Manual Utility Billing

For some landlords and property managers, charging utilities to tenants is a standard procedure.

Manually Entering Utility Billing

In most situations, you pay the expense and then charge the tenant. The bill may be received as one statement or separate statements. Rentec Direct property management software allows you to enter the expense and charge the tenant in either situation.

This article covers Manually Entered Utility Billing. If you have tenants on separate meters, you may want to review steps for Utility Billing Import and Export

METHOD 1: The utility company provides individual bills for each tenant or property

You can use the following instructions if your utility company provides individual bills for each tenant or property.

In your Rentec Direct account:

1. Click Properties
2. Right-click on the Property for which the bill is for and choose Post Expense from the drop-down menu
3. Fill in the Transaction Details: amount, payee, etc.
4. From the Charge Tenant dropdown, select the Tenant you want to be billed for this utility
5. Click Post Expense when finished; the utility expense will carry through to the tenant's ledger as an expense with the same values.

METHOD 2: You receive one bill with multiple tenant charges and are re-billing this to the tenant(s)

If you receive one bill with multiple tenant charges and you are rebilling these charges to the tenant(s), you can just use the following instructions.

Step 1 - Enter the Split Transaction

In your Rentec Direct account:

1. Click on Banking
2. Right-click the bank account which will pay the utility bill and choose Post Expense
3. Enter 
   1. Date
   2. Payment Type
   3. Check or reference #
   4. Payee
4. Click the Split Transaction button
5. Click on +Add Another Line for each additional property the expense is for
6. Enter the information for each line:
   1. Property
   2. Category
   3. Amount per property
   4. Memo and/or reference as needed
7. Click Post Expense 

Click here for more information on posting split transactions

Step 2 - Post the Expense to the Tenants Ledgers

In your Rentec Direct account:

1. Click on Tenants
2. Right-click on the Tenant and select Post Charge
3. Enter the
   1. Date
   2. Amount (their portion)
   3. Product/Service
   4. Memo as needed
4. Click on Post Charge