Place Tenant Into a Property | Move-In

Because all the transaction ledgers work together seamlessly and will want to take advantage of all the tools in your Rentec Direct account geared towards managing your tenants, you will want to add a tenant to a property for accurate accounting. 

Move a Tenant into a Property

Moving a tenant into a property in the software is very easy.

In your Rentec Direct account:

1. Click Properties.
2. Locate the Property they will (or currently occupy if you are adding pre-existing tenants) and click the ‘Place New Tenant’ in the Property Profile Card (or right-click the Property to choose that same option from the Property Menu).
3. You will be presented with a screen with all the necessary fields for placing a new tenant into this property in the software.
   
   Note: Few fields are actually required; however, it is recommended for record-keeping to fill in all known fields. 
   1. If you have already defined a tenant via the Tenant List, choose Use Existing Tenant, otherwise enter the basic information for the tenant you are placing in the upper half of the screen.  
   2. In the lower half, enter the financial information. Remember the question marks will guide you through complicated options. 
      
      
      System notes:
      
      When placing a tenant for the first time into your Rentec Direct software, if the tenant is not a new tenant but an existing tenant, you can select the move-in date to be any date in the past. The system will automatically generate monthly rental invoices for the customer for the entire historical period, or you can indicate an alternate day to begin tracking rent charges. You will then want to go in and post all their payments, or at least a sum of their payments to the system to bring their account current.
      
      Take note of the Pro-Rate First Month rent option. If you are not starting their rent due on the 1st of the month, you can use the toggle whether or not you want the program to prorate the first month's rent.
      
      Prorating the first month will invoice for the days remaining in the month beginning on the move-in date specified. Future months will then bill on on the 1st of the following calendar months. This is generally preferred. If you do not prorate the first month, invoices will generate on the anniversary date of their move-in date instead. 
4. Click Place Tenant when finished. 

Once this first step is completed it will guide you to the Edit Tenant Screen where you can now add more information for your tenant, set up email notifications, and enable their tenant portals. From there, the system will ask you to Save Changes or Save and Set Up Lease.

From Tenant List on the main menu, you will see a list of all tenants that have been entered into the system. Each tenant has a Tenant Menu. Simply right-click on a tenant to access the drop-down menu to find all the tenant tools and features at your fingertips. If your browser settings allow, you'll also find many of those menu items and important information on the Tenant Profile Card that will display on the right-hand side. 

By completing the above steps you have just completed the first necessary basic steps to using Rentec Direct. The system will automatically take care of the new invoice generation for this tenant each month based on your preferences.

Frequently Asked Questions

Why is the rent charge posting on a different day of the month instead of the 1st? 

In this scenario, you may have entered a move-in date that was not the 1st of a month and inadvertently unchecked the prorated box when placing the tenant. This affects the interval day the system will date the invoice. Information on correcting the system charge can be found here: Adjust a Tenant Charge or Rent Due Date. 

What is an interval day and how does that affect charges? 

An interval day is the date the system marks the invoice as due. This is separate from the late fee grace period or the days in advance the invoice will post to inform the tenant it is coming due. The interval day is the display date of the charge on the ledger. In conjunction with the link above, information on interval days and how the system uses recurring charges can be found here: Recurring Transactions