How do you run your autopay?

helenatim

I run autopay on the 1st of the month for nearly all tenants and I run batches of 50 at a time.  Wondering how others do this?  Do you run the whole facility at once? I used to do it and had freeze-ups.  What's the sweet spot? 75? 100?   With three facilities and about 800 autopays, I can get it done in an hour, especially now that I quit emailing receipts unless asked to.

helenatim

So I tried batches of 75 this morning.  Had a few more freeze-ups than usual and took 70 minutes.  Going back to 50 next month.

themage

Have you tried the automatic overnight processing feature? It is still beta and there are occasional hiccoughs, but we have found it useful. It runs invoices and autobills a bit after midnight and emails you the results and anything you would need to print out.

MamaDuke7

I just use the automatic processing.  However, I'm anniversary date billing, so mine basically run in daily batches.

igotthisnow

I'm with MamaDuke I'm on anniversary so I do overnight auto.

helenatim

themage said:

Have you tried the automatic overnight processing feature? It is still beta and there are occasional hiccoughs, but we have found it useful. It runs invoices and autobills a bit after midnight and emails you the results and anything you would need to print out.

I wonder how automatic overnight would manage 350 cc's? Might have to try it sometime.  

MamaDuke7

helenatim said:

themage said:

Have you tried the automatic overnight processing feature? It is still beta and there are occasional hiccoughs, but we have found it useful. It runs invoices and autobills a bit after midnight and emails you the results and anything you would need to print out.

I wonder how automatic overnight would manage 350 cc's? Might have to try it sometime.  

Might at least give you less to deal with in the morning on the 1st!

themage

You can set it to run only the first however many as a test. Maybe set it to 100 and let it run them over 4 days

BusyProperties

Ours is by anniversary date so batches each day. 

helenatim

Aside from smaller batches of payments and not having to do any pro-rating, what is the benefit of anniversary billing? Seems like more tracking of tenants when they are late.  Wouldn't you want everyone on the same schedule? Tell me what I am missing here.

LADYLIFT1

Ours is also anniversary date

themage

@helenatim Anniversary date billing is pretty much for exactly what you said. Especially for large facilities, it lets us handle smaller numbers of payments and lockouts at a time, and it streamlines the daily workflow. Office staff don't have to remember how to do something only once a month, and we don't have to lug around a giant bucket of red locks all day on lockout day. 

We still print most of our notices, so if we had to handle all of the late notices at once, staff would have to deal with printer jams and reprints. Everything would have to be double checked and then we would have to take boxes of mail to the post office.  


Our sister facility is a bit smaller, and they do still find it easier to stay first of month. If it works for you and your facility, it might not be worth it to change.

BusyProperties

@helenatim most of it is automatic as far as payments & late fee notices. I pull overlocks & reversals on Thursdays each week. It does help to keep all job duties fresh I am not getting calls & emails all at once. 

storagemaggie

Our company does the automatic beta payments and invoicing.  It has been amazing.  Only once or twice in the past 2 years have we had any issues.  We have sitelink databases with a range between 50-350 tenants in each, it starts processing at 12:01 and completes typically by 9am with automatic receipts emailed.  We do billing on the first, so we let it run for 3 days and then shut it off until the next month.  

helenatim

storagemaggie said:

Our company does the automatic beta payments and invoicing.  It has been amazing.  Only once or twice in the past 2 years have we had any issues.  We have sitelink databases with a range between 50-350 tenants in each, it starts processing at 12:01 and completes typically by 9am with automatic receipts emailed.  We do billing on the first, so we let it run for 3 days and then shut it off until the next month.  

I finally setup automatic payments and invoicing today.  It should run at 12:01am tomorrow August 1. Hoping it goes smoothly.  I di it because I have a 7am tee time and can't get the autopay done early enough to make it to the golf course  

I have also changed a few autopay tenants to different anniversary dates now that it will process automatically.

helenatim

Very successful automated payments over night. Does anyone know if Sitelink keeps trying to process the cards that get denied? Does it try everyday? Do I get a precessing fee each time it tries?

themage

I am not sure about the processing fee, but it will retry the payment each night until i works or you disable the autobilling on that account.

ESS

helenatim said:

Very successful automated payments over night. Does anyone know if Sitelink keeps trying to process the cards that get denied? Does it try everyday? Do I get a precessing fee each time it tries?

I believe we get charged whether it goes thru or not. That's why I'll turn it off after several declines and keep it off it's happening every month. I advise those tenants to find an alternate way to make sure their monthly payment is made....yes, SL will keep running it until it goes thru or until it's disabled. 

helenatim

I disabled autopay on all accounts that were declined due to "generic decline" or "account closed" and will let autopay continue on those with "insufficient funds."  This should help weed things out for next month.  Pretty happy with automated payments so far.