Receipting unknown monies; i.e. suspense amounts

The steps below outline how you can receipt and reconcile monies into your client account that you have not yet been able to identify; i.e. you have insufficient information to be able to record the receipt against the appropriate tenancy.

This article includes: 

• How to prepare Alto to receive suspense amounts
• How to add a suspense amount
• How to resolve an identified suspense amount

How to prepare Alto to receive suspense amounts

To prepare Alto to receive unknown monies, you will need to create a dummy landlord account:

1. Click Property on the main toolbar
2. Click Add a Market Appraisal or Property
3. The Add a Market Appraisal or Property window opens. Click Add New to create a new landlord
4. Within the First Person section, enter the Name: Mx Suspense Account (no correspondence details are required)
5. Within the Details section, set the Intention to Not looking
6. Click Next
7. In The Property section, click Add New to create a new property
8. The Add New Property window opens. Enter any address you wish (it's not going to matter) using the Postcode finder to set the address, or manually enter the property address
9. Within the Details section, ensure Market is set as To Let
10. Click Next
11. Click Finish

This landlord record is the one we are going to use in future when adding unknown receipts.

How to add a suspense amount

To receipt unknown monies, we are going to add a retained sum to our dummy landlords account:

1. Click Accounts on the main toolbar
2. Click Opening Balances on the side menu
3. Click the Client Accounts top tab
4. Click View on the relevant client account
5. Change the Default Date to the date of the receipt (if different)
6. In the dropdown menu, click Landlord Retention
7. Find the suspense landlord using the Search Landlords bar
8. Click Add
9. The Add Retention window opens. Enter the amount received
10. Click OK
11. If you are prompted that "A transaction for the same value has previously been posted. Do you wish to continue?", click Yes
12. Enter the same number into the Target Amount
13. Click Post Bank Balances

When you next go to perform a bank reconciliation, you will see an entry corresponding to the transaction above and will thus be able to reconcile this to achieve the correct closing bank balance in Alto.

How to resolve an identified suspense amount

Once the source of the funds has been correctly identified, you can negate the previous receipt and 'move' it to the appropriate tenancy:

1. Click Accounts on the main toolbar
2. Click Opening Balances on the side menu
3. Click the Client Accounts top tab
4. Click View on the relevant client account
5. Change the Default Date to the date of the receipt
6. In the dropdown menu, click Landlord Retention
7. Find the suspense landlord using the Search Landlords bar
8. Click Add
9. The Add Retention window opens. Enter the amount received again but this time precede the number with a minus to denote a negative amount
10. Click OK
11. If you are prompted that "A transaction for the same value has previously been posted. Do you wish to continue?", click Yes
12. In the dropdown menu, change Landlord Retention to Tenancy
13. Find the tenancy for the receipt using the Search Tenancies bar
14. Click Add
15. Select the type of Charge Item, eg. Landlord Income - Rent
16. Change the Description to something more appropriate
17. Enter the Net Amount, this time as a positive number
18. Click OK
19. Click Post Bank Balances

By doing this, you have reversed the receipt you'd previously recorded on the dummy landlords account and added the sum instead to the tenancy account where it belongs. On your bank reconciliation screen, you will now see these two transactions (which cancel each other out) to reconcile when you carry out your next bank reconciliation.