Move your Buildium books with its exports.

Before you start

Buildium is part of Imprest's rental module, for rental real estate companies that keep more than one entity in Imprest. If you don't see Buildium under Add a connection, the rental module isn't on for your company yet. Email support to ask about it.

Only someone who can manage the books can upload or post an import. On the Buildium side, you need to be able to run its reports for all of your rental properties.

There's no sign-in to Buildium by default: you upload its export files. A small number of companies are trying a version where Imprest signs in to Buildium and fetches the exports every day. If yours is one of them, you'll see Connect instead of Upload export.

Upload your first export

1. In Buildium, run these reports on the same day, for all of your rental properties: the general ledger on accrual basis and on cash basis (all dates the first time), the balance sheet, Rental details and Lease details (every lease status), and, if you like, the Bank account balance breakdown.
2. In Imprest, open Apps, choose Add a connection, find Buildium and choose Upload export.
3. The first time, name the Buildium account the files come from, and under Books start choose the first day of the fiscal year your books start on.
4. Drag in the files, or choose them. The window ticks off each report as it recognizes it, and waits until the required ones are in.
5. Choose Upload and check. The import opens beside the list while Imprest checks it.
6. When the check finishes, read what each entity would get, then choose Post to your books. Posting runs in the background.

The How it works tab walks through the exports with examples.

What comes in, and how it lands

Each upload is one import, named for the month you uploaded it, such as "the March import". For each entity it shows how many records are ready to post and how many are held for you. From the second import on, it also shows what's new, changed or missing since the last one.

• Opening balances. Each entity's balances arrive on the day before your books start, including the rent tenants still owed, unpaid bills and deposits held.
• Transactions after the start. Rent charges, tenant payments, bills, checks, deposits and journal lines come in as Imprest records, marked as coming from Buildium.
• Up to date through. Each posted import moves forward the day each entity is up to date through.

While Buildium keeps an entity's books, enter that entity's rent, bills and bank activity in Buildium, not in Imprest. Imprest refuses entries that would move its bank, receivables, payables or deposits from the start date on, so nothing is counted twice. Adjusting entries that touch none of those still work. Associations you manage in the same Buildium account are left out automatically.

Day to day

1. Whenever you want Imprest up to date, export a fresh set from Buildium and choose Upload export on the Imports tab.
2. Check the import, then choose Post to your books.
3. When an import can't match a value, such as an account name or an entity, the records that use it are held. Open the Mapping tab and choose the Imprest record it means: Imprest re-checks the held records on its own. You never edit or upload the export again for this.
4. Records that wait for a decision are on the Exceptions tab. The Reconciliation tab compares your books with Buildium's.

Bank lines dated after the day an entity is up to date through wait for the next import, not for your review.

Common problems

• A report doesn't match the ledger. The import is refused and names the first accounts that disagree. Run every report on the same day, for the same properties, with no account filter, and upload them together.
• "Only balances were posted." Buildium's ledger starts after your books start. Export the general ledger again from before your books start.
• A file is over the size limit. Imprest reads one import at a time, and a Buildium export can't be split. Email support and we'll import it with you.
• A new upload is refused. An import from the same Buildium account is still being read or posted. Wait for it to finish. A newer upload replaces one that's ready but not posted yet.
• An entity's part waits. An import can't start an entity when entries made in Imprest after the start date already move its money, or when another system keeps its books. The exception says why.

Stop or remove imports

There's no connection to switch off: Imprest only reads the files you upload. Stop uploading and nothing more comes in. What you've posted stays in your books.

To remove uploads that put nothing in your books, select them on the Imports tab and choose Delete. Imports that posted stay, and the dialog names them.

Ready to keep an entity's books in Imprest instead of Buildium? There's no button for that in Imprest yet, so email support. From the day an entity switches, its entries are made in Imprest, and a later Buildium import brings in only what was recorded there before the switch.