Paying Bills

This SOP covers the payment stage: turning approved bills into checks. Use the Pay Bills workflow to pay many bills at once, or Pay by Check Now to cut a single paper check straight from a bill. Paper checks, eChecks, and CheckSend checks can all be generated here.

This is the payment step of the AP process

Bills reach this stage only after they have been posted and approved. For intake, REA posting, Smart Bill Entry, and approval, see the AP Processing Workflow. Payments are cut on Thursday per the AP Schedule.

Pay Bills Workflow

Use this to filter, select, and pay multiple bills in one pass.

1. Open Pay Bills
   Type Pay Bills into the search bar and select the matching Task result.

2. Filter for the bills you need
   Set the filters, then click Search to pull up every eligible bill.

   

   Filter	What it does
   Bank Account	Required. Choose All MICR bank accounts, All Bank Accounts (Online Payables only), or a single account.
   Due on or Before Date	Defaults to today. Can be past or future. Leave blank to show all unpaid bills.
   Property	Filter to one property, property group, or portfolio.
   GL Account	Filter to bills on one GL account, for example Management Fees or Owner Distributions.
   Payee Type	Vendor, Owner, Tenant, Management Company, or Tax Authority.
   Payee	One payee of the selected type, for example a specific vendor.

3. Select the bills to pay
   Nothing is selected by default. You have three ways to select:

   • Individual bills: check the box next to each bill.
   • All bills for a payee: check the box next to the Payee name to select all of that payee’s bills in the bank account.
   • By available funds: click Select Bills if Funds Available to auto-select only the bills that keep each property above its reserve amount. This rule applies no matter which bank account you pay from.

   

4. Continue
   Once every bill you want is checked, click Continue at the top or bottom of the page.

5. Confirm the payments
   A separate section appears for Checks, eChecks, and CheckSend Checks. Review and edit as needed:

   • Payment date (check dates only) and starting check number.
   • Check Memo: auto-filled, editable per line.
   • Uncheck any bill you do not want to pay right now.
   • To split a consolidated payment into multiple checks for the same payee, click the drop-down arrow on the line and choose Unconsolidate.

   

6. Finalize
   Click Finalize. For paper checks this downloads a PDF packet to print. For eChecks and CheckSend it sends a verification code to the approver.

Available Funds and Reserves

Available funds and any reserve amount show below each property, and the Total Payment Amount shows at the top of each bank account. Use these to confirm a property can cover its bills before you finalize.

2 Cash, 1 Bank setups

If an Operating Cash Account and an Escrow Cash Account are tied to the same bank account, the Escrow balance is included in the available funds calculation.

Not Enough Funds? Transfer First

If a property is short, click Transfer Funds to move owner funds from another of their properties out of the Key Operating Cash Account. Pick the From Property, enter the amount, then click Transfer Funds. Paying from an additional cash account means you must transfer between the cash accounts or properties manually.

Partial Payments

To pay part of a bill, click the drop-down arrow on the right of the line, enter the amount to pay, and click Save. To open a bill and review it first, click the linked amount.

Past-owner bills

The system warns you if a property has bills from before an ownership change. Click Learn More in that warning for how to handle bills for past owners.

Pay by Check Now

Use this to cut and download one paper check straight from a bill, without running the full Pay Bills workflow. It also works to print a paper check for a payee normally set to eCheck or Bill Pay, without changing their payment settings.

Only on the Operating Cash Key Account

Pay by Check Now shows only when the bill is tied to your designated Operating Cash Key Account. If the option is missing, confirm the bill is on the correct account.

1. Open the bill
   Open it from the Payables index page, or type the bill amount into the search bar.

2. Check the bill details
   On the Bill Details page, confirm everything you want on the check is there: dates, description, memo. Click Edit to add anything missing.

3. Start the check
   Click Pay Bill Now, then select Pay By Check Now.

   

4. Enter the check number and pay
   The check number defaults to the next one for that bank account. Click Confirm & Pay. A success message shows a link to download the check, dated today.

   

Edit or reprint a check

To edit a check before printing, find it on the Payments index page (Accounting > Payables > Payments) or on any report that shows payments.

Warnings You May See

• Low funds: you are warned if the check takes the property below its available funds.
• Check number in use: you are warned if the number is already used, with a link to the existing payment. Choose Confirm & Pay or Change Check Number.

When You Cannot Use Pay by Check Now

In these cases the option is blocked and you are directed to the Pay Bills workflow instead:

• The bill has one or more partial payments.
• The bill needs two or more bank accounts to pay it (properties are not all on the same bank account).
• The bill has been reversed.
• The bill includes one or more credits.
• The cash account for the bill is not on all properties on the bill, so the system cannot tell which bank account to use.
• The payee is set to be paid by ACH.
• The bill is dated in a closed accounting period.

Quick Reference

AP Processing Workflow Intake, REA posting, Smart Bill Entry, and approval, the steps before payment.

AP Schedule Weekly rhythm. Checks are cut on Thursday.

Work Orders How an approved vendor bill closes its work order automatically.