Charges Begin Date

When placing a tenant into a property (Move-In), you'll choose a Charges Begin Date. This date tells Rentec Direct when to begin generating rent charges, ledger entries, and invoices for the tenant. The Charges Begin Date can be set to any date in the past, present, or future, depending on your bookkeeping needs.

Move-In Date vs. Charges Begin Date

Although these dates are often the same, they serve different purposes.

• Move-In Date - The actual date the tenant moved into the property. This date is used for historical records, lease information, and reporting.
• Charges Begin Date - The date Rentec Direct begins generating rent charges, ledger entries, and invoices for the tenant.

Setup Options

When you first place a tenant in a property (Move-In), you have two options:

• Start with a New Ledger (Recommended)

Enter the tenant's actual Move-In Date to preserve historical records, then set the Charges Begin Date to the date you began using Rentec Direct.

This starts the tenant's ledger and transaction history on the day you begin using the software instead of creating several years of historical rent charges. If the tenant has an outstanding balance, enter it on the tenant ledger as their Beginning Balance.

• Recreate the Full Ledger History

If you want to maintain the tenant's complete charge and payment history in Rentec Direct, enter the tenant's actual Move-In Date and use that same date as the Charges Begin Date.

Rentec Direct will automatically generate the historical rent charges from that day forward. You can then manually enter historical payments and any additional charges such as late fees or NSF fees to recreate the tenant's complete ledger.

If You Choose to recreate the full ledger history, Rentec Direct will:

• Generate rent charges from the Charges Begin Date through today.
• Display any unpaid charges as the tenant's current balance.

Important: Rentec Direct cannot determine what payments were made before the tenant was entered into the software. If the tenant made payments before being added, you'll need to enter those payments manually.

Need to Correct a Move-in Date or Large Past-Due Balance?

If you enter a Charges Begin Date in the past, Rentec Direct will generate rent charges from that date through today. As a result, the tenant may appear to have a large past-due balance.

Important Note: The software would not know how much or when the tenant made any of their payments before they were added to the software. If you want the tenant's ledger to reflect those payments,m you'll need to enter them manually.

Depending on your bookkeeping needs, you can:

• Enter each historical payment to recreate the tenant's complete payment history.
• Enter a single balancing payment to bring the tenant's current balance to zero.
• Correct the Charges Begin Date if the tenant was recently added and the date was entered incorrectly.

For step-by-step instructions, see Update an Incorrect Move-In Date.

during this time, so it would be up to you to manually enter all of the tenant's past payments if you want them to be reflected in the program. Once a tenant has been moved in, and you discover the wrong Charges Begin Date or need to correct a large balance, see Update an Incorrect Move-in Date

Options to Correct a Tenant Ledger Balance 

• Manually post each of their past payments.

• Manually post one payment that zero's out their entire past due balance. For example, if their balance is ($16,389.68) then post a payment for $16,389.68 to indicate that they are now paid in full. 

  
  

  Information on posting single or multiple payments to a tenants ledger can be located here: Posting an Income or Expense Transaction

• Or, you can change the Charges Begin on date so that invoices begin now or at the first of the year instead of months or years back in the past. This will not affect their move-in date or their lease renewal date, it will simply change the number of invoices that are showing as due on their account.  See instructions below for the 2 step process. 

  
  

  System Advice: Not a recommended option to correct an established tenants ledger in the system as this option will replace all the tenant rent charges affecting the established balance. Used most often when correcting a move-in date during tenant placement into a property. 

Step One - To Change the Charges Begin On Date

Follow the instructions below to quickly update the Charges Begin On date.

1. Click Tenants 
2. Right-click on the tenant and select Update Lease from the drop-down menu
3. Make note of the move-in date listed because you'll need to come back and re-enter it later 
4. Change the move-in date to the actual date that you would like the invoices to have begun on in the tenant's account 
5. Change the setting that asks if you would like to update the accounting to Yes
6. Click the Update Move-In Date button at the bottom of the screen

After a few minutes, all of the invoices on the tenant's account will update to reflect the changes you just made. The date you jotted down in step 3 is now needed. 

Step Two - To Correct the Move-In Date

Now that the ledger is corrected, you will return the move-in date back to the actual date of move-in. 

In your Rentec Direct Account: 

1. Complete steps one and two above to return to the same Update Lease settings page
2. Enter the tenant's original and actual move-in date that you made note of earlier
3. This time leave the default update accounting set as No
4. Click the Update Move-In Date button. This will display the move in date on the Tenant Profile and will not affect the lease renewal.