What is trust accounting?
In simple words, trust accounting allows property managers to manage rent and booking payouts by homeowner (or any grouping) to better organize their finances and increase transparency with homeowners. Trust accounting avoids mingling funds from different owners in the same balance. A great trust accounting system will always help you to easily organize and track your finances as you scale your business.
Do you provide support to onboard new users?
Yes, the implementation fee covers an hour long session to walk you through the onboarding and train you on the platform. We also have a dedicated support team to answer any questions post onboarding.
Can I schedule a demo?
Yes, please visit our demo page.
What is Clearing?
Clearing is a complete expense and revenue management software tailored for property managers & real estate investors to close their books & reconcile their accounts faster. Clearing helps to track cashflow from multiple sources (Stripe, Airbnb, bank accounts, credit cards, and more) in one place. It’s an easy way for operators to set up their trust accounting to collect funds and pay homeowners.
Can I link one or multiple Stripe account?
Yes, you can link as many Stripe account as you need.
Do I need a Property Management Software to use Clearing?
No, you can use Clearing even if you don't have a Property Management Software.
What Property Management Software are supported?
Clearing is integrated with Hospitable, Guesty, Hostfully, OwnerRez, Hostaway and Uplisting. We are working on new integrations with more Property Management Software. Let us know the PMS you use, and we can let you know when it’s ready to use.
What can I do with the QuickBooks integration?
You can retrieve and create classes, chart of accounts, customers and vendors directly from Clearing. Each transaction can be mapped to QBO elements to create deposits, expenses and journal entries with the right class, account and more.This is a great way to assign a class to each listing and automatically track your cashflow by listing.
Do you only integrate QuickBooks Online?
Yes, for now only QuickBooks Online is integrated. We plan to integrate other accounting software soon.
How is QuickBooks connected?
It’s a simple one step integration to connect a QuickBooks Online account. You can retrieve and create classes, chart of accounts, customers and vendors directly from Clearing. Each transaction can be mapped to QBO elements to create deposits, expenses and journal entries with the right class, account and more.This is a great way to assign a class to each listing and automatically track your cashflow by listing.
How is Stripe used?
Once a Stripe account is connected, we retrieve and display all the relevant information under each payout: bookings revenue, refunds, adjustments, fees, etc.
Can I close a zero-balance account?
Yes, it takes less than one minute to open and close a zero-balance account.
Can I give a zero-balance bank account to third parties to charge my account?
Yes, with your authorization, any third party can pull funds from a zero-balance account. The funds will actually come from the main balance. This is a great way for utility companies and vendors to debit your account on autopay.
How many zero-balance accounts can I open?
You can open up to 200 zero-balance accounts.
How zero-balance bank accounts work?
Zero-balance accounts are bank accounts that don’t hold funds. They roll up to a single balance. They each have a unique account number and act as a pass through.As a result, deposits into a zero-balance account flow directly to their main balance. Payments from a zero-balance account will use funds from their main balance, automatically.Zero-balance accounts allow you to organize your flow of funds without the hassle of maintaining a balance in multiple accounts. Clearing is a Financial Technology Company and not a bank. Deposit Accounts are issued by Evolve Bank & Trust, Member FDIC.
What bank is used to open zero-balance accounts?
Clearing is a Financial Technology Company and not a bank. Deposit Accounts are issued by Evolve Bank & Trust, Member FDIC.
Do zero-balance accounts have a unique account number?
Yes, each zero-balance account has a unique account number.
What is a zero-balance bank account?
Zero-balance accounts are bank accounts that don’t hold funds. They roll up to a single balance. They each have a unique account number and act as a pass through.As a result, deposits into a zero-balance account flow directly to their main balance. Payments from a zero-balance will use funds from their main balance, automatically.Zero-balance accounts allow you to organize your flow of funds without the hassle of maintaining a balance in multiple accounts. Clearing is a Financial Technology Company and not a bank. Deposit Accounts are issued by Evolve Bank & Trust, Member FDIC.
Can I pay bills through Clearing?
Yes, you can pay vendors via ACH directly from Clearing and you can provide virtual bank accounts numbers to third party vendors for automated payments.
Can I pay bills and homeowners with Clearing?
Yes, any domestic US bank account can be paid from Clearing via ACH.
Can I add trust accounting later?
Yes
What payment methods are supported?
Clearing supports ACH transfers.
Can I use same-day ACH?
Same-day ACH is coming soon. We will notify you once ready.
Is there a limit per transaction?
There is no limit on incoming funds to your main balance. There is a $10,000 limit per transaction for payments made from your balance to an external bank account.There is no daily or monthly limit.
What is an ACH?
An ACH is an electronic fund transfer made between banks and credit unions across what is called the Automated Clearing House network.
How do I pay a homeowner using Clearing?
You would simply add a homeowner as a recipient and provide their bank account information: account and routing numbers. Then you can send funds to this recipient.
Can I make payments with Clearing?
Yes. You can send funds via ACH (bank to bank transfer, in the US).
Can I open a debit or credit card with Clearing?
We don’t currently issue debit or credit cards.
Is it safe to use Plaid?
Yes. With Plaid, you’re in control. You choose whom your data is shared with, for what purpose, and how long.
What information does Clearing collect when I link an external account or card?
We collect the account number, routing number and then transactions from & to this account.
What is Plaid?
Plaid is a financial technology company that makes it easy to securely connect your bank to the apps you want to use.
Can I link an external credit card?
We partner with Plaid to allow you to link external credit cards to Clearing (e.g., American Express, Chase, etc.)
Can I link an external bank account?
There are 2 ways to link an external bank account:1. We partner with Plaid to allow you to link your bank account in Clearing. You will be able to manage transactions from this external bank account in Clearing.2. We send 2 micro-deposits to this external account. You then enter these 2 amounts in Clearing to verify that you own the account.
What access does my bookkeeper and accountant have?
They will have access to your transactions with permission to edit categories and allocation by property. They won’t be able to create new virtual bank accounts or move funds.
What data is shared with homeowners?
Homeowners will have read-only view of their properties finances which includes transactions, reporting and view of their balance. Homeowners are limited to exporting data but can't perform any other actions.
Can I use Clearing to send reports to owners?
Yes, Clearing generates owner statements that can be customized and shared with homeowners via email.
Can I create custom owner reports?
Yes, you can edit each owner statement to hide or add line items. You can include your property management logo as well.
What roles and permissions are available to collaborate with others?
You can invite your accountant and employees to categorize your transactions. They won’t be able to move funds.You can invite homeowners to visualize their property finances. They are read-only users and can’t move funds or access your accounts.
Can I invite my accountant to review my transactions?
Yes. They will have access to your transactions but won’t be able to move funds.
What do you do for security?
Clearing makes security a top priority. Some of the practices we have implemented to ensure your account safety include:• Requiring HTTPS on all pages, and use HSTS to ensure browsers only ever connect to us over a secure connection.• Employing a third party to perform penetration testing each year to check for vulnerabilities.• Storing passwords hashed with the bcrypt algorithm. We never store or log your plaintext password.• Using time-based One Time Passwords for two-factor authentication. We never send authentication codes via insecure channels like SMS.• Encrypting our database and all uploaded images. • Never accessing and storing your card numbers.
Can I create manual journal entries?
Yes, each journal entry can be customized for a specific category and property.
Can I split transactions?
Yes, you can split transactions into multiple transactions, each with different categories or property allocation.
Can I create custom tags?
Yes, you can create as many tags as you want.
What kind of rules can I create?
You can automate your bookkeeping by creating rules by account, merchant, type of transaction, listing and more. We recommend scheduling a demo to show you how rules work.
Can I track transactions by homeowner?
Yes, transactions can be allocated by homeowner.
Can I create my own categories or tags to do my bookkeeping?
Yes, you can create and use your own categories and tags.C26
How are transactions automatically categorized?
By connecting all your sources of information in the same platform, we are able to match data to automatically categorize transactions and allocate them by listing.
Can I create rules to automate bookkeeping?
Yes. You can create rules to automate your categorization and allocation. Rules can be created by merchant, by bank account, by listing and even by type of transaction.
Do I need to open multiple bank accounts with my current bank?
No, you can keep your existing bank account. Clearing partners with Evolve Bank & Trust to let you open virtual bank accounts.
Can I collect funds through Clearing?
Within Clearing, you can maintain a main balance of funds for each business that you own. This balance is stored with our banking partner Evolve Bank & Trust, Member FDIC and is insured up to $250,000. This balance can be attached to one or multiple zero-balance accounts that each have unique account numbers. You can provide each account number to any third party to send funds to you. Funds will flow directly into your main balance. Clearing is a Financial Technology Company and not a bank. Deposit Accounts are issued by Evolve Bank & Trust, Member FDIC.
Do I need to change my current bank?
Absolutely not. You can keep your existing bank account(s). We recommend using zero-balance accounts opened through Clearing to collect funds with a trust-accounting approach. Learn more in the Zero-Balance account section.
Can I set aside a portion of the main balance for future use?
Yes, you can create sub-ledgers to set aside a portion of the funds from your main balance. You can always add & remove funds from a sub-ledger. Coming soon: rules to automatically populate sub-ledgers.
How can I fund the main balance?
There are 2 ways to funds the main balance:1. You can send funds from your current bank account to your main balance account number via ACH. (bank to bank transfer)2. You can link your existing bank account in Clearing and initiate a transfer in Clearing from this account to your main balance.
How many balances can I have?
You will have a main balance for each business (i.e. legal entity) that you manage in Clearing.
What is a main balance?
Within Clearing, you can maintain a main balance of funds for each business that you own. This balance is stored with our banking partner Evolve Bank & Trust, Member FDIC and is insured up to $250,000. You can receive funds into this balance or use it to make payments to external bank accounts.Clearing is a Financial Technology Company and not a bank. Deposit Accounts are issued by Evolve Bank & Trust, Member FDIC.
How can I use Clearing to collect funds?
Within Clearing, you can maintain a main balance of funds for each business that you own. This balance is stored with our banking partner Evolve Bank & Trust, Member FDIC and is insured up to $250,000. This balance can be attached to one or multiple zero-balance accounts that each have unique account numbers. You can provide each account number to any third party to send funds to you. Funds will flow directly into your main balance.Clearing is a Financial Technology Company and not a bank. Deposit Accounts are issued by Evolve Bank & Trust, Member FDIC.
Are my funds insured?
Within Clearing, you can maintain a main balance of funds for each business that you own. This balance is stored with our banking partner Evolve Bank & Trust, Member FDIC and is insured up to $250,000.
Where are my funds stored with Clearing?
Clearing is a Financial Technology Company and not a bank. Deposit Accounts are issued by Evolve Bank & Trust, Member FDIC.
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