End of Month Disbursement Procedure

On the day before the last day of the month

• Check that all bookings departing for the month are fully paid up and have no debit/credit balances
• Any booking with a balance (credit or debit) will not pay out to the owner.

1. In Homhero – Select Reservations + List
2. Select Advanced Search
3. Set the search field to Departure
4. From date = 1^st of the current month
5. To date = last day of the current month
6. Status – remove Quote and Unconfirmed
7. Select the Status column and click on the arrow to put it in alphabetical order. Make sure all bookings have departed.
8. Select the Balance column and click on the arrow to put it in ascending order.  Make sure all bookings have a nil balance. This should also be done on the day of disbursement to make sure that the bookings for the last day of the month have been departed. If there are any balances owing these should be finalised urgently.

There is a second report a Debtor's Ledger that should also be checked. This Report should be checked once a week throughout the month also to limit the amount of work required at the end of the month.

1. In RMS in Menu Search type Debtors Ledger and choose Reports + Debtors Ledger
2. In Account Classification select Reservations only
3. In Reservation Status select Departed only
4. Build

Work through this report going to the reservations and fixing them so that they balance.

All General Transfers are paid out to the agency’s general account.  In many cases agencies prefer to move some of these funds out of the General Transfers area to:

• A Client Account within the trust account to keep these funds in trust or
• To an “Agency Owner Account” created to enable the retention of funds in the trust account to pay 3^rd party creditors from the trust account

On the day of disbursement, if this has not been done the EFT file will pay out all the general transfers and include the funds that you wish to keep in trust, the movement of these funds within the trust account should be done on the day before the last day of the month or on the day before you disburse the trust. (It is important not to move these funds on either the very last day of the month or the same day that you disburse the trust as it will be duplicated in the EFT file).

• In Menu Search type General Transfers and choose Owner Accounting + General Transfers
• Sort by the GL Account Column and select the funds to be moved. Only select general transfers with departures dates for the month of disbursement.
• Click Pay

• In the Menu Search type Reconciliation and choose Owners Accounting + Reconciliation
• Select the Payments tab
• Present the payment to show that it has left the trust account
• Go to the Booking Chart and open the fictitious property this is usually a Z property and select the linked account number
• Select the Owner Tab
• Receipt the General Transfer amount here as a Direct Credit
• Repeat this process to move other funds that you want to retain in trust such as Linen, Cleaning Funds etc - receipt to appropriate Z-Accounts

On the last day of the month and on the first business day of the new month

Do your reconciliation and three-way balance up to the last transaction on your bank statement for the month of disbursement prior to running End of Month.

On the day the End of Month Disbursement is done

This can only take place on the last day of the current month or thereafter but because RMS is date sensitive it is recommended that this does not take place until the 1st day of the new Trust month or after that.

General Transfer Payments

General Transfers are sundry charges on non-owner accounts, eg Reservations or Client Accounts that have been paid with a Trust receipt.  These charges belong to the Manager (or to be paid to an external party eg Booking.com etc). Therefore, there should be no Accommodation charges showing on here as these belong to the Owner, not the Manager.  If so, please rectify before running this process.

These bookings are departed for short-term accommodation or in-house for Long Term reservations.

• In Menu Search type General and select Owner Accounting + General Transfers
• Select All Applicable charges you wish to payout (only select charges with departure dates for the month you are disbursing.
• Click Pay
• If Manager is marked Pay by Cheque, enter Chq#
• Are you Sure? Yes/No

General Transfers Report

Build the General Transfers Report to show funds paid out in General Transfer Payments above.

• In Menu Search type General Transfers and select Reports + Owner Accounting + General Transfers
• Choose General Transfers Created in the Month of and change to Last Month
• Group By GL Code is the preferable option + Build
• Save to End of Month Folder (We recommend that you have a disbursement folder with sub-folders for each month ie Disbursements\June 2021)
• Print a Summary Report as well as a Detailed report and save both to the end of month folder.

This report will only show the General Transfers paid out in the previous month and will not show the General Transfers that you pay out on the day of disbursement.  If you wish you can do another report showing the General Transfers paid out that day by changing the date to that day’s date.  This is the figure that should equal the amount on your EFT Report and also the amount in your payments in your Bank Reconciliation.

Create Expenses

This posts the Monthly End of Month Sundry Fees (statement fee) and any applicable Housekeeping charges on to the Owners Accounts. 

In Menu Search type Create Expenses and choose Owner Accounting + End of Month + Create Expenses

• Select charges to be paid (select heading to simultaneously select all)
• Click Create Expense
• Are you sure? Yes/No - confirm

3rd Party Payments

3rd Party suppliers are paid from your Trust Bank Account. NB If there is insufficient income in the Owners Account, the 3rd Party charge cannot be paid and you will need to ensure you Hold Payment back from your Owners to build up funds.

• In Menu Search type 3^rd party and select Owner Accounting + 3rd Party Payments
• To select all 3rd party payments click the top box (it will only pay out payments where there are sufficient funds) or select individual payments to be paid. Just remember that you can only pay out 3rd party payments once per day because you cannot create more than one EFT file per day.
• Select Pay 3rd Party
• Enter Cheque No if prompted and also select "Email Statements"
• Select Email or Print and Email.  You are able to recreate the statements at a later date by pressing the printer icon

Pre - Pay Owner/Manager Reports

Trust Reconciliation Report

• In Menu Search type Trust Reconciliation and select Reports + Owner Accounting + Trust Reconciliation
• Click on This Month and change to Last Month (the trust month you are finalising eg June) + Apply
• 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 = last month’s closing balance.

If they don’t, please log an urgent support request for a Trust Account Specialist to contact you. NB. Do not run Pay Owner/Manager untill RMS has rectified. You can continue up to Pay Owner/Manager in the interim.

If end of month falls on a weekend, please do this process on the last business day to check it balances, then run again on the last day of the month.

Check Owner Statements

• In Menu Search type Owner Statement and choose Reports + Owner Accounting + Owner Statement
• Click on This Month and change to Last Month (the trust month you are finalising eg June) + Apply
• Choose More Options and select as required + Build
• 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.

Monies Held in Trust

Owner Accounting + Reports + Monies Held in Trust

• In Menu Search type Monies and choose Reports + Owner Accounting + Monies Held in Trust
• Choose last day of current Trust month you are finalising (eg 30 June)
• Build + Save to end of month folder

The Monies held in Trust Report shows all monies currently in the Trust bank account. This is the figure you balance your Three Way Balance to.  In some other systems this is the equivalent report to your collective Trial Balances.

Trust Summary Report

• In Menu Search type Trust Summary and choose Reports + Owner Accounting + Trust Summary
• Click on This Month and select Last Month (the trust month you are finalising eg June) + Apply
• 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)

• In Menu Search type Trust Cash and choose Reports + Owner Accounting + Trust Cash Transactions
• Click on Date and select Last Month (the trust month you are finalising eg June)
• Click the Income Source box + Select Receipts
• 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)

• Select Refunds under the Income Source box
• Build + Save to end of month folder with suffix Refunds

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

 

Three Way Balance Report

• Save a copy of the Three Way Balance Report from the last day of the month in the end of month folder

Trust Expenses

• In Menu Search type Trust Expenses and choose Reports + Owner Accounting + Trust Expenses
• Click on This Month and select Last Month (the trust month you are finalising eg June) + Apply
• 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 Brought Forwards from previous Trust month and Income available on owner’s accounts.

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.

• In the Menu Search type Pay Owner and select Owner Accounting + End of Month + Pay Owner/Manager (Close Month)
• Ensure Trust month is correct for the month you are finalising. If not, log an urgent support request.
• Click on the Pay Column to make this in alphabetical order and make sure that all owners have banking details.  If an owner does not have bank details - it will say No banking details.  You can click on the link and complete the owner details or you can change the payment to a cheque.  If you do not do this you, the payment will not load.

• Also click on the Owing to 3rd Party column to put it into numeric order.  If there are any invoices that can not be paid due to insufficient funds then you can change the Amt 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.  It does not hold the funds for the invoice as it does in other Trust Account systems ie Console Gateway
• To show the calculations that will be paid to the Manager, the Owners and the 3rd Party Payments click on the sum symbol in the right hand corner
• Click Pay Owner/Manager (Close Month)

• Enter a Cheque Number if prompted
• Are you sure? Yes
• Once complete, a pop up box will advise that the Trust date has advanced. The Trust Date will also flash red.

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

Post Pay Owner/Manager reports

Trust Reconciliation Report

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

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

Trust Summary Report

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

Managers Cash Report

• In Menu Search type Managers and choose Reports + Owner Accounting + Managers Cash
• Click By Month and select Last Month (the trust month you are finalising eg June) + Apply
• Build + Save to end of month folder

This is the Breakdown of the Managers money.  By Ticking Group By Area it will give you a complete breakdown of each properties payment.  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

• In Menu Search type Payments and choose Reports + Owner Accounting + Payments Issued
• There are two reports you should do, the first is for that day’s date as this will show the General Transfers paid out on the actual day of disbursement. This should be the same figure as your General Transfers Report and also the EFT Report.
• The second report is 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. 
• Build + Save to end of month folder

This second report is the total payments to the Owners and Manager that were paid out via Pay Owner/Manager (Close Month).  If paying your owners manually or need to 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.

Cash Book Report

• In Menu Search type Cash book and choose Reports + Owner Accounting + Cash Book
• Click on Date Range and select Last Month (the trust month you are finalising eg June)
• Build + Save to end of month folder

Create EFT File

If you have contacted your bank and provided the Direct Entry User Code to utilise this feature, then proceed with this step.  Otherwise use the Payments Issued report to pay your Owners manually.

• In Menu Search type Create EFT and choose Owner Accounting + Create EFT File
• Select Payment Date being the last day of the month you are finalising
• Double-check total on bottom right-hand side of screen matches Payment Issued report to ensure you have correct file
• Ensure there are no red lines. If there are, you will need to update the Bank Account details for this line. Click the Owner Id hyperlink to take you to the Owners bank account section of the offending account details
• Tick/Untick Self balancing items if required by your Bank
• Click Create EFT File

• This creates an aba file and is shown in the left hand corner of your screen.  If you click on the arrow and 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.  If you need to download a 2nd EFT file make sure that you change the name of the aba file by putting an M before the full stop.
• Also if you wish to print and/or save the EFT report click on the printer icon above the Create EFT File button. This amount should also agree with your Payments Issued Report.
• 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) if required and rename the aba file by putting a G before the full stop.
• Log in to your banking software and Upload the file/s from where you saved it in previous step.

Owner Statements

• In Menu Search type owner and choose Reports + Owner Accounting + Owner Statement
• Select By Month and select Last Month (the month you are disbursing) and Apply
• Open More Options on the right-hand side
• 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
• Select Download as Individual PDF’s
• Select Show Pending for Monies to Follow and Forward Bookings if you want to show the value of forward bookings
• If you do not wish the owner to have the guest names tick Do Not Show Guest Names
• If you do not wish the Owner bookings to show on the statement click Hide Owner Bookings

• A ZIP folder will be created
• Extract the ZIP folder
• Upload in Homhero - to do this go to Import Owner Statements in Bulk