Quote:
Posted By DouglasK1 on 08/11/2015 8:17 PM
We charge quarterly but encourage annual or bi-annual payments if owners can manage it. We end up with about 40% paying quarterly, 20% bi-annually, and 40% annually. Our prior treasurer created the invoices using the batch function, with 3 invoicing groups defined (quarterly, bi, and annually). I thought this was hard to manage, as some owners might pay the first half of the year, and quarterly after, etc. It was a fairly manual process to make sure every lot fell into one of the three categories so we didn't miss payments from any owners.
I took a different tack this year that seems to be working well.
1) create a batch group of all lots.
2) At the beginning of the year, create 4 sets of batch invoices, dated 1/1, 4/1, 7/1, and 10/1. If owners pay annually, when I receive the payment, I just apply it against all 4 quarterly invoices. If they pay less than annually, apply accordingly. For AR reports, I set the report date range so it doesn't show the future invoices.
I do late fees manually since we usually only have one or two. On the 15th, I see who hasn't paid (if any), and create late fee invoices. At the end of each month, I use the built in "assess finance charge" function to assess finance charges on any outstanding balances, this creates separate finance charge invoices. These don't have to be in "real time", I often don't do any of this for a couple of months and then I'll do two or three months worth at a time, just make sure to set the dates correctly on the late fee and finance charge invoices.
Hope this helps and isn't too confusing.
Not confusing, great answer. This approach makes sense. Thank you!!