feedback, youll be directly helping us decide what features are ready for broad release, what needs more work, and what is great or not so great about each feature.

To find our features in beta and opt-in to a test, navigate to:

Settings

Application Settings

Beta features

Then, just switch the toggle from off to on

The security of your account and personal data is a top priority for Buildium. Because we value our users privacy, we have decided to no longer offer the ability to log into your Buildium account using Facebook.

Why are we doing this now?

In recent months, the general sentiment is that Facebook is not adequately careful enough with the privacy of its users.

We constantly striving to improve the security and privacy of all of our customers accounts.

Buildium wants to avoid any unforeseen security or privacy issues that may arise from Facebook in the future.

From time to time, it may be faster to import data into Buildium than to enter it manually. Buildium gives you the ability to import data in bulk using our data import templates.

Click here to check out our video tutorials about entering data on Buildium Academy!

In this article, youll learn how to:

Prepare data for import

Upload data and complete an import

1. Prepare data for import

To get started with your data import:

Navigate to Settings > Import data.

Click Upload data file, and choose the type of data you'd like to import from the drop down menu. Import Unpaid bills

When you import data into Buildium, it's really important to do so in the correct order. You won't be able to enter your tenants and leases into the system if you haven't entered your properties yet.

We recommend importing your data in the following order:

Properties (rentals or associations)

People (tenants, association owners, rental owners, vendors)

Financial transactions (resident charges and payments, checks and deposits, lockbox payments).

Once you've selected the type of data you want to import, download the template from the Before you start section of the upload file window.

Any required fields on the import template are indicated with an asterix (*).

When you're importing data, it's very important that your data is an exact match to what has been entered into Buildium.

Fill out any required fields, and save the completed template to your computer.

2. Upload data and complete an import

Once you've completed and saved an import template:

Navigate to Settings > Import data.

Click Upload data file, and select the type of data you'd like to import from the drop down menu.

In the pop-up window, scroll down and click Upload.

Choose the file you've prepared.

Once uploaded, click Save.

Buildium will validate the file, and let you know if there are any errors. You can click on the error message to view a report that indicates exactly what errors occurred so you can go and make any necessary updates to your file. Once the errors have been fixed, you wil need to re-upload the template in the system.

It's important to know there is NO going back once you've hit the "import data" button after validating the files. We do not have the ability to correct any information in bulk once it's been imported, so you want to double or even triple check the files before you import.

Click below to learn how to import the following data types:

Import properties and units

Import associations and units

Import tenants and lease information

Import association owners and ownership account information

Import rental owners

Import vendors

Import financial transactions (checks and deposits)

Import financial transactions (charges and payments)

Import lockbox files

New columns on checks & deposits import-

Amount 4-7

GL Account Allocation 4-7

Itemized Description 4-7

Reference Number 4-7

New columns on charges & payments import-

Amount 4-7

GL Account Allocation 4-7

Article #:

112742

Were excited to announce the new Resident Center mobile app! A new mobile app made specifically for your residents.

Resident Center, powered by Buildium, is designed with simplicity in mind. Residents can make payments, submit maintenance requests, contact their property manager and morewith just a few taps.

The features available will vary depending on what you, the property manager, allow residents to access.

Key features:

One-time and recurring online rent payments

Maintenance requests with photo attachments

Announcements, texting, and other communication features

Ability to purchase renters insurance or provide proof of coverage

resource page

The Resident Center will automatically pull in the colors and logo that you have chosen for your resident site. If you have not changed the branding of the resident site. Go to the resident site settings page and customize your branding. This will automatically be reflected in the resident center app.

To download the app, residents can go to either the Apple App Store, or Google Play and search for Resident Center.

Tell your residents!

Weve put together an example email template to help you get started letting your residents know about the new app.

Download here

Resident Center Flyer:

Just download the PDF, add your logo to the top left, and update your contact information at the bottom.

Download Resident Center PDF

Promotional Video:

Watch this quick overview video and share it with your residents to give them an idea of how the app works.

Watch the video

For more Information about the Resident Center app, visit our .

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Please Note: The Resident Center app is available worldwide. Canadian residents can make payments through the app if a bank account has already been added, but will not be able to add new bank accounts via the app at this time. New Canadian residents will first need to add new bank accounts from the desktop resident site before making payments through the Resident Center app

Covenants, conditions & restrictions, rules and regulations, bylaws, and other sets of community governance vary widely across associations. Our violations feature allows you to build out your own way of labeling and describing these for the violations you need to track per association.

We have added a small set of default categories and types to every association to get you started. We didnt want to overwhelm your list with options you may not use, so these are just some of the most common we heard from customers. If any of these do not fit a particular association, you can always edit their titles or delete them from the list.

To manage an associations categories and types: There are two ways you can add categories and violation types.

Go to the specific association for which you would like to update violation categories and types.

Click on the Violations tab > Settings > Categories

Use the Edit option to manage existing categories or types

Use the Add New option to add a category or type.

The category/violation type relationship is flexible enough to handle shorthand nicknames, informally named rules and regs, or even formal Article/Section titles.

Some examples of what you could use are:

Shorthand/Informal

Category: Pets/Animals

Violation Type: State/Local law violation

Violation Type: Dogs, Size/Number

Violation Type: Registration

Formal

Category: Section 3 - Architectural, Exterior, Changes and Improvements

Violation Type: Article 3.1 Prior Written Approval Required for ALL Projects.

Violation Type: Article 3.2 Roofing

Violation Type: Article 3.3 Siding Materials.

Default Descriptions for Violation Types.

Adding default descriptions to your violation types saves you and your staff time, from having to enter the same description every time you log a violation.

To set up default descriptions for your association you will:

Navigate to Associations > Select an association > Violations > Settings > Categories > Open desired category

When adding a new violation type for a category

Click Add New Type

Type or paste copied text into the Default Description field

Click Save

When adding description to existing violation type

Click Edit for the Type

Type or paste copied text into the Default Description field

Click Save

Now you can log a new violation for that association/violation type combo, and the default description will automatically populate.

Getting started with ePay is now even easier, thanks to Buildium becoming its own PayFac (Payment Facilitator). With this improvement customers will now be working directly with Buildium throughout the application and approval process, and the following will now be managed by Buildium:

Funding holds

Limit violations

Bank account changes ( How to change your ePay bank account )

Hold day change communications ( How to change your hold days )

Limit increase requests go through Buildium ( How to change your ePay limits )

Chargebacks

With this change we strive to make it even easier to get started with ePay, and allow your residents to pay online with their preferred payment method.

We've been working hard on restructuring how lease renewals in Buildium work, thanks to customer feedback. Weve already begun rolling out some major changes to the process that we think youre going to like!Extending leases when renewing:Weve heard you loud and clear! The first update weve made is to simplify our renewals process and add more automation to take work off of your plate when renewing a lease.Now when you choose to renew an existing lease, the system will no longer create a completely new lease ledger.Instead, when you process a renewal the same lease will be extended, Renew existing leases without juggling multiple lease ledgers or transfers. Additionally, you can:

Renew leases that have already expired

Schedule renewals and related charges months in advance

Store historical information, like initial lease dates, in a single place

Extending leases when renewing has already been rolled out to 10% of Buildium customers, and will be available for everyone in the next few weeks!Keep an eye out for additional updates over the next few months:

Move-in date for renewalsWill allow you to accurately record who is living in the unit and when outside of the lease start date and track move-in dates and move out dates in the event history report.Renewal status trackingImproved tracking of the status and stages of renewals will give you the ability to track communications sent out to residents regarding lease renewals.Notice to vacateWith the notice to vacate function, you can keep track of the date when tenants give notice for move out, so you can track who is giving late notice and who needs to be charged fees accordingly.

Dont forget to check the Whats New bell at the top right of your account - thats where well notify you as soon as these updates are available for you.

In an effort to greater streamline recording violations and the corresponding violation description, you are able to set up default descriptions for violation types.Adding default descriptions to your violation types saves you and your staff time, from having to enter the same description every time you log a violation.

To set up default descriptions for your association you will:

Navigate to Associations > Select an association > Violations > Settings > Categories > Open desired category

When adding a new violation type for a category

Click Add New Type

Type or paste copied text into the Default Description field

Click Save

When adding description to existing violation type

Click Edit for the Type

Type or paste copied text into the Default Description field

Click Save

Now you can log a new violation for that association/violation type combo, and the default description will automatically populate.

Buildium gives you the ability to import two types of financial information - charges and payments from residents, and checks and deposits that occur in your bank account.

If youre just getting started with Buildium but would like to track full financials from prior months, importing this information is the best way to get it into the system.

In this article, youll learn how to import check and deposit records that have occurred in your bank accounts.

To import payments and depositsthat have occurred in your bank account:

Navigate to Settings > Import data.

Click Upload data file and choose Checks and deposits.

Download the excel template from the Before you start section of the pop up window.

There are several required fields, which are indicated by an asterisk:

Date

Transaction type (check or deposit)

Bank account name

Payee (checks only)

Property name

Amount

General ledger allocation

Include a line item for each check or deposit you want to import into Buildium.

Include a memo, check number, or add additional property and amount information to be included within one check or deposit.

Onceyou'vecompleted and saved the checks and deposits import template, navigate to Settings > Import data.

Click Upload data file and choose Checks and deposits.

In the pop-up window, scroll down to the Upload section. From here, click Upload, then choose the completed template file.

Once uploaded, click Save.

Buildium will validate the file, and let you know if there are any errors. You can click on the error message to view a report that indicates exactly what errors occurred so you can go and make any necessary updates to the template.

If all fields have been validated, a button will appear for you to import the data.

Its important to know there is NO going back onceyou'vehit the import data button after validating the files. We do not have the ability to correct any information in bulk once its been imported, so you want to double or even triple check the files before you import.

Validations

If you're having any issues with errors when you validate the file, check the following validation requirements to see if something in your template was entered incorrectly:

Date

Accepted format is MM/DD/YYYY.

Transaction type

Accepted values are Check and Deposit.

Bank account

Bank account must match an existing bank account.

Property

Property must match an existing property.

Account

Account must match an existing account in the chart of accounts. Sub-accounts can be prefixed with their parent account separated by a colon. E.g. Fuel sub-account under Auto can be specified as Auto:Fuel.

Payee

Payee must match and existing vendor or rental owner.

New columns on checks & deposits import

Amount 4-7

GL Account Allocation 4-7

Itemized Description 4-7

Reference Number 4-7

Article #:

112738

In a continued effort to keep your Buildium account and passwords as secure as possible, we are integrating with HaveIBeenPwned. Now whenever you change your password, HaveIBeenPwned will cross reference your new password with against a known list of weak passwords.

NOTE: Your password is never transmitted to HaveIBeenPwned, rather we look up the password using a method that never reveals your password.

When resetting your password we will provide you with a password strength indicator, which will let you know if the password you are choosing is not strong enough. When we check your proposed new password, utilizing HaveIBeenPwned, you may receive a response explaining the password is still considered insecure, as illustrated by the below screenshot.

Strong password best practices

For more information on best practices for creating strong passwords please visit this Help article for additional information

Whether you want to copy and paste data from other accounts payable system exports or you just like filling in excel sheets instead of doing data entry into our app, our bill import helps you bring in large amounts of payables data at one time.To start, youll want to download our unpaid bills template.Go to Settings > Click Import Data > Click Upload Data File > Click Unpaid BillsHelpful hints

Each row in the template represents a separate line item allocation in a Buildium bill record. You can have 1 row = 1 bill with 1 line item or multiple rows = 1 bill with multiple line items.

Each time you download the template, Buildium will add your current property list, current vendor list and current chart of accounts, so you can click on a cell in those columns and see the same list that exists in your Buildium account.You are not required to use these, but the import process will validate that the names in your file match exactly in Buildium, so this should help you match property, vendor, and GL account names based on whats in Buildium.

Column HeadersThis list describes each of the column headers in the template, what pieces of information they will fill in in Buildiums Record Bill form, and offers suggestions on how that set of information might relate to other accounts payables systems.For bills with multiple line item allocations, the entries in the general information columns of the bill (listed below) must match exactly in each row corresponding to the same bill (this would be the same information you would enter in the top half of our Add bill form, plus the bill total amount and the # of itemized allocations).

Bill Date:

This field usually designates the date that an invoice was received

Will inform theDatefield in the Buildium Record Bill form

Might be labeled asBill Received Date,Invoice Date, orInvoice Received Datein other payable systems.

Bill Due Date:

This field designates the date that payment for a bill is due to the vendor.

Will inform theBill Due Datefield in the Buildium Record Bill form

Might be labeled asDue Date,Invoice Due Date, orPayment Due Datein other payable systems.

Vendor:

This field designates the vendor or supplier who sent you an invoice.

Will inform thePay tovendor selection in the Buildium Record Bill form

Might be labeled asVendor, Supplier, orPay toin other payable systems.

The vendor name in the template needs to be an exact match to the vendor name on file in Buildium.

We suggest choosing the vendor from the list in the template and then copying and pasting the vendor into any further cells for other line item allocations that they should be entered into.

Reference Number

This field designates the reference or invoice number that the vendor assigned to the invoice.

Will inform theReference Numberfield in the Buildium Record Bill form

Might be labeled asInvoice Numberin other payable systems.

Memo:

This field is used to specify a high-level description of what the invoice was for and is usually added to the transaction that pays the bill.

Will inform theMemofield in the Buildium Record Bill for

Total Bill Amount:

This field designates the total invoice amount due.

Because each row in our template corresponds to one itemized line item in a bill, you may have multiple rows with the same total amount. Buildium will use this entry and the entry for # of itemized allocations to validate which rows go into a single bill.

Will inform theTotal amountin the bill table in the Buildium Record Bill form

Might be labeled asTotal Duein other payable systems.

# of itemized allocations:

This field designates the number of rows that Buildium should add to a single bill during the import process.

This number corresponds to the number of line items that will show up in a single bill record in Buildium.

Might be labeled asDue Date,Invoice Due Date, orPayment Due Datein other payable systems.

For bills with multiple line item allocations, the entries in the itemized information columns of the bill can be different across rows corresponding to the same bill (this would be the same information you would enter in the table in the bottom half of our Add bill form, excluding the Total bill amount).

Itemized Allocation Property Name

This field designates the rental property or association number that the itemized line item should be allocated to.

Will inform thePropertyfield in the Buildium record bill table.

Might be labeled as a short-hand property name in other payable systems.

The property name in the template needs to be an exact match to the property name on file in Buildium.

We suggest choosing the property from the list in the template and then copying and pasting the property into any further line items that it should be entered into.

Itemized Allocation Amount

This field designates the portion of the bill amount that should be allocated to the property.

Will inform theAmountfield in the Buildium record bill table.

Itemized Allocation GL Expense Account

This field designates the GL Account that the amount should be allocated to.

Will inform theAccountfield in the Buildium record bill table.

Might be labeled asAccount, GL, Expense Accountin other payable systems.

The GL Account name in the template needs to be an exact match to the GL Account name on file in Buildium.

We suggest choosing the GL Account from the list in the template and then copying and pasting the GL Account into any further line items that it should be entered into.

Itemized Allocation Description

This field is used to note what service or product was provided for the property.

Will inform theDescriptionfield in the Buildium record bill table.

With the security of your account being our top priority, we wanted to provide some helpful guidelines around creating a strong password.Buildium has made improvements which provide you more flexibility when creating a password. We have also improved our methods to detect commonly used passwords, which are considered insecure.Some helpful tips on creating a strong password:

Longer is better

Select a variety of character types (uppercase, lowercase, digits, special characters)

Consider using a number of random common words (Correct_horse_battery_house)

Avoid easily guessed information as part of your password (family members, favorite sports teams, as well as significant dates)

Password managerWe understand it is not easy to manage unique passwords across a large number of websites. We encourage users to create a strong password for a password manager, and generate the password they use with Buildium.

To start getting your residents signed up for policies through Renters Insurance, powered by MSI, all you have to do is make sure your residents have access to your resident site.The new renters insurance will be available for residents to purchase on August 20th. At that time, residents will be able to log in to the resident site and purchase a new policy or enter their policy information from an alternate provider. Policy information will be synced to your Buildium account in real time and can be viewed on the lease summary page.

Please note: renters insurance policies will be available to residents in the United States only.

Getting started guide for renters insurance: Send your residents a step-by-step guide that shows them how to purchase a new renters insurance policy or provide proof of coverage through the resident site.

Download renters insurance guide PDF

Email template Sample email copy to let your residents know about Renters Insurance powered by MSI. We recommend using this as a starting point and customizing the content for your needs.

-Download email template eMail

To get started with Renters Insurance, powered by MSI, all you have to do is make sure your residents have access to your resident site.The new renters insurance will be available for residents to purchase on August 20th. At that time, residents will be able to log in to the resident site and purchase a new policy or enter their policy information from an alternate provider. Policy information will be synced to your Buildium account in real time and can be viewed on the lease summary page.

Please note: renters insurance policies will be available to residents in the United States only.

How to invite tenants to the resident site

On August 20th, Renters Insurance, powered by MSI, will be available for residents to purchase directly within the resident site. Protect your properties, and your residents, with a policy trusted by over 300,000 renters nationwide. And theres no extra work on your endall you have to do is encourage your residents to sign up!

With Renters Insurance, powered by MSI we take policy management off your plate so you can simplify your leasing process, save time, and make renters insurance easy and accessible for your residents.

Renters Insurance FAQ

MSI is one of the property management industrys leading insurance providers underwritten by two A-rated carriers and work with property managers representing 10 million units nationwide. Weve partnered with MSI to bring you a comprehensive renters insurance solution that will take policy management off your plate so you can simplify your leasing process, save time, and make renters insurance easy and accessible for your residents. With this new offering, residents have the ability to purchase insurance policies right through Buildiums newly redesigned resident site.

Benefits for Property Managers:

Keep track of all policies, whether they were purchased through Buildium, or an outside provider. Well keep track of it all. Just have your residents enter their policy information right in the resident site

Property managers will automatically be listed as an interested party, guaranteeing that they will be notified when residents make changes to their policy or cancel coverage

As a Buildium customer, all of your residents are pre-approved for policies

No need to get involved in billing and policy management, weve ensured billing is directly between the resident and our partner

Benefits for residents:

Buildiums partnership with MSI means all of your residents are pre-approved and can sign up in minutes

Residents will have the ability to choose from multiple coverage options, and choose their level of personal property coverage

Residents can add what ever insurance provider they have right in the resident site, giving you accurate reporting without having to collect this information if they purchase coverage from an outside provider

Access to a dedicated renters insurance support line

Affordable premiums starting as low as $12 per month (after initial downpayment)

Learn more

How to get started with renters insurance

How to get tenants signed up for renters insurance

Do I have to use MSI for renters insurance?

No, you can have your residents sign up with any insurance provider you choose. You will be able to easily record that information on the lease summary page, or you can have your residents provide proof of coverage through the resident site and that information will automatically sync to your Buildium account.

When can my residents start purchasing polices through Renters Insurance, powered by MSI?

Residents can start purchasing new policies through the resident site starting August 20th, 2019.

Who is MSI?

MSI is one of the property management industrys leading renters insurance providers. They areunderwritten by three A-rated carriers and represent 10 million units nationwide. We partnered with MSI in order to create a more integrated renters insurance solution that takes policy management off of your plate.

Can my residents purchases an MSI policy before August 20th?

If you would like early access for your residents to start purchasing policies, please call Buildium customer support.

Can I sign up all of my tenants for new policies with buildium?

So im assuming this is asking if you can purchase policies on behalf of your residents. And the answer to that is no. A policy can only be opened and purchased by the resident for legal reasons, they need to accept the terms in order to bind a policy.

What type of coverage is included in a policy through Buildium/MSI?

All Policies include personal property coverage to protect their belongings and residents can choose the level of personal property coverage they want,and every policy comes with 100K in liability coverage which includes guest medical expenses and emergency living expenses.

How much does it cost me for my residents to enroll in Renters insurance through buildium?

Renters Insurance, powered by MSI will cost you nothing. As i mentioned before Weve taken you out of the billing process so all accounting and billing is done directly between the resident and our partner. Most people will see policies starting at around $12 a month, but that price can vary

How long does MSI coverage last, when does the policy expire?

All MSI policies are for 1 year and auto-renew at the end of that year.

Can residents who have already moved to purchase a policy? Or, does it have to happen at move-in?

Residents can purchase a policy at any time and it does not have to happen at move-in.

What if Idon'twant to offer Renters insurance powered by MSI to my residents?

You can opt out of this experience by navigating to the resident site setting page and under additional settings, switching the renters insurance toggle to off. With this setting off, your residents will not be able to purchase policies through the resident site. However they will still be able to provide you with proof of coverage through alternative providers through the resident site under my account.

Once your account has an active merchant account, it's time to turn on the feature to allow your residents to use the feature.

In general, it's better to control this setting by property. Use the instructions below sparingly.

To turn on/off online payments by lease:

Navigate toRentals >Rent roll.

Click the lease for which you'd like to enable online payments.

From the lease summary page, click the Financials tab, thenPayment settings.

Click Edit ePay methods

In the edit panel, check the box for EFT/eCheck to turn on the feature. Uncheck the box to turn it off.

Click Save.

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A convenience fee is an extra amount that is added onto a resident's online payment to offset the processing costs associated with the payment method.

For example:

Larry added a $5 convenience fee onto residents' online payments to offset ePay service fees.

When any of Sarah's residents pay online, they are charged a $5 convenience fee if they pay by EFT in addition to their payment due.

Add a convenience fee to a tenant or association owner paymentHideShow

Navigate toAccounting >Banking page.

Click on the bank account with ePay enabledthatyou'd like to add a convenience fee for.

Click on the ePay settings tab.

Then, selectEdit EFT.

To note, the convenience fee for resident payments can be a different fee from your rental application fees.

For instance:

When a resident pays rent online, I charge a convenience fee of $5.

When an applicant applies online, I charge an application fee of $25.

Application fees are not subject to convenience fees. If you wish to charge your applicants a convenience fee, include that fee in the total application fee amount.

For EFT / eChecks, enter a flat fee amount in the convenience fee box within the panel.

Note: For credit cards, you have the option to select who pays the service fee. Note: before setting up a convenience fee for credit card transactions, we recommend referring to local and state legislation relating to convenience fees and surcharges for your area to ensure that you are following the correct practices.Additionally we recommend viewing the terms of use of major credit card associations to ensure that you are in compliance.

management income account

Click Save.

All service fees and convenience fees are processed with the convenience fee incomeaccount on your chart of accounts. They will appear on reports along with your other income accounts.

If you intend to keep the convenience fees for yourself, consider making convenience fee income a .

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If you'd like to make EFTs faster and decrease the amount of time it takes to receive payments from residents, or to pay rental owners and vendors, complete a hold day change request form.

Beginning August 1st, 2019* hold day fees are:

Hold Days

Transaction Fee

1-day hold

$1.00 per transaction

0-day hold

$1.45 per transaction

*Hold-days are based on business days. Prices are subject to change. Please see the ePay settings page in-app for the most up-to-date pricing.

To change your hold days

Navigate to Accounting >Banking.

Click the name of the bank account you'd like to request a change in hold days.

Click the ePay settings tab.

Click Edit EFT, thenChangehold days.

Complete the form.

You can speed up the change process by clearly explaining your reason for needing a reduced hold time on the form. "I want to get money to my owners in a shorter time frame" is a better explanation than "I want money to move faster" because it offers more context about your intentions.

When the form is complete, click Next: Review changes.

Reviewyour completed form.

Submit changes.

What's next?

Once you send in the form:

If approved, your hold day change will be updated automatically in Buildium. We'll send an email to the Buildium account owner.

From time to time, your requested hold days may not be granted. In these cases, we will sometimes grant a "counter offer" of sorts. For example, if you asked for a 0 day hold on both deposits and withdrawals, your request may be declined for deposits and approved for change for withdrawals.

For this reason, it's important to look at your hold days once the approval comes through.

If you'd still like a smaller hold period than what has been granted, wait 30-60 days and try again.

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Congratulations on your approval for ePay! Youre almost ready to make and receive online payments through Buildium.

Click here for an ePay video tutorial on Buildium Academy!

In this article, youll learn how to:

Enable your properties for ePay

Set up your convenience fees

Give residents access to the resident portal

Show your tenants how to use ePay

Enable online application fees

1. Enable your properties for ePay

You have the option to enable EFT/eCheck and credit card payments for each property that is tied to the approved bank account.

To enable your properties for epay:

Navigate to Accounting > Banking, then click on the approved bank account.

Select the Properties tab, then click Edit epay methods.

Check the box next to each property you want to enable EFT/eCheck or credit card payments for. You can select one or both payment method options for each property.

Click Save changes.

Click here to learn how to enter vendor ePay information

2. Set up convenience fees

Convenience fees are one way to offset the cost of using ePay. When a resident pays rent or fees online, Buildium will add the indicated convenience fee to their payment.

To setup convenience fees:

Navigate to Accounting > Banking, then click on the approved bank account.

Select the ePay settings tab, then click Edit eCheck (EFT) to set a convenience fee for EFT payments.

For EFT/eCheck, enter a flat fee amount in the convenience fee box.

For credit cards, select who pays the service fee.

Once youre done setting your convenience fees, click Save.

Note: before setting up a convenience fee for credit card transactions, we recommend referring to local and state legislation relating to convenience fees and surcharges for your area to ensure that you are following the correct practices.Additionally we recommend viewing the terms of use of major credit card associations to ensure that you are in compliance.

All service fees and convenience fees are processed using the convenience fee income account on your chart of accounts. They will appear on reports along with your other income accounts.

If you intend to keep the convenience fees for yourself, consider making convenience fee income a management income account.

3. Give residents access to the portal

Onceyou'veenabled your properties, give residents access to their resident portal where they can pay online.

To learn more about the resident portal and how to invite your users, click here.

4. Show your residents how to use ePay

Whenyou'veinvited all of your residents to their portals, send them an email with a link to the instructional pages linked belowso they can see how easy it is to pay rent online:

Tenant instructions: How to pay rent and fees online

Then, show them how to set it and forget it with a recurring EFT payment through the resident portal:

Tenant instructions: How to set up recurring rent payments

Once residents start paying online, ePay transactions are automatically updated everywhere: on ledgers, in your bank accounts, and in reports.

5. Enable online application fees

Accepting application fees online is another great feature of ePay. If youre already using Buildiums customizable rental application, its easy to set up online payments for application fees, too.

To enable ePay for application fees:

Navigate to Settings > Application settings.

Then, click Rental applications. Select the Fee tab.

Click Edit payment methods to select your ePay approved bank account as the default for application fee, and to enable EFT/eCheck and credit cards.

If you plan on paying vendors and rental owners electronically, click the links below to learn how to add their information into Buildium.

Click here to learn how to enter rental owner ePay information

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Accepting credit card payments for rent or fees

Accepting credit card payments gives your residents flexibility and allows them to pay for rent or other fees even ifthey'rewaiting on a paycheckmaking it more likely that youll get your money on time and in full.

Accepting credit card payments is also incredibly convenient for your residents. With Buildium, we make it easy to set up and provide an easy way to cover the transaction costs of accepting credit card payments through by allowing you to pass the service fee to the resident and make them hassle-free and no cost for you.

learn more about ePay transaction costs

If youre already approved for ePay, turning on credit card functionality is simple.

Navigate to Accounting > Banking.

Then, click on the bank account that is set up for ePay.

From the bank ledger page, click the ePay Settings tab.

Next, select edit credit card. You can choose to charge the resident the fee to cover your costs. ()

Afteryou'veset up fees and click save, select Edit ePay methods by property.

Choose Edit ePay methods, and check the box under Credit Card for each property you want to enable, then click Save.

We have provided a sample lease addendum to include a requirement for renters insurance with your lease agreement. By having your tenants sign a renters insurance lease addendum *, they will be contractually obligated to purchase and maintain a renters insurance policy throughout their lease. We recommend that you consult a licensed lawyer and update this addendum to ensure that you are in compliance with the appropriate laws and regulations regarding your lease before using this addendum.

Download the renters insurance lease addendum

*This sample lease addendum is provided for informational purposes only. It is not legal advice. You should consult your own attorney. Neither Buildium nor its counsel represent you, nor have either offered you legal advice. Certain jurisdictions may not allow the addendum as drafted, and it may not be appropriate for your purposes.

Owner contributions can be paid manually, or owners can choose to pay a contribution online when they log into their rental owner portal.

In this article, you'll learn:

How to enable and update owner contribution settings

How to request a contribution from an owner

How an owner pays online

How to set up convenience fees for contributions

1. How to enable and update owner contribution settings

Owner contributions are only available to be paid electronically if the bank account they're being paid into is set up for ePay. To enable a rental owner to be able to pay contributions online:

Navigate to Accounting > Banking.

Then, click on the ePay-approved bank account you want to enable contributions on.

From the transaction summary page, click the ePay settings tab.

Scroll down the page until you reach the Owner contributions section.

From here, you can enable all rental owners who's funds use that bank account to be able to pay contributionsonline, by clicking enable all.

If you want to be more selective with which owners have the ability to pay contributions online, you can do so.

Navigate to Rentals > Rental owners.

Then, click on the rental owner you want to enable or disable contributions for.

From the rental owner summary page, select the Financials tab.

On the financials summary page, click Contribution ePay settings, then click Edit to update the settings for that particular owner.

2. How to request a contribution from an owner

It's easy to request a contribution from a rental owner to cover a large repair cost or capital expense.

To request a contribution:

Navigate to Tasks > All tasks.

Then, click Add task, and select Rental owner request from the drop-down menu.

Choose the rental owner you are requesting funds from, then enter the details in the subject line and description box.

Complete the remainder of the form, then click Create task.

After the task has been created, the rental owner will be notified by email, and the message will also appear on their rental owner site.

3. How an owner pays online

A rental owner can pay online directly through their portal. Once logged in, there will be a Send Funds button on both the Financials page, and the Requests page.

When an owner clicks Send funds, they will be brought to a form to fill out their payment information.

The owner is required to select the property they are making a contribution to, then fill out the payment information.

Note: Payments can be made electronically by EFT/eCheck or Credit Card in the United States, but only by EFT/eCheck in Canada.

After the owner has filled in their payment details and a memo, they will click the Review button. They will be prompted to confirm the payment details are correct, and then will receive a confirmation by email once the funds have been sent.

Additionally, all staff members who currently receiveemail notifications with a daily digest of ePay transactionswill be notified immediately via email whenthe contribution has been initiated, in addition to the contribution being included in the daily digest.

4. How to set up convenience fees for owner contributions

Just like with resident payments, you can set up convenience fees for owner contributions, too. A different fee can be set for each bank account enabled for ePay.

To set up convenience fees:

Navigate to Accounting > Banking.

Then, select the bank account you want to set up convenience fees in.

From the transactions page, click the ePay settings tab.

Click edit EFT/eCheck to add a fee for rental owners, which can be separate from the resident convenience fee you have in place.

If you're accepting contributions by credit card, click Edit Credit card to set that type of fee.

Each ePay merchant account has limits placed on per transaction and monthly volume. As your needs change, business grows, rents or association fees increase, you can request an increase in your processing volume.

To increase your EFT limits:

Navigate toAccounting>Banking.

Then, click the bank account you want to change your ePay limits for.

Click the Epay settings tab, then click Edit EFT.

Select Increase limits, and fill out the form.

You can speed up the change process by clearly explaining your reason for needing an increased limit on the form. "I've doubled the size of my business and increased Epay adoption" is a better explanation than "I want more" because it offers more context about your intentions.

When the form is complete, click Next: Review changes,then submit the form.

Once submitted, collect any supporting documents that are necessary. Typically, a limit increase requires a recent bank statement. Depending on your requested limits, you may need to provide two years' of financials as well.

What's next?

Once the form is submitted:

If approved, your limit increasewill be updated automatically in Buildium. We'll send an email to the Buildium account owner.

From time-to-time, your requested limits cannot be granted. In these cases, you may be granted a "counter offer". For example, if you asked for a $100,000 deposit limit, you may be approved for $85,000

For this reason, it's important to look at your dollar limits once the approval comes through.

If you would still like a larger dollar limit than what has been granted, wait 30-60 days and try again.

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