Tenant Late Fees Not Posting

If your tenant's late fees did not post this month, there are a few reasons to explore. 

Tip: Any update to late fee settings will take effect in the following billing cycle.

REASON #1

Late fees will not auto-populate during a tenant's first month in Rentec if they are on a Monthly billing cycle. Late fees will only auto-populate in subsequent months. If your tenant is late during their first month, you will want to post a late charge using the steps below manually.

REASON #2

If you are new to Rentec and entering historical rent charges and payments for a tenant who has paid late historically. In that case, late fees will not automatically post. You must post each historical late fee, using the steps below.

REASON #3

Daily late fees will only apply to outstanding rent and other charges from previous months. They will not populate if the remaining balance is a current month's late fee.

REASON #4

The default late fee was not established in the Accounting Defaults of your program, nor when you placed a tenant in a property. You can verify and edit this information:

1. On the Tenants Profile under Accounting Defaults in the Overdues Settings
2. In the Accounting Defaults Settings on your Settings page. 

REASON #5

Recurring Transaction settings are established when moving in a tenant and are the hub for when charges are posted to the tenant ledger and when late fees begin. This information may be incorrect if Accounting Defaults were not established before a tenant is moved in.

1. For tenants on a monthly rental period, Late Fees will automatically post the second month in accordance with their grace period.
   1. If a Tenant is late paying their rent in their first month of tenancy, you will want to post the late fee manually.
2. For tenants on a rental cycle of less than one month (daily, weekly, bi-weekly), you may want to change the default time frame for Late Fees to begin in the Accounting Defaults if you would like the Late Fees to begin the first rental cycle.

The following steps walk through how to verify the Recurring Transaction settings:

In your Rentec Direct:

1. Click on Settings
2. Under Financial, click on Recurring Transactions
3. Click on the transaction to view details

• The Action must be a Rent Charge (not Expense)
• The Begin Date is the date the recurring charge began
• The Interval Day is the day rent is due, usually the 1st of each month

Example:

Action - Rent Charge

Begin Date - 06/01/2025 with an Interval Day “1”

Grace Period - 4 days

Rent will post on 06/01/2025 (and the 1st of each following month), there’s a 4-day grace period, if rent hasn’t been paid by the 5th, the default principal overdue charge will post.

** If a tenant is added to the software on 06/05/2025 with a backdated Begin Charge date, the grace period has been missed, late fees for this month will need to be manually posted. They will begin automatically posting the following month.

Click here to learn more about establishing Late Fees

HOW TO MANUALLY POST LATE FEES

Now that you understand why your late fees did not post automatically, you will want to be sure and post them manually.  

In your Rentec Direct account: 

1. Click on Tenants 
2. Right-click on the Tenant and choose Post Charge
3. Edit the Date to be reflected in the tenant's account
4. Enter the Amount
5. Using the Product / Service dropdown, select Late Fee
6. Enter a Memo if needed 
7. Click on Post Charge