Why ACH Payments are Safer Than Writing a Check for Rent

  • Author: Devin Henry
  • Last Updated: December 8, 2020
Table of Contents

In the day and age of increased cyber security concerns, the hesitation around utilizing ACH payments for rent debit or deposit is understood. It might be a surprise to hear, but electronic fund transfer is one of the safest ways to make a payment! Let’s take a closer look at what an ACH payment is and why it’s completely safe to use.

What is an ACH Payment?

An ACH payment is also known as direct deposit or direct debit. It’s an electronic transfer of funds from one bank account, directly to another, which uses the intermediary service of the Automated Clearing House network. Do you have a job that pays you via direct deposit? Do you pay bills online? Do you transfer funds from one bank to another? These are ways you are already using ACH payments in your everyday life. Paying rent or receiving rent through the ACH is the same thing!

How It Benefits You

  1. With scheduled payments, it’s a hassle free and safe way to ensure your rent makes it on time, every month. You’ll never have to pay a late fee!
  2. You’ll never have to worry about having a supply of checks, envelopes or stamps.
  3. Your electronic transfer will never get lost in the mail, or stolen.
  4. It makes bookkeeping very easy.
person typing card info into computer

How It Benefits Us

  1. We never have to wait for the mail or worry about the hassle of lost or stolen payment.
  2. Although it does still cost money per transaction, it’s less expensive than processing credit cards.
  3. We can accept ACH payments remotely, which is not always the case with plastic.

Should I Be Worried About Fraud with ACH Payments?

The short answer to this is no! We turn to the Changes in Fraud U.S. Payments Fraud Survey from 2016-2018 by the Federal Reserve which concludes that:

  1. ACH payments had the lowest fraud rate, by value, among the payment types, remaining flat at 0.08 basis points in 2012 and 2015. (8 basis points is 8 cents for every $10,000)
  2. Payments providers have increasingly introduced technological innovations to mitigate fraud or to add convenience, security, and other potential improvements to the payment experience.
  3. The findings show that, while vulnerabilities exist—and specific experiences are likely to vary substantially from the overall picture—the U.S. payments system, in the aggregate, is resilient and responsive with respect to payments fraud vulnerabilities

Although the concern for security is entirely valid, even the Federal Reserve would agree with us when we say, ACH debits and credits are the safest way to pay or collect rent. If you have any further questions over how the ACH payments work, please get in contact with us!

Looking for something?

Visit our Tenant Resource Center to submit a work order. Visit our Client Resource Center to log into your account. Check out our awesome DMV located rentals. Get in touch for our property management services.

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Enhanced Reporting

Your portal includes a selection of extremely useful reports. Reports are available in the “Reports” section, and are distinct from the financial statements. Unlike financial statements which are static records, Reports are dynamic real-time records that will update with current data every time you view them. 

Scroll down to learn more about Reports:

Navigate to the "Reports" module in your portal:

Owner Portal Reports
  • Keep in mind, these reports are dynamic records. They will refresh to display current information every time you view them. 

Enhanced Rent Roll Report:

Enhanced Rent Roll Report
  • The Enhanced Rent Roll Report will show the rent amount, last payment date, move-in date, lease expiration date, and security deposit amount for each of your tenants. 
  • It will also show a portfolio summary with occupancy percentage, vacancy loss, and more!

Unit Comparison Report:

Unit Comparison Report
  • If you own multiple units (or buildings) with Nomadic, you’ll get access to the Unit Comparison Report. 
  • This report enables you to quickly compare financial performance between your units at a glance without toggling between individual reports. 

Income Statement Month-Over-Month:

Income Statement by Month Report
  • The Income Statement Detail – Monthly Report serves as a month-over-month record of portfolio performance. You’ll see itemized income and expense categories and can track monthly. This report will update with fresh data every time you view it. 

Financial Statements

Financial statements will be published to your portal on a monthly basis. The statements are found in your Documents library, and provide a historical record of all financial performance. The statements serve as a snapshot of financial performance over a given period, and are static documents (unlike Reports, the statements do not update/change in real-time). 

Scroll down for more info about the Financial Statements in your Documents library:

The Documents area contains monthly financial statements:

Owner Portal Documents
  • The statements in the Documents are are static documents. They are posted to the portal once a month to serve as a historical record of financial performance. 

Download a statement to see month and YTD financials:

Owner Portal Property Statement

You'll also find a month-over-month operating statement:

Month over Month Statement

Portal Communication Tool

You can use your owner portal to communicate with our team. Any messages you send through the portal will go straight to your Account Manager. When we reply, you’ll get an email notification and you’ll also see the message in your portal next time you log in. 

Here’s an overview of using the communication platform:

Click "Communications" and navigate to "Conversations":

Commincation Dashboard Screenshot
  • The communications module will contain a record of all messages that you create through the portal. 

Click the "New Message" button and send your message:

Owner Portal New Message Screenshot

Responses will show up in the conversation ticket:

Portal Conversation Response Screenshot
  • You’ll get an email notification whenever you get a response, and you’ll also see the message in your portal next time you log in. 

You can reply in-line using the comment box:

Owner Portal Comment

Each conversation will be logged in its entirety:

Portal Conversation Snapshot

Understanding the Ledger

Your portal includes a ledger with all transactions. The ledger is populated with data in real-time as transactions flow through our accounting software. Much of this information is also available in the Reports area, as well as the Statements in your Documents library, but the ledger is the most comprehensive resource for diving into the details. 

Please scroll through the sections below to get a better understanding of how to interpret the ledger. 

By default, transactions are sorted chronologically:

Owner Ledger Dates
  • The date reflected in the lefthand column is the actual transaction date, not the “bill date”. This is the date the transaction was actually processed. 

If you have multiple properties with Nomadic, you'll see the address for each transaction in the "Location" column:

Ledger Property Column
  • You can filter the ledger to look at just one property, all properties, or specific sets of properties. 
  • If you only have one property with us, you’ll just see the ledger for that property. 

The Description column displays the transaction type:

Owner Ledger Description Column
  • BILL: this is an expense transaction, such as for repair costs or management fees.
  • CHARGE: this is a transaction  billed to the tenant, most typically a rent payment. 
  • NACHA EXPORT: this is a credit we processed to your distribution account. This type of transaction is how you get paid! 

The Amount column shows the dollar value of each transaction:

Owner Ledger Amount Column
  • Positive Amounts: if an amount is positive, it reflects a transaction that is payable to you. Typically, this will be a rent payment that we collected from your tenants. On occasion, a positive number could also signify a journal entry or credit adjustment. 
  • Negative Amounts:  if an amount is negative, this is a transaction that is either payable to Nomadic or is an amount that has already been paid to you. Typically this will be for repair costs or management/leasing fees. Owner draws (net distributions into your checking/savings account) also reflect as negative amounts, since they have already been paid to you. 

The Account Balance column shows a sum of positive/negative transactions at a given point in time:

Owner Ledger Account Balance Column
  • Account Balance should always equal zero after a net distribution has been processed. When the balance is zero, this means that all expenses have been paid and you’ve received the remainder as net operating income, leaving a balance of zero (meaning: no one is due any money, as all funds have been distributed appropriately). 

Navigating the Propertyware Owner Portal

Your portal includes some extremely useful features that help you understand your property’s financial performance at a new level, with real-time transparency into every transaction.

Scroll through the snapshots below for an overview of portal navigation! If you need more help or have specific questions about using the portal, you can reach out to your Account Manager any time for a screen share. 

You can filter all info by date range or property:

PW Portal Filters

View a snapshot of income and expenses on your dashboard:

PW Owner Dashboard View

See every transaction in real-time on your ledger:

Owner Portal Ledger View

Statements and forms will be posted to your documents library:

Owner Portal Document Library

View a suite of real-time financial reports:

Portal Reports View

See a running list of all bills, and drill down for more detail:

Owner Portal Bills View

Under Bill Details, you'll find dates/descriptions/amounts and more:

Portal Bill Details

You can also communicate with your Account Manager through the portal:

Owner Portal Communication Tools

How do net distributions work?

Net distributions keep your accounting clean and simple. Each month we’ll collect rent from the tenants, deduct any repair expenses for the previous month and any management/leasing fees for the current month, and credit the remaining net operating income to your account. 

Net Distribution

You’ll receive a statement via email each time a net distribution is processed, and can view all transaction details in your Propertyware owner portal.