Send a Supplier Invoice to the Owner to Pay Directly

Overview

To pass a supplier invoice to the property owner, open the Financials menu → Bill Pay → the Pending tab → the invoice, tick Send to owner directly? and click Send to owner direct pay. Keyhook emails the owner a link to pay the supplier and charges your maintenance fee to the property. The invoice then sits on the Owner Direct Pay tab until the owner confirms they have paid.

Send a pending invoice to the owner

Open the invoice

Go to Financials → Bill Pay → the Pending tab and click the invoice. Any pending invoice can be sent to the owner. Rows for a flagged owner or job show Yes under Owner Direct? and open with an Owner to pay directly banner.

Check the assignment

Set the Supplier and the Property. The property must have an owner on file, and the invoice can't carry a tenant portion, so clear Tenant pays a portion of this invoice first.

Tick Send to owner directly?

You can tick this on any pending invoice. It is already ticked if the owner or the job is flagged as paying directly. Ticking it hides the tenant contribution fields and replaces Approve with Send to owner direct pay.

Send it

Click Send to owner direct pay. Keyhook emails the owner a link to pay the supplier and tells the supplier the invoice has gone to the owner. Both emails can be customised under Emails → Templates. The invoice moves to the Owner Direct Pay tab, where Date sent and Confirmed paid track it from there.

Note: To send a batch, tick the rows marked Yes under Owner Direct? on the Pending tab and use the Send to owner direct pay bulk action. Check the supplier's bank details are right before you send, because they're shown to the owner on the payment page.

Flag an owner or job that always pays directly

Flag the owner

From the left sidebar, open Property Owners, click the owner, then Actions → Edit and switch on Does this owner pay suppliers directly?. Every new maintenance request under their properties is then flagged the same way, and their invoices show Yes in the Owner Direct? column in Bill Pay.

Or flag a single job

On a work order, tick Owner pays this supplier directly. Use this when the owner is settling one job only.

Note: The flag is optional. You can send any pending invoice to the owner without it. What it does is save you a step and guard against mistakes: it pre-ticks Send to owner directly?, shows the Owner to pay directly banner, marks the row Yes under Owner Direct?, warns you if you Approve the invoice instead (which would pay the supplier through Keyhook as well), and is what makes a row selectable for the bulk Send to owner direct pay action.

What happens to the money and your fee

The supplier isn't paid through Keyhook

The owner pays them the invoice amount directly, so nothing enters your supplier pay run.

Your maintenance fee is still charged

The fee and its GST are charged to the property as soon as you send the invoice, and are deducted from the property's balance like any other fee. If the property is short of funds the fee stays Pending until there's credit. If the supplier has maintenance fees disabled there's no fee to charge.

It still shows on the owner statement

The job is recorded against the property, so the statement shows the amount the owner paid directly and the fee you charged.

How the owner confirms they have paid

From the owner portal

An owner with a portal account opens the property or the maintenance request and clicks View & confirm payment.

From the emailed link

Every owner gets a link in the Invoice to pay directly email. It opens a public page with the Amount to pay, the invoice PDF and the supplier's bank details, with no sign-in needed. They click I've paid directly, then Yes, I've paid.

Or you confirm for them

Open the invoice on the Owner Direct Pay tab and click Mark paid, or tick the rows and use the Mark paid bulk action.

Note: Confirming doesn't move any money, because the fee was charged when you sent the invoice. It closes the linked maintenance request and attaches the invoice PDF to it.

Chase an owner who hasn't confirmed

Turn the reminders on

Go to Agency → Trust Accounting Settings (Principal users only), switch on Owner-direct payment reminders enabled and set Owner-direct reminder frequency in days.

Know when they go out

If the invoice still has a due date ahead of it when you send it, the first reminder goes out on the due date. Otherwise it goes out once your chosen number of days has passed since you sent it, then repeats on that frequency until the owner confirms.

Note: The third reminder also emails the property managers on the portfolio and raises a dashboard action against the property. Reminders stop as soon as the payment is confirmed, or the invoice is moved back to Bill Pay.

Move an invoice back to Bill Pay

Reverse the send

On the Owner Direct Pay tab, open the invoice (or tick the rows for the bulk action), click Move back to Bill Pay and confirm with Move back.

Process it normally

The invoice returns to the Pending tab with today's invoice date.

Note: Moving back reverses the maintenance fee, removes the $0 supplier invoice and kills the owner's payment link, so sending it again issues a fresh one. It still works after the owner has confirmed, so only use it if the owner hasn't actually paid. You also can't archive an invoice while it's with the owner, move it back first.

Frequently asked questions

Why can't I send this invoice to the owner?

The invoice has to still be Pending, and have a Supplier, a Property and a property owner on file. It also can't carry a tenant portion, so resolve that first.

The owner says they've paid but it still shows as unconfirmed

Open the invoice on the Owner Direct Pay tab and click Mark paid. That records the confirmation against your name and closes the job.

What if the owner never pays?

Reminders keep going out on your chosen frequency, and from the third one you and the other property managers on the portfolio are emailed and given a dashboard action. If the owner won't pay, use Move back to Bill Pay and pay the supplier through Keyhook instead.

Send a Supplier Invoice to the Owner to Pay Directly

Frequently asked questions

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