Paying Contractors for Work Orders

Access the Payment Run screen via either the Contractors to Pay reminder on the Home Page screen or via Financial → Payment Run

It produces a list of Contractors whose Account is currently in Credit i.e. they require Payment.

The Payment Run process will update the Contractor's Accounts by posting a Payment Made transaction.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Xqg_z3jLHbc

STEP 1 - Make Payments to Contractors

The Payment Run screen will list each Contractor that needs paying.

The Account can be selected as can the Payment Method that will be used to make the payments to the Contractor.

This shows the following details for each Contractor:

• Contact - the name of the Contractor

• Property - the name of the Property that the Work Order/Payment relates to

• Last Payment Date - the date of the last payment made to the Contact

• Owner - this column only appears when the Contact Type selected is Contractor

• Warnings

• Reference/Cheque No.

• Balance

• Tax To Deduct

• Amount To Pay - this is the actual amount that will be paid and is calculated as follows:

• Warnings - this warns if funds are not cleared or the Contractor doesn't have any bank details.

A reminder is present on this 'Please pay your Landlords first to ensure funds are cleared against your Contractors'. To support client account legislation contractor bills cannot be paid using other people's monies. Hence payments can only be made to a Contractor once funds are cleared otherwise the 'Include' checkbox will be disabled. Payments are only set as 'Cleared' once a Payment /Statement has been made for the paying Landlord.

• Reference/Cheque No - a reference for the payment that can be type directly into the field

• Balance - the total payment due

• Tax to Deduct - for overseas Landlords (with a FICO number)tax can be deducted at source

• Amount To Pay - this is the actual amount that will be paid and is calculated as follows:

• Include - a checkbox allowing the selection of payments that have been received i.e. when the Tenants payment (Standing Order/Cash/Cheque) has cleared. The Include checkbox will be disabled if there are uncleared funds.

1. Payment Method enables you to choose the method by which you are paying them with.

2. You can select which payments you want to include on the Payment Run by clicking the check box under the Include column.

3. You can produce a report of the Payments by selecting the Payments and clicking Payment Summary Report.

4. Click the Run button

5. When Run completes, the following Transactions are automatically created:

• A Payment Made To You Transaction for the Contractor, for the payment amount. This will be a Debit to give the account a Zero Balance.

• A Payments Export File detailing credits for each Contractor. The Payments Export File can be imported into other software packages. This can be accessed in Step 2.

STEP 2 - Produce Payment Run Statements

Once the Payments process has been completed the Produce Statements screen will be appear enabling you to produce the Statements.

The Payments Statements in Acquaint include integrated invoices so invoices do not have to be produced separately.

1. If the Use Contacts Preferred Delivery Method i.e. Email/Post/Both is selected then the Statements will be produced in the format that the Contractor has set in their preferred delivery method in the More Details screen. If the Use Contacts Preferred Delivery Method is unselected then choose a Delivery Method.

2. Choose to Preview/Print or Email the Payment Statements.

3. Click the View button to open the Payments File.

If a Bank Reference is not entered for a Contact (i.e. left blank) then the first line of the related Property address will be used.

• When a Work Order is set as Closed & Billed, Acquaint will asked if a Charge was involved. If so, Acquaint will request details of the Charge and raised a Debit Transaction against the Landlord and a Credit Transaction against the Contractor.

• Commission on Work Orders can be applied in 3 ways.

  • Charged to the Landlord. The commission will appear as an additional Commission Transaction on their Account and on their Statement i.e. you are making it known that you are charging commission and how much.

  • Deducted from the Contractor. The commission will appear as an additional Commission Transaction on their Account and on their Statement i.e. subtracted from the amount to pay them.

  • Debit the Landlord more than you credit the Contractor. This method "hides" the "mark-up" being applied to the Landlord.

  • In all cases the Commission earned is written as a Credit to the Company Account.

• It is also possible to charge a Commission fee against the Contractor e.g. a Work Order cost £100.00, which is deducted from the Landlord, paid to the Contractor but then the Contractor is debited £10.00 Commission which is paid back to the agency .

• If a Work Order is emailed to a Contractor it is sent as a .PDF attachment.

Example - Paying Contractors

1. On Home Page (Financial tab) click Contractors To Pay

2. Against Contact Type ensure Contractor is selected

3. Select which payments you want to include on the Payment Run by clicking the check box under the Include column.

4. Click Run

Ensure the Landlords have been paid first otherwise the 'Include' check box will be disabled if there are uncleared funds.