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Tenant Online Payments
- 1. 2021 © AppFolio, Inc. Confidential Cynthia Madrigal Sr. Training Programs Manager Tenant Online Payments
- 2. 2021 © AppFolio, Inc. Confidential Check, 1, 2, 3... Phone call: Dial phone number, Meeting ID, then Participant ID. Computer audio: Use computer speakers. Make sure sound is on and volume up. 2
- 3. 2021 © AppFolio, Inc. Confidential Ask Questions! 3 Type your questions in the ‘chat’ section
- 4. 2021 © AppFolio, Inc. Confidential 4 Today’s Objectives ● 01 Tenant Online Payment Options ● 02 Online Portal Activations ● 03 Online Portal Feature Overview ● 04 Tracking Online Payments DEMO DEMO
- 5. 2021 © AppFolio, Inc. Confidential 5 Online Payments Platform
- 6. 2021 © AppFolio, Inc. Confidential What Do You Get? Online Application Fees Debit / Credit Card Rent / Dues eCheck (ACH), Debit / Credit Card, Electronic Cash Payments 6 Owner Contributions Pay by eCheck (ACH) or Debit / Credit Card eCheck & Bill Pay Owners Vendors Management Company Receivables Payables
- 7. 2021 © AppFolio, Inc. Confidential Today We’ll Focus on.. Online Application Fees Debit / Credit Card Rent / Dues ● eCheck (ACH) ● Debit / Credit Card ● Electronic Cash Payments 7 Owner Contributions Pay by eCheck (ACH) or Debit / Credit Card eCheck & Bill Pay Owners Vendors Management Company
- 8. 2021 © AppFolio, Inc. Confidential 8 Tenant Online Payment options
- 9. 2021 © AppFolio, Inc. Confidential 9 eCheck & Card Online Portal Payments: Resident sets up a one-time or auto-recurring payment 1) eCheck (ACH) ● Resident pays by entering bank account & routing number ● Free for the resident (and you) 1) Credit or Debit Card ● Credit - 3.49% of total transaction amount ● Debit - $9.99 flat fee ● Fees are clearly stated in the portal, and paid by the resident (free to you)
- 10. 2021 © AppFolio, Inc. Confidential 10 Electronic Cash Payments Participating Locations: ● Walmart (NEW!) ● 7-Eleven ● CVS ● Casey’s General Store ● Ace Cash Express How to: 1. Print / email a tenant’s PaySlip from the tenant page 1. Tenant brings cash & PaySlip to participating store 1. Receipt auto-created in AppFolio at time of payment Pro Tip: ● Auto Enable ECP PaySlips Pro Tip
- 11. 2021 © AppFolio, Inc. Confidential 11 FAQs 1. Is there a cost for me to collect online payments? 2. What is the cost to my residents? 1. There is no cost for you to collect resident online payments 1. Fees paid by the resident: ● eCheck (ACH): None - FREE ● Credit card: 3.49% of the total transaction ● Debit card: $9.99 flat fee ● Electronic Cash Payments: $3.99 per transaction
- 12. 2021 © AppFolio, Inc. Confidential 12 Online Portal Activations
- 13. 2021 © AppFolio, Inc. Confidential 13 Sending Online Portal activations Send in Bulk by email and text: 1) Click send activations emails 1) Click email → send 1) Click text → send 1 2 3 Pro Tips: ● Don’t skip sending by text! Tenants with no email will receive a ‘self sign-up’ link ● Send in bulk at least monthly, near rent week View ‘last sent date’ to ensure you’re sending frequently
- 14. 2021 © AppFolio, Inc. Confidential Text Portal Self Sign-Up Tool: 1 Simon (805) 123-4567 2 Property Management Company 1) Resident receives text and clicks the link embedded in the message. 1) Residents with no email in AppFolio are prompted to enter their last name & email, then click request access. 1) The resident’s email is uploaded into AppFolio, and they are sent an email to activate their online portal. How it works for your residents
- 15. 2021 © AppFolio, Inc. Confidential 15 Enable Rent Reminder Emails Increase online payment adoption and encourage on time payments with automatic payment reminder emails. Enable in 3 Easy Steps: General Settings > under Communication click Rent & Dues Reminder Settings > click ‘Enable Reminders’
- 16. 2021 © AppFolio, Inc. Confidential 16 Demo Portal Activation & Online Payment
- 17. 2021 © AppFolio, Inc. Confidential 17 “I was trying to send out the texts yesterday and was frustrated I couldn’t send invites to most people due to missing emails. Then this was added the day after - I love to see you guys working and improving on things. Thank you!” Success Story Matthew Shafrazian Glen West Management | 1,421 units
- 18. 2021 © AppFolio, Inc. Confidential 18 Online Portal Features
- 19. 2021 © AppFolio, Inc. Confidential Maintenance Submit maintenance requests Track request status Payments Make one-time or recurring payments View account ledger, balance & upcoming charges Documents Sign Online Leases Review shared documents Online Portal Feature Overview Settings Enable / disable payment reminder emails Change preferred language to Spanish Enroll in Renter’s Roost Insurance
- 20. 2021 © AppFolio, Inc. Confidential 20 Online Portal mobile app Residents have easy, convenient portal access from anywhere No URL or activation link needed Over 50% of online portal usage is on a mobile device!
- 21. 2021 © AppFolio, Inc. Confidential 21 Encourage Online Payments Download our newly revamped marketing resources in this training to promote online payments in a way that is customizable to you and your residents.
- 22. 2021 © AppFolio, Inc. Confidential 22 ● Residents can access their very own Help Center directly from the Online Portal. FAQ: Is there a support number my tenants can call for questions about their portal? ● You can also use the View Online Portal feature to help residents feel comfortable and confident navigating the portal.
- 23. 2021 © AppFolio, Inc. Confidential 23 Track Online Payments in AppFolio
- 24. 2021 © AppFolio, Inc. Confidential 24 Automated Receipts & Deposits Receipts Tenant Ledger → Receivables Activity Report Deposits Deposit Register Report → linked on receipt!
- 25. 2021 © AppFolio, Inc. Confidential 25 Receivables Activity Report Track which residents are and are not paying online in one centralized report Filter for manual receipts only to target online payment adoption
- 26. 2021 © AppFolio, Inc. Confidential 26 Customize Your Settings ● Accounting Settings for receipts ● NSF email notifications ● Require online payments in full
- 27. 2021 © AppFolio, Inc. Confidential 80% NO EMAIL 5% ACTIVATED 15% NON-ACTIVATED Track Online Payment Adoption from your Dashboard 80% NO EMAIL 5% ACTIVATED 15% NON-ACTIVATED Target residents with no email Enable Non-activated residents Get Activated Residents Paying Online
- 28. 2021 © AppFolio, Inc. Confidential 28 FAQ Is it legal to require online payments or charge a fee for paper checks and/or money orders? All states and counties have different regulations, we recommend consulting with an attorney before requiring or charging a fee, many states do allow this! Should I resend portal activations to tenants who have already received one? YES! Many residents may not activate their portal right away. Resending the portal activation emails and texts in bulk is the most low effort, high impact way to get more residents activated and paying online. FAQ
- 29. 2021 © AppFolio, Inc. Confidential 29 “I would like to tell you it's because of my skills that the online payments are increasing, but the truth is people are seeing it's the best, and safest, way to pay.” David Wrightson Northwest Property Specialist, Inc. | 200+ Units
- 30. 2021 © AppFolio, Inc. Confidential 30 FINAL DEMO
- 31. 2021 © AppFolio, Inc. Confidential 31 Resources
- 32. 2021 © AppFolio, Inc. Confidential Help Center Browse or search for easy-to-follow articles, join the community, access web events and continue training. 32 80%
- 33. 2021 © AppFolio, Inc. Confidential 33 80% better conversion with Lisa’s fast response time Online Training Click on this Help Center tab to access the Learning Portal
- 34. 2021 © AppFolio, Inc. Confidential Practice database Web address for site will be different from your company’s. 34
- 35. 2021 © AppFolio, Inc. Confidential Have a question? Select Contact Support or Get Help from the Help Center.
- 36. 2021 © AppFolio, Inc. Confidential 36 thank YOU
Editor's Notes
- Hi everyone! Welcome to our Tenant Online Payments Training - I’m Kristine, and I’m a member of the Customer Care Key Team here at AppFolio and I will be your Trainer today! Let’s go ahead and get started in 3 minutes so we can give everyone a chance to log on. Alright, so now that we are all here let’s get started!
- Before we continue, let’s do an audio check to make sure everyone can hear me. You should be able to see my screen and either be dialed into the meeting using the phone number, access code and audio pin provided, OR using your computer’s mic and speakers. I have muted the class to cut down on background noise so you can better focus on the presentation and demo but if you can see my screen and hear me ok, please let me know __________ in the chat portion of the go to training panel.
- We strongly encourage you to participate in the class by asking questions into the GoToTraining chat box. Today’s chatter is Cynthia, who also a Training Manager here at AppFolio and will be answering your questions.
- Let’s go ahead and get started! We have a full agenda today, starting with an overview of tenant online payment options how to send online portal activations, an overview of the portal and it’s features, tracking online payments, and sprinkled all throughout will be tips to help you reach your online payments goals. We also have 2 demos for you today, where we’ll walk through sending portal activations and best practices for tracking online payments in AppFolio.
- We’ll start with a high level overview of AppFolio’s Payments Platform, then review each online payments offering available to your tenants.
- AppFolio’s Payments Platform will help automate and simplify your payments processes starting with receiving online application fees, managing payment collection from existing tenants and homeowners, as well as making electronic payables to your owners, vendors and management company.
- On this training, we will focus on the online payments from your tenants and homeowners. For more information about sending payments to Owners and Vendors using eCheck and Bill Pay we offer an Online Payables Training. You can currently register for the next Online Payables training on February 10th, 11 AM PST from the Online Training tab of the Help Center.
- Let’s start by reviewing the payment options available for your tenants and homeowners to pay you electronically. Throughout the presentation, I’ll be referring to your occupants as tenants, but these same features and tips can be applied to your homeowners and commercial tenants as well.
- If your bank accounts are enabled for online payments, your tenants and/or homeowners can submit payments online via eCheck through their Online Portals for rent and other charges. An eCheck payment is an automatic withdrawal from the payee's bank account, and is free for both the payee to submit and for you to receive. eCheck receipts are automatically created in AppFolio within 10 minutes of being submitted and a bank deposit will automatically be created in the system once the funds are available in your bank account. To make an eCheck payment, tenants will be prompted to enter their bank account and routing numbers to initiate a payment directly from their bank account. These numbers can be found on a paper check, so this is a fantastic option for tenants who are already paying with paper checks. They can be made as one-time payments or set up as monthly auto payments. eCheck payments will process and be deposited into your bank account within 3 business days from the day the residents submits the payment. eCheck is a 100% free option for the tenant. Also within the Online Portal, residents will have the option to pay a one-time or auto-recurring charge with a Credit or Debit card. Many tenants appreciate the convenience of being able to pay rent with credit or debit cards, and some prefer this method to entering their bank details. Credit or debit card payments will take approximately 3-5 business days to settle into your bank account, but the receipt will be automatically created in AppFolio within 10 minutes of the tenant making the payment. Credit card payments have a charge of 3.49% of the total transaction amount, while debit cards have a flat fee of $9.99. Fees for both debit or credit are clearly stated within the portal, are paid by the tenant, and free for you to collect.
- The third payment option for tenants is Electronic Cash Payments. This is a great option for tenants currently paying with cash, money order, or are required to pay with certified funds. In addition to 7-Eleven, CVS, Casey’s General Store, and Ace Cash Express, we’re so excited to announce that Walmart is now a participating location! To get your tenants set up, you will need to provide them with their own unique PaySlip which can be found on the tenant’s page under Electronic Cash Payments, directly below the Online Portal Status section. There are a few options to get the slip to your tenants. You can email it, share it directly to their portal, or ‘download’ the PaySlip so that you can print and hand to the tenant directly. Our pro tip of the day is enabling the ability for all of your tenants to download the payslip directly from their tenant portal. To enable this feature, simply submit a support request for us to “turn on Auto Enable ECP PaySlips”. Each Payslip is unique to a specific tenant, the barcode or token number on the slip will record the payment to the tenant’s ledger, and automatically deposit the funds into your bank account. Electronic Cash Payments are the most secure payment option to you, and just as easy to collect as the other two online payment offerings. To make a payment, tenants will need to bring the PaySlip to one of the partici with their cash payment and a processing fee of $3.99 per transaction with a maximum of $2,000 for most locations ($1,500 for 7-Eleven) per transaction. They will receive a hard copy receipt for their payment and be done. If you have an email for the tenant entered, the tenant will also receive an email confirmation for their payment. If they do not have an email, a text confirmation will be sent instead. They will be able to use the same PaySlip for the future since it is reusable each month. On your end, the payment will be automatically recorded in AppFolio and funds will be deposited into your bank account 3-5 business days later. Since this is a cash payment, it is guaranteed funds. This is the method of payment that you should be promoting for tenants that are paying with cash, money orders, or certified funds!
- To recap, here’s some common questions customers ask and a little debrief on what we just covered: Is there a cost for me to collect online payments? And what is the cost to my residents? So, to answer, There is NO cost for you (our customer, the Property Manager) to collect resident online payments. eCheck payments, which are the same as ACH are 100% FREE for your residents Debit and credit carry a transaction fee that is paid by the resident, and clearly stated within their portal as they are going through the payment flow Credit card is 3.49% of the total transaction, and Debit card is a $9.99 flat fee The last option, Electronic Cash Payments, are $3.99 per transaction, with a maximum transaction limit of $2000 for all participating locations except for 7-Eleven, which is a max of $1500
- Let’s dive into sending Online Portal Activations
- In order for your tenants to get setup with their portal and pay online, you will need to send online portal activation links by email, and / or text. You can easily send online portal activations with just a few clicks from your dashboard. Just click “send activation emails” , click email, then send, and repeat for text. I’ll actually be demo-ing this in just a couple slides, so be sure to stick around Before we move on, we have a few pro tips for you. First, don’t skip over sending portal invites in bulk by text message! Thanks to a new feature extension that went live in April of this year, tenants that don’t have an email but do have a phone number will receive a text with a link to self sign up for the portal. I’ll get into more detail on how this works this in the next slide. Pro tip #2: after clicking ‘send activation emails’, you’ll be redirected to the ‘Online Portal Activation’ page. Here, you can view the last date sent for both email and text. This is a great way of knowing whether or not you’ve taken advantage of the new text self sign-up link tool - if the last date sent for texts is before April 2021, send text invites in bulk today to easily collect tenant emails and increase activated portals.
- As I mentioned, the Portal Self Sign-Up tool was recently released in April of this year. Here’s how it works from the perspective of your residents As an aside, the text you see on the left here is a real example of the message your residents would receive. Text and email activations automatically pre-populate with your company’s information, and the info you have on file for the resident. Now back to the tool, first, the resident will receives a text and click the link embedded in the message. If the resident already has an email in AppFolio, the link will guide them through the steps to set up their secure password and activate their portal. For residents with NO email in AppFolio, the link will take them to step 2, where they’ll be prompted to enter their last name and email address. The first name and phone # fields will be pre-populated with the values you have for the resident in AppFolio. After entering their last name and email, the resident clicks ‘request access’. If the last name they entered matches the last name you have for them in AppFolio, the resident’s email will automatically upload into their resident page, and they will be sent a link to activate their Online Portal. That’s it! This tool kills 3 birds with one stone - it collects your resident’s email, inputs the email into AppFolio for you, and increases online portal activations. We are excited about the value this tool has brought to so many customers who have had difficulty collecting emails in the past.
- Before we move onto our demo, let’s cover one last tool that makes increasing online payments adoption that much easier, because you can enable it and forget it - rent reminders and late payment reminders are yet another efficient and automated way to send portal activations. Although residents have the ability to opt out of rent and due reminder emails, the reminder is often valuable, especially for residents that haven’t enabled automatic recurring payments. Enabling rent reminders (and late payment reminders) is in everyone’s best interest. You can enable rent reminders in 3 easy steps: just go to General Settings > under Communication click Rent and Dues Reminder Settings > click ‘Enable Reminders’ Unpaid charge reminders can also be enable on this same page in AppFolio, and will enable a notification to be sent to tenants with unpaid charges the day before late fees apply.
- Alright! Let’s jump into our first demo to go over sending online portal activations, and actually making a payment through the tenant portal. DEMO: Log into achtraining.demo.appfolio.com as a Property Manager. Go to Dashboard > Send Activation Emails Click > Text > Send, then email > send Login to achtraining.demo.appfolio.com/connect. Email: training+1@appfolio.com PW: 4APMtraining Make an eCheck payment for $500 Make Credit Card Payment for $500 Back to Presentation
- Before we move on, I wanted to share this quick success story with you - Read Quote - “I was trying to send out the texts yesterday and was frustrated I couldn’t send invites to most people due to missing emails. Then this was added the day after - I love to see you guys working and improving on things. Thank you!” This quote is from a customer response when they found out about the Text Self Sign Up tool in the ‘what’s new’ feature update. Matthew ended up increasing online portal activations by 21% (which amounts to 298 units) just by bulk text activations one time.
- Now that your tenants have activated and made an online payment, let’s go over all the amenities of the online portal.
- Once activated, the resident will be able to: Make one-time or recurring payments View their balance, upcoming charges, and full account ledger Enable or disable payment reminder emails Change their preferred language to Spanish Enroll in Renter’s insurance with Roost Sign online leases & review shared documents And finally, they can submit maintenance requests & track their status Not all of these features are required to be enabled within the resident portal. Should you wish to turn off Renter’s Roost Insurance because you have a portfolio of Homeowners, just let us know by submitting a support request.
- The Online Portal mobile app makes it easy for residents to access all the amenities we just reviewed, anywhere, anytime. Residents can self sign-up in-app, and they stay logged in for as long as they have the app, reducing login or forgotten password issues. Residents can pay rent or dues and submit maintenance requests all through the app. This is now available on the Apple App store and Google Play store, so spread the word and encourage your residents to download it today.
- Make sure to take advantage of our newly revamped, resident facing online payments marketing materials to help you promote online payments to your residents. Many customers use these customizable marketing kits as part of their new resident move-in packets, or simply as one page flyers or guides. All of our new Online Payments Marketing is available to download directly within the Help Center. We’ll provide you with a link directly to these resources after today’s training.
- While AppFolio doesn’t have a support line dedicated to residents, residents can take advantage of an extensive help guide by clicking the “Help” tab in their Online Portal. The resident help page contains a full overview of the portal with a video, step-by-step instructions and FAQ’s. You can also leverage the ‘View Online Portal’ feature - available on the tenant page for any resident with an activated portal. All payment information will be hidden to protect your tenants’ sensitive data. For payment issues, please submit a support request and we’ll be happy to work with you directly.
- Alright, now that we know all about online payments and the portal, let’s go through how you can find and track tenant online payments easily in AppFolio.
- When a tenant pays electronically, all accounting is completely automated for you! Your current rent collection process may include receiving the check from your tenant, entering it into AppFolio as a receipt, creating a deposit slip and making a bank run. Online payments through AppFolio completely eliminates all these steps! Once a tenant pays electronically through their online portal or at 7-Eleven or Ace Cash Express, a receipt is generated automatically in AppFolio and coded with the payment type. You can find the receipt on any reports showing receivables including the tenant’s ledger or the brand new Receivables Activity Report. The receipt posts immediately so you know the payment has been submitted. Deposits are also generated automatically and the funds are transferred to your bank account based on the processing times for that payment type. Payments with the same type will be batched together in the same deposit each day for each of your bank accounts. You can find these using the Deposit Register report or by clicking on the bank deposit link from the receipt. We will go through these in a demo in a few minutes.
- The Receivables Activity Report is a great tool that shows you which of your residents are and are not paying online. You can access this report straight from the Payments Widget by clicking ‘See Who’s Not Paying Online’, this shortcut will take you to a filtered view to show you manually entered receipts vs residents who paid online. The report is also grouped by payment type, giving you a list of who is paying with a certain payment method, making it easy to promote the corresponding online payment offering. For example, if you wanted to target residents paying by paper check, you could promote the eCheck or debit card option. Use the Online Portal Activated column to see if they’ve activated their portal! For residents with an activated portal and paying by paper check, this is your low-hanging fruit. You know these residents have a checking account, so the next step is to have a conversation with them about online payments. Maybe that looks like reminding them that they can pay online, because oftentimes residents forget. This is a perfect example of how enabling those rent reminders is a highly useful tool.
- You can change the GL account order for which charges you want your incoming online payments to apply to first under your Account Settings under General Settings. If you want to be notified about an NSF payment, you can enable email notifications under your own login settings by checking a box for “Tenant online payments are rejected.” Many companies choose to require online payments in full from their tenants which prevents any partial payments from a unit. If you do have units with roommates, it will only allow one full payment to be submitted.
- You can always track how you’re doing with our Online Payments Widget on the Dashboard in AppFolio. You will be able to see the percent of payments collected online out of the total payments recorded and the percent of units that have submitted an online payment. The Online Portal Adoption section will help you see the percent of tenants that have activated their portals, non-activated tenants who have an email in the system but have not yet activated their portal and tenants that are still missing an email address. Remember, sending portal invitations by text is the most efficient tool for email collection, all you need is the resident’s phone number.
- Some property managers consider charging a “processing fee” for tenants that are still paying offline. Here’s some FAQs around that very subject. **Read FAQs on slide**
- And before we move on to our final demo, I want to leave you with a quote from a customer who’s residents quickly caught on to the value of paying rent through the Resident Online Portal *Read Quote* - “I would like to tell you it's because of my skills that the online payments are increasing, but the truth is people are seeing it's the best, and safest, way to pay.” We agree, David.
- Great! In this final demo, I’ll show you where you can find some of the settings and tracking capabilities we just touched on. DEMO: Login to https://achtraining.demo.appfolio.com. Visit the Tenant ledger. Show the two receipts that were generated. Visit the Receivable Activity Report. Filter report to find the transactions. Visit My Settings. Show where a user can elect to receive NSF notifications. (My Settings>Email Notifications>Payments & Accounting) Visit Accounting Settings. Show where PMs can elect the order of GL accounts to be paid. (General Settings>Manage Accounting Settings>Receipts) Visit Rent & Dues Reminder Settings under General Settings> Communication. Bulk Enable and then bulk disable. (General Settings>Communication>Rent & Dues Reminder Settings)
- I hope this training and the tips were helpful for you! Before you go, we have a few resources to help with any questions you may have from this presentation or in general.
- This is the most important tool for your training and ongoing learning, and is accessible 24/7. The Help Center includes hundreds of helpful articles, short videos, and you can also register for more training classes and webinars. You can post questions to the User Community and respond to other users with your feedback. This is a SUPER important tool, so be sure to check it out!
- From the Help Center, you can find a catalog of our different training programs, so feel free to register for courses that fit your day to day workflows and the learning style you like the most, we have live trainings as mentioned, but also self-guided courses you can complete in your own time at your own pace.
- The best way to learn is by hands-on practice, so make sure you are using your Practice AppFolio database throughout all of your training. If you don’t have a practice site or don’t know it, please submit a support request and we’ll be happy to set you or your company up with one.
- If you have any follow-up questions to today’s class, be sure to look through the Help Center for related articles and videos. In that same Help Center, you can select the Contact Support tab or Get Help button if you need our assistance in answering a question. Get Help is a place where you will be able to find answers to those questions, and if you need help from one of our support members, from there, you will also be able to chat with a live agent who can help further.
- On behalf of everyone at AppFolio, thank you for joining our training today! Special thanks to Cynthia for managing our chat panel and answering your questions! I hope to see you at the next training class, and we look forward to partnering with you in your AppFolio success. Thank you!