Overview
Unfortunately, sometimes your tenants might make payments that don't clear, such as having a bounced check due to insufficient funds. These reversed payments can be recorded in DoorLoop for later reference.
Note: You will only really need to do this if you originally received the payment outside of DoorLoop. Payments made online have this process done automatically when payments are reversed.
The Steps
You can record a tenant's payment being returned as a Reversed Payment in DoorLoop. Here are steps on how to perform this:
To begin the reverse payment process, click Leasing on the main menu and then click Active Leases.
Find the lease you need to record a reversed payment for, and click on it. You can either sort the list by the various columns and filters or use the Search leases search bar.
Click on the Transactions tab and find the Payment transaction that was reversed. Then click on the vertical three dots icon on the right side of the transaction line and choose Reverse Payment.
In the Reverse A Payment window, set the Returned Payment Date and add an optional note, then click Save.
You will notice now that the Reversed Payment shows Undeposited. You will need to "deposit" the reversal, which means you need to record it in the bank account.
Click the + Create New at the top left corner. Click Bank Deposit under the Other Transactions section.
On the Bank Deposit window, under Deposit Account, select the bank account that the reversal was associated with.
You will see a list of Undeposited Funds related to the bank account you chose. You should see the Reversed Payment item from the payment you manually reversed. Check the box next to that item.
Click Save to finish.
That’s it! Not only has the lease ledger been updated to show that the tenant owes money, but your financial reporting updates show this payment was reversed.
Tip: If you have your Rent & Payment Notifications set to send out returned payment emails, the assigned DoorLoop users and tenant(s) involved will get emails notifying them that their payment has been returned. Note that you have to have emails entered for your tenants for them to get these emails.
Additional Considerations
If you accidentally reverse a payment, you can delete the reversal from the Transactions tab of the lease by clicking on the vertical three dots icon on the right side of the Reversed Payment transaction line and choosing Delete. If you have already deposited the reversal, you will need to delete the deposit.
This updates the lease ledger and all reporting, but will not notify the tenant that the reversal was a mistake, so make sure you use DoorLoop’s communication features to message the tenant explaining what happened.
Late fees will automatically charge retroactively for this reversed payment depending on your late fee settings, but this may take several hours to process.
If you want to charge a fee for the reversed payment, you can do that by posting a charge on the lease.
You’ll likely want to create a revenue account in your Chart of Accounts specifically for this reversed payment/chargeback fee so you can track this revenue correctly on your Profit and Loss report.
For online payments tenants make through their tenant portal, reversed payments are automatically recorded and returned payment fees due to the payment processor get charged to the tenant automatically.
Another great reason to use DoorLoop’s online payments feature!