Accounting Default Settings | Preferences

There are some settings that will apply to all or most tenants that could be tedious if added individually. Customizing your default accounting settings is an easy way to implement your custom settings, resulting in accurate, consistent accounting and reports. 

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Tip: While these settings are well defined, if you roll your cursor over the "?" in front of the preference, more details will be provided. 

Setting Your Accounting Defaults

Setting up accounting defaults prior to adding tenants will save you time and ensure accurate accounting and reports.  It's important to review each of the Financial Preferences to ensure the settings are aligned with leases, rental agreements, and other company accounting procedures. 

System Note: Accounting defaults can be updated as needed and will automatically apply to tenants added after the changes. If changes apply to existing tenants, the settings can easily be updated on an individual basis by editing the tenants.

Pro Tip: Automate notifications to be emailed to tenants for charges, payments, and overdue transactions as they post to the tenant ledger.

In your Rentec Direct account: 

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

Some Highlights of Accounting Default Options

Rentec Direct provides Full Accounting Features allowing customization of accounting defaults.

Pro Tip: Hover over the "?" before each financial preference for more details 

• Use Strict Accounting Rules - This setting will default to "Yes", which will require financial transactions to have a bank account and specified category, following traditional accounting best practices 
  
  System Note: Setting this to NO can lead to your balance sheet not balancing properly
  
• Default number of days early to create rent charge  - Indicate how many days early rent charges should post to a tenants ledger? 

Late Fee options - Click here for more details Late Fees

• Default number of days after move in to begin calculating overdues - This setting is most useful 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 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

Several default categories are provided for you. 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. There may be times when an owner needs to contribute funds for expenses, repairs, or even management fees for a property. You have the option of having funds transfer automatically from one property to another while processing an owner disbursement, manually documenting a contribution, or even allowing owners to make a contribution through their portal with an active merchant account.

System Advice: You will want to create an owner contribution category to utilize this option. Instructions for creating custom accounting categories can be found here: Setting up Categories

In your Rentec Direct account: 

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