Overview
This article provides an overview of the Accounting tab in Appraisal Scope and explains how staff users access and manage financial information associated with order records. It outlines key functions, including navigating accounting menu options, filtering and grouping records, managing accounts receivable, importing checks, and updating payment status for individual orders.
Introduction to the Accounting tab
The Accounting tab is accessible from the main tab menu at the top of the landing page. Financial information stored in an AMC’s platform-version can be accessed via this tab, allowing an AMC to manage their accounts receivable and accounts payable, pay appraisers, send invoices, and calculate commissions. The Accounting tab also offers an interface with the QuickBooks Desktop integration, for those AMCs using this integration.
Accounting tab menu
Staff users can access the financial information associated with order records through the Accounting tab menu. Several of the tabs in this menu correspond to account statuses, for instance Unpaid or Paid, Appraiser Unpaid, and Pending ACH.
Invoice and commission records are accessible from the Client Invoices and Commissions tabs, respectively. AMCs managing their accounts through the QuickBooks desktop integration can view QuickBooks actions and statuses from the QuickBooks tab. The Appraisers Statement tab allows CSV and/or PDF files pertaining to appraiser fees paid over a specific period of time to be manually generated. These files can be downloaded locally or delivered to a specific appraiser via email.
Note: Delivery of Appraisers Paid statements can be automated by enabling the Generate Appraiser Daily Digest setting, accessible by going to Settings > Options > Reporting > Generate Appraiser Daily Digest.
The number that appears above the text description of each tab represents the number of records accessible from any page. The records can be filtered with the Search functionality available on these pages.
Accounting tab management controls
Filtering and grouping order records
Financial information connected to individual order records is accessible from all tabs on the Accounting tab menu, with exception of the Client Invoices, Appraisers Statement, QuickBooks, and Aging Balance tabs. Staff users can filter the order records listed in the pages by using a variety of parameters. For instance, if staff users need to find a specific record or records that share a particular characteristic (for example, all records of orders placed in February of a particular year), the Search functionality will allow them to accomplish this.
The Search functionality available from each page can vary to some extent, depending on the accounting tasks to be carried out from the page, but generally speaking, users can limit the number of records viewable in a list to those records returned by the Search function.
Order records can also be grouped together on these pages in useful ways, for example by client or appraiser. The Group by options available on the pages provide this functionality.
List views and navigation controls
The financial information and order records are organized into lists. By default, when a staff user accesses a page, all entries for records that fall under that tab will be displayed together in one comprehensive list. From here, staff users can filter and focus in on the record entries in ways that limit the number of records that appear, making it easier for users to perform accounting tasks.
Sorting lists
Regardless of the list view that a staff user is utilizing, there are controls available to manipulate the list in helpful ways. Records in a list can be sorted by category by clicking any column header that displays vertically oriented angle brackets. When the header is clicked, the list will automatically sort by the category that the header represents.
Lists can be sorted categorically either with an ascending sort, or a descending sort. For columns with alphabetical information (for example the Client column), ascending sort would mean from A to Z; for numbers, from 0 to 9; and for dates, from earliest to latest (i.e., most recent). A descending sort would provide the reverse.
A user can toggle between ascending and descending sorts in any category by clicking the column header multiple times.
Limiting list entries per page
For particularly large lists, the number of entries per page can be controlled by clicking the Per Page drop-down box at the bottom of a page and selecting from the list the number of entries to be displayed. Where needed, navigation controls are also available at the bottom of a page, allowing users to move through the pages of a list.
Accessing order records from lists
Finally, if a staff user needs to access an order record and all menu options available for that record under the Appraisals tab, they can do this by clicking on that record entry in the list. Most of the fields under the columns of a list are clickable and will take the user to the order record.
Managing accounts receivable
Accounts receivable are managed from the Unpaid and Paid pages. The Unpaid and Paid tabs are the first two tabs on the Accounting menu. All orders in either an Unpaid or Paid status will be viewable in a variety of list views from these pages.
The Unpaid page is accessed by clicking Unpaid in the Accounting menu. The Unpaid tab gives access to all orders in an Unpaid status. Orders will remain in an Unpaid status until all outstanding client fees have been accounted for, at which point the orders will switch to the Paid status and will then be accessible from the Paid page. The Paid page will provide records for all orders for which there are no outstanding client fees.
Unpaid tab
The records for all orders that are in an Unpaid status can be accessed on the Unpaid page. Among the options for filtering records (see the List views and navigation controls section for details), staff users can utilize the Group By collection of controls, located underneath the collection of text and drop-down boxes that make up the Search panel, to get a more focused view of all orders that remain in an unpaid status.
When the user selects Client, the list will segment into smaller collections of records organized under the name of the client company that they share. This functionality can be particularly useful when managing accounts receivable, allowing a staff user the ability to view by client company all outstanding fees.
Staff users will find totals for the Client Fee, Amount Paid, Balance Due, App Fee, and columns beneath each group (if a user is grouping the records) and at the bottom of the list (or list page, if the list is spread over multiple pages). Appraisal Scope will provide a Page Total and a Grand Total. The Page Total will be the same as the Grand Total for one-page lists. For multi-page lists, the Page Total provides the total for the page, and the Grand Total provides the total for the entire list.
Importing checks
Data pertaining to checks received can be mass imported in a spreadsheet from the Unpaid page by using the Import Checks functionality. Before performing the upload, a staff user should make sure that the spreadsheet has the following four columns and column headers: File Number, Check Number, Check Date, and Amount. The File Number values in the spreadsheet will need to match the values that are associated with the relevant entries in the File# column of the list. The spreadsheet will need to be saved as a CSV file before upload.
To import checks from the Unpaid page, click Import Checks, just above the list on the right side of the page.
Click Select File in the Import Checks dialog box, and select your CSV file.
Drag each tile from the Imported File column on the left and drop them in the corresponding spaces in the Import Checks Data column on the right.
Click Import.
If the import is successful, the record entries associated with the checks data will no longer appear in the list on the Unpaid page. They will automatically move to the Paid page.
Marking individual orders as Paid
Data pertaining to payments can be entered on a per-order basis from the Unpaid page by using the Mark as Paid functionality. The following procedures detail how this is done.
To mark an order as Paid from the Unpaid page, first locate the applicable record entry.
Next, Click Mark as Paid in the Change Status column of the record entry. The entry will expand.
Enter values in the Check# and Amount text boxes, and add information, if relevant, in the Memo text box. Click Save.
Note: Information added in the Memo text box will appear in the Memo column on the Paid page in association with this same order record.
Order record entries for orders marked as Paid will move to the Paid page, and a communication will be sent out to relevant parties.
Outcome
After these steps, you will be able to navigate the Accounting tab and explain the purpose of its primary pages, menu options, and controls. You will also be able to use filtering, grouping, and list navigation tools to locate financial records and complete common accounts receivable tasks, such as importing checks and marking orders as paid.