Accounting Default Settings | Preferences

Customizing your default accounting settings is an easy way to automatically implement your custom settings, resulting in accurate, consistent accounting and reports. 

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Setting Your Accounting Defaults

Setting up accounting defaults before adding tenants saves you time and ensure accurate accounting and reports. 

In your Rentec Direct account: 

1. Click on Settings
2. Under Financial, Click on Accounting Defaults 
3. Indicate your preference for each setting 
4. Click on Save Changes

Some Highlights of Accounting Default Options

While these settings are well defined, you can roll your cursor over the "?" for more helpful details. 

• Use Strict Accounting Rules - This setting will default to "Yes", requiring financial transactions to have a bank account and specified category, following traditional accounting best practices.
• Default number of days early to create rent charge  - Indicate how many days early rent charges should post to a tenants ledger?
• Default number of days after move in to begin calculating overdues - This setting is most ueful for rental periods of less than one month (daily, weekly, bi-weekly) and only applies to the first rental period.
• Default overdue grace period in days - How many days before late fee posts
• Default principal late fee - The amount of late fee charged the 1st day following the "Grace Period"
• Default daily late fee - The daily late fee after the initial charge
• Default maximum total monthly late fee - The maximum amount of late fees that can be applied

How Accounting Defaults Influence Owner Contributions and Accurate Record Keeping

If you are operating a Rentec PM account for property managers, another setting you will want to consider setting is the Default Owner Contribution Category for times when owners may need to contribute funds for unexpected expenses or repairs.

You have the option of:

• Having funds transfer automatically from one property to another while processing an owner disbursement
• Manually documenting a contribution
• Allowing owners to make a contribution through their portal with an active merchant account

Before owners can make contributions, you will need to:

1. Create an owner contribution category using the steps in Setting up Categories
2. Add that category to your Accounting Defaults using the following steps

In your Rentec Direct account: 

1. Click on Settings
2. Under Financial, click on Accounting Defaults
3. Scroll down to "Default owner contribution category"
4. Using the dropdown menu, select the category you created for owner contributions
5. Click on Save Changes

Tips

• Changes to Accounting Defaults will automatically apply to tenants added after the changes have been made. Settings for existing tenants can be made individually. Click on this link for more information on how to quickly Edit Tenants.
• Click this link to learn more about how to Automate notifications to be emailed to tenants for charges, payments, and overdue transactions.
• Review each of the Financial Preferences to ensure the settings are aligned with leases, rental agreements, and other company accounting procedures. 
• Click this link to learn more about how Rentec Direct provides Full Accounting Features.