Overview
Although rare, you may need to issue a refund to a homeowner. You might decide to refund late fees, or a owner may have accidentally overpaid you for their association dues. Here we'll show you how to record the refund on the homeowner account and also how to issue the refund either physically or electronically.
The Steps
Recording the refund in DoorLoop
To give a refund to an owner, click Associations on the main menu and then click Homeowner Accounts.
Find the Homeowner Account you want to give a refund for, and click on it.
Click on the Transactions tab and then the Give Refund button.
On the Homeowner Account Refund window, enter the following information:
Paid To Tenant: pick the tenant on the lease you are paying back (there might be more than one tenant on the lease.)
Pay From Account: choose the property bank account you are using to pay back the tenant. (This is likely the same bank account the tenant paid into.)
Payment method: pick among several options to remind yourself later of how you paid the tenant.
Choosing the Check payment method allows for entering an optional check number and the ability to print the check later.
Choose ePay if you want to send them a payment electronically and you have Checkbook.io already setup for Send Payments.
Due Date: change the date of the refund if needed.
Category: the refund should be associated with the same general ledger revenue account as the payment you are refunding.
For example, if you are refunding a rent payment, choose the Rent revenue account. If you are refunding a late fee payment, choose Late Fees.
Description: enter an optional explanation for the refund for informational purposes. The tenant will see the word “Refund” on their lease ledger in the tenant portal.
Add Line Item: use this link to add additional refund items if needed. You could also create separate refunds for each line item.
Add memo: add an optional note for your reference when reviewing the credit later.
If the payment being refunded was an overpayment, turn on the toggle for “This is a refund for an overpayment (creates a charge to offset the overpayment)”. If the refund is not part of an overpayment, then toggle this option off.
(For the refund to work in DoorLoop for overpayments, there has to be a charge associated with the money you are giving back to the tenant. DoorLoop can automatically create this offsetting charge for you.)
Add any relevant files and click Save.
You’ve now processed a refund. Don’t worry about the accounting and reporting for the refund—DoorLoop will handle all that for you. For any payment method other than ePay, you’ll need to now physically give the refund back to your owner, whether it be cash, check, money order, or any other method.
If you selected ePay as your payment method and want to send them the refund electronically through your Checkbook.io account, move on to the next part of this tutorial.
Issuing the refund to your owner electronically (ePay)
This step in the process is only necessary if you chose ePay as the payment method for the refund. If you also have Checkbook.io active, you’ll be able to send a refund electronically through DoorLoop.
To send your electronic payment, click Accounting on the main menu and then click Send Payments.
Once on the Send Payments page, you should see an entry payment you created in the previous steps. Look at the Actions column and click on the link labeled Add Info. (You'll see this if you've never sent the recipient an electronic payment before. Otherwise, click Send.)
Here, you’ll need to toggle on the "enable send payments for this (person)" you are sending the payment to.
Scroll down to the Email Settings portion and enter the recipient's Billing Email. This is where the eCheck will be sent.
(optional) You can also enable Ask the payee for a PIN before accepting this payment. If you enable this, you’ll need to provide a PIN Code and a Hint that will give the payee an idea of what the PIN is.
Click Save.
Under the Actions column, you should now see a Send link. Click it.
On the Payment popup, check to make sure all the information looks correct, and then click Confirm to send the payment.
That’s it. The recipient will receive an email with the payment, and they can choose to receive it electronically through ACH or print out a check and deposit it themselves.