Recording a manual payment

Online payments through Stripe (or PayPal) auto-record themselves. But when a resident pays by paper check, cash, direct bank transfer, or any other out-of-band method, an admin needs to record it manually — otherwise the property’s balance is wrong and the resident gets dunned for money they already paid.

When you’ll do this

The common cases:

• Paper check — most common. Resident mailed a check, you deposited it, now you record it.
• Direct bank transfer — resident logged into their bank and pushed money to the HOA’s account.
• Cash — rare in HOAs but it happens. Get a receipt for your records.
• Zelle / other peer-to-peer — same flow as bank transfer. Record what arrived.

Don’t record online Stripe / PayPal payments manually. Those create their own records automatically; recording them manually creates a duplicate and over-credits the resident.

Step-by-step

1. Go to Transactions in the admin sidebar (or use the per-property ”$ adjust” icon)
2. Click Record Payment
3. Fill in:
   • Property — pick the property the payment is for
   • Type — select Payment
   • Amount — the dollar amount received
   • Payment method — Check, Cash, Bank Transfer, etc. (free text or dropdown depending on version)
   • Date — the date the payment was received, not the date you’re entering it
   • Memo / description — be specific. Future-you will thank you. Examples below.
4. Click Save

The property’s balance updates immediately. The resident sees the payment in their portal on next page load.

Writing a useful memo

The memo is your audit trail. Make it useful:

Good memos:

• Check #1242 received 4/15/2026, deposited 4/16. Covers April + May dues.
• Direct bank transfer 4/3 — confirmed in HOA account same day.
• Cash, $200 received at 4/12 board meeting, deposited 4/13.

Bad memos:

• Payment (useless)
• (blank — won’t help anyone six months from now)
• Paid (we know — what method, when, how much, what for?)

When in doubt, more detail is better. The transaction log is your defense if anyone questions a payment.

A couple of nuances

Date matters for late fees

The transaction date determines whether a payment counts as on-time or late. If a check is postmarked April 28 and the dues were due April 30, but you don’t deposit it until May 5, the payment is technically on-time per most bylaws.

Use the received date (postmark or arrival date) as the transaction date, not the deposit date or the entry date. This matters for late-fee disputes.

Partial payments are fine

If a resident sends a $150 check toward a $400 balance, record the $150. The remaining $250 stays as a balance. The system doesn’t require payments to be “full” — partial payments are normal.

Overpayments create credits

If a resident sends $500 to cover a $400 balance, record the $500. The property now has a $100 credit (negative balance). Next month’s dues will draw from that credit before charging.

You don’t refund overpayments unless the resident requests it. Most communities apply credits forward.

Common situations

”I deposited a check but lost the stub / can’t tell what it was for”

Best you can do: assume it’s for the oldest outstanding charge on the property. Record the payment with a memo noting the ambiguity. If the resident later complains it was meant for something specific, you can adjust.

”The check bounced”

If the check was deposited and recorded, then the bank later returned it as NSF:

1. Void the manual payment record (don’t delete — preserve the audit trail)
2. Add an explanatory memo to the void: Check #1242 returned NSF on 4/22, see void.
3. If your bylaws allow, add an NSF fee charge to the property
4. Notify the resident promptly

”Two residents in the same household paid separately for the same charge”

You’ll get two payment records. The property ends up with a credit for the duplicate amount. Either:

• Apply the credit forward (next month’s dues)
• Refund one of them (see Issuing refunds)

Decide with the residents — don’t assume.

”Resident says they paid but I don’t have a check from them”

Search the ledger for any payment in the last 60 days against their property. If nothing’s there:

• Confirm with the bank whether anything from their name hit the HOA’s account
• Ask the resident for proof — check copy, ACH confirmation, screenshot
• If something arrived but wasn’t recorded, record it now with the actual receipt date
• If nothing arrived, the resident may be mistaken or paid the wrong account

Don’t credit them based on their word alone — you need proof of receipt.

”Resident wants to set up auto-payment from their bank to ours, outside HomeHerald”

That works, but you’ll be recording the same amount manually every month. It’s a hassle. Encourage them to use HomeHerald’s online ACH instead — same effect, auto-recorded.

If they insist, you can record the recurring payment manually each time. Some admins do bulk-record at the end of the month for everyone who pays this way.

Bulk recording

If you have several manual payments to record from a single deposit batch:

1. Go to Transactions in the admin sidebar
2. Some versions of HomeHerald support a Bulk Payment Entry mode — pick that
3. Add a row per payment with property, amount, memo
4. Save all at once

If your version doesn’t have bulk entry, add them one at a time. It’s tedious but not slow — about 30 seconds per payment.

Reconciling with your bank

A practical pattern:

• Every Monday (or whatever cadence works), pull your HOA’s bank statement for the previous week
• Compare against HomeHerald’s ledger for the same period
• Confirm every deposit on the bank statement has a matching record in HomeHerald
• Anything missing → record it manually

This catches checks that arrived but weren’t recorded, or any other discrepancy. Most communities don’t reconcile, then get surprised at year-end. A weekly habit prevents that.

Where to go next

• How the ledger works — the full transaction model
• Issuing refunds — for the inverse case
• Accepting PayPal, Venmo, and checks — communicating payment options to residents