Are you managing rentals on behalf of other rental owners? You’ve come to the right place. Trust accounts are so last century! At Hemlane, free yourself and eliminate the need for trust accounts and streamline your rental management process, reduce your administrative burdens, and provide greater transparency for your property owners.
By following the best practices below, you can ensure a smooth transition away from trust accounts while maintaining an efficient and organized financial system, all within Hemlane.
What steps do I need to take?
- Confirm your rentals are on the Essential or Complete package – Head over to your Properties tab within Hemlane to confirm that your properties are on the Essential or Complete package
- Invite Your Clients (Rental Owners) Under your Your Team tab – Grant your owners access (it doesn’t cost anything) and their own dedicated Hemlane account
- Confirm your owners add their bank account – Set it and forget it! Owners must link their bank accounts for direct payment processing and once connected it can be used for as many different types of transactions needed
- Add Rent Allocations Under Financials – Configure the Rent allocations where you receive a Property Management fee every time that rent is collected.
- Fill out Maintenance & Repair instructions – Set up the property’s maintenance and repair thresholds along with asking your client to add their bank account to the “Repair Billing” section. We will stay within their thresholds and have everything approved by you. But, you no longer have to pay the repair bills, as we will pay them directly from your client’s bank account.
Ensure Your Rentals Are on the Essential or Complete Package
Navigate to your Properties tab within your Hemlane account to confirm your property is on the Essential or Complete package.
For further information and instructions on how to change your subscription package type, please visit our article, “How do I change my subscription package per property?”
Add your client (the rental owner)to be a part of your team
Invite your owners to access Hemlane with their own free account - through your subscription - by adding them as a team member. Here’s how:
Step 1: Log into Hemlane, and hover over your name in the top right corner
Step 2: Select the "Your Team" tab on the dropdown below
Step 3: Select [+User] and enter in your team member's name and email
Step 4: Choose what property you'd like this team member to have access to, then click [Next]
Step 5: Select what permission you'd like this team member to have access to.
Suggestion: We highly recommend a custom permission setup with everything except Service Professionals and “Request Payments from Tenants” selected for owners
Step 6: Turn off email and text message notifications for your owner by unchecking the notification box
Confirm the owner’s bank account has been added
Once invited, owners must add their bank accounts for direct payment processing.
Here’s how to check if someone has added in their bank account:
Step 1: Within your personal Hemlane account, hover over your name in the upper right-hand corner
Step 2: Click [Your Team]
Step 3: Click the name of the person you’d like to review
Step 4: Under their name, locate the “Ready to receive payments” section where a red X or green checkmark will show the user’s payment status.
Please note: If you are struggling to select a user to receive a deposit but they show a green checkmark indicating they are setup, please confirm they have their bank account on file as Hemlane cannot deposit to a debit or credit card.
Here’s how to add in your bank account:
Step 1: Within your personal Hemlane account, hover over your name in the upper right-hand corner
Step 2: Click [Banks & Cards]
Step 3: Click [+Account]
Please note:
- Savings accounts are not supported within Hemlane.
- You can only have a maximum of 10 unverified bank accounts allowed at any given time. Once your bank accounts are verified, you can then begin to add in the rest of your checking accounts.
For more information and instructions on how to manually verify your bank account, please visit our article, “How do I add a new bank account as an owner or manager?”
To create a new Allocate Rent rule
Step 1: Click into your Financials tab from your left side main panel
Step 2: Select the Settings section from along the top
Step 3: Select [ +New Allocation] to create a new Allocate Rent rule
Step 4: Fill out the form from top to bottom, using the drop-down menus to make any selections or changes needed
Step 5: Click [Create] to save
The Allocate Rent Rule will appear within your Financials tab's Settings section once a rent transaction has been created for the property:
For further information and instructions on creating Rent Allocation rules, please visit our article, “How do I create an Allocate Rent Rule?”
Have Owners Fill Out Maintenance & Repair Instructions
Ensure owners provide maintenance and repair preferences by updating the instructions:
Step 1: Select the Maintenance & Repair tab on the left hand main menu
Step 2: Choose the "Instructions" section at the top of the page
Step 3: Filter for the property address at the top of the page
Step 4: Click anywhere on this main property box to open up the detailed page
Step 5: Select the "Billing Contact" subcategory to make your changes.
You can change the Billing Contact by clicking "Reassign Billing Contact" or change your maintenance billing account by clicking "Maintenance Billing Account". The Billing Account should always be your client’s bank account, so that you never have to float the funds.
If you are selecting a Team Member as the Billing Contact, please keep in mind they will need to confirm their Maintenance bill-to payment account within their Hemlane account in order for their maintenance billing set up to be completed.