Introduction
A deposit is a one time payment that your customers make when renting space from your organization. The deposit is kept throughout the rental period and may be returned at the end of the lease; or retained, depending on the circumstances (e.g.: for damaged goods). Read more about how to configure deposits/retainers.
How it Works
There are two ways to add deposits to your customers' accounts:
Via the Accounts Receivable module where you can directly add the amounts they need to pay.
When setting up Licences, in which case the Deposit is associated to certain products (such as spaces you sell). In this situation, you need to ensure that the product you add to the Licence is associated to a retainer product, in order for the Deposit to be added to the Licence. Read more about adding retainer products.
Adding a Deposit via AR
You can manage deposits for each of your customers under Invoicing > Accounts Receivable. Click your customer’s name in the list and find the three deposit related buttons on the right. Here is where you can: add, refund or offset a deposit.
To add a deposit for your selected customer, click Add Deposit. You will be taken to the following screen:
Notice the selected customer account - it is set to the customer that you have already selected and cannot be changed.
Select the Deposit Product - This needs to have been previously added under Space > Products; otherwise there won’t be any item to select here. Please have a look at the dedicated guide on adding a product to Operate, if you need further information.
Choose the reference Date of the deposit.
Add a Reference text that will be displayed as a description of your record.
Select the Payment Type that has been used to pay the deposit. This list will include the payment types that you have already set up in the system. Read more on managing payment types in Operate.
Add the Amount that has been deposited by the customer.
Click OK to complete your deposit.
Refunding a Deposit
You might want to refund a deposit after the customer leaves your building. Detailed information about this is available in Refunding a deposit for a member with zero balance in Operate
Offsetting a Deposit
Deposit offsetting is often being used when you are willing to keep the deposit for the last month’s rent. This feature moves the funds from the Deposit account to your Cash account. It does not affect the balance, only moves funds between GL codes.
Further information about this process can be found in: Offsetting all or a certain portion of the member deposit to an existing balance in Operate.
Adding Deposits to Licences
When you create a Licence, you can add different products or services to it; and you can choose to charge a deposit for those products/services.
In order for your Licence to charge deposits, you need to set up retainers on the products you want it charged for. Once you do this, you can simply select the product on the Licence and the Deposit will be applied. You can configure the way this is done, under Operate's Settings. Read more on configuring deposits.
