Sometimes you need to hold back money for an expense that you know is coming, but hasn’t hit the books yet. Whether it’s a roof, a water heater, or an AC unit, Harmony has your solution!

While some solutions require that you adjust the owner’s distribution reserve, then set yourself a reminder to adjust it back, Harmony makes it much easier. From the owner’s Money view, simply click or tap the Withhold Amount. You’ll get a dialog showing their distribution reserve and any un-invoiced work with estimates or totals, and the magical Temporary Holdback option.

Set the amount you want to hold back from the owner in Temporary Holdback Amount. If you want the holdback to automatically drop off and release the money after a certain date, enter that date. Enter the reason for the holdback to jog your memory when you see it in the future, or to help another user (or the owner) understand why money is being held.

For example, you may have a tenant report the AC is out on the 2nd of the month. You know that the last time the tech worked on that unit, they told you it was likely to need replacement. You suspect you’ll need to set aside a couple grand, but you’re not sure yet – a technician hasn’t even been dispatched. However, you know for sure that you don’t want to send the money to the owner if you’re going to need to turn around and ask for it back. Set the holdback to $2,000, with an expire date set for a day or two after the vendor is scheduled to get you the estimate. Once the estimate is in the system, the holdback can be expired, since the estimate will show up when it’s time to pay distributions (although you can keep it in place, or adjust it to the actual estimate, to be sure the money doesn’t get distributed).

You can always see the holdbacks for all owners from the Distributions view. The Reserve column contains their established reserve. If there are temporary holdbacks, they will be added to the reserve in this column (in italics), and the total to reserve from distribution will display below. Select Show Details for any owner to see the full details of the holdback, along with other details that affect distributions.

You can also hold back money for tenants, which is useful on move-out if you have reason to believe there are damages that will need to be paid for, and want to make sure you don’t pay out too early.

We are confident this simple solution will save you pads of post-it notes, while keeping both you and your owners happy as clams. If you have other ideas for how we can simplify your work as a property manager, please send them along!