Former Payer Balances
When you import accounting history, some of the money owed belongs to people who are no longer at the property. URBI keeps that money under the person who owes it, on its own account, instead of...
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When you import accounting history, some of the money owed belongs to people who are no longer at the property. URBI keeps that money under the person who owes it, on its own account, instead of putting it on whoever lives in the unit today.
This article explains where those balances appear and what you can do with them.
Where the balance lives
Open the unit, then open its Billing tab. Below the current account holder and any sub-accounts you will find a Retired accounts section. Each card there is one former payer.
What a retired account looks like:
|
J. Tremblay
Former payer
|
Frozen |
|
Balance, calculated
$1,240.00
|
Invoices due
2
|
Write off balance
The Frozen badge means nobody can add new charges to this account. It only holds what came in from the import.
It behaves like any other money owed
A former payer's balance is a real receivable, not a note. While it is unpaid it appears in your billing accounts list, in statements, in aging, in collections, and in reconciliation, the same as money owed by a current resident.
Once the balance reaches zero, the account drops out of all of those places automatically. It stays on the unit so the history is never lost.
What you can do with it
Record a payment. If the former payer pays, record it against their account as you would any other. The balance goes down and the invoice is relieved.
Write it off. If the money is not coming, select Write off balance on the card. URBI asks you to confirm, and shows exactly what will happen:
- A credit note is raised for each full remaining balance.
- The account's unpaid invoice balance clears to zero.
- The account and its full history stay on this unit.
You cannot void these invoices. Voiding erases an invoice as though it never existed, which would break the link back to the imported history. URBI refuses the void and points you to the write-off instead, which keeps the record and the reason.
Removing a current occupant
A former payer's balance never blocks removing somebody who lives in the unit now. When you remove an occupant, URBI shows the former payer balance as a note, not as something to resolve:
What the note looks like:
Former payer balance on this unit
This unit carries a balance under former payer J. Tremblay. This is a separate, frozen account and does not block this removal.
The Remove button stays available. The note is there so you know the money exists, not to stop you.
No reminders and no statements go out
A former payer usually has no email address on file, because they never had an account with you. URBI will not send them payment reminders, statements, or receipts, and it will not produce a statement addressed to nobody.
If a former payer's account does have somebody attached to it, they receive their notifications normally.
Questions
Can a second import add to the same former payer? Yes. If a later import brings in the same name, URBI recognises it and adds to the existing account rather than creating a duplicate. Close spellings are matched too, and the import summary tells you which joins were made that way so you can check them.
What if the name on the file is missing or unusable? URBI still records the balance and labels the line "Former payer" so nothing is silently dropped. The import summary lists every line where that happened.
Can I make a former payer account active again? No. It is deliberately frozen. If that person becomes a resident again, give them a normal account; the old balance stays where it is until it is paid or written off.