Paying an Owner

Owner payment requests let you send a standalone payout to an owner outside of a regular owner statement — for example, an interim distribution, an expense reimbursement, or a one-off disbursement. This page walks you through creating a request, moving it through the approval workflow, and disbursing funds to the owner.

Finding Owner Payment Requests

You can access payment requests from two places:

• Owners → Payment Requests in the main navigation opens the full Owner Payment Requests list, which shows all requests across all owners with search, filters, status tabs, and pagination.
• The Payment Requests tab on an individual owner's profile shows only that owner's requests.

The status tabs at the top of the list let you quickly filter by where each request stands:

• Draft — saved but not yet submitted
• Needs Approval — submitted and waiting for an approver's decision
• Ready To Pay — approved and ready to be paid out
• In Progress — payment has been scheduled or is processing
• Completed — payment has been successfully disbursed
• All — every request regardless of status

Use Filters to narrow results by owner, property, date range, or other criteria. The totals bar at the bottom of the page shows the sum of all visible requests and the sum of any you have selected.

Creating a Payment Request

1. From the Owner Payment Requests page, click Pay an Owner in the top-right corner.
2. In the Pay an Owner form that appears, fill in the following fields:
   • Owner (required) — search for and select the owner you are paying.
   • Amount (required) — enter the dollar amount to disburse.
   • Payment For — a brief description of what this payment is for (for example, "Q1 distribution" or "Roof repair reimbursement"). This appears in the request list and helps identify the payment at a glance.
   • Memo — optional additional notes or instructions for internal reference.
   • Property — optionally associate the request with a specific property. This field appears after you select an owner.
   • GL Code — optionally assign a general ledger code for accounting purposes (appears if your account has GL codes configured).
3. Click Create Payment Request to save and submit the request, or click Cancel to discard it.

Request Lifecycle

Each payment request moves through a series of states from creation to disbursement:

1. Draft — the request has been created but not yet submitted. You can edit or delete it at this stage.
2. Submitted — the request has been sent for review. It appears in the approver's queue if an approval workflow is configured for your account.
3. Reviewed / Approved — the request has passed through the approval workflow and is cleared for payment.
4. Paid — funds have been disbursed to the owner.

Approving or Denying a Request

When a payment request is submitted, approvers see it in their approvals inbox under Needs Approval.

From the request detail panel, an approver can:

• Approve the request to move it to Ready To Pay.
• Deny the request to reject it.
• Leave a comment to ask for more information before making a decision.

If you need to retract a request that has already been submitted — for example, if you submitted it by mistake or need to make changes — you can cancel the in-flight approval request. This removes it from the approver's queue and returns it to a draft-like state so you can edit and resubmit it.

Paying an Approved Request

Once a request reaches the Ready To Pay state, you can disburse funds to the owner.

• Payments are sent via ACH from your Topkey Deposit Account or a connected bank account.
• Topkey uses the owner's stored ACH banking details on file. If wire payment is configured for the owner, that method can be used as well.
• Combined payments: when this option is enabled on the owner record, multiple approved requests to the same owner can be grouped into a single payment transaction rather than sent as separate transfers.

Managing Payments in Progress

After a payment is initiated, you can take the following actions from the request detail panel:

• Cancel a scheduled payment to stop it before it processes.
• Retry a failed payment to attempt disbursement again.
• Mark as returned if a payment was sent but came back (for example, due to incorrect banking details).

Editing a Paid Request

If you marked a payment as paid manually, you can still edit the send date on that payment after the fact. Open the request, navigate to the payment details, and update the send date as needed. This is useful if you need to correct the recorded disbursement date for accounting purposes.

Bulk Tools

The Owner Payment Requests page includes several tools for working with multiple requests at once:

• CSV Import — create multiple payment requests by uploading a spreadsheet. Click Import CSV from the page header to get started.
• Bulk Create — build multiple requests row by row in a single screen without leaving Topkey. Click Bulk Create in the page header.
• Bulk actions (available after selecting one or more rows):
  • Download CSV — export the selected requests to a spreadsheet.
  • Bulk delete — remove multiple draft requests at once.
  • Bulk submit — submit multiple draft requests for approval in one action.

Audit Trail

Every payment request maintains a full activity log. Open any request and navigate to the Activity tab to see a timestamped record of who created, edited, submitted, approved, or paid the request. The Comments tab stores any notes left by your team or approvers during the review process.

Frequently Asked Questions

Can I edit a payment request after it has been submitted for approval? Yes, but you must first cancel the in-flight approval request to return it to draft status. Once it is back in draft, you can make your changes and resubmit. Note that this removes the request from the approver's queue until you resubmit it.

What happens if an owner's banking details are missing when I try to pay? The payment cannot be processed without valid ACH details on file for the owner. Navigate to the owner's profile and add their banking information before initiating the payment.

Can I send one payment to cover multiple approved requests for the same owner? Yes. When the combined payments option is enabled on the owner's profile, Topkey can group multiple approved requests into a single ACH transaction. Contact Contact Support if you need help enabling this feature for a specific owner.