Doorways has a specific account for tracking the bad debt accrued for each tenant. The Bad Debt tracking account is designed to keep track of unpaid balances accrued by former tenants. These balances have been deemed "uncollectable" and have been written off, either by board resolution or with approval from Housing Authority leadership.

Below are some important best practices surrounding bad debt tracking in Doorways:

• The decision to write off unpaid balances to the Bad Debt Tracking account typically occurs after the Housing Authority has been unsuccessful in collecting the debt from the tenant.

• The Bad Debt tracking account is for tracking and reporting purposes only. It is not an Accounts Receivable (A/R) account, and therefore will not affect the receivables balances in your General Ledger.

• Any amount of money stored in the Bad Debt tracking account will show up on the Bad Debt Report.

• Balances should only be transferred to the Bad Debt Tracking account after the following steps have been taken:

1. A move out action has been performed to move the tenant out of the unit where the uncollectable debt was accrued. If the tenant is still living in the unit, then the debt may still be collectable. In those instances, you might consider creating a payback agreement for the tenant to pay back the debt in monthly installments.

2. Any credit balances that remain in other A/R accounts or Equity accounts on the tenant’s ledger (examples: Work Order A/R, Security Deposit, Pet Deposit) should be transferred to the account with the unpaid debt first.

3. The unpaid debt for this tenant has been reviewed by the Housing Authority’s board, or by Housing Authority leadership, and has been deemed uncollectable and approved for write-off.

4. If the write-off was approved via board resolution, it is recommended that the resolution number or approval date be recorded for tracking purposes. This information can be entered into the Transfer feature’s Note field during the process of transferring the unpaid balance to the Bad Debt tracking account.

• Depending on your Housing Authority's program policies related to bad debt write-off, the former tenant may not be allowed to pay off the balance, or no longer be eligible for occupancy in that program or any other programs managed by the Housing Authority.  

  • If your Housing Authority does allow the former tenant to make payments to their Bad Debt tracking account, please contact HDS Doorways Support for assistance in setting up this feature.