Expense System, Troubleshooting
This article covers error states that are visible to staff, property managers, and board members in the Expense System. Bank link failed / vendor cannot complete bank linking Symptom: The vendor...
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This article covers error states that are visible to staff, property managers, and board members in the Expense System.
Bank link failed / vendor cannot complete bank linking
Symptom: The vendor reports that the bank-linking invitation link did not work, expired, or shows an error during the Plaid or Stripe onboarding flow.
What to check:
- Invitations expire after 21 days. If the invitation has expired, go to the vendor record, click Link Bank Account again, and send a fresh invitation.
- The invitation is sent to the email address on the vendor record. Confirm the vendor's email address is correct before resending.
- If the vendor's bank is not supported by Plaid, the vendor will need to be paid manually. Open the expense and use Mark Paid with a cheque or wire transfer instead.
ACH payment returned / NSF (insufficient funds)
Symptom: An expense that was set to Auto Pay shows Auto Pay Failed in the expense list or in the Activity tab.
What happened: The payment was sent but the bank returned it, typically because the payee did not have enough funds in their account.
What to do:
- Open the expense and click the Activity tab to see the specific return reason.
- If the return is an NSF (insufficient funds), the system automatically retried once. If that retry also failed, the expense is back in Approved status.
- Contact the payee to resolve their bank account balance.
- Once resolved, you can either:
- Re-enable Auto Pay on the expense (click Edit Details and update the Auto Pay setting), or
- Click Mark Paid to record a manual payment by a different method.
ACH payment returned, account relink required
Symptom: The Auto Pay status shows Relink Requested in the Activity tab and the expense is stuck in Approved status.
What happened: The payment was returned because the bank account number has changed, the account is closed, or the bank cannot locate the account.
What to do:
- The system has already sent the vendor a new bank-linking invitation automatically.
- Follow up with the vendor to complete re-linking. The invitation expires in 21 days.
- Once the vendor re-links, Auto Pay resumes for the next payment, or you can manually trigger payment from the expense.
Payee bank account frozen
Symptom: The vendor's bank account shows a Frozen status, and Auto Pay cannot be initiated for any expenses assigned to that vendor.
What happened: The bank reported an unauthorized return on a prior payment. This is a security measure to prevent further attempted payments to a compromised or disputed account.
What to do:
- Do not attempt to re-initiate Auto Pay until the issue with the vendor's bank account is resolved.
- Contact your property administrator. An administrator must manually clear the frozen status on the vendor record after confirming the account is valid and the vendor has consented to payment.
- Until the account is unfrozen, pay the vendor manually using Mark Paid with a cheque or wire transfer.
Approval is blocked, expense stuck in Pending Approval
Symptom: An expense has been in Pending Approval status for an unexpectedly long time, or the expected approver reports they cannot see the expense in their queue.
Possible causes and fixes:
| Cause | Fix |
|---|---|
| The approver's permission has changed since the expense was submitted | An administrator should review the approval chain in Settings → Expense Approval and update it. The submitter may need to withdraw and resubmit the expense. |
| The expense is waiting on an earlier approver in the sequential chain | Open the expense and check the approval chain progress in the right sidebar. Only the current active approver can act; later approvers must wait. |
| The approver has not received a notification | Ask the approver to check Accounting → Expenses → Pending Approval directly. Notification delivery is not guaranteed for all email providers. |
QuickBooks Online (QBO) shows "Not Connected"
Symptom: The QBO section in Accounting → Settings shows "Not Connected" or a connection error.
What this affects: Expense data is not being synced to QuickBooks. All expense records are still fully stored and functional within URBI, this only affects the QBO export.
What to do:
- Go to Accounting → Settings → QuickBooks Online.
- Click Connect to QuickBooks and complete the OAuth authorization flow.
- If the connection fails, check that the QuickBooks account you are using has permission to manage bills and expenses in the company file linked to this property.
- If the error persists after reconnecting, contact URBI support with the property name and the error message shown on the settings page.
Note: QuickBooks sync is a one-way export from URBI to QBO. Changes made directly in QBO are not reflected back in URBI.
Auto Pay shows "Dispatch Failed" in the Activity tab
Symptom: An expense that had Auto Pay enabled shows Auto Pay Dispatch Failed in the Activity tab immediately after approval, meaning the payment was never queued, not just rejected.
What happened: A temporary system error prevented the Auto Pay job from being sent to the payment processor. The expense is in Approved status with Auto Pay not active.
What to do:
- Wait 10 to 15 minutes and refresh the page. The system may have recovered automatically.
- If the status is still Approved with no queued payment, click Edit Details and re-save the Auto Pay setting to re-queue the payment.
- If the issue continues, manually mark the expense paid using Mark Paid while URBI support investigates.