Pay Owners

Overview

Before you start, open the Financials menu → Payments → Actions and turn on Payrun mode, so nobody outside your finance team moves a balance while you work.

To pay owners, open the Financials menu → Payments → the Payables tab, set the Payment date, tick the properties and click Ready payments. Then on the Staged tab, Generate the bank CSV, pay from your bank and Mark as paid.

Each payment then sits on the Paid tab until Keyhook matches it to your bank feed and marks it Reconciled.

To stop one property being paid at all, tick it on the Payables tab and click Put On Hold.

Lock the agency down while you pay

Turn payrun mode on

Open the Financials menu → Payments → Actions and turn on Payrun mode. Only a finance person or a principal can switch it on or off, and it never blocks you from running the payments yourself.

Check the badge

An amber Payrun mode badge sits beside the Keyhook logo on every screen while it is on, so the rest of the team can see the agency is mid payrun.

Know what your team cannot do

While payrun mode is on, anyone without finance permission is stopped from anything that moves a balance: tenant and supplier invoices, fee charges, approvals under Financials → Bill Pay, reconciling and reversing under Financials → Bank Feeds, bonds, journal entries, and tenancy edits such as changing an end date or serving a notice. They see a Payrun mode is on message and the change is not saved. Viewing, searching and reporting all carry on as normal, and rent keeps accruing.

Expect charges to be held for approval

Letting fees, inspection fees and recurring charges are still raised while payrun mode is on, but they wait for approval instead of posting, even if your agency normally settles them straight away. They stay waiting after you turn payrun mode off, so someone has to approve each one before it reaches the ledger.

Turn payrun mode off

Open the Financials menu → Payments → Actions again and turn Payrun mode off. The badge clears and the rest of the team can move money again.

Ready the owner payments

Open the Payables tab

From the left sidebar, open the Financials menu and click Payments. The page opens on the Payables tab. Make sure the Properties tab is selected (not Suppliers), since owner payouts are made per property. (Payments only appears under Financials for property managers who are a finance person or a principal. The roles that pay owners; a standard property manager won't see it.)

Set the payment date

Set the Payment date at the top. This is required. It's recorded as the effective date on each payment, not a cut-off. Keyhook readies the property's full current payable balance (after any keepback and tenant-refund holds) regardless of the date you choose.

Choose the properties

Tick the properties you want to pay out. Each row shows the payable Balance (after any Keepback), the Owner and the Bank Account the money goes to.

Ready the payments

Click Ready payments. A Ready Payments summary opens listing each property with its owner and amount, and the Total Payment Amount for the run.

Confirm

Click Ready Payments in the summary to create the payments. Keyhook processes each one and then shows a summary of what succeeded and any that failed.

Continue to the Staged tab

Click Continue to finish. Keyhook moves you to the Staged tab, where the new payments are waiting to go out.

Note: A property can only be paid once valid bank details exist on the property or its owner. Properties with no account show Missing in the Bank Account column and can't be ticked.

Generate the bank file and mark them paid

Open the Staged tab

On the Staged tab, keep the Properties tab selected. It lists every owner payment waiting to go out, with its amount, reference and bank account.

Select the payments

Tick the owner payments you're about to send from your bank.

Generate the CSV

Click Generate selected (N) payments CSV. Keyhook downloads a bank file containing the selected owner payments.

Mark them as paid

As soon as the file downloads, a Mark as paid window opens. Click Mark as paid to move those payments to the Paid tab. You can also tick rows on this tab and use the Mark as Paid action at any time.

Note: Generating the CSV doesn't send any money. It only produces the file you upload to your bank. The owners aren't paid until you complete the transfer in your banking.

Confirm the payments reconcile

Open the Paid tab

Open the Paid tab to see everything you've paid. Each row carries a Paid or Reconciled status.

Reconcile them from your bank feed

When the payments leave your bank and come through in Financials → Bank Feeds, reconcile them and each status changes from Paid to Reconciled automatically. If your bank shows the run as one lump sum, open it and click Select outgoing payments to tick each payment in the run. You can carry on reconciling the rest of your bank feed while you wait: the payout amount was set when you readied it, so anything you reconcile afterwards stays on the property for its next payout.

Undo a payment marked in error

To reverse a payment you marked paid by mistake, tick it and click Mark as Unpaid. It returns to the Staged tab. Payments that have already reconciled can't be marked unpaid.

Resend an owner's remittance

If your agency emails owner remittances, tick the payments and click Resend Remittance to send the owner their remittance advice again.

Put a property's payouts on hold

Select the properties

On the Payables tab, tick the properties whose payouts you want to pause.

Open Put On Hold

Click Put On Hold in the bulk actions to open the Put Properties On Hold window.

Enter a reason

Type a Reason for hold. This is required.

Put the property on hold

Click Put On Hold to confirm.

Note: A property on hold is excluded from every payment run until you clear the hold, so its owner won't be paid in the meantime. Held properties show an On Hold flag with your reason.

Frequently asked questions

What is the Keepback and how does it affect the payout?

The Keepback is an amount retained from the owner's income to cover potential expenses. The amount paid out is the property's balance minus its keepback, which is why the Balance column already has the keepback deducted.

Can I pay out just part of what's owing on one property?

Yes. Select exactly one property and click Ready payments to open a Ready Payment window. Turn on the Pay partial amount toggle and enter the amount to pay part of the balance instead of the full amount.

How do I pay a tenant or a supplier instead of an owner?

Use the Suppliers tab on the same Payments page for suppliers. To refund a tenant, open Financials → Tenant Refunds and click the tenancy, or open the property's Tenant Overview → Actions (top right) → Tenant refund. Both take you to the same refund page.

Set Up the Property Owner → Where the owner's bank account is added, so their properties can be ticked for payment.
Reconcile Batch Payments → How to reconcile a payout run that comes through your bank as one lump sum.

Pay Owners

Frequently asked questions

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