Where did this charge amount come from?

mistore

I went to apply a normal payment to this account ($100 on a $99/month unit); and I see that the charges generated for this month are suddenly $168??

Nothing has been changed on this account that I can see, where did this charge amount come from?

themage

Why is there an asterisk by the last rent entry?
Check the ledger settings to be sure the rent amount didn't change and that no special or discount is registered.

That's all I can think of.

MamaDuke7

Looks like they had a rate increase.  Check the rate history.  But that's a huge increase!

@themage the asterisk means it's a partially paid charge.

mistore

MamaDuke7 said:

Looks like they had a rate increase.  Check the rate history.  But that's a huge increase!

That was my first thought; that maybe someone accidently changed a rental rate. That is not it though.

• There have been no changes in the rate history.
• The unit rental rate is still at the  $99/month. 
• No additional charges have been added to the account.
• Nothing is in the Notes to indicate any change to the account.
• It's listed as "Rent" on the Ledger.
• No future charges have been made.
• The charge does not correspond to any charge, or combination of charges.

I'm really baffled about where this came from, or how to figure out where it came from.

MamaDuke7

Sounds like it's time to call support so they can look into it. 

mistore

MamaDuke7 said:

Sounds like it's time to call support so they can look into it. 

 On it!

mistore

What a mess! 

So; as an update for posterity, here is what happened (as far as I can tell)

I haven't talked with them yet, so I don't know how it got to that point, but evidently a month ago, an employee went in and added that $168 rent charge. The only way to do that would be Payments->Edit Charges and Payments->Add new charge (Rent)->overwrite the normal rent charge with  the $168 amount->Add New Charge->Ok-enter the $100 payment->Ok.

A very long, drawn out sequence of events, but what that did (I guess) is pay the account up to date (with the credit being carried forward) and create a changed rent amount that did not show up until the next rent cycle was due. SiteLink then substituted the "new rent" amount instead of the normal amount?? This got us to the screen shot above.

There is ZERO visibility to this, zero indication that anything has been changed. The only way you can see anything, is to go to the Charges Report. Even then, it shows nothing out of the ordinary outside of the "new rent" amount.

The way to "fix" this, is to process the regular payment, go back and create future charges for the next month, calculate the difference between the regular rent and the "new rent" amount that was entered and apply that as a credit. This entire process is complicated by the fact that there was a $10 carried credit on the account from overpayments.

The problem, is that the credit will only apply to the next month. SiteLink thinks that they are now behind $59 on the "new rent" (168-100-9=59) for this month until the credit is applied next month and payment is made. I am going to have to baby sit that unit as SiteLink is going to treat it as delinquent. I'll need to "never lock out" the gate software for them, not process the lock out fee, and then go back and waive the accumulated late fee with next months payment. 

mistore

Here is what my Charges Report looked like for that unit:  

mistore

And this is what that units Ledger looks like now:

themage

I think "disable past due events" in ledger settings will prevent late fees and lock out going on. Just remember to turn it off again after everything is normal.

ESS

Whoever "M1" is, they need their permissions in SL restricted

mistore

ESS said:

Whoever "M1" is, they need their permissions in SL restricted

The problem with that, is they need the ability to add a couple of punitive fees in the system, and I don't believe that SiteLink allows you to pick and choose individual permissions on charges? 

mistore

themage said:

I think "disable past due events" in ledger settings will prevent late fees and lock out going on. Just remember to turn it off again after everything is normal.

I'll have to look into that in the morning, I always forget that I have the ability to do that.  👍🏼

ESS

mistore said:

ESS said:

Whoever "M1" is, they need their permissions in SL restricted

The problem with that, is they need the ability to add a couple of punitive fees in the system, and I don't believe that SiteLink allows you to pick and choose individual permissions on charges? 

Yeah, that's hard to do when they went that route to change the rent amount..it's not the standard blocking them from adjusting ledger settings. At the least, they need to be sternly talked to. It's a good thing you were able to catch it so quickly!

pammerjammer1964

you should be able to adjust the ledger if you haven't done a daily close.