Client and office account ledgers...

This short video (02:41) highlights improvements to the visibility of client and office ledger balances.

• Client and office ledger balances
• Rent and deposits to client account, charges to office account
• Transfer of management revenue 

Client and office ledger balances

Up until now, if you look at a property, a landlord or a tenant, you will have seen an overall balance. As useful as this is, it doesn't give the full picture though. A landlord's overall balance may be showing as zero, but he may have £500 of rent income sitting in the client account awaiting payout, offset by £500 of charges due to the agency's office account. This may affect your viewpoint, and highlight outstanding actions such as the need to transfer funds to the office account.

Property, landlord and tenant overview screens now still show the overall balance, but they now also give greater insight into both the client and office ledgers for this person or property. 

We have also improved the way in which tenant receipts are marked off the relevant balance depending on which account they are received into, and the process of paying property charges from rental income.

Rent and deposits to client account, charges to office account 

From our experience, most agencies always receive all client money into the client bank account(s), whether that relates to rent or charges, and then transfer charge payments to the office account separately. From an accounting perspective, it was incorrect for us to consider the charges paid just because the money is in the client account; they are not actually fully paid until the money is transferred to the office. 

The client and office ledgers (see above) will make it much clearer where money is located, and indicate when money needs posted to the other account. In the example above, where the property has £500 income in the client account, offset by £500 of charges in the office account, it will be apparent that money needs transferred between the accounts to square things up fully - see the section below on management revenue.

We appreciate this represents a bit of a change from the old way in which charges were considered paid immediately, but it is clearer when you get familiarised with it. 

Transfer of management revenue 

When money in the client account is posted against property or tenant charges, the charges are marked as paid within ShowHouse, but the process is not complete until that money has been physically transferred to the office account for use by the agency. 

When posting payments to charges, these are now marked as management revenue and queued for transfer to the office account. You can then easily transfer this revenue with full traceability. 

See the other features and updates in this same release.