Transcription:

Welcome to Managing Payees training with VLU. This course is designed to show users how to assign and manage payees within a lease record.

By the end of this course, you should feel comfortable:
• Recalling the methods for assigning payees to a lease record
• Explaining the interaction and dependencies between payees and entries.
• And Identifying the difference between payee removal and replacement and when each should be used.

Please take a moment to review the course agenda. If you are looking for a specific topic, feel free to jump to the corresponding time stamp.

This video introduces payees in the VL platform – What they are and how they are used.

By definition, a payee is a party to whom money is paid or is to be paid. Like other contacts in the platform, payees can represent both individuals or companies and can be tied to multiple leases across your portfolio.

To track expenses in VL, each lease must first have a defined payee.

This is easy to grasp and apply when dealing with expense leases.

As the tenant, or lessee, you are most likely the payor of at least one expense related to the lease – the party making payment to a landlord or property owner.

The landlord, or lessor, is typically the payee, receiving payment from you.

But what about income leases? In this situation, the roles are reversed. You are the landlord – which typically makes you the Payee for some of the receivables as well.

The VL platform does not currently update Payee section terminology based on the type of lease record – income vs expense. This means that while you are the payee on your income leases, you will use the Payee field of the platform to identify the party or parties making payment to you.

Let’s walk through the process of assigning a payee to a lease record…
Payees are found within the financials tab since these contacts are directly linked to your financial entries.

Users must have edit financials permissions in order to assign a payee to a lease.
The Payees landing page is relatively straightforward. Payees will appear here. Since no payees have been assigned to this record, this area reads “No Payees Listed.”

There are 2 ways to add a payee to a record. The first option you typically encounter is found on a different tab altogether…
The contacts tab.

Once a landlord is assigned to the lease, a new option appears in the action menu upon clicking the kebob here – allowing you to “Copy to Payee”.
This is a shortcut built into the platform that enables you to quickly and easily assign the landlord as a payee on this record. This is a nice time saver when the landlord is a party you make direct payments to.

The other option for assigning a payee is directly from the payees section.

This is the method you would use when the landlord is not the same party you remit payment to, or when there are multiple payees.

Select Add Payee to launch the Add Payee dialogue box.

The contact search helps you to search for and assign an existing contact as a payee. This is a dynamic search field, so simply start typing some identifying information – like company, name, email, title, or vendor id – and the search results will appear with potential matches.

If you’re unsure or require additional details on a contact before making a selection, use the advanced search to narrow down the options further.

In addition to the regular contact search parameter, advanced search also narrows down results by contact type , contact role, and party type. Company name, contact name, type, email, phone numbers, and associated record count are all listed in the results – where applicable.

Simply click on a displayed contact name to populate that contact’s information in the dialogue box. Then click Save to assign as a Payee.

If you have a new payee who has not yet been added to your platform contacts, you have the option to create a new contact and assign as a payee right from the Add Payee dialog box.

The Contact Record section – here – displays the details of the assigned payee. If a payee is inactive, click the kebob at the end of the record and choose the edit button from the action menu and change the status to Active.

While only the Last name or Company name, state or province and country are required – we always encourage you to fill in as many contact fields as possible.

Fields like payee type, vendor number, federal ID number, and tax code can be especially important for your AP and AR feeds.

To save the new details to a contact record, select Save.to assign the payee and close the dialog box. Alternatively, you can duplicate payees by filling in the required information and select Save As.

Let’s take a look at the differences between removing and replacing a payee in the platform.

The VL platform requires each lease record have at least one active payee at all times, in order to create and maintain your financial entries.

That said, there will be times you will need to remove or replace a payee on a lease. Understanding the difference between these options will help you make the right decision.
Let’s say a payee is added to a record by mistake. No payments were made by or received by this payee on this lease record. In this case, the payee can be deleted from the record. Once deleted, there is no record of this payee ever being assigned to this lease.

To remove a payee, simply click the kebob at the end of the record and select delete from the action menu.
A confirm delete box will open asking you to confirm the action. Select deleteto complete the removal of the payee from the lease record.

Remember: The platform will not allow you to remove a payee that is associated with a financial entry.
What if a property owner changes property management companies? The payments that you were making to that property management company must now be updated and sent to the new company.
In this case, you’ll want to add the new payee while also maintaining a historical record of the previous payee. This is where the Replace option comes in.

When a payee is replaced, the financial entries and any resulting schedules mapped to the old payee are ended as of the effective date of the replacement. New entries are automatically created with the new payee with the same effective date.

To replace a payee, you will first need to ensure that the new contact has been added to the lease record as a payee.

Once added, select the kebob menu at the end of the record of the old payee that is being replaced and select replace from the action menu.

A new dialog box will open wherein you can view payee details. From here you can choose the replacement payee and set the effective date of the change. Complete these fields and select save to complete the change.

Once complete, the platform will redirect you to the entries landing screen to review the automatic updates to your entries.

When I return to the Payees section, the old payee is still here but has been changed to inactive.

Please note: even inactive payees cannot be removed from the lease record if they are associated with a financial entry.

That concludes our Payees course.

Remember…
• The payees section houses the details of each person or entity to make a payment to – on an expense lease OR receive payment from – on an income lease.
• A minimum of 1 payee is required on each lease record to create financial entries.
• Payees can be assigned from existing platform contacts or created ad hoc in the add payee flow.
• VL best practice recommendation is to:
o remove payees when they are added in error and no payments have been made to or received by the payee and no historical record of this payee is required.
o Replace Payees when the payment stream changes from one entity to another, and a historical record is needed.
o
Thank you for your time. Questions, suggestions, or feedback can be sent to support@visuallease.com

 

Transcription:

Welcome to Financial Entries training with VLU. This course provides an overview of the Financial Entry fields within a lease record as well as step by step instructions for creating new financial entries.

By the end of the course, you will be able to:
• Navigate the financial entries section within a lease record.
• Recall the steps to create new financial entries
• And – Describe how the configuration of your financial entries impacts your lease accounting calculations.

Please take a moment to review the course agenda. If you are looking for a specific topic, feel free to jump to the corresponding timestamp.

In this video, we will review the layout and key functionality of the Financial Entries option within a lease record.

Visual Lease allows you to track expenses and income related to real estate, vehicles, equipment, and other assets.

The VL Platform comes pre-configured with industry best practice financial categories – based on your reporting standards – and can be further configured as needed during implementation.
Financial Entries are the basis of this capability, feeding your lease accounting calculations and flowing into your reports and accounting feeds.

We’ll start on the Entries landing page of the Financials tab.

A summary of each of my financial entries for this lease is found in this table. It includes the Category, Frequency, Type, Amount, Payee and more. If I scroll, I can also view details about who created or modified each entry and when.

I can drill down to view only entries within a set date range. The default for my platform is up to 10 years. I can change this using the dropdown or select specific dates from the calendar fields.

I can also filter my view to view only one-time or recurring entries and payables vs receivables.

The current fiscal year and amount of the entry is easily identified in bold font.

There are various options found here including options to Add a new record. You can also edit or delete existing entry records from the kebob at the end of each entry.

Click on the kebob and select View Details from the action menu to review transactions for the entry. These are the same transactions found within the payments section of the financial tab.

To modify a transaction, select the kabob of the transaction you want to modify and click update. I can edit the transaction date or amount due and click save. Any changes made to the entry transaction here will automatically update and be reflected within the payments section.

Show history found under the action menu at the end of each transaction provides a sort of audit trail for each entry. It displays scheduled dates and amounts including who made the edit – who created the entry and modification details.

In this segment, we will take an in depth look at each of the fields that are required to create a new financial entry.

Certain fields are always required to save a financial entry – the financial category, Payee, frequency, start date, amount, and type.

By default, all other fields are considered optional; however, each client can configure their financial entry fields and choose to make additional fields visible and required.

Many of these optional fields impact how the entry is treated and reported on.

Let’s dive deeper into each of these fields.

I’ll begin with the category field. Categories are initially configured by your platform administrator during implementation. They are fully configured to capture the expenses your company pays or income it receives. Common examples of these categories include things like Base Rent, Real Estate Taxes, Insurance, and Common Area Maintenance.

You can expand each category by clicking the caret next to each financial category or by performing a dynamic search by typing directly into this box.

The “Payment To” field is where you designate the Payee. Each person or entity making or receiving payment on this lease must be added to the Payees section of the Financials Tab before a financial entry can be created.

Jumping to the financial type field – this will determine whether this entry is Payable or Receivable.

The start date field captures the start date of the payment stream. This field auto-populates with the Commencement Date of the lease, but it can be edited as needed.

The amount field is where you will enter the amount of each transaction. The amount entered here will default to the currency of the lease. This lease is in Canadian dollar – so the payment amount for each entry should be entered in Canadian Dollar.

The cost per rentable area field displays currency and area based on the lease’s configuration. While this is not technically a required field, it is an automated calculation that is based on a required field: the amount. The cost per area value represents the total cost per unit area over a year.

Since this lease is in Canadian Dollars and the rentable area is in square meters, the platform displays the abbreviation of CAD divided by SM. A lease using US dollar and square footage would display as USD divided by SF.

To assign a different cost per area, click the override link and manually enter the cost.

In this video, we review the optional fields of a financial entry…

There are a number of fields that are not considered required in order to save a new entry. However, the more thorough you are in entering the details of each entry, the more accurate your calculations and resulting reporting will be. Click this check box to show the configurable optional fields.

Please remember that your platform may appear differently based on your settings and configuration.

The End Date allows you to specify the expiration date for this entry.

If left blank, the platform assumes the entry will end on the Expiration Date of the lease. This assumed end date is not visible within the entry itself, however the last transaction for this entry will be on the first date of the last payment period.

The arrears date is used in cases where retroactive payments are to be included in the payment schedule.

For example: on April 15, 2022, a client receives a bill for an increase in estimated operating expenses starting January 1, 2022 (Arrears Date). The next scheduled payment date for rents and related expenses is May 1, 2022 (Start Date) and the amount will include the computed back payments due from January to May.

The applied date field is used when your expense or income is due AFTER the Start date. This is most often used to account for a prorated first payment or a free rent period at the start of a lease.

The date entered here tells the platform to delay the application of the entry until that time.
If you’re utilizing the Allocations module, you can select the allocation group from this dropdown list or create a new allocation, associating this entry to the proper group for billing purposes.
Record options allow you to make a few decisions about the handling of this entry.
While these fields are not technically required, the elections made here may impact other entries on this lease as well as your accounting feed.

• Repeats on 1st of each period: when this is enabled, payments after the initial one will be made on the 1st day of the period, regardless of the start date entered above.
For example: the start date for this monthly expense is September 15th, 2017. The first transaction will be on that day. It will be prorated from September 15th through the end of the month. All future transactions will default to the first day of the month.
• Overlap other entries for this category: By default, the platform prevents you from creating multiple entries using the same financial category with overlapping date ranges. This is intended as an extra layer of security, so you do not accidentally record the same expense multiple times.
To bypass this, simply CHECK this box so the platform will allow for coexisting entries. This is particularly helpful when recording variable or index-based entries, like CPI.
• Include in Accounting Feed: this checkbox flags the entry and all transactions to be included in any generated Accounting Feeds. By default, this box is always checked, but feel free to uncheck this if you are tracking an expense or income that should be excluded from your feeds.
There are two “variable payment for disclosure reporting” checkboxes – one for FASB 842 and the other for IFRS 16.
As the name suggests, variable payments are those whose amounts vary from period to period, such as percent rent. Selecting these boxes tells the VL platform that this entry should be treated as a variable payment for that reporting standard.
Variable payments are ignored in your calculations. They are only included in the Variable Lease expense line item within the disclosure report.

Please note: You must take action here on each of the standards that apply to you. If you dual report, be sure to make an election for each standard you follow.
This section is only relevant if you report on GASB standards, and your platform is configured to handle GASB calculations.
Entries with one of these payment types are included in the corresponding Lease Payments or Lease Inflows row of the GASB Disclosure Report
• Residual Value Guarantee: GASB requires identifying Residual Value Guarantee payments when made. However, GASB does not require identifying an RVG when creating a schedule. Entries with this disclosure type are not included in accounting schedules.
• Termination Penalty: Select this option if this entry is related to a penalty for early lease termination.
• Variable Payment or Income: Like the FASB 842 and IFRS 16 checkboxes, this option is to be used to identify expenses or receivables that vary in amount from period to period, and thus do not have a regular stream with planned increases.
If you need to track any additional information related to the entry, you can enter it into the Comments box here.

This area enables you to enter planned increases based on a fixed amount, percentage, or by entering a new amount entirely. These can be entered as one-time increases or recurring increases.
The last entry field we will cover is Generate Clause. This serves as a shortcut, enabling you to copy the entry information into a designated clause within the clauses tab. This method prevents you from having to enter the information twice.

Let’s walk through the process of bulk uploading Financial Entries to lease records across your platform.
Importing financial entries can be done using the Import Lease Information Tool.

Please note: users must have Import Financials permissions in order to access this tool. Contact your Visual lease platform administrator for additional assistance.

Importing lease financial entries is considered a primary template – found here. Click on it to open the workflow in a new window.

As with all our templates, step by step instructions on how to use the template are found here.
Click the hyperlink to download and open the excel template.

The first tab, labeled Financial Entries, is where you will configure the entries to be imported. The remaining tabs contain reference platform data to assist you. We recommend using the copy/paste functionality from the reference tabs to the financial entries tab to ensure that the data matches exactly.
Let’s quickly review each of these supporting tabs.

The Leases Defined tab provides Lease ID and address for every lease record within your platform. This includes expired and archived records.
Payees Defined by Lease lists all payees currently associated with each record. It provides the lease ID, the payee name, type- if applicable, and address.

The Payees defined tab offers similar details, minus the associated lease ID. This tab is especially helpful for locating existing payee information for payees not yet assigned to a lease record.

Expenses Defined lists all the expense categories within your platform and the associated expense code.
Allocation Groups defined lists the allocation groups assigned to your lease records.

The last 2 reference tabs list the accounting standards defined in your platform for variable payments and the entry types for GASB 87 payment and income disclosures.

Back on the Financial Entries tab, the columns within the template mirror the fields found on the general tab of your platform. Visual lease color codes all templates to easily distinguish between required, optional, and criteria dependent fields. Additionally, some template fields may not be in use on your platform. Be sure to review the template key and instructions found here for more information.

Complete the necessary fields using the reference tabs. Save the excel sheet and return to the platform to upload.

Select the browse button, locate the saved file and click Upload & Process to complete the import.
The results will display below. Any issues requiring your attention will appear here.

That concludes the Financial Entries course.

Remember:
• Financial Entries track expenses and income related to assets and are the basis for lease accounting calculations.
• While only certain fields are required to create an entry, many non-required fields impact your lease accounting calculations and resulting schedules.
• Visual lease color codes all templates to easily distinguish between required, optional, and criteria dependent fields.
Thank you for your time. Questions, suggestions, or feedback can be sent to support@visuallease.com.

 

 

Transcription:

Welcome to financial calendar Training with VLU By the End of This course. You should be comfortable: 

•  Navigating the Financial Calendar section of the lease record.  
• Modifying the Calendar layouts, and prioritizing financial categories or period. 
•  Drilling down Down into individual categories, and rolling up totals to high-Level Categories.  

Please Take a moment to review the course agenda. If you are looking for a specific topic, feel free to jump to the corresponding timestamp.  

In this video. We’ll talk about some of the benefits of the financial calendar and review the basic layout and navigation of this area in your platform.  

Once your financial entries have been created, the financial calendar provides a consolidated view of the financial obligations of the lease. The calendar can be used as a validation tool for example. To ensure Sure Any entry or adjustments like mid-Month increases are aligned to your period Periods.  

It’s important to call out, that platforms that utilize financial entry approvals will only display active entries within the calendar.  

The information displayed here, is based on the finance Financial entries created on this lease record, and the default settings for the platform. Please keep in mind that your default display settings may be different, resulting in a different view.  

The date range filter, found here, let’s you choose from a list of date range presets, or a custom range using the calendar start and end dates. I can also choose to be one-time or recurring entries, and field support report receivables, payables, or both.  

The Calendar table Itself is broken into three main sections. Category, date range, and total.  

There are two addition additional display options found here. Display by year, and display by month. Each offers a different way to view the calendar data. Finally, the export option will download the current calendar view to an Excel spreadsheet.  

Let’s explore the different levels of detail within the financial calendar.  

The default calendar is comprised of three sections category, date range and total. The categories listed here will mirror For the Financial categories of your platform. Categories are customized to meet the needs of each client, and configured during implementation.  

When viewing from the top level. your categories may look similar to those you see here.  

Each category name is a clickable link, that will drill down to the next level breakdown within it.  

Since this record contains only expenses, I will Drill into this category further by clicking on total expenses. From here my platform is configured to separate real estate expenses from equipment expenses.  

Since this is a real estate expense record, I’m going to drill down another level into that category. The next level includes three categories; total base rent expenses, total operating expenses, and total other expenses. From here, I can see that my financial entries for this record Include both base rent, and operating Expenses.  

I can continue drilling down until I reach the base-level categories by clicking on the roll-up category. In this case, I’ll select total base rent expenses.  

I can tell I have reached the base level when the category fund and color change, and I’m no longer able to click to drill down further.  

To move up a level or zoom out so to speak. Click on the category path found here. This will return you to a previous category grouping. Once I’ve determined the category level I want to view, I can swap the category and date sections by clicking the opposing arrows, found here. The list of categories is replaced with a list of the months o r years of the lease I am viewing. And the month year columns update To reflect the categories.  

To switch my yearly view to a monthly breakdown. I’ll click the years drop down and select months, found here.  

Each year is expanded to view the total by month.  

For this demonstration, I’m going to return to my original view. I will select years and click the opposing arrow to revert the layout.  

Regardless of the view, I choose the date range or the level of the categories displayed, I can always dig into the specific transactions that make up each amount displayed in the table, by clicking on the amount in question.  

For example, I noticed that my total operating expenses increased by over 50% from 2021, to 2022.  

To view the entries that contributed to this total. I will click On The $97,258 amount, here. A new dialog box will open. The details of each transaction are listed within.  

That concludes our course on the financial calendar. Remember, the financial calendar provides a consolidated view of the financial obligations of a lease. The level of detail is up to you. Click on any category name to drill down to base-level financial categories, or Zoom out to view category paths.  

You can easily view the transactions that make up any total amount, by clicking on the amount field.  

The calendar can be used as a validation tool. To ensure any entry adjustment, like mid-month increases, align to your periods.  

Thank you for your time. Questions. Suggestions or feedback. Can be sent to support@visuallease.com.  

Transcription:

Welcome to Payments training with VLU. This course is designed to show you how to apply payments to your portfolio.

By the end of this course, you will be able to:
– Navigate the payments section of the platform and identify the key functions found within.
– List the steps to enter lease payments, both individually and in bulk.
– Recall the process for applying and locking down payments in the VL platform by committing them to a Feed.

Please take a moment to review the course agenda. If you are looking for a specific topic, feel free to jump to the corresponding timestamp.

Let’s take a look at the layout and basic functionality of the Payments Option within a lease.

As you might guess, payment information is housed within the financials tab of a lease, so this is where we will begin.

When I open the payments subtab, you’ll notice that there are already a series of entries created to reflect each transaction and payee throughout the term of this lease.

The platform creates these automatically when the corresponding financial entry is created.

To view detailed information about each entry, click the kebob and open the action menu and choose view detail. A new window will open to display the transaction details and applied payments.

You can export to excel using export button found here.

Payment information can be viewed in several ways using these dropdown buttons. The default grouping for my payment information is by payee. I may also choose to group them by expense category or to not group them at all.

By default, my payments are displayed by date. If I view by Outstanding Balance, the payment information updates to display outstanding balance details: including overdue amount and aging. I may also elect to view only one-time payments, recurring payments, or both.

There are two date options: Date Range and Running Balance. Each option displays the data in a unique way.

The date range controls the total range presented below. This is particularly helpful when viewing long term leases. A 50- or 60-year lease may be overwhelming to view in its entirety. This dropdown and the corresponding start and end date boxes make it easy to isolate a particular part of that extensive term.

The running balance start date will limit the displayed results to payments occurring after this date. For example, the commencement date of this lease is March 1st, 2018.

If your company joined Visual Lease in March of 2020, all payment transactions before this time would have been accounted for by your previous system or method of recording payments – and committed to your ERP.

To clean up my view and focus only on those payment transactions that would be recorded in my VL platform, I will set my running balance date to 3/1/2020.

When I do this, you’ll see the earlier entries drop off from the results and my running balance reflects only the payments and balances after that date.
The Export Payments Data button found here exports the payment data for this lease to excel based on my date, group, and view settings.
Let’s review the process for managing individual payments on a lease record.
Managing payments individually is not as common as applying payments across a portfolio in bulk, however, we have found that understanding the individual payment process is the foundation of the more common bulk payment process.

In this video, I will be referencing an expense lease however the same principles apply to income leases.
A payment transaction for each financial entry on this lease is reflected here. Each payment matches the amount and frequency of the lease’s financial entries.

You can Add a Payment anytime regardless of date or previous payments applied to that transaction.

The platform does not restrict you from applying multiple payments against a single payment transaction entry.
I’ll click on Add Payment from the kebab and Action menu to open the dialogue box

The date and amount fields are required. As you can see, the date will default to the scheduled payment date and the amount field is empty. I can alter the date or enter the amount I want to pay as needed.

I may also choose to specify the method of payment, enter a payment ID, or include comments relevant to this transaction.

When I am done, I’ll simply click save to return to the payments landing page where I will see my new outbound payment recorded here.

Alternatively, I may need to record an off cycle or one-time payment that is not related to a specific expense or income entry.

In this case, I can choose to create an unlinked payment using the button found here.

Unlike the previous payment, which was linked to a specific transaction, the unlinked payment prompts me to choose the Payee from this dropdown list. I must then specify if the payment is inbound or outbound and enter the date and the amount. The method of payment, payment ID and comment fields are optional.

To modify a payment entry, select the kebob found here and open the action menu and choose edit. The add/edit payment dialogue box will open. I can alter the payment details as needed and click save.

To delete a payment, simply click the kebob to open the action menu found here and choose delete. A new dialogue box will open, prompting me to confirm the deletion.

Payments can be modified or removed anytime, up until they have been committed to a feed.
If an AP feed has been generated for this lease and date range and I attempt to delete a payment, a notification appears indicating that the entry is locked and cannot be deleted.

The platform will not allow me to make any changes that would impact my financials, so only the ID and Comment fields can be edited.
Let’s take a look at how payments appear when there is income from a sublease.
A sublease relationship requires two lease records to capture the financials correctly. You need a record to capture the landlord/tenant relationship and one to capture the sub-landlord/sub-tenant relationship.

In this example, I am acting as a tenant and sub-lessor.
I am sub-leasing a portion of an office space that I have leased from a 3rd party.

In this instance, the first record I need is an expense record – capturing the details of my tenancy in the office.

The second record is an income record – capturing the details of my income from the sub-tenant.

It’s important to make sure these leases are linked in the Attached Leases section of the Related tab in order to accurately track payment and income information.
Let’s start by reviewing the income sub-lease.

The entries have been configured as receivable income.

The payments options have been updated to reflect Lease Income for Accounts Receivable.

Let’s record an individual payment for February 2022 rent from my sub-lessor. I’ll click kebob here and from the action menu, choose add payment to begin.
The Add/Edit Payment dialogue box will open, showing who the recorded payment is from, the scheduled date and amount.
The actual payment date will default to today’s date and the amount defaults to the scheduled total amount. I can update these or leave as is and select save when I am finished.

The inbound payment is reflected here.
If we navigate to the financials for the overlease
you’ll notice a new section: Income.

The income entries of this expense overlease match the payment entries of the income sublease.
This section should be thought of as a “read only” view, the platform does not permit me to make any changes from here.

This does, however, eliminate the need to swivel back and forth between records to view relevant transactions.
Please note: in the instance of an intercompany sublease – an additional record will be needed to define this relationship.

If we continue with the scenario in which I am the tenant and the sub-lessor and my sub-lessee is another department within my organization….
I will need:
– A tenant/landlord expense record to reflect my leasing of the asset from the 3rd party.
– An associated income sublease record to reflect my sub-let to another department or cost center in my organization.
– AND a new expense record, to reflect the expense that the sub-lessor department/cost center in my organization has taken on.
Let’s review how to apply payments using the Lease Payments Import Tool.
The Lease Payments Import Template offers the ability to upload payments to any lease record expense or income.

The template also supports up to 3 payments for each individual transaction.

Since you choose which leases and transactions to update, this is a great option for accounts payable and receivable associates who may set aside a day and time to record all the payments they’ve sent or received that week.

Please note: users must have import permissions to use the Lease Payment Import Template.
To access the tool, I’ll click on tools and select Import Lease Information from the drop down.
I’ll select the Lease Payments template – which will open a new tab.

Detailed instructions for using this template are found here.
When Importing lease payments, select a date range and apply a saved filter as needed.

From here, download and open the excel template.
The scheduled payments for your desired date range and lease filter are pre-populated into the first tab of the template.
I will locate the entries that I want to apply payments towards and scroll to the columns labeled Payment 1.

If this section is already populated with data, it is important not to remove or overwrite it. This will delete the record of this payment in the platform when you upload the template.

If the payment 1 section is in use, continue scrolling to the payment 2 section and enter your new payment details here.

This template supports up to 3 payments per entry.
If you are looking to delete a previously entered payment, simply delete the payment details in the template.

If I leave these fields blank, the recorded payment will be deleted from the platform when the file is uploaded.
If I enter new data in the same payment fields, the recorded payment will be replaced with this new data.
The 2nd tab of the template lets me add unlinked payments, payments not linked to a specific entry or transaction.

Complete the required fields.

Use the supplemental reference tabs found here to ensure the data is entered correctly, based on your platform configuration.

Please note – the payee entered here must be listed as a payee on the record you are applying the payment to.

Once I have entered my payment details into the template, I will save and close it and return to the Lease Payments Import Tool in the VL platform to upload the template.

Selecting BROWSE opens the file explorer on my PC. I’ll locate and select the payment file I just created and click the upload & process button.

Once processed, the results of the upload will display here. This lets me easily check for possible errors.

It’s important to remember: You must download a fresh template each time you import payments. Failure to do this may result in deleting, overwriting or duplicating payments in your platform.
When I return to the payments section of one of the impacted leases and scroll down to the correct date range – I see my payment details reflected here.

If I first ran the AP feed before using the import template, these payments will be locked in and cannot be deleted or modified. I can, however, add a comment or update the ID as needed.

If I chose not to run the AP feed and used only the lease payment import tool, then the payments can still be modified until the AP feed runs.

Let’s review the process for applying payments using the Accounting Feed.

As a standard, payments added at the lease level or through the Lease Payments Import Tool are open unlocked entries, allowing them to be modified or deleted as needed.

Running the Accounting Feed will pull and lock down all payment entries identified. “Locking down” in this instance means that the entry can no longer be modified or deleted.

The payments are processed on their scheduled due date for the total scheduled amount, regardless of the date the feed is run.

While this is not technically a required step, it is recommended as a best practice. If you choose to apply and lock down your payments using this method, it is NOT necessary to first import payments using the lease payments import template.

To access the accounting feed, click on Tools and select Accounting Export.

Please note: this permission is restricted to specific user groups, like Administrators and Power Users. If you are unable to access the Accounting Feed, please contact your VL platform administrator
From the Accounting feed landing page, select the Create Feed button.

The create new feed dialogue box opens, prompting me to make some decisions about the type of feed I want to generate.

I am going to run a feed for Feb 1st through March 31st of this year. Since I am only concerned with payments on a few key leases I will select the Accounts Payable checkbox and select the filter for these leases.

Please note: Only filters saved with the Administrator Only security level will display here. If no filter is selected, the feed will run against the entire portfolio.

I will click create to generate the feed.
The platform will check the parameters I set against existing feeds to avoid duplicating existing financial information.

It will also search for any transactions on the selected leases that fall outside of your selected date range but have not been included in any previous runs. This is a safety measure intended to ensure that all transactions are accounted for.

When prompted, you can choose to either expand your date range to include those unreported transactions or keep your requested dates and exclude them from this feed – which I what I am going to do.

Once the run is complete, a new entry will appear in the feed run list with the run date and time and the name of the user who created it.

The file name is a clickable link. When selected, the feed will download and open in excel.

Typically, I would convert this file to a compatible format and upload to my ERP system as needed.
To confirm the transactions were picked up by the feed and the intended payments were applied, return to the payments option of one of the records found within the file.

There will be an outbound payment that matches each transaction included in the feed.

If your payments are reconciled, the aging and running balance due will have dropped to zero through the last payment applied.

A comment is automatically applied to each payment included in the feed and the payment can no longer be edited or deleted.

This concludes our course on Payments.

Remember…
– The platform does not restrict the number of payments that can be applied against an entry.
– Income payments associated with a sub-lease can be easily viewed from the Income section of the associated expense record.
– The Lease Payments Import Tool lets you quickly apply payments to any transaction in your portfolio.
– The Accounting Feed applies payments to all open transactions found based on the date range and applied filters. And includes the added benefit of locking down these payments in the VL platform.

Thank you for your time. Any questions, suggestions, or feedback may be sent to support@visuallease.com.

 

 

 

 

Transcription:

Welcome to Custom Fiscal Calendar Overview training with VLU.

This course is designed to introduce you to setting up variable period calendars like 4-4-5 and 13-period in the Visual Lease platform

By the end of the course, you should be able to:

Understand variable period calendars

Configure variable period calendars in the administrator tool using the Custom Fiscal Calendar

Use the Lease Accounting page with a variable period calendar

Take a moment to review the agenda. If you are looking for a specific topic, feel free to jump to the corresponding timestamp.

In this video we will cover a brief review of variable period accounting. A well-organized fiscal calendar is an essential tool for a business to track sales and metrics. Unfortunately, traditional Gregorian months are not consistent, with different numbers of days, and the 365 day solar year begins on a different day of the week every year. A custom fiscal calendar resolves these issues by using 364 days, which are arranged into consistent periods.

In variable period accounting, each period has a fixed number of days; and the periods, quarters, and years begin on the same day of the week and end on the same day of the week.

The most common variable period accounting calendars are:

4-4-5

4-5-4

5-4-4

And 13 period.

In the 4-4-5 calendar or one of the other variants, each fiscal quarter is divided into three periods of four or five weeks.

In the 13 period year, the year is divided into 13 “months” which each have 4 weeks. The year is still divided into quarters, but one quarter will have 4 four-week periods.

Since the Custom Fiscal Calendar is only 364 days, a catch-up week is needed periodically to realign with the Gregorian calendar. Visual Lease automatically adds catch-up weeks as needed.

If you are using a Custom Fiscal Calendar, the feature will be enabled by our implementation team. Once enabled, you can set up your calendar from the Administrator tool, on the System Settings page. In this video, we will demonstrate how to configure a custom fiscal calendar.

Here, you can see the Lease Accounting Calendar Setup section. Here you can:

choose your calendar type

Set your target day for ending each fiscal year

Choose which period to add a catchup week to when necessary

choose the date to start the calendar calculation

The start fiscal year field is just the name for the first fiscal year; it can be different than the year of the calendar calculation start date. Finally, there is an optional empty field to give your calendar a unique name for your records.

Once you select which calendar type you will use, you will need to choose your target day. Visual Lease will use the target day to calculate when a catch-up week is necessary to keep the custom fiscal calendar aligned with the Gregorian calendar.

If the last day of the 52-week fiscal year is more than three days behind the target day, Visual Lease will assign a catch-up week to that year. The catch-up week will be added to the period you select. By default, the catch-up week is added to the last period of the year.

Visual Lease automatically considers leap years as part of its calculation.

Next, enter the start date for your calendar. Visual Lease calculates the calendar forward 120 years starting with the date given.

With the settings configured, you can view your calendar by clicking Generate & Preview Calendar.

A pop-up will open with the details of your custom fiscal calendar. The columns indicate the fiscal year, period number of that year, the start and end dates, how many weeks are in that period, and whether or not a catch-up week was added to that period.

You can export this information to Excel using the link, here.

If you have already been using a custom fiscal calendar before coming to Visual Lease, you must ensure that the calendar here matches your existing calendar. Carefully check the start and end dates, and catch-up periods, to ensure that the calendar was configured correctly in Visual Lease.

Once the calendar is configured correctly you can save it with the Save button at the bottom of the page.

Once saved, a new option appears in the calendar module to delete your calendar. Once your custom fiscal calendar has been configured properly it should not be changed.

The calendar can only be deleted if there are no existing accounting schedules created with the calendar. If you attempt to delete the calendar while schedules exist, a pop-up will appear to notify you.

The option to view your calendar is always available here in the settings page.

With the Custom Fiscal Calendar saved, let’s navigate to the Lease Accounting module. In this video, we will demonstrate how a custom fiscal calendar integrates with the accounting module.

Currently, Visual Lease only supports the ASC 842 and IFRS 16 standards when using a Custom Fiscal Calendar. When you create a calculation, only these options will be available in step 1.

In Step 2, there is no longer the option to prorate lease payments, as payments are now calculated on a daily basis instead of monthly. The calculation start date cannot be before the start of your fiscal calendar; otherwise, an error message will appear.

In step 3, there is no longer the option to consistently make lease payments in the prior month, again due to the daily calculations.

The rest of the steps are the same with or without a custom fiscal calendar.

The lease schedule is slightly modified with a custom fiscal calendar. The date column shows the start date for each period. The date is a clickable link that opens a pop-up with details for that period. This information can be exported to Excel using the link, here.

You can also export the entire schedule as daily information by selecting the option here before exporting.

The second column shows the period’s year and the number within that year.

The other columns are not changed by the Custom Fiscal Calendar.

You may notice periods with two of each lease payment entry or some other kind of duplication or periods with no lease payment entries. This is a result of the Gregorian payment schedule not aligning with the custom fiscal calendar. The liability associated with these payments follows the same schedule as the payments, so payments and liability will reconcile normally.

Similar changes will be observed in certain standard reports. That is, the date ranges will be specified as period numbers and years rather than by Gregorian months and dates

Reports run against the Variable Period Calendar include the:

Roll Forward Report

FASB/IASB Disclosure Report

Lease Accounting Report

And Journal Entry Summary

The rest of the Visual Lease reports will remain unchanged when using a custom fiscal calendar. Alerts, critical dates, and percent rent calculations are based on the Gregorian calendar.

This concludes our course on Custom Fiscal Calendars.

Remember:

You can make different types of custom fiscal calendars by your reporting standards.

Visual Lease only supports the ASC 842 and IFRS 16 standards when using a Custom Fiscal Calendar

Utilization of the Lease Accounting module is available with a custom fiscal calendar enabled.

Thanks for watching. Questions, suggestions, or feedback can be sent to support@visuallease.com.