Reversing Charges

Hi Ashley! 

I wanted to send you the below information about specific do’s/don’ts for the reversal rights you now have in Entrata. Sending this email is standard protocol. I know there may be exceptions, but please read through these & reach out if you have any questions! 

Waiving 

HRA has a policy where we allow 1 waived late fee per lease term. If a resident lives at Cottages for 3 years, but renews twice, this means they would get 3 one-time courtesy waived late fees, 1 per term. 

We understand that sometimes you’ll want to waive late fees. Though we don’t encourage it, it’s excellent for customer service. We build waived late fees into our budget. You can see this in GL Code 3540.001. For one time courtesy waives, we use the code WVLATEFEE in Entrata to offset the late fee charge.

If you’d like to waive a late fee another time, after a resident has already used their 1 time courtesy waive, you still can. However, that waive hits GL Code 4255 in the budget. You’ll use the code ABOVE in Entrata. This is a part of our above & beyond program. Our “ABBY” program is also built into our budgets for both employees & residents. Residents is code 4225 & employees is code 4255.001. 

We use ABOVE for residents when we feel necessary. You can use it in many different ways- weekly goodie bags to front doors, random pizza deliveries, etc. There’s many examples throughout the company. 4255.001, ABBY for employees, is budgeted for a monthly outing with your staff. This is probably headed up by Caitlin, but I wanted you to know the difference between ABBY residents vs employees. 

In short: 

• One time courtesy waive = WVLATEFEE 
• Any other waive = ABOVE 

Reversals: 

As HRA policy, we only want to reverse a charge if it’s incorrect. We never reverse a charge because we want to waive something for a resident. An example would be that on the morning of the 6^th (when charging late fees), you for some reason could not get a check posted prior to the time late fees hit the account. In that case, you know you had the check on time, therefore the fee is incorrect. That is a charge we can reverse. 

For past accounts, ie residents who have already moved out, reversals & editing FMOs can affect a lot of things. This gets into our bad debt software. Pay Ready is a software that we use to collect past resident balances. These collection efforts are headed up by Samia Javaid, Hailie Nussbaum, & Kashari Cone who are also on our team. Hailie will be your point of contact. There’s an automatic feed from Entrata > Pay Ready that syncs daily. Sometimes, if the account is already in Pay Ready & then we need to waive/reverse something off the account, it gets tricky with the feed. Please put in a help desk ticket & copy Hailie (hnussbaum@horizonra.com) if you need to edit a past resident.

If you have a past account, again we only want to reverse a charge that’s incorrect. Let’s say you accidentally charged a bedroom carpet replacement to the wrong roommate- that is a charge we can reverse since it is incorrect. However, let’s say you charge a $500 carpet replacement & a resident agrees to only pay $300. In some cases, we understand settling is necessary. In this case, we would waive the remaining $200 off, not reverse it. I hope that makes sense. 

I know it may take some time for you to get the hang of things, & I’m certainly willing to help until that happens. 

NSF Rules: 

As a company, HRA has a 2 time NSF (bounce check/payment) rule. If a person bounces 2 payments, they will automatically go to certified funds only on their account. Certified funds include money orders, cashiers checks, & credit cards only. For money orders or cashiers checks, you simply check that box when running the batch. I can show you if you have questions. 

Can we revert someone back to allowing all payment types after they’re on certified funds only? Yes. However, that defeats the purpose of the policy. Please make sure to check with help desk in any extenuating circumstances. We’ll be happy to give guidance. 

NSF fees are $50 per bounced payment for your property. This will automatically post to the ledger & also give a reason for the bounce. We can NEVER reverse an NSF fee, we can only waive it. If we reverse it, HRA loses money. That’s a fee that’s charged from the bank & we have to pay it regardless. Again, I would say only in extenuating circumstances would you want to waive an NSF fee, however I know sometimes it’s best for customer service. There is no WVNSFFEE code in Entrata. Instead, you’ll code the waive to ABOVE. This will hit the budget in ABBY residents, code 4225, mentioned above. Always keep that in mind so you’re not going over budget in that line item. It’s built into the budget to work with residents, not so we can waive every charge a resident complains about. 

Skips, evictions, no shows, relets 

We’d be happy to discuss this with you if you need it. Please make sure to read through your lease thoroughly, so you know how to handle these situations- what you should be charging & not charging. 

I hope all of this makes sense. I know it’s quite a long email. Please reach out to me if I can explain anything further! Always feel free to ask us any questions you have. We are here to help you!