HOMEBUILDER: LOT INSTALLMENTS
This article covers an overview of lot installments and processing NSF checks ...
In This Article:
Lot Installments Basics | Processing NSF Check for Lot Installments
Purpose and Basics of Lot Installments
A lot installment represents a payment made by a homebuyer to a homebuilder. Usually, lot installments include lot deposits and deposits or payments for upgrades and extras.
To access, search Lots, open the Lot Card, and click the "Lot Installments" Action Button. This opens the page "Lot Installments".
Important
The way you set up your installments affects how you see deposits in your bank reconciliation. See the "Setup" section at the bottom of this page to determine how to show only one transaction per deposit or one transaction per check.
Entering Installments
You must enter Installments to a specific Lot.
Note
Entering the Installments just creates a record of the cheque, it only hits the Bank Account after adding to a journal and posting. Although you enter installments to a Lot, you can view the installments for all Lots from the main menu "Installments" cue.
To record Lot Installments, open the Lot List (or Lot Card) and choose the action "Installments".
Lot Installments have the following columns. You must enter the fields marked as bold, the rest are either optional, special functions or informational.
| Field | Function | Type of Field |
|---|---|---|
| No. | The Number of the installment within a Lot. | Automatic |
| Cheque Date | The date on the cheque. | User selected |
| Bank No. | The bank on the cheque. This is an informational non-mandatory field and not related to your Bank Accounts. | Enter a date |
| Lot Sales Status | The current Sales Status of the Lot | Informational |
| Installment Type | Can be 'Deposit' or 'Payment'. The deposit gets accounted for on closing. The payment gets posted against the Sales Invoice. If the Installment Type is 'Deposit' then "Tax Amount" must be 0.00. | Defaults to Deposit |
| Stage | Indicates stage of the deposit which is installed against the house itself. | Enter a Number |
| Net Amount | Net Amount of the installment. This is an informational field. If the installment is a deposit, normally it is the same as the Amount. | Enter a Number |
| Tax Amount | This is an informational field that indicates Tax Amount on the invoice. | Informational |
| Amount | The amount on the cheque that will be posted in the Cash Receipt Journal or Deposit Journal. | Enter a Number |
| In Journal | System field showing if the installment has been added to a Cash Receipt Journal or Deposit Journal. | Informational |
| Posted | Indicates if the installment was posted. i.e., it is already in the bank. | Informational |
| Posting Date | Posting Date of the posting transaction. | Informational |
| Manually Marked as Posted | Indicates if the lot installment was manually marked as posted (commonly used in implementations where the installments were posted in the previous system) | Optional |
| Status | Informational field which indicates Status of the installment. The Status options are 'Received', 'Returned', 'Outstanding', 'Submitted', and 'NSF'. If the Status is 'NSF', the Amount should be negative. | Optional |
| Installment Category | Indicates the purpose of the installment that can be 'Regular', 'Extra', or 'Other'. | Optional |
| Payment Type | Informational field that indicates payment type which can be 'Cheque', 'Cash', 'VISA', 'MASTERCARD', 'AMEX', 'Debit', or 'Other'. | Optional |
| Sales Invoice No. | Sales Invoice No. of the invoice posted for the customer (normally for upgrades and extras). On entering Sales Invoice No. fields "Net Amount", "Tax Amount", and "Amount" get auto-populated. When the installment gets posted via Deposit or Cash Receipt journal, the invoice will be applied automatically. | Informational |
| Remaining Amount | Remaining Amount on the invoice. | Informational |
Cashing the Check
Deposit or Cash Receipts Journal?
There are two standard journals in which you can process payments. The Cash Receipt Journal (most commonly used) or the Bank Deposit.
Cash Receipts Journals are a little simpler and more similar to basic accounting programs so people gravitate towards them. Bank Deposits for Lot Installments are a more fully functioning process but are marginally more complex.
Cash Receipt Processing
To use a Cash Receipts Journal, just add transactions from the installments page ("Add to Cash Receipt Journal" button), follow the instructions, and repeat until you are done. You either post each line against a balancing account of a bank or enter a total bank posting at the bottom of the journal. For details, read the article Cash Receipt Journals.
Note
To have better historical reporting, go to General Journal Templates and turn on "Copy to Posted Jnl. Lines".
Bank Deposit Processing
To use deposits, you must setup a deposit first, then push the installments to this journal ("Add to Bank Deposit" button), follow the instructions, and repeat until you are done. Return to the Bank Deposit, enter a total deposit amount; select the "Post as Lump Sum" option, if you want to summarize on the bank and post. Complete instructions are in the article Bank Deposits for Lot Installments.
Viewing History
Search Lots, then click Lot Installments. From the "Related" button on the Installments Page, you can go straight to the Posted page. You can also view postings in all the standard ways available in Dynamics BC.
Other Topics
- Mark as Posted - This action allows a user to mark a Lot Installment as posted in the case when the posting was done directly in a Cash Receipt Journal of Bank Deposit or was migrated from a legacy system.
- Un-mark as Posted - Un-marks lot installment as posted.
- Page "Lot Installments" when called from the home page.
- To manage all lot installments in a company, a user can call the page "Lot Installments" from the home page (role center).
- This page allows a user to filter lot installments by "Cheque Date" and add them to the Cash Receipt or Deposit journal.
- The page has two actions which work the same way in page "Lot Installments" called from the Lot Card.
Setup
Base Financial Setup
In order to use deposits there is a standard General Journal Batch setup for Microsoft BC - see your consultant to help with this.
HomeBuilder Financial Setup
Search HomeBuilder Setup where you must either specify that you intend to use the Customer (not common) or that you intend to use a GL Account number (and therefore you must enter the GL Account number) to the HomeBuilder setup in the fast tab called Lot Deposit Posting. (You would typically have a dedicated liability account called Deposits in Trust or Customer Deposits.)
One Bank Reconciliation Line Per Deposit or Per Check
| Field | Function | Type of Field |
|---|---|---|
| Cash Receipt Journal | One Bank Rec Line per check | Check as Payment, Balance Account Type, and No. are Bank and Bank No. (can setup in the batch to default this). |
| Cash Receipt Journal | One Bank Rec Line per deposit | Check as Payment, do not fill in Balance Account No. Turn off "Force Document Balance" at the "General Journal Template" level of the Cash Receipts Journal and enter one line at the bottom of the Journal for Bank Deposit Entry. |
| Bank Deposit | One Bank Rec Line per check | Do not check on "Post as Lump Sum" before posting. |
| Bank Deposit | One Bank Rec Line per deposit | Check on "Post as Lump Sum" before posting. |
Processing NSF Check for Lot Installments
Business Case:
The customer supplied the check. The check was deposited using Cash Receipt Journal or Bank Deposit and deposited in the bank. In 3 days the bank says that it was NSF.
Processing NSF Check for Lot Installments
Search Lots, open the Lot Card pertaining to the NSF check, and click the Lot Installments Button.
- We need to add another line on the Lot Installments page
- Enter a negative amount, the status is NSF.
To finish the process and post the Lot Installment Line, we need to:
Option 1:
If this is the only transaction, you must process it using the Cash Receipt Journal.
On the Lot Installments Page, on the Lot Installment Line:
- Stage Number must be set to Zero.
- Select the Status Code as NSF.
- Set Installment Category as Other.
- Set Payment Type Other.
Hit Add to Cash Receipt Journal
- You will receive a message confirming that your line was added to the Cash Receipt Journal.
Search Cash Receipt Journals
- In the Cash Receipt Journal page:
- Notice that the NSF is under the Document Type Refund.
- You can assign "NSF Check" as the document number.
When ready, post the Cash Receipt Journal.
Option 2:
If the NSF check is part of many transactions with a total positive balance, you can:
- Process it using the Bank Deposit function.
- Process it using the Cash Receipt Journal. (Option 1)
Handling the NSF Fee
This is decided by your CFO or Controller, as there are a few ways to handle it. One way to consider is:
- Set up your Bank as a Vendor, then follow your process for creating a Purchase Invoice and paying Vendors. You would then use a Payment Journal.
- As the bank fee is automatically withdrawn from your account, you can "pay" the bank fee using "Manual Check".
- You can choose to assign a different posting group to your bank (or banks). You could then assign a different G/L account for this transaction than your regular Accounts Payable.
- To do it, search Vendor Posting Groups, and create a new Vendor Posting Group called Bank. Then assign a different "Payable Account" than your regular AP.
- Lastly, assign the Vendor Posting Group "Bank" on your Bank Vendor Card.