The screen displays the following:

Columns:

Fund Name - This is a name used in the Blocks Online system to identify the relevant Fund where you wish to record monies for the Block. For example if the block is called Marcham Road you may wish to call the Fund which records main service charge monies 'Marcham Road - SC' to differentiate it from a ground rent account, which you may call 'Marcham Road - GR'

The Funds can be linked to ‘real world’ bank accounts or be ‘virtual’.

A ‘virtual’ fund can be created where you wish to record funds that are not being held by you in a ‘real world’ bank account. For example, if a previous agent is holding funds on behalf of the block, then you may wish to create a virtual fund to record the money they are holding. You can then record a transfer of that money from the ‘previous agent fund’ into your own bank account when that transfer occurs.

Another example of a ‘virtual’ Fund is you might want to show allocated monies to a particular large expenditure item that is planned for the future outside of normal Reserve Funds i.e. a Lift Replacement then you could create a fund called ‘Marcham Road – Lift Fund’ which would not have any ‘real world’ bank account details displayed as this would not make sense as you cannot do Bank Reconciliations against a virtual Fund BUT the monies would show on the Bank Statements and Cash Account Summary screens for the Block.

Type – This displays the particular fund Type and there are 3 options available to select from when you set-up a Fund: Service Charge, Reserve Fund or Ground Rent. To collect service charges you need to have at least one active bank account set-up for the block with Type ‘Service Charge’. Similarly, if you are collecting ground rents then you will need one bank account with Type ‘Ground Rent’. If you wish, this can have the same bank details (e.g. sort code and account number) as another bank account.

Account Name – this shows the ‘real world’ bank account name that is being used to hold monies for Block.

Sort Code – this shows the sort code for the ‘real world’ bank account.

Account Number – this shows the account number for the ‘real world’ bank account.

Primary – for each type of transaction you wish to manage (i.e. service charge, ground rent or reserve fund) you need to have one ‘real world’ bank account selected as the Primary Account for that type of transaction and those details will appear on Demands that are created for that Block. A Yes will indicate this in the Primary column.

As an example, if you are collecting service charges and ground rents then you will need to create two Funds (minimum) in the system which can either be in two different ‘real world’ bank accounts or one bank account. One of type Service Charge as a Primary Account and one of type Ground Rent as a Primary Account.

Alongside each Fund is an orange ‘Details’ button which when clicked opens up the following pop-up screen:

Here you will see more information about that specific Fund and if it’s not a Virtual Fund then ‘real world’ Bank details will be shown on the right side panel.

Critically, at the bottom of this panel it displays the number of transactions (if any) that have been posted to this fund. If there are any transactions for this fund then you will not be able to edit any of the field items on the right side panel as that could cause discrepancies with the financial data historically recorded for the Block. 

On the left side panel, in addition to the Fund Name, Type and whether the Fund is a Primary Account there is also a Status field which if displaying ‘Open’ means this is an active Fund you are using for the Block but if displaying ‘Closed’ is a non-active Fund for the Block.

There is also a Comment box which displays free form text which has been input by you or one of your system users.

You make changes to the Fund Details by clicking on the ‘Edit’ button and as mentioned previously you will not be able to make a changes to the right side panel if there are any transactions posted to the fund but you can make changes to the left side panel in all instances.

Once you have made changes please make sure you click on the ‘Save’ button at the bottom right of the pop-up screen to update the Fund Details.

Add New Fund – click on this button on the Funds screen if you want to add a new fund and the following pop-up screen will appear:

There are a number of mandatory fields that will need to be completed for you to be able to create a new fund, these are shown with an ‘*’ against them.

·         If you manage funds for multiple Blocks through a single bank account then its details should be listed in the ‘Group Fund’ drop-down list at the top left of the screen. (If not then contact your system administrator.)

·        If you have a separate ‘real world’ bank account for each block then ignore the ‘Group Fund’ options and enter the bank account details on the right side panel.

If you have any Group Fund accounts set-up for your Blocks Online account these will appear and can be selected and will pre-populate the fields. NOTE: if you have a ‘real world’ Group Fund which you select then the right side panel will show the bank account fields completed but they will not be editable. However you can edit the left side panel to put for example the relevant Fund Name you wish to appear in the available Funds for the Block you are adding the fund to.

Built-in ‘real world’ bank account checker

A useful feature is that our system will automatically check the Sort Code and Account Number you enter if you wish to create a Fund with ‘real world’ bank linked to it.

If you enter a Sort Code or Account Number that is not valid i.e. does not exist in the ‘real world’ then the following pop-up message will appear:

If you wish to create a new virtual fund then click the ‘Virtual Fund’ slider button to the right and the screen will display like the one below and then complete the other fields: