Introduction

Deposit Management is an integral part of the Tenant lifecycle. LoftyWorks' integrated tools make it painless for Property Managers and Landlords to receive, register, transfer, and track all of their Tenant Deposits. 

Summary

• Announcement + Walkthrough Video
• Deposit Configuration
• Deposit Management Tab
• Generate Deposit Invoice
• Register the Deposit
• Transfer to Scheme
• Refund to Tenant
• Deposit Refund in Xero

Announcement + Walkthrough Video

 

Deposit Configuration

Before you can take advantage of the new Deposit Management tool, you must configure your Xero account to accept Deposits. Go into Xero, and locate your Chart of Account, from here select Add Account and create a code to represent the Deposit Scheme. When doing this, make sure to select "Enable Payments to this Account".

 

 

 

Once you have added the new account into the Chart of Accounts on Xero, head back to LoftyWorks to finish the configuration. Navigate to Settings > Ledger Codes, and locate your newly created code from the list on the left. Select Add on the LoftyWorks column to set up the bridge. 

 

 

From here, click on Title and find the code Deposit Scheme. Finish by clicking "Save". 

 

Note - This only needs to be completed once to set-up your Deposit

 

Deposit Management Tab

The Deposit Management tab was introduced to LoftyWorks in version 1.2. There are individual sections to help users manage deposits they have yet to receive, deposits they need to register, and deposits in the refund stage. 

Once a contract is finalized, it will appear in the Receive tab. This section shows all deposits with payments that have not been received. Users can filter by Property Reference or Due Date. 

By clicking on the three vertical dots on the right-hand side of the screen, users can Email their tenant or View Contact Details. 

 

Generate Deposit Invoice

Once you have established a Contract in LoftyWorks, the next step is to generate the rent and deposit invoices.

To generate a rent and/or deposit invoice for your tenant, open up their Contract. Next, go to the Invoice tab and click +Add Rent and +Add Deposit. This invoice will be visible on Xero.

If your Xero account is set up for automatic payments, the invoice should deliver to the tenant and they can pay online seamlessly.

If your Xero account is not set up for automatic payments, or your tenant completes payment with an outside tool, you can manually log the payment by opening the invoice and clicking “Add Payment”

 

Register the Deposit

Once you have received payment on the deposit, it will be visible in the Register tab.

You can filter by Registration Status, Transfer Status, and Related Property.

 

When you click Register, you will record the Deposit Scheme, Registration Date, Certificate Number, and upload any related documents.

 

When your registration is complete, you will receive a success popup and the Register button will be grayed out.

 

Transfer to Scheme

When you are ready to transfer the Deposit to the Scheme, click the Transfer button. It will automatically pull in the Deposit Scheme that was selected when you registered the deposit.

After clicking “Deposit Transfer”, the Deposit will move from the Register section to the Refund section.

 

The details of the deposit will auto-populate on the contract.

 

Refund to Tenant

The Refund tab shows all open Deposits. Users can filter by Property, by Release Status, or by Contract End Date.

 

To begin the return, click on the 3 horizontal dots on the right side and select Process Return.

This will open the Return window. You can add any charges that will be deducted from the Deposit here.

When a deduction is added, you must associate a Vendor and add a Description. This Vendor and Description will be used to auto-generate a bill in Xero.

 

If the Deposit is being disputed by the Tenant, you can mark the Deposit as “In Dispute”. Once you click Refund Deposit, all related bills and invoices will auto-generate in Xero.

 

Deposit Refund in Xero

The first invoice that generates reflects the full Deposit amount that the Scheme will return to you.

 

The next item that auto-generates is an invoice that shows the Deposit refund minus any deducted repairs. This can be shared with the Tenant.

 

The final auto-generated item is a bill that will go to the Vendor associated with the deduction.

 

While we are excited to release the Deposit Management feature to our users, we are even more excited to show a sneak preview of a feature coming soon to the Dashboard. This will give you a holistic view of all Deposits currently working in LoftyWorks.

Coming soon:

 

Questions?

Thank you for taking time to invest in your LoftyWorks learning. We hope you enjoy our best-in-class Property Management software. If you have any questions, comments, concerns, quips, queries, or quandaries, please email support@loftyworks.com.