Understanding Tenant Related Transactions
Tenant-related transactions are any transaction that you or the system will post that display on either the tenant ledger rent or deposit ledger.
Tenant Transactions
Before we dive into the different tenant transactions, it's important to know that your Rentec Direct software was designed with built-in Products and Services (categories) specifically used to post charges to Tenant Ledgers. These are not considered income nor expense as no funds are moving in or out of a Property, Owner or Bank Ledger.
System Advice: Products and Services (categories) will not indicate a Bank Account or a Property, therefore you should not see these categories on the Property or Bank ledgers. If you see any of these Products and Services on a Property, Bank or Owner ledger, the transaction should be edited to correct.
Rent Charges
A rent charge means you are charging the tenant an amount for rent due. When you move a tenant into a property the system prompts for a Begin Date to start charging rent.
- If you enter a future date, the system will place a 120 Rent Charge on the tenant ledger for that future rent charge.
- If you enter a past date, the system will place as many 120 Rent Charges on the tenant ledger for each time period rent was due since that begin date.
These charges will display on the Debit column of the tenants' ledger only. A 120 Charge will never post to any other ledger.
Late Fees
The 130 Charge category is also used by the system to automatically post Late Fees to a tenant ledger based on your specified late fee settings.
More information on late fee settings and options can be found here: Late Fees
Other Charges
There are 4 designated Products (Charge Categories).
There is an option to create custom Products (Charge Categories).
More information on adding other charges can be found here: Adding Other Tenant Charges
If you'd like Charges to post at the same time such as Rent and Utilities resulting in Late Fees populating correctly, you will want to consider using Products and Services. More information for these details can be found here: Products and Surcharges
Income from Tenants
Payments received from a tenant should be posted directly by going to Tenants and choosing that tenants ledger then Post Income. This ensures that the transaction flows to all the appropriate ledgers; The Tenant, Property, Bank and Owner (for RentecPM subscriptions)
Important Note: An income transaction displays on the Credit column of the tenant ledger as it credits that tenant for their payment. It off-sets the charges on the debit column and creates a rolling balance for that tenant.
The Tenant portal will display the same information and rolling balance so they know at a glance their account status.
Discounts and Concessions
There are a few ways to offer a tenant a discount, waive a late fee, or apply some other concession (also known as a rent discount, tenant credit, or write-off).
Again, because it is tenant-related, it's important to make those adjustments directly from Tenants.
More information on applying a concession can be found here: Rent Discount, Concession, or Write Off
Refunds
There are times when you will want to give a refund to a tenant. In this case, an expense from the Property will need to be created because it holds the original funds. More information on creating a tenant refund can be found here: Tenant Refunds
Tenant Deposits
Deposits received by a tenant are held in a separate ledger and are not considered income while held.
Access to the tenant deposit ledger is found by going into the regular tenant ledger. Other items that may be posted to this stand-alone ledger could be cleaning fees, pet deposit, key deposit, utility deposit, and last month's rent.
More information about deposits can be found here: Tenant Security Deposits