Introduction

A bank can be a bank, trust company, mortgage company, or even a someone that owns several properties.  There are a couple of screens that deal with banks.  The first is the Bank/Mortgage Companies form.  The Change Bank/Mortgage form is the second.  Both are available from the Tax Menu and are described below.

Bank/Mortgage Companies

Banks and Mortgage companies in this form, as shown below, are used on the Taxation tab of the Tax Master, during a bill print, and for receiving bulk payments in Cash Receipts.  You can use the Search button to find a bank by its Institution Code or its Name.  The Delete button will remove the bank from your bank table.  Be careful when deleting banks.  You will run into trouble if you try to delete a bank that is associated with a mortgage or Pre-Authorized Payment Plan (PAPP).  Use the Labels button to print the labels for all of the banks in the system. 

To add a new bank, click the navigation button with the star beneath the Search, Delete, and Labels buttons, or use the New button to be sent to a blank record.  As well, when you launch the bank form, you start at a blank record.  Once there, just start adding a new bank by entering a new code.  If the code you entered is in use, you will be told so, and that record will be brought up.  If that bank is not the one you need, then choose a different code.  A popular way to make your own code is to use part of the name followed by a number.  In the picture below, Firs01 could have been used instead of 601.  It is important to make sure the institution code you enter is unique.

While most of the fields are simply contact information, there are two other fields: EDI and Bill Print.  The EDI (Electronic Data Interchange) code is a code assigned to each bank which identifies that bank during electronic transaction transmissions.  This is used mostly by the PAPP Wizard in the Cash Receipts system.  The Bill Print check box will group payments and tax bills for those who have signed up to use that institution.  If an institution is no longer available, but several properties still have it specified on their Taxation tab of the the Tax Master, then removing the check from the Bill Print box will cause their tax bills to be sorted with the regular bills.  They will no longer be grouped under that bank code.
 

Change Bank/Mortgage

Things change.  There are many reasons why this form exists, but its usefulness has not expired.  This form is usually used when banks merge, or to just clean up duplicate banks as shown in the form below. 

Before using this form, a word of warning is needed.  The banks table is also used by the Water system.  Make sure you do not merge a bank that is a bulk property owner in the Water system.

To utilize this form, use the From box on the left to choose the bank that is no longer needed.  Next, choose the bank with which it merged from the To pull down list.  Clicking the Change button will update all of the properties that are signed up for the From bank.  They will then be set to use the bank specified in the To box.