Payments

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Invoices are paid in batches (Payment Batches) in Real Estate Manager. Adding an Invoice to a Payment Batch includes options to select Invoices for payment and submitting them for approval or saving the selected Invoices as a Draft Payment Batch for payment at a later date. All Invoices must be approved prior to payment. A Payment Batch can be removed from submission or rolled back to a Draft Batch Payment.

The Manage Payments workspace, shown below, uses a set of tabs to organize the Invoices submitted for payment as follows:

• Drafts – Payment Batches that have not been submitted for approval
• Declined – Payment Batches that were not approved for payment
• Submitted – Payment Batches that have been submitted for approval by yourself
• Errored – Payment Batches that have encountered an error in the payment process
• Approved – Payment Batches that are approved for payment
• Waiting for Approval – Payment Batches that have been submitted by another user and are awaiting approval
• Recently Approved – Payment Batches approved

Adding and Submitting a Payment Batch

1. From the Top NavBar, select Management and then Payments.

2. On the Drafts tab, click Submit New Batch of Invoices for Payment.

   
   

3. From the Select Currency drop-down, choose the monetary currency for the Payments.

4. If you are creating a payment batch with multiple currencies, you should select Multi-Currency from the drop-down.

5. Click Okay.

   
   

6. The Payments Management workspace is used to filter Payable Invoices to identify the ones you want to pay.

7. To search for Payments, in the Batch Description field, enter an identifier for the Payments.

   
   

8. If Multi-Currency is selected in Step 3, then user should specify the Currencies to be included in the batch. By default, all currencies are selected.

9. If a single currency is selected in Step 3, then the Currency field will not be present.

10. From the Cost Category Group drop-down, select the Cost Category Group(s) to which Invoices you want to pay are assigned.

11. From the Cost Categories drop-down, select the Cost Category or Cost Categories to which Invoices you want to pay are assigned.

12. Double click the From and To fields to display the Calendar and select the beginning and ending Invoice dates that you want to include in the search.

13. From the Invoice Group drop-down, select the Invoice Group(s) to which the Invoices you want to pay are assigned.

14. From the Vendors drop-down, select the Vendor(s) you want to pay.

15. Click the Search Term field, enter a full or partial search term related to the Invoice you want to pay.

16. Click Search Invoices.

    
    

17. To select Invoices for payment, click the check-box next to the Invoices you want to pay.

18. Click Add Selected Invoices.

19. You may search for more invoices to add to the batch by selecting new search parameters and clicking Search.

20. If you check boxes for Invoices and click Delete Selected invoices, those invoices will be removed from the system. This means the invoices is removed from the Asset and any related Contract.

    
    

21. To view information about an Invoice, click view to display the Invoice.

22. Click apportionments to view the Apportionments defined for the Invoice costs.

23. Click fields to view the Custom Fields defined for the Invoice.

24. Click Close to return to the previous workspace.

    
    

25. Click edit to open a specific Invoice to edit the details.

26. To submit the selected Invoices for payment, click Submit Invoices for payment.

    
    

27. In the Notes field, enter information that describes the payments.

28. Click Okay.

    
    

29. The Payment Batch will move to the Submitted tab.

Viewing Information in a Submitted Payment

After submitting a Payment Batch for payment, the invoices cannot be edited or deleted. Refer to the Rolling Back a Submitted Payment Batch section for instructions on recalling the submission of a Payment Batch.

1. From the Top NavBar, select Management, then select Payments to open the Payments workspace.

2. Click the Submitted tab to view any Payment Batch that have been submitted for approval.

   
   

3. You may click View to view the selected batch.

4. In the pop-up, you may click the Expand icon to view the Notes recorded for the invoices in the selected batch.

5. From here you may also click the Expand icon for the Audit Log to view the history of the creation and changes to the Payment Batch.

   

6. Click Close to return to the Submitted tab.

7. To view Apportionments for an Invoice in a Payment Batch, click View for the Invoice for which you want to view the Apportionments.

8. The View Invoice pop-up opens and you may click Apportionments in the Actions column to display the relevant Apportionments.

   

9. Click Close to return to the View Invoice pop-up.

10. Click Cancel to return to the Submitted tab.

11. To view Custom Fields for an Invoice, click View for the Invoice for which you want to view the Custom Fields.

12. Once in the View Invoice pop-up, click fields to display the Custom Fields, if any have been configured for this Invoice Type.

13. Click Close to return to the View Invoice pop-up and then Cancel to return to the Submitted tab.

Rolling Back a Submitted Payment Batch

After submitting a Payment Batch for approval, it can be recalled or rolled back and removed from submission and resubmitted at a later time.

1. From the Top NavBar, select Management, then select Payments to open the Payments workspace.

2. Click the Submitted tab.

   
   

3. Submitted, but unapproved Payment Batches display.

4. Click rollback for the Payment Batch you want to remove from the Submitted tab and save as a Draft Payment Batch.

   
   

5. The Rollback Payment Batch pop-up opens and you may enter relevant information in the Notes field and then click Okay.

6. The Payment Batch will be moved to the Drafts tab.

Approving a Payment Batch

Before a Payment Batch is actually paid, it must be approved. A user cannot submit and approve the same Payment Batch. Only Payment Batches that a user did not submit will appear on the Waiting for Approval tab.

1. From the Top NavBar, select Management, then select Payments to open the Payments workspace.

   
   

2. On the Waiting for Approval tab, you may view the Invoices in the Payment Batch prior to approving by clicking view.

   
   

3. In the View Payment Batch pop-up, you may further view individual Invoices by clicking view again.

4. Click Close to return to the Waiting for Approval tab.

5. To approve a Payment Batch, click approve.

   
   

6. You must check the box next to each invoice to confirm the approval.

7. Once all relevant boxes are checked, click Confirm & Approve.

   
   

8. Ensure the correct Format and Transport are selected from the drop-downs and enter any relevant Notes, then click Okay.

9. The Payment Batch will be downloaded in the selected format and moved to the Recently Approved tab.

Two level Payment Batch Approval

The Two-Level Payment Batch Approval feature in Real Estate Manager adds an extra layer of review for high-value payments. When enabled, any payment batch that meets or exceeds a set threshold must be approved by two different users before it can be processed.

This helps commercial real estate teams:

• Strengthen financial controls.

• Prevent unauthorized or accidental approvals.

• Reduce risk for high-value transactions.

• Ensure large payments are reviewed by more than one person.

• The feature is configured by system admins and uses a special user role called Senior Approver for second-level approvals.

Finance admins can configure a second reviewer for payment batches that exceed a set threshold. The user role Senior Approver is added to the system. Users assigned this role can approve second-level payment batches when the two-level approval workflow is configured and enabled.

How It Works

1. Enable the Feature

   • Go to Administration → System Configuration Editor → Payment Settings and toggle Second-Level Approval ON.

   • Set your Threshold Amount (e.g., $10,000).

     

2. Create a Payment Batch

   Select the invoices and create a payment batch as mentioned in Adding and Submitting a Payment Batch section.

3. Approval Workflow

   • If the batch is below the threshold, only one approval is needed.

   • If the batch is equal to or above the threshold:

     • The first reviewer approves the batch in Waiting for Approval tab and adds notes.

     • The system shows a message: “This payment requires a second approver.”

     • The batch status changes to Pending Second Approval.

     • The second reviewer (must be a different user) reviews and approves or rejects with optional notes.

   

   

Important Notes

• The preparer, first reviewer, and second reviewer must be different users.

• No user can approve their own submission.

• Only users with the Senior Approver role can approve high-value batches.

• All actions are logged for audit purposes.

Why It Matters

This feature helps prevent unauthorized or accidental approval of large payments by enforcing segregation of duties and adding an extra layer of oversight.

Best Practices

• Set a clear and realistic threshold amount based on your organization’s risk policy.

• Assign the Senior Approver role only to experienced users with financial oversight responsibilities.

• Use the Audit Log to track who created, submitted, and approved each batch.

• Add clear notes during each approval step to document the reason for approval or rejection.

• Regularly review and update user roles to maintain proper segregation of duties.