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End of Month Disbursement Procedure

Anne Greyling
Updated

On the day the End of Month Disbursement is done

Please note that this process can only be performed on the last day of the current month or later. However, due to RMS being date-sensitive, it is strongly recommended that you wait until the 1st day of the new Trust month or later to proceed.

Before beginning, please ensure the following:

  1. Your Trust account is fully reconciled as of the last day of the month

  2. The reconciliation should match the closing bank statement balance dated the last day of the month

  3. Please save the following reports as part of your records:

  • Three Way Balance
  • Trust Reconciliation
  • Monies Held In Trust
  • Cash Book

General Transfers

This step involves transferring General Transfers to your General Bank Account.

⚠️ Important: 
For clients who retain funds in the Trust (Z account), do not move any sundries that you wish to keep in trust. Some sundry items may be present for bookings that departed after being moved prior to disbursement day. Carefully review before proceeding.

  1. In the Menu Search, type “General” and select Owner Accounting > General Transfers
  2. Select all applicable charges you wish to pay out - only select charges with departure dates within the disbursement month
  3. Review the amounts at the bottom of the screen - The available amount and the selected amount will be displayed
  4. Click the Pay arrow
  5. A dialog box will appear, showing the amount of funds to be transferred. Click the tick to proceed
  6. You will receive confirmation that the General Transfers have been completed. Click OK to finish

    📌 Please note:
    There are filters in the General transfers screen. One to filer the sundries and one to filter by arrival and departure dates:

         

General Transfers Report

This report outlines the funds paid out in the General Transfer Payments completed in the previous step.

  1. In the Menu Search, type “General Transfers” and select Reports > Owner Accounting > General Transfers

  2. Choose the report type General Transfers Paid Out of Trust

  3. Leave the current day's date as default

  4. Under grouping options, select Group By GL Code (recommended for clarity)

  5. Click Build to generate the report

  6. Save the report to your End of Month folder

  7. If desired, save both a Detail Report and a Summary Report

📌Reconciliation Tip:

The total amount shown on this report should Match the total on your EFT Report, and Equal the total General Transfers reflected in your Bank Reconciliation

 

Create Expenses

This process posts the monthly Statement Fee (Sundry Fees) and any applicable Housekeeping Charges to the respective Owner Accounts.

  1. In the Menu Search, type “Create Expenses” and navigate to:
    Owner Accounting > End of Month > Create Expenses

  2. Review the list and select the charges to be posted:

    • To select all charges, click the heading checkbox

    • If you do not wish to charge a specific area or owner for the disbursing month, untick that item accordingly

  3. Click Create Expense

  4. A confirmation message will appear - “Are you sure?” — Click Yes to proceed

 

 

3rd Party (Creditor) Payments

When you pay 3rd party suppliers in RMS, the money comes out of your Trust Bank Account, not directly from your own business funds. But it only works if there's enough money in the owner's account. So if the owner doesn’t have enough income in their account, the 3rd party payment won’t go through. In that case, you’ll need to withhold some of the owner’s funds (by not paying them out) to build up a balance for future 3rd party payments.

  1. Type “3rd party” in the menu search and open Owner Accounting + 3rd Party Payments

  2. Make sure “Pay 3rd Parties on Nett Income” is selected (the wording may vary slightly depending on your RMS version). This ensures payments are only made from the funds available in the owner's account — it won’t pay 3rd parties from funds set aside for management fees still owed to your agency

  3. To pay, you can either:

    • Click the top checkbox to select all eligible 3rd party payments (only those with enough funds will be included), or

    • Manually select the ones you want to pay

⚠️ Important Reminder:

If you generate an EFT (.aba) files more than once in a day, be sure not to select payments that have already been uploaded tot he bank in a previous .aba file.

  1. At the bottom, you'll see the total amount being paid and the total of the invoices selected

  2. Click the Pay 3rd Party arrow to continue

  3. Enter a cheque number if asked

  4. Choose whether to email or print and email the statements. You can always reprint them later using the printer icon

  5. Finally, tick the last checkbox to confirm and complete the payment.

Pre - Pay Owner/Manager Reports

Three Way Balance Report

Using the closing balance that you used to do your final bank reconciliation on the last day of the month, do another Three Way Balance Report dated the last day of the month.

The reason you do this again is that by now, your 3rd party creditor disbursements have been included — so this version gives you the most accurate reflection of the trust position at month-end.

When you generate this report, you're checking that everything lines up:

  • The adjusted bank balance

  • The trial balance

  • The cash book reconciliation total

These three figures should all be exactly the same — that’s why it’s called a “three-way” balance. And they should also match what you see in the:

  • Monies Held in Trust Report

  • Trust Reconciliation Report

Also, as a quick check, your total cash receipts and total cash payments on the Three Way Report should match what’s on your Trust Cash Book report.

Once everything checks out, save this version of the Three Way Report with a name or label that includes “Pre EOM” — this helps clearly identify it as the final version before end-of-month processing.

 

Trust Reconciliation Report

  1. In Menu Search type Trust Reconciliation and select Reports + Owner Accounting + Trust Reconciliation
  2. Click on This Month and change to Last Month (the trust month you are finalising eg June) + Apply
  3. Build + Save to end of month folder with suffix Pre EOM

Please ensure this report balances before continuing.  If any Area doesn’t balance, there will be an X to the far right of the Area and also on the Grand Total row

  • The Closing Balance (1) and MHIT figure (2) for each Area must be the same
  • The Opening Balance (3) of the current trust month must equal last month’s Closing Balance.

Column B total should equal the Total Credits on your Trust Cash Book and Columns C, D, E, F & G combined should equal the Total Debits on your Trust Cash Book.

If they don’t, please log an urgent support request for a Homhero/RMS Trust Account Specialist to contact you. 

⚠️ Important:

Do not run Pay Owner/Manager until all imbalances are rectified.
You may continue with all other steps up to Pay Owner/Manager in the interim

 

Monies Held in Trust

  1. In Menu Search type Monies and choose Reports + Owner Accounting + Monies Held in Trust
  2. Choose last day of current Trust month you are finalising (eg 30 June)
  3. Build + Save to end of month folder using the suffix Pre EOM

The Monies held in Trust Report shows all monies in the Trust bank account at midnight of the last day of the month.  In some other systems this is the equivalent report to your collective Trial Balances.

 

Cash Book Report

  1. In Menu Search type Cash book and choose Reports + Owner Accounting + Cash Book
  2. Click Date Range and select Last Month (the trust month you are finalising eg June)
  3. Build + Save to end of month folder using the suffix Pre EOM

The total Credit Amount should equal the total of Column B on your Trust Reconciliation Report and the total Debit Amount should equal Columns C, D, E, F & G combined

 

 Check Owner Statements (if you haven’t done this as part of your EOM Preparation)

  1. In Menu Search type Owner Statement and choose Reports + Owner Accounting + Owner Statement
  2. Click on This Month and change to Last Month (the trust month you are finalising eg June) + Apply
  3. Choose More Options and select as required + Build
  4. Make a note of which options you wish to use so that you won’t select different options each month

Please take the time to check all owner statements thoroughly.  If you note that there are any issues with the statements ie no management fee charged, then you need to take the time to investigate and fix this prior to paying the owners.  Once Pay Owner/Manager is run, no amendments can be made for the Trust month you are disbursing and only an adjustment can be made in the new month.  It is easier to fix issues now before the month is closed.

 

Trust Summary Report

  1. In Menu Search type Trust Summary and choose Reports + Owner Accounting + Trust Summary
  2. Click on This Month and select Last Month (the trust month you are finalising eg June) + Apply
  3. Build + Save to end of month folder with suffix Pre EOM

The Trust Summary is a Summary of your Owner Statements. Therefore, please ensure the Owner Statements are checked and rectified before running this report.

 

Trust Cash Transactions (Receipts Only)

  1. In Menu Search type Trust Cash and choose Reports + Owner Accounting + Trust Cash Transactions
  2. Click on Date and select Last Month (the trust month you are finalising eg June)
  3. Click the Income Source box + Select Receipts
  4. Build + Save to end of month folder with suffix Receipts

This is an Audit Trial of all Trust Receipts for the current Trust month.

 

Trust Cash Transactions (Refunds Only)

  1. Return to the Trust Cash Transactions window and change the receipts to Refunds under the Income Source box
  2. Build + Save to end of month folder with suffix Refunds

This is an Audit Trial of all trust refunds for the current Trust month.

 

Trust Expenses

  1. In Menu Search type Trust Expenses and choose Reports + Owner Accounting + Trust Expenses
  2. Click on This Month and select Last Month (the trust month you are finalising eg June) + Apply
  3. If you want to create the report showing the breakdown of each area then select Group By Area (you may not want this much of a breakdown in which case leave it on No Grouping)
  4. Build + Save to end of month folder

This lists all sundry charges posted on the manager view of the Owners Accounts for the current Trust Month.  This does not mean the Manager will receive this amount of income as that is dependent on Income available on owner’s accounts.

⚠️ Important:

Please ensure all other instances of RMS are closed down and only the person doing the disbursement is logged into RMS. If multiple users are continuing to transact in RMS it will cause problems in the disbursement

please ensure all other instances of RMS are closed down and only
5

Pay Owner/Manager (Close Month)

Once all Owner Statements have been checked and reports printed, you can now run Pay Owner/Manager (Close Month) to finalise the End of month process and advance the Trust date.

It is imperative you have checked the owner statements and investigated any issues accordingly as once Pay Owner/Manager is run, it cannot be reversed.  Any amendments will need to be made in the following Trust month.

If there are any Accounts that come up red, this means the Owner account is out of balance.  Please log an urgent support request for a Trust Account Specialist to contact you urgently.  This needs to be resolved before the next step proceeds.

  1. In the Menu Search type Pay Owner and select Owner Accounting + End of Month + Pay Owner/Manager (Close Month)
  2. Ensure Trust month is correct for the month you are finalising.  If not, log an urgent support request with your Trust Account Specialist.
  3. Click on the Pay Column twice to make this in alphabetical order and make sure that all owners have banking details.  If an owner contract is not attached to the bank account or the owner does not have their bank details listed it will say No Banking.  You can click on the link and complete the owner details or you can change the payment to a cheque or you can attach the contract to the banking details.  If you do not do this you, the payment will not load.
  4. Also click on the Owing to 3rd Party column twice to put it into numeric order.  If there are any invoices that cannot be paid due to insufficient funds then you can change the Amount to Hold and hold the owner's funds.  If you do not hold any funds, all the funds will be paid out to the owner even if there is a 3rd party invoice.  It does not hold the funds for the invoice as it does in other Trust Account systems
  5. To show the calculations that will be paid to the Manager, the Owners and what is still owing to 3rd Party Creditors after the 3rd party creditor disbursement, click on the sum symbol (Σ), in the right hand corner
  6. Click Pay Owner/Manager (Close Month)

  1. If prompted enter the Cheque Number 999.  This does not mean that you will issue any cheques.  It is just referring to if there any owners that have marked cheque as their payment option
  2. Are you sure? Yes
  3. Once complete, a pop up box will advise that the Trust date has advanced.  The Trust Date will also flash red

⚠️ Important:

If the Trust date doesn’t advance to the next Trust month, please lodge a support request immediately.

 

Post Pay Owner/Manager reports

Three Way Balance Report

Using the closing balance that you used to do your final bank reconciliation on the last day of the month, do another Three Way Balance Report dated the last day of the month.

As per the procedure you use in your Bank Reconciliation, the adjusted Bank Balance, Trial Balance and Cash Book Reconciliation total should all be the same figure and equal the Monies Held in Trust Report and the Trust Reconciliation Report.  The Total of Cash Receipts and Total of Cash Payments should also equal your Trust Cash Book report.

Save this report using the suffix Post EOM.

 

Trust Reconciliation Report

  1. In Menu Search type Trust Reconciliation and select Reports + Owner Accounting + Trust Reconciliation
  2. Click on This Month and change to Last Month (the trust month you are finalising eg June) + Apply
  3. Build + Save to end of month folder with suffix Post EOM

Column B total should equal the Total Credits on your Trust Cash Book and Columns C, D, E, F & G combined should equal the Total Debits on your Trust Cash Book.

Please ensure this report balances before continuing.  If any Area doesn’t balance, there will be an X to the far right of the Area and also on the Grand Total row.

Ensure there are no X’s on this report.  If so, please lodge a support request urgently.

 

Monies Held in Trust

  1. In Menu Search type Monies and choose Reports + Owner Accounting + Monies Held in Trust
  2. Choose last day of current Trust month you are finalising (eg 30 June)
  3. Build + Save to end of month folder using the suffix Post EOM

The Monies held in Trust Report shows all monies in the Trust bank account at midnight of the last day of the month.  In some other systems this is the equivalent report to your collective Trial Balances.

 

Cash Book Report

  1. In Menu Search type Cash book and choose Reports + Owner Accounting + Cash Book
  2. Click Date Range and select Last Month (the trust month you are finalising eg June)
  3. Build + Save to end of month folder using the suffix Post EOM

The total Credit Amount should equal the total of Column B on your Trust Reconciliation Report and the total Debit Amount should equal Columns C, D, E, F & G combined.

 

Trust Summary Report

  1. In Menu Search type Trust Summary and choose Reports + Owner Accounting + Trust Summary
  2. Click on This Month and select Last Month (the trust month you are finalising eg June) + Apply
  3. Build + Save to end of month folder with suffix Post EOM

 

Managers Cash Report

  1. In Menu Search type Managers and choose Reports + Owner Accounting + Managers Cash
  2. Click By Month and select Last Month (the trust month you are finalising eg June) + Apply
  3. If you want to create the report showing the breakdown of each area then select Group By Area (you may not want this much of a breakdown in which case leave it on No Grouping)
  4. Build + Save to end of month folder

This is the Breakdown of the Managers money.  The total of this report should match the total of the Trust Summary Pay Manager figure as well as the Pay Manager total from the Payments Issued report.  If there is a variance, please lodge a support request.

 

Payments Issued Report

  1. In Menu Search type Payments and choose Reports + Owner Accounting + Payments Issued
  2. This report is created for the last day of the month ie 30 September or 31 October (the date the system shows the owners/third parties were paid out of the system).  This should be the same figure as your EFT Report.
  3. Build + Save to end of month folder

This report includes anyone that is being paid by cheque.   You should provide this to the person responsible for transferring the funds in the bank, this is the report you can use to get the correct Payment figures from.  If all payees are being paid by EFT then this report should match the figure on the EFT report.

 

Create EFT File

This EFT file will not be able to be created unless the 6 digit Direct Entry User Code has been entered.  If you are not able to supply this, you can use the Payments Issued report to pay your Owners manually.

  1. In Menu Search type Create EFT and choose Owner Accounting + Create EFT File
  2. Select Payment Date being the last day of the month you are finalising
  3. Select the printer icon to create the EFT report and save the report in PDF format. 
  4. Rename the report to EFT Report Main Transfers. 
    This amount should match your Payments Issued Report less any cheques included in this month’s transfers.
  5. Double-check total on bottom right-hand side of screen matches Payment Issued report to ensure you have correct file/date 
    Ensure there are no red lines.  If there are, you will need to update the Bank Account details for this line.  To do this Click the Owner/3rd Party ID number to take you to the Owners bank account section of the incorrect account details.  Once this is completed and there are no other corrections to make.
  6. Click Create EFT File or the Up Arrow depending on the version of RMS



  7. This creates an aba file and is shown in the left hand corner of your screen.  If you click on the arrow and select Show in Folder you can then move the aba file to wherever you want.  If you can’t find it, then it should be in your downloads folder on your PC.  You should rename the aba file by putting EOM (End of Month) before the full stop.
  8. Repeat for General Transfers (please note the date used here is the date of the actual day you are disbursing the trust account - always different from the EFT Date for Owners, Manager and 3rd Parties). 
  9. Rename the report to EFT Report General Transfers and rename of the aba file by putting GT (General Transfers) before the full stop.
  10. Log in to your banking software and Upload the file/s from where you saved it in previous step.

Owner Statements

Now it is time to create your owner statements.  These will be saved in your End of Month folder and loaded into Homhero to email to the owners and to be saved in the Owner Portal.

  1. In Menu Search type Owner Statement and choose Reports + Owner Accounting + Owner Statement
  2. Select By Month and select Last Month (the month you are disbursing) and Apply
  3. Open More Options on the right-hand side
  4. Select Show Net per Res and Amount Owing on MTF – this will result in the gross reservation amount showing – the management fee and the Net amount
  5. Select Download as Individual PDF’s
  6. Select Show Paid to Owner Date
  7. Only select Do Not Show Guest Names if you do not wish the owner to have the guest names in the forward bookings
  8. Do select Hide Travel Agents
  9. Only select Show Pending for Monies to Follow and Forward Bookings if you want to show the value of forward bookings
  10. Only select Hide Owner Bookings, if you do not want the Owner bookings to show on the statement click Hide Owner Bookings
  11. Click Build

  • A ZIP folder will be created in the left hand corner.   Save the zip file in the EOM folder
  • Extract the ZIP folder

Import Owner Statements in Bulk – Homhero

  1.  In Homhero select Contacts from the menu
  2. Click Actions
  3. Click Import Statements
  4. Click Add Statements
  5. Go the area where these have been saved and select them all by using the Ctrl and the A key
  6. Once you have selected them choose Open


    Note: Before completing the next step ensure the progress and status of each statement has finished uploading. You can check this using the Progress and Status column. 

  7. Click Import Now

  8. Click No to the pop up box asking whether you want to import more statements

Email Owner Statement with Invoices attached

  1. In Homhero select Contacts from the menu
  2. Click Actions
  3. Click the Email Statements

  4. Select Set in the Areas section and move all the statements to the left hand side

  5. By selecting the arrow as below and set


  6. Select the month you want to send statements for
  7. Turn on Include Invoices
  8. Choose the email template to use
  9. Type a subject for the email
  10. Select Send

    New clients will need to make up a template.  This is what the email will look like.


    📌Please note:
    Owners will receive the email explain to them that the link to the invoices only lasts for 6 days.  However, they can always view the invoices in the owner portal as well as all End of Month statements.

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