Before You Begin: Recording and Recovering Expenses
Before generating management fees or preparing owner disbursements, take time to confirm that all expenses incurred during the month have been properly recorded and, where appropriate, billed back to the properties they belong to. Skipping this step can result in the property manager absorbing costs that should have been passed through to an owner. Before beginning your month-end process, please make sure you review the following:
1. Review Resolved Work Orders
When a work order is completed by a vendor or employee, it moves into a Resolved status. This status signals that the work is done but the associated expenses or labor have not yet been billed back to the property. Before closing the period, navigate to Maintenance > Work Orders and filter for work orders in Resolved status. Review each one to confirm that vendor invoices have been received or that labor hours have been logged, and that the billing panel reflects the correct expenses and markups. Once you are satisfied, close the work order from its detail page by clicking Close and Bill Work Order. This generates a receivable against the property for the expense amount plus any applicable markup defined on the entity’s management contract. If the bill should display on the owner statement as paid, check the “Pay generated invoice with owner balance immediately” box.
If a work order was closed without billing, or if vendor invoices arrived after the work order was already billed/closed, those costs may not have been captured. Catching these before disbursements are calculated ensures the owner’s balance accurately reflects all activity for the month and ensures that property managers aren’t absorbing the bill.
2. Review the Unrecovered Expenses Report
The Unrecovered Expenses report, found under Reports > Fee Management, is a valuable tool for identifying third party vendor invoices that were paid by the management company but never billed back to a property owner. The report defaults to the prior month’s date range and displays each payable line item along with the vendor name, invoice number, description, dollar amount, and associated work order status.
Filter the report by date range to match the period you are closing. Review each line item carefully. If an expense is associated with a work order that is still open or resolved, navigate to that work order and complete the billing process. If an expense is not tied to a work order at all, determine whether it should be associated with one before billing it back. Expenses that are legitimately the responsibility of the management company, such as back-office software subscriptions or internal costs, can be disregarded. The goal is to ensure that no owner-recoverable expense slips through the cracks before disbursements go out.
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Beginning the Month End Process: Generating Management Fees
Management fees should be generated before executing property transfers or preparing owner disbursements so that fee revenue is properly deducted from the owner’s available balance. Revela calculates management fees based on the management contract associated with each entity, applying the configured fee rates to eligible transaction activity that has occurred since the last time fees were billed.
Management fees should be generated before executing property transfers or preparing owner disbursements so that fee revenue is properly deducted from the owner’s available balance. Revela calculates management fees based on the management contract associated with each entity, applying the configured fee rates to eligible transaction activity that has occurred since the last time fees were billed.
Generating Fees in Bulk
Navigate to Portfolios/Properties > Entities. The Entities table displays a Billed Through column that shows the date through which management fees were last generated for each entity. Select the entities you want to bill, then click the Generate Management Fees button in the search bar. In the modal that appears, set the Effective Date to the last day of the period you are closing. The Mark Management Fees as Paid checkbox is selected by default, which automatically applies the generated fee as paid from the owner’s balance. Click Submit to begin generating fees for all selected entities.
Revela will skip any entity that has already been billed through the selected effective date or that does not have a management contract configured. If an entity is missing a management contract, you will need to set one up first by navigating to the entity detail page and clicking Actions > Management Contract.
Best Practice: It is recommended to never set your management fee Effective Date as the current day. This is because tenants could make a payment that is eligible for management fees billing after the management fees are billed and they will not be captured in the next billing cycle. For example, if today is May 1, best practice is to set your management fee billing Effective Date to April 30, not May 1.
Generating Fees for a Single Entity
From the entity detail page, click Actions > Generate Management Fees. The modal will display when fees were last billed for this entity. Set the effective date and submit. This approach is useful for one-off billing situations or when a management contract was recently updated and you want to generate fees for a single entity independently.
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Property Balance Transfers
Once management fees have been billed, we recommend executing property balance transfers next. When an entity owns multiple properties, it is common for one property to carry a surplus while another runs a deficit due to maintenance expenses or vacancy. Property balance transfers move funds from properties with a positive balance to properties with a negative balance within the same entity. This prevents the property manager from floating costs on behalf of an owner and ensures the disbursement calculation reflects a consolidated picture of the entity’s finances.
Running Transfers in Bulk
From the Portfolios/Properties > Entities page, select the entities that need transfers and click Property Balance Transfers in the search bar. Set the Effective Date to the last day of the period being closed, then click Submit. The Effective Date should match the same Management Fee Effective Date. Revela will evaluate each property’s balance as of the effective date, less any reserve amount, and automatically transfer funds from surplus properties to deficit properties within each entity. Entities whose management contracts have property balance transfers disabled will be skipped automatically.
Note that property balance transfers only move funds between properties within the same entity. They do not execute transfers across different entities, even if those entities share the same owner.
Transfers During the Close Period
When closing a single entity through the Close Period page, the Property Transfers section displays suggested transfers based on current property balances. You can select which transfers to include before submitting. This gives you more granular control compared to the bulk process.
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Preparing Owner Disbursements
Once management fees have been generated and property balance transfers have been executed, you are ready to prepare owner disbursements. Disbursements calculate the amount owed to each owner based on the funds collected for their properties, minus any unpaid expenses, reserves, and management fees.
Preparing Disbursements in Bulk
From the Portfolios/Properties > Entities page, select the entities that need disbursements and click Prepare Disbursements in the search bar. The modal presents several options to configure:
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Activity Through - This sets the cutoff date for which transaction activity is included in the disbursement calculation. For example, if you are closing April and it is now early May, set this to April 30 so that only funds collected through the end of April are considered.
- Disbursement Method - This option determines how the disbursement amount is calculated. Zero Net Balance is the most commonly used option and disburses available funds minus unpaid expenses and the reserve amount. Alternatively, Zero Cash Balance disburses all available cash and overrides any reserves or held funds.
- Post Date - This is the accounting date assigned to the generated disbursement invoices. Invoices cannot be created with a post date that falls within a closed period.
- Payables Batch Name - This represents the name that will be assigned to the payables batch containing all of the generated disbursement invoices. By default, Revela suggests a name based on the current date.
Click Submit to generate the disbursements. Revela creates one invoice per property, and all invoices are grouped into the named payables batch for review. The invoice by property is essentially to provide accurate per property balances and property level accounting.
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Reviewing and Paying the Batch
After disbursements are prepared, navigate to Accounting > Payables > Batches to find the batch that was just created. Open the batch to review the invoices, confirm the amounts, and verify that the correct bank account and payment method are assigned for each recipient.
Each group of invoices in the batch displays a bank account selector and a payment method selector. If the entity has bank account information on file and has been configured to prefer electronic payments, Revela will default the payment method to ACH. Otherwise, the default will be Check. You can override the payment method for any recipient directly on the batch detail page by selecting from the available options in the dropdown.
Note: To set an entity’s preferred disbursement method to ACH, Navigate to Portfolios/Properties > Entities > Select Entity > Actions > Edit. If ACH is selected and no deposit account is on file for that entity, the payment method will default to check.
Once you are satisfied with the batch contents, click Process Batch to generate payments and close the batch. For recipients set to ACH, funds are submitted electronically and owners can typically expect to receive their payment the next business day. For recipients set to Check, you can print the checks from the batch detail page after processing.
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Closing a Period for a Single Entity
In some situations, you may want to walk through the entire close process for a single entity rather than using the bulk tools. The Close Period page provides a consolidated workflow that handles unpaid expenses, property transfers, disbursements, and journal locking in a single submission. This process is recommended for scenarios where you want to customize and manually enter disbursement amounts.
Navigate to Portfolios/Properties > Entities > Select Entity > Actions > Close Period. The page is organized into several sections.
The page is organized into several sections:
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Billing Period - This section lets you select the accounting period you are closing. Revela displays whether the entity has been previously closed and through what date. The Close Journal checkbox, selected by default, locks the accounting journal as of the period end date.
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This prevents any transactions from being posted before the lock date, protecting the integrity of owner statements and financial reports. If you are running a mid-month disbursement, uncheck this box so the journal remains open for the remainder of the month.
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- Unpaid Expenses - This section lists all outstanding payable invoices across the entity’s properties. Selecting an invoice here tells Revela to deduct it from the owner’s balance during this close, which will appear as a paid expense on the owner statement.
- Property Transfers - This section suggests transfers between properties based on their current balances. Select the transfers you want to include before submitting.
- Owner Disbursement - This section provides several options for calculating the payout, including:
- No Disbursement skips creating a payable entirely.
- Zero Net Balance disburses available cash minus unpaid ex penses and reserves.
- Zero Cash Balance disburses all available cash.
- Manual lets you enter a custom disbursement amount. You can also assign the resulting invoice to an existing payables batch.
- Cash Summary - The Cash Summary table at the bottom of the page displays a condensed version of the owner statement, showing each property’s beginning balance, cash in, cash out, reserve, disbursement, ending balance, and net balance. You can click on any dollar amount to view the underlying transactions. Review this table carefully before submitting to confirm the numbers are correct.
Once you have finished reviewing, click Submit to execute all selected actions. If you are closing multiple entities in sequence, click Submit and Next to automatically advance to the next entity in alphabetical order.
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Tips & Best Practices
The recommended order for the month-end close process is to first review and bill any resolved work orders that are ready to be billed, record and recover all expenses, then generate management fees, run property balance transfers, and finally prepare owner disbursements. Following this sequence ensures that each step builds on accurate data from the previous one. Remember to:
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Review Resolved Work Orders by navigating to Maintenance > Work Orders and filtering for the desired timeframe and identifying work orders that have been resolved and are ready to be billed.
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This ensures that any work orders that were completed by internal maintenance teams are billed to the appropriate property since no vendor invoice would be necessary or recorded. This review can also be completed via the Work Orders report.
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- Run the Unrecovered Expenses report at least once during every close cycle. Even with diligent work order management, vendor invoices sometimes arrive late or get recorded without being linked to a work order. A quick review of this report can catch expenses that would otherwise reduce the management company’s margin!
Before generating management fees, confirm that each entity’s management contract reflects the correct settings. Any changes to a management contract should be made before fees are generated for the period, as the fee calculation uses the contract in effect at the time of generation.
When processing a payables batch that includes ACH payments, verify that each recipient entity has valid bank account information and that their payment preference is set to receive electronic deposits. This can be configured on the entity’s profile. Recipients without bank account details on file will default to check, which requires manual printing and mailing.
Finally, keep in mind that invoices cannot be posted to a closed period. If you realize an adjustment is needed after a period has been locked through the Close Period page, you will need to post it to the next open period or consult your administrator about reopening the journal.