Collecting and managing payments
Haley Ellerman avatar
Written by Haley Ellerman
Updated over a week ago

At Homebase, we've made it easy for your management team to directly receive payments from your residents.

Creating New Payments

For WiFi payments, once a resident selects the WiFi option right for them, a charge will be automatically posted on the first of the month.

To create a payment for a select unit(s), open the Payments tab and select a recurring or one time payment from the Payment Actions dropdown menu.

To create a community-wide open the Community Settings tab, select the community, and open the Saved charges page. Click the Add new charge button and fill in the form.

Each of these payment will be deposited directly into the property's connected account.

How to Refund an Overpayment

If a refund is required, the property is responsible for managing any refunds that need to be issued. While Homebase is able to help facilitate the transaction between the resident and the property management, for security reasons, Homebase has no access to the funds or the transaction.

If a resident overpays a bill or accidentally makes a double payment, property managers have a few options available to them, as outlined below.

Option 1: Keep the Extra Amount in the Account

The first option is to keep the extra amount of money in the resident's account. This extra money would then act as a credit on their future payments.

Option 2: Refund the Payment

The second option would be to refund the resident for the surplus amount. This will differ depending on how the property manager issues return deposits. This could be done via check, direct transfer, or depending on the case, another method specific to your team.

However, sometimes property managers are unable to write refunds to residents out of the account that is connected to the payments. If this applies to you, and the resident in question plans to continue living at the unit, the property manager may decide to not offer the refund, opting for Option 1 above. However, if the refund does get issued, the property manager would need to add a one-time charge to the resident's account for the amount. In the notes section, the property manager can write something like "Refunding double payment by check #____" and this will balance the account in HB.

Click here to learn how to add another admin to the Stripe Account your property has set up.

How to add a one-time credit or charge to a resident's account

Sometimes you may need to add a one-time payment or charge for a resident, such as a returned check fee or other credit. HB Web Manager allows the ability to add this easily. Follow the steps below to add a one-time payment or charge:

Once you have selected the Payment tab on the left-hand side of the screen, select the unit you'd like to add your charge/credit to. Select the "Payment Actions" drop-down on the right side of the screen. Select your payment/charge option from the list. After you have entered the information and saved it, the one-time payment or charge will be applied to the account.

Getting Help

If you have any questions about collecting/returning payments, our team is happy to help. Please email us at support@homebase.ai, or utilize the live chat in your Homebase Manager App to quickly get in touch with our team.

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