Your bank accounts

Who this is for

Landlords and property managers setting up their books. Each real bank account you keep for your rentals gets one account in eSamaHomes, and each is reconciled with its bank statement. Only the account owner can add, edit or delete an account; team members can see them.

Before you start

• The banks you use for your rentals, and the last four digits of each account number.
• Which account holds tenants' security deposits. If you keep deposits in the same bank account as rent under a surety bond, set that first in Settings → Account. See Security deposits.

Steps

1. In the menu under Money, open Accounting. The Trust Accounts tab lists your accounts, each with its balance.
2. Click New Trust Account and type the Account Name.
3. Pick the Account Type: - Operating: where rent comes in, bills are paid from and, for a property manager, owners are paid from. - Security Deposit: tenants' deposits, kept apart from rent. - Reserve: for property managers, money held back from owners for repairs. See Owner reserves.
4. For a Reserve account, or a Security Deposit account when you keep deposits with rent under a surety bond, pick where its money is held under Money is held in: Its own bank account, or one of your operating accounts. Held in an operating account, it is reconciled with that account, and one bank statement covers both.
5. Optional: type the Bank Name and the Last 4 Digits, so you can tell your accounts apart.
6. The default: eSamaHomes uses the default account when it has to pick an account of this type, such as deposits paid into the default security deposit account. Your first account of a type is the default, and the form says so. For a second one, turn on Make default to make it the default instead.
7. Click Create Account. eSamaHomes shows "Trust account created."

There is always one default account of each type you have, marked Default on its card. To change it, open the other account with the pencil, turn on Make default and click Save Changes: the old default stops being the default. The default's own form says "To change it, make another account the default." and has no switch to turn it off.

The operating account your Stripe account pays out to is marked Stripe pays here, with a Change the bank Stripe pays into link to Integrations. Online rent is recorded in that account. See Connect Stripe so tenants can pay online.

To change an account's name or bank, click the pencil on its card, change it and click Save Changes. To delete one, click the bin on its card and then Delete.

Example

A property manager already has Northgate Operating Trust, where rent comes in. They add:

• Northgate Security Deposits, type Security Deposit, at First Harbor Bank, ending 4821. It is their first deposit account, so it is the default. Tenants' deposits are paid into it, and it is reconciled with its own bank statement.
• Northgate Owner Reserves, type Reserve, held in Northgate Operating Trust. Its card reads "Reconciled with Northgate Operating Trust": the operating account's bank statement covers both.

What happens next

• The Ledger tab lists what happened, one row each. A tenant payment is one row, even when it moved through several accounts on its way to the charge it paid. Each row has its Effect: Money in, Money out, Moved between accounts, Applied to a charge, Correction, Fee or Starting balance. A check, cash, a money order, or a Cash App, Venmo or Apple Cash payment also says Waiting to be deposited or Deposited. Click Show breakdown on a row to see its entries, each with its account and whether it is a Credit or a Debit. On a phone, the breakdown opens under the row.
• Click Every entry to list every entry on its own, with its Account column, and to filter by Credit or Debit. Both views filter by account, property and dates. While there is more to load, the oldest day or two wait for Load more, so no row is shown with only part of its entries.
• Reconcile each bank account once a month. See Reconcile your bank account.
• When a payment lands in the wrong bank, such as a security deposit deposited into operating, Deposits lists it under Money held for another account. See Checks, cash and bank deposits.
• For a property manager, the Owner Payouts tab is where owners are paid. See Owner payouts.
• Undeposited funds appears by itself the first time you record a check, cash, a money order, or a Cash App, Venmo or Apple Cash payment. It isn't a bank, and it can't be edited or deleted.

If something looks wrong

• "Cannot delete this trust account — it has … ledger entries." An account with money recorded in it stays. Rename it instead.
• "There is always one default account of each type. Make another account the default instead." You can't turn the default off. Turn on Make default on another account of that type.
• "This is the default account of its type. Make another account the default before deleting it." Make another account of that type the default, then delete this one. The last account of a type can be deleted.
• "Stripe pays into this account. Choose another bank for Stripe before deleting it." Change the bank Stripe pays into on Integrations first.
• "Cannot delete this trust account — 1 account is held in it." Change the held account's Money is held in first, or delete it.
• "Some steps are hidden by the property filter." Prepaid money and money waiting to be deposited belong to no property, so with a property picked a payment's breakdown shows only the entries on that property. Clear the property filter to see every step. The account filter works the same way.
• A deposit was paid into the operating account. Move the money at your bank, then record the transfer on Deposits, under Money held for another account.
• "A security deposit account can be held in an operating account only when deposits are kept in the same account as rent." Change that in Settings → Account first.