ZEscrow clients can open subaccounts for tenant security deposits directly within our Business Online Banking platform. Prior to opening a new subaccount, you will need to deposit the funds for the security deposit into your ZEscrow checking account in Business Online. Once the account is funded, the funds will be actionable in the ZEscrow platform the following business day.
When funds are available, a client can create the individual subaccounts by following these steps:
Login to your Business Online Banking.
Select "Login to ZEscrow" which is located below your accounts on your main online banking dashboard.
Select the ZEscrow tile and then "New" in the top left corner. Then select "New Subaccount". From here, you can enter a unique "Account Name/ID" in order to easily identify the account from the dashboard. Additionally, the user will designate the type of beneficiary, country of citizenship, and can assign to a particular ZEscrow folder. Business Beneficiaries from outside the United States are not yet supported by ZEscrow.
For a subaccount where the tenant is a business, you'd select from one of the following beneficiary types:
Business: Commercial tenants and the beneficiary of earned interest. For these subaccounts, the landlord would collect a W9.
No Beneficiary: When the tenant is not required to be the beneficiary of earned interest. For these subaccounts, the landlord will not collect a W9. For further information regarding opening a tenant account where there is no beneficiary please consult article, Opening A Sub Account Without A Beneficiary.
If Business is selected as the beneficiary type, the ZEscrow client would then be prompted to include the W9.
Completed W9s could either be uploaded into the tenant account or could be sent to the tenant directly via email with DocuSign for signing. For more information regarding emailing W9s to tenants, please consult our article, Email W9's To A Beneficiary .
If you selected the "manual upload" option, you will then be prompted to enter in the following information for the tenant: beneficiary name, address, SSN, phone (optional), email (optional). Then select "Continue".
If you selected the "manual upload" option, you will then be prompted to upload the completed W9 and select continue.
Once the W9 has been uploaded to the tenant account, you can then fund the individual account by selecting "Transfer Funds" (in the top right corner). You will then move funds from the associated master account to the individual tenant account. It will take a business evening for the funds to transfer from the master to the tenant account.
The transfer statuses will automatically change from "scheduled" to "pending" to "reconciled". Once reconciled, the tenant account opening process is complete.