Getting Started with Propra Autopay

With Propra Autopay, you can effortlessly streamline your monthly fee collection and payments. All transactions are automatically recorded and reconciled, eliminating the hassle of manual payments and saving you valuable time. Propra Autopay simplifies your first of the month fee collection process and ensures everything is handled seamlessly. Get ready to experience the convenience and efficiency of Propra Autopay—let’s get started!

Quickly Navigate This Article

• How Does Autopay Work
• Activating Autopay
• Preparing Your Residents
• Navigating Autopay
  • Statements
  • Payees
    • Activated
    • Incomplete
    • Invited
    • Not Invited
    • Cancelled
    • Suspended
  • Properties
    • Adding or removing Properties
    • Updating Bank Accounts for a Property
  • Settings
    • Linked Bank Accounts
    • Collection Types
    • NSF
    • Transaction Fees and Invoice Payment
• Turning on Autopay Notifications

How Does Autopay Work

With Autopay, Propra gives you the ability to allow tenants or owners to securely set up payment information from the resident portal or if you already have pre-authorized debit agreements with your payees you can add their banking information for collection of funds. 

Connecting directly to the payees bank account allows for:

• Built-in Pre-authorized debit agreement: No need to collect forms and banking information.
• Verified information: Institution, transit and account information are provided directly by the financial institution, reducing the risk of fraud or human error in setting up pre-authorized debits.
• Control of information: Users can add, change, or remove banking information at anytime through the Resident Portal, making it convenient to keep financial information up to date.
• Fraud prevention check: The bank has confirmed that the user is who they say they are and are able to authorize withdrawals from the specified account.
• Enhanced security: Bank account information is securely stored, not sent though email and never written down on paper or displayed. User login details and passwords used for during the activation process with their banking institutions are never recorded or stored.

Activating Autopay

Activating Autopay is quick and easy. All you will need is the Books Admin role assigned to your user record in Propra and the login information to access your bank account online.

1. Click Autopay in the left-hand menu.

2. Click Activate Autopay to get started.

• Read the activation steps carefully and provide the following information:
  
  Receivable Collection: indicate if you wish to activate automatic 1st of the month rent and/or condo fee collection. The system can automatically invite your residents to sign up for autopay or you can enter the payment information

  • Create NSF charge for returned payments: determine if you would like an NSF charge automatically recorded, and if so, provide the amount

  • Fee expense account: define the GL account to use for recording the transaction fees that will be charged to you  
    

Payables Payment: indicate if you wish to activate the ability to process payments to suppliers, contractors, owners and tenants.

Properties: select the properties to activate for Autopay. After the KYC and activation is complete invitations to residents of those properties to sign up for autopay will be sent out (if that option was selected)

KYC Compliance: Propra has partnered with VoPay to process payments. The Know Your Client (KYC) from is required in order to comply with FINTRAC laws for anti-money laundering and anti-terrorism.

• Complete the form: The KYC form will ask for information on how your business operates and who the individuals are that have an interest or are key individuals in your business.
• Connect bank account: It is important to connect the bank account that matches your company name. This bank account can be used for billing and autopay if desired. You can connect other bank accounts 
• ID Verification: After you add emails for key individuals they will receive an email to complete their ID verification. All ID verifications will need to be completed prior to being able to accepting the terms of service and submitting the KYC. 
• Accept Terms of Service and submit KYC: After completing the KYC form it will go through a verification and review by VoPay. This can take up to 5 business days before your autopay will be activated.

Preparing Your Residents

Ahead of activating Autopay, it is recommended to provide a heads up to your residents, especially if they are not familiar with Propra and the Resident Portal. This way they have a better understanding of this new payment option and are more likely to sign up.

Here is a draft communication you can send using Announcements:

Subject line: Pay rent using Propra Autopay!

At [COMPANY NAME], we're committed to continuously improving your experience as a valued tenant. We are excited to announce that we now offer Propra Autopay for rent collection!

You may currently be using our pre-authorized debit (PAD) system, which has been a convenient way to automate your rent payments. However, we've decided to make the move to Propra Autopay, offering an even more streamlined and secure experience.

Why the switch to Propra Autopay?
- Simplicity: Propra Autopay offers a user-friendly and simplified process for managing your rent payments.
- >Peace of Mind: Propra Autopay provides added security with state-of-the-art encryption of payment information.

ransitioning to Propra Autopay is a breeze. Here's how to get started:

1. Click the link in the invitation you will receive to sign up for Autopay or log in to the Propra Resident Portal at propra.io. You will need to create an account if you haven’t yet done so. 
	2. Click on the "Billing" tab. 
	3. Select "Set Up Autopay”. Follow the on-screen instructions to sign up and confirm your banking information.



If you have any questions or require assistance during the transition process, please feel free to contact us or review the article linked here on how to sign up for the Propra Resident Portal. 

Thank you for being a valued part of our community!

Navigating Autopay

Once Autopay is active, you’ll notice a few more tabs become available in the top navigation.

Statements

When you click on Autopay in the left-side menu, you will always see the Statements tab first. Here is where you can see your invoices related to any transactions that have been processed with Autopay. Click the Download icon to view a copy of your statement.

Downloaded statements contain all the details related to the statement period including the payees, dates and amounts of the transactions.

Payees

The Payees tab provides a view of the status of your invites to sign up and signed up payees that may require your attention.

The list of available statuses include:

• Activated
• Incomplete
• Invited
• Not Invited
• Cancelled
• Suspended

Below is more information about what each status means and recommended actions to address potential issues.

Activated

These are payees who have either successfully set up Autopay by connecting their bank information or the bank information was added to the payee's financial page. 

Incomplete

These are payees that are not active and don't have an email address and therefore, cannot be invited to participate in Autopay.

Click on the payee's name to go to their profile page. On the Contact tab their missing email can be added. On the Financial tab click on the pencil icon next to Payment details to either add missing bank information or send an autopay invitation

Invited

These are payees that have been invited to sign up for Autopay but have yet to take any action.

If you would like to resend their invitation, you can do so from the Financial tab on their profile. Click on the pencil icon next to Payment details and resend the email invitation

Not Invited

These payees have emails addresses but have not been invited to sign up for Autopay.

Cancelled

Any payee that is set to Cancelled has decided to opt out of Autopay after having signed up. This status automatically updates when a user cancels Autopay when logged into the Resident Portal.

Suspended

This is a status that the Propra team sets when unusual or fraudulent activity is suspected. This suspends all activity for this payee and can only be removed by Propra.

If you ever suspect fraudulent activity, please contact us by email at [email protected] or by phone at 587-858-2572.

Properties

The Properties tab provides an overview of all properties that are active on Autopay. To add or remove properties from autopay simply click on the toggle next to that property

Settings

Autopay Settings allow you to manage your linked bank accounts, confirm collection types, and set how transaction fees and NSF charges should be recorded. These settings can be accessed by clicking on the Settings button in any of the tabs available in Autopay, or by selecting Account under Settings in the left-hand menu and selecting the Autopay tab in the upper navigation.

In Autopay Settings, you will see the following tabs:

• Linked Bank Accounts
• Collection Types
• NSF
• Transaction Fees and Invoice Payment

Linked Bank Accounts

The bank account that was linked during the activation will be the bank account used if no other bank accounts are added.

Click Add Bank Accounts to add a new bank account and link it to a bank group so that funds will always match your account reconciliation bank groups. If you haven't already set up any bank groups select Start a new bank reconciliation group.

We recommend adding a group for each physical bank account (for all the properties where you want funds deposited to) and using the Operating Bank general ledger account.

NSF

Update or disable the option for recording the NSF fee charge.

Transaction Fees and Invoice Payment

Indicate how you’d like transaction fees to be recorded and collected. You can either opt for fees to be withdrawn from the bank group's linked bank account or your default billing bank account. 

Turning on Autopay Notifications

There are several notification options available that any user can turn on to help them stay on top of what is happening with their payees and Autopay.

To opt-in to notifications, users can:

1. Go to Account in the left-hand menu.
2. Select My Profile at the top.
3. Under My Notifications, there's the option to opt-in to all notifications for Autopay with email and/or SMS or you can select the notifications that you are most interested in.
   SMS will only be available if you have a phone number entered for your user under My Profile.

Changes are updated automatically. No need to click save.