RentPayment’s parent company, YapStone, announced some very exciting news today.   Accel Partners, a global venture capital and growth equity firm that has backed industry-defining companies like Facebook and Groupon, is leading a $50 million investment in YapStone.   Accel Partners recognized RentPayment as the dominant leader in electronic payments-as-a-service to the property management industry and also an industry stand-out with tailored ePayment features, such as RentByText.

For RentPayment, this means support for the company’s rapid growth, continued investment in the technology platform, and even the opportunity for international expansion.

For more news on the investment:

• Venture Beat
• Tech Crunch
• Wall Street Journal

 
Accel Partners Leads $50 million Investment in YapStone

SAN FRANCISCO, CA (June 7, 2011)

YapStone, Inc., the leading provider of Electronic Payments as a Service (ePaaS) for property management and other vertical market segments, today announced a $50 million minority investment led by Accel Partners, a global venture capital and growth equity firm that has backed industry-defining companies like Facebook, Groupon, AdMob, Cloudera and Atlassian, and Meritech Capital Partners, a leading late stage venture capital firm.  The new capital will be used to support the Company’s rapid growth, specifically for continued investment in its core technology platform to serve current and new vertical markets.  The capital will also be used to support international expansion and fund opportunistic acquisitions. Financial Technology Partners LP and FTP Securities LLC (together “FT Partners”) served as exclusive strategic and financial advisor to YapStone and its Board of Directors in this transaction.

YapStone, founded in 1999, has built a complete, end-to-end, payment services platform for property managers to easily accept credit cards and e-Checks for rent and other recurring payments. The Company has leveraged its unique, hosted approach in providing industry-specific payment solutions to become the largest platform for apartment and vacation rent payments in the U.S.  In addition, YapStone is aggressively leveraging its core technology platform to service new, historically offline, industries which can benefit from the massive efficiency and cost-reduction of converting from paper checks to ePayments.  The Company’s recent selection as the integrated payment solution for multiple, industry-leading software and Internet franchises such as HomeAway/VRBO demonstrates the market demand for outsourced payment services like YapStone provides.

“We are excited by the opportunity this significant capital infusion represents to more quickly scale our platform within both our existing and new market segments,” said Matt Golis, CEO and Co-Founder of YapStone.  “Accel Partners has been instrumental in identifying and helping to build industry leading technology companies and together we will work hard to be their next great success story,” said Tom Villante, Chairman and Co-Founder of YapStone.  “We had a number of financing options available to us but we were attracted to the value we believed Accel would bring through its strategic perspective, access to its existing portfolio, and global reach.”

“While we have certainly built a franchise within the consumer internet and social media spaces, our investment in YapStone represents a continued focus for Accel within the alternative payment and financial products space,” commented Todd MacLean, a partner at Accel who will join YapStone’s board as part of the firm’s investment.  “Within the broadly-defined payments universe, we believe there are still significant opportunities to utilize technology to connect underserved customer segments to the traditional ecosystem.  Like our investment in OzForex, which provides foreign exchange remittance solutions to individuals and SMBs, and Wonga, which provides online, short-term financing options to the under-banked, we believe YapStone’s value proposition reinforces this thesis, leveraging technology to digitize what is today a significant volume of paper-based transactions,” said MacLean.  “In the end, however, we are in the talent business and one of the most compelling factors for us was the opportunity to partner with entrepreneurs like Tom and Matt who have demonstrated remarkable ability and tenacity in bootstrapping their company to market leadership.  We are excited to help them build YapStone through the next chapter of their growth.”

About YapStone
YapStone, Inc. is the largest Electronic Payments-as-a-Service (ePaaS) provider focused in property management and several other bill payment industries. YapStone’s payment service processes billions of dollars annually, with an on-demand platform that offers Web-based and mobile technology to its clients. YapStone’s technology includes a unified, real-time reporting platform for check conversion, credit/debit card processing, and electronic check processing.

About Accel
Founded in 1983, Accel Partners is a leading venture capital and growth equity firm dedicated to partnering with outstanding entrepreneurs to build world-class businesses.  Accel invests globally with offices in Palo Alto, London, New Delhi, and Bangalore as well as in China via the IDG-Accel Partnership.  With over $6bn under management, Accel has helped entrepreneurs build over 300 successful companies including AdMob, Atlassian, Brightcove, ComScore, Etsy, Facebook, Gameforge, Groupon, Kayak, Macromedia, metroPCS, QlikTech, Real Networks, Riverbed, Squarespace, Unirush, Veritas, Webroot and XenSource.

About Meritech
Meritech Capital is a leading provider of late-stage venture capital to category-defining private technology companies, and has been one of the top performing venture firms of the past decade. With over $2.6 billion under management, Meritech primarily leads investments into portfolio companies of leading early-stage venture capital firms and looks for companies with proven and differentiated technology, rapidly-growing revenue and experienced management teams and has invested in industry-leading companies including 2Wire, Acclarent, BigFix, Broadsoft, Cornerstone OnDemand, Danger, Facebook, Fortinet, Greenplum, Netezza, NetSuite, PopCap, Presidio, Riverbed, Salesforce.com, Sourcefire, SpringSource and Zipcar.

Media Contact
Kiara Kempski
Marketing Manager, YapStone
415-829-6908
kkempski@yapstone.com

RentPayment offers direct accounting and management software integration which allows properties to automate and streamline their current account receivables processes.

With integration, RentPayment can pull information directly from property management software databases. This allows RentPayment to automatically post ePayments directly into property management system ledgers.

More Benefits of Property Management Software Integrations:

• Eliminates manual payment posting, which can reduce data entry time and errors.
• Payment profiles are automatically created for each resident in the accounting software database allowing residents to securely access updated balance information online.
• Residents can view their open balances with line-item detail and see their exact balance (i.e. rent, parking, utilities and late fees)
• Property Managers can leverage business rules that are already created in the property management software.  For example, a tenant’s status (i.e. – ‘eviction in process’) is carried over from the software to RentPayment which reduces errors, multiple payments and other issues.
• Co-branded portal websites are available for residents to login and pay rent online.
• Property Managers can send eStatements to residents with detailed information about monthly charges and receive instant email notifications when payments are made.

Enabling resident usage after integration

RentPayment employs a full marketing team to help managers make it as easy as possible for renters to convert to ePayments at their community.  Marketing materials and email campaigns have even been specially designed for integrated clients to supply residents with their Account Code (necessary for integrating payments), making the transition to integrated ePayments seamless. Below are examples:

Which software can be integrated?
RentPayment can integrate with all major property management softwares and can also build integrations with proprietary and currently unsupported accounting software.
For questions or more information please contact you Account Manager or RentPayment:

(866) 289-5977 x305   |   marketing@rentpayment.com

With the vast amount of transactions RentPayment processes, it is imperative to uphold the premium level of security and service we offer our customers. In today’s global economy, organizations need to have adequate controls and safeguards when hosting or processing financial transactions. Payment processors who do not meet guidelines may expose property management companies and their renters to risk and fraud. To maintain superior data protection and control, RentPayment completes regular audits and certifications to ensure we are providing the most secure service to you and your renters.

PCI Compliance

The Payment Card Industry Data Security Standard (PCI DSS) is a worldwide information security standard. In order to attain PCI compliant status, RentPayment is required to pass a multitude of tests and security provisions. This annual audit ensures that RentPayment meets ever increasing data security controls to help prevent fraud and risk with card holder information. The core requirements to PCI compliance include: building a secure network, cardholder data protection, maintaining a security management program, access control measures, and regular testing of the network. RentPayment has just passed it’s most recent PCI audit, along with numerous audits in the past, attesting to how seriously we take security when it comes to our customers’ information.

SAS 70 Type II (Statement on Auditing Standards No. 70: Service Organizations)
SAS 70 is an internationally recognized auditing standard developed by the American Institute of Certified Public Accountants (AICPA). Passing this in-depth audit establishes that RentPayment has developed control objectives for significant areas of internal control concerning engineering, operations, information technology and payment processing. The control objectives in the 2010 report addressed the following areas: Control Operations, Information Security, Application Change Control, Data Communications, Client Setup & Maintenance, and Payment Processing & Gateways.

White Paper
Educating and familiarizing yourself with industry standards is important to ensure your payment processor is providing a secure service and mitigating risk. RentPayment has produced a white paper to help inform our customers and partners about these significant data security regulations. After reading this paper you will have a better understanding of PCI compliance, SAS 70 audit standards, SSL data encryption, and the major rules set forth by Visa and MasterCard.

Feel free to share this white paper with your industry associates.
Click Here to Read White Paper

Making sure everyone is knowledgeable about the RentPayment service is key to successful adoption, which leads to proven cost savings and higher occupancy.  We provide live training and online video tutorials to help educate your team on all the great benefits that come with accepting electronic rent payments.
 
If your property has had new staff additions, recent turnover, or wants to refresh their RentPayment knowledge on great ways to utilize our service, here is what you can do:
 

Get to Know Your Account Manager

• Your Account Manager is the most resourceful tool for any questions you may have about your account or to learn more about the services available to your property.  To find out who your Account Manager is, send an email to: AccountManagement@RentPayment.com.
• Communication Drives Success.  Designate a staff member that will be the main point of contact with your RentPayment Account Manager.

Know Your Set-Up Type

• You should know all the payment channels available at your property and the fees, if any, that each payment channel may cost to your renters. Our different payment channels include:
  • Online
  • By phone with a friendly Customer Service Representative
  • By phone with Interactive Voice Response available 24/7
  • RentByText^TM
  • AutoPay
  • In Person
• Every property at RentPayment is set up differently based on your parent Management Company.  So make sure you find out what channels you accept and what the fees are for each channel.  Don’t know?  Email us!

Visit MyRentPayment

• On your personal RentPayment.com Login page you will find a new section called “MyRentPayment.”  Under the Training & Tutorials sections you can find videos, user guides, ways to easily generate customized marketing
  materials and more to educate your
  team on your RentPayment service.
• The MyRentPayment Video Tutorial section is especially valuable educational tool! This section is a must-go-to for all new staff members.  There are 12 videos that show live demonstrations of the RentPayment system and demonstrate how to run reports and make/accept payments.

Attend Our RentPayment Refresher Webinars

• Each month, RentPayment hosts free live online training Webinars designed for new or existing property managers that want to learn more about the RentPayment platform and how to maximize usage. These trainings include a live demonstration of reporting, features and marketing options… plus time for Q&A at the end.
• This is a great opportunity to have an online demo with one of our experienced Account Managers to answer any question you have on the RentPayment service.

The MyRentPayment resource center, available for all Property Managers,  now includes 12 video tutorials.   These videos walk you through how to use certain functions of the RentPayment system and are excellent resources for a refresher on RentPayment.

Each video focuses on a unique and specific topic, allowing you to pinpoint a certain area you’d like to learn more about.  Or, watch all 12 for a complete refresher course!  When training new or current staff members on RentPayment, this section is must!

1. Make a Payment – Manager: Process a one-time rent payment, application fee or security deposit online for an existing or new resident.

2. Make a Payment – Renter: Our easy to use platform makes it convenient for renters to make a credit card rent payment or pay rent from a bank account using an eCheck.   This video shows renters how to pay rent online!

3. Run a Transaction Summary Report:  Allows managers to see a volume report with all transaction counts, totals and averages for all online rent payments made in a designated time period.

4. Run a Transaction Activity Report:  View historical data for ACH, credit card, and refund activity.

5. Run a Reconciliation Report:  A comprehensive tool to reconcile all rent transactions that have occurred through the RentPayment rent collection platform.

6. Run a ClickPay Report:  Generate a report to see all scheduled ClickPays for a specific property.   ClickPays are auto-generated rent payment reminder notifications sent to residents each month to remind them to pay rent electronically on time each month!

7. Run an AutoPay Report:  View rental payment details for every resident that is scheduled to pay automatically by credit card or eCheck.   All residents signed up for automatic rent payment will be shown in this report.

8. Search for a Resident:  Do a quick search or advanced search to be taken to a resident’s profile page.

9. Search by Reference Number: Gather additional information about a statement, transaction, line item, invoice or AutoPay for any rent payment transaction.

10. Change Your Password: Easily change your account username or password.

11. Manage Your Email Subscriptions:  Subscribe or unsubscribe to desired email alerts.   This area allows Property Managers to manage all notifications you can possibly receive concerning rent payments, including:  AutoPay Failure Notification, Billing, Cancelled Payment, Chargeback, Export Receipt, Export Reminder, Failed Export, Failed Import, Marketing Communications, Payment Failure Notification, Payment Receipt, Payments Batched, Property Bank Account Change, Refund Failure Notification, Refunded Payment, Reversed Payment, and Statement Receipt.

12. Adjust Person Permissions:  Run a person permissions report to view or change how each individual is allowed to submit a rent payment electronically.

Top 10 Reasons Renters Utilize RentPayment for Online Rent Payment

1. CONVENIENCE! RentPayment’s flexible payment options allow renters to pay any time from anywhere using almost any device.

2. Save time.  EPayments can be made in less than 20 seconds.

3. Pay on the go. RentPayment’s remote payment options include: online, by phone, by text, or with our new iPhone application.

4. AutoPay. Enrolling in AutoPay ensures rent is paid on-time, every time, with no oversight.

5. Secure and reliable. Online payments are PCI Compliant and secure. There is no need to worry about checks getting lost in the mail; residents receive instant payment confirmations and email notifications that they have paid.

6. Service. Customer Care Representatives are available 7 days a week.

7. Incentives. Recurring renter promotions and rebates are available, offering exciting prizes for switching to electronic payments.

8. Rewards. Renters can earn rewards from their credit card company. If they need to keep their cash they can pay their rent on a credit card.

9. Payment reminders. Renters can receive monthly reminders from RentPayment, ensuring no late fees are accrued.

10. Go green. Reducing paper consumption tremendously reduces waste and is great for the environment.

As the multifamily industry continues to turn to more internet based solutions, there are a growing number of property management products and services marketed as cloud computing businesses.  A cloud computing business is an internet based company that allows clients to manage, analyze, and store data online (in “the cloud”) rather than through it’s own investment in IT, hardware, data centers, and servers.  For the multifamily housing industry, the most popular cloud computing businesses include Software-as-a-Service (Saas) payment companies, hosting services, email archiving solutions, property management softwares with cloud computing systems and more.

A recent article in Multifamily Executive noted that apartment IT executives are continuing to evaluate  costs and investigate the ROI benefits of transitioning data to SaaS and cloud companies.  The article quotes Scott McCurdy (Vice President of Information Technology at Pinnacle) suggesting that management companies “evaluate your environment and determine the types of cloud services that will provide cost savings, flexibility, scalability, or come combination of those to your enterprise.” Read the full article >>>

There are many online solutions for the multifamily industry that can help Property Management companies reap the benefits that cloud based systems provide.  Several multifamily SaaS based companies allow apartments to migrate certain business activities from physical to online data storage quiet seamlessly.  One example of this is moving from paper based rent collection to a completely online payment solution.

The RentPayment SaaS Solution:  a completely online payment software.  This allows the transition of rent collection from a paper-based, physical activity to one that is completely digital.  Here are some of the benefits of internet-based payment processing:

• No more paper checks.  Paper checks require several manual and physical steps by property managers before money is deposited into the bank, not only does an online solution reduce physical data and records, but it also automates accounts receivable and increases cash flow.
• Online data storage.  Records of all payments and notifications are stored online, in real time, forever.  There is no need to keep paper records or to keep payment information stored on the company’s own data servers when it can be accessed via the internet any time.
• Email records.  Records of all emails regarding payments and all payment notifications sent are archived on RentPayment’s system, meaning there is no need to archive thousands of email records on the company’s email server.

Although many companies still prefer an in-house data center vs. cloud-based applications, the trend continues to grow and there is no denying the financial and operational benefits of going digital.  Even without transitioning all data to cloud based applications at once, many companies like RentPayment.com make the transition a step by step process.  With various software and accounting program integrations, RentPayment can also sync with almost any other cloud based system available.

Multi-Housing News is an online news magazine for the multi-family industry providing current and complete news, information and analysis to industry leaders.  Each year they hold the MHN Technology Choice Awards to recognize the industry’s best technology companies providing payments modules, screening systems, property management software, security products and more.

To select the winners, Multi-Housing News holds an online vote and asks Property Managers, management companies and industry associates to decide which firms stand apart and should be recognized as outstanding technology providers.

This year, RentPayment has been nominated in the category of Resident Payment Systems.  Winning payment systems are to be chosen based on the following criteria: features/functionality, pricing/ROI, Ease of Use, Appeal to Residents, Contract/Licensing Terms, and Customer Support & Training.

RentPayment would greatly appreciate your support, and thanks to all of our clients and industry colleagues for your votes and support.

To vote, visit: http://www.multihousingnews.com/2011-technology-choice-awards/.

This year’s nominees include only the biggest and best multi-family Vendors.  In addition to Resident Payment Systems, the following categories are also awarded:

• Property Management Software
• Resident Screening Systems
• Internet Listing Services
• Telecommunications Providers
• Security
• Utility Management
• Lead Management
• Resident Portals
• Marketing Websites
• Mobile Apps
• Most Innovative Multi-Housing Technology

Win $500 just for converting residents to electronic payments!

Ultimately RentPayment is here to help Property Manager’s jobs easier. Electronic rent payment can help managers collect more on time payments and also means having to deal with less paperwork and manual record keeping for all incoming rental payments. We know that the managers who realize these benefits already work very hard to promote electronic payments at their communities and we’d like to reward them for their efforts.

The Community Incentive Contest is exclusive to RentPayment Property Managers and/or Community Representatives, offering a $500 prize to the representative who can collect the most points in April and May 2011! The contest begins April 1st and entrants have until May 31st to earn points and be eligible to win.  Points are earned based on the percentage of residents who use RentPayment’s online rent payment services during the promotional timeline.  Managers can also earn extra points for doing certain activities to promote online payment, including:   ordering/displaying marketing materials, posting on their Facebook or Twitter page, and making a short video about RentPayment at their community..

For more information on the promotion and how to earn points>>>

A recent survey from NARPM (National Association of Residential Property Managers) asked Property Managers what they believe the benefits of “going green” are and how they are making efforts to reduce the carbon footprint at their communities.

The study reports that:

“76% of all property managers are very interested in using less paper.
Moving towards a paperless office eliminates ink cartridges, hours of
filing, pricey bank checks, postage and paper.”

To accomplish this, managers are turning over to web-based technology.    Web-based technologies for the property management industry include:   property management/accounting software, increased use of email, online document storage and electronic payment platforms (such as RentPayment.com).  One of the biggest “green” benefits to these web-based technologies is concurrent reduction of paper and waste associated with moving to online systems.   

Primary technologies used in Property management offices to reduce paper consumption and waste.

Above is a chart produced from NARPM’s survey outlining the types of technologies used in Property Management offices to reduce paper consumption and waste.  We’d like to show you how even converting just one portion of your business, payments, from paper-based to web-based can make use of all of these technologies and drastically help the environment.  Here is how our payment solution can help with all of these “green” initiatives:

Email: RentPayment sends email notifications of your choosing for all possible resident actions that occur in the online payment system.  All notifications and payment receipts are emailed instantly and can be stored or forwarded via email to residents.  In addition, RentPayment also provides email marketing solutions for Managers.  We can set any property up with a custom email blast to notify all renters of electronic payment options.

Scanning:  RentPayment also offers check scanning.  For those residents who do still write paper check, these checks can be passed through a scanner.  When checks are scanned, the names and payment amounts are automatically read and inputted into the payment system and an image of the check is captured and stored.  This means all paper checks are ultimately treated as if they were electronic payments and can be stored and filed along with all other “green payments” coming in online.

Online document Storage: All documents associated with payments (receipts, batches, notifications, reports) are all stored online digitally forever.  In addition, every notification that is sent is automatically stored forever in a special section called Email History.  This means you never have to worry about printing emails for your records, and they are always accessible online.  Also, for check scanning communities digital check images are stored like a photo copy for every resident payment.

Accept Online Payments: RentPayment is the industry’s leading electronic payment processor, allowing over 3 million residents to pay electronically with credit cards and eChecks.  Plus, there are options!  Even if residents are out of town with no internet access, there is no need to mail a paper check…. Residents can sign up for AutoPay or use RentPayment’s mobile payment options, including Pay By Phone, text message and the RentPayment iPhone app.

Web Based Property management Software:  RentPayment integrates with several Property Management softwares, including: Yardi, Rent Manager, AMSI, Real Page and more.   This allows for all resident data, including payment history to be stored online in real time and not on paper.