Recurring Transactions

Rentec Direct property management software saves time by automating recurring data-entry tasks such as rent, HOA fees, and pet fees.

Create a Recurring Transaction

Recurring rent charges are automatically created when moving a tenant into a property and can be added while posting any charge to a tenant ledger or expense on a property ledger. 

In most transactions, it's best not to put an end date for recurring transactions to avoid charges not posting between signing lease renewals. If an end date is indicated for recurring transactions, it's best to indicate the day after the charge is to post. For example, if rent is scheduled to post on the 1st of a month, the end date should be the 2nd or later. 

Instructions for posting a charge on a tenant ledger and marking it recurring can be found here:  Customize and Add Other Tenant Charges

Instructions for posting a recurring expense on a property can be found here: Posting an Income or Expense Transaction

Understanding Recurring Transactions: Tenant Charges and Property Expenses

The system uses the information from this Recurring Transaction setting to automatically post charges and expenses for you at the interval and amount you choose. Within this advanced setting, recurring transactions for Tenant Charges and Property Expenses can be maintained. 

Tenant Charges - 

* Rent Charges - Stand alone or combined with other charges on a single invoice. The system stores the recurring rent charge created when the tenant was placed in a unit

* Recurring Expense—Standalone, as posted to the Tenant ledger, or combined with other charges on a single invoice. These types of charges would include "other" recurring charges such as a pet fee, utilities, or tax that you've added to the tenant ledger directly or within this tool. 

* Recurring Surcharges—This option allows you to provide your Tenants with one comprehensive consolidated monthly invoice instead of individual line-item charges (Rent with additional charges) and can also be created when a Tenant is placed in a unit. In addition to charges posting at the same time, the timing for Creating the Invoice, Grace Period, and Late Fees is also coordinated.

For more information about Surcharges: Surcharges

View of the ledger when posted as Surcharges

View of the ledger when posted separately

System Advice: When moving a tenant in, the system automatically creates a recurring rent charge for them. Be careful when editing or deleting any tenant rent charge in this setting. All tenant charges should look similar to the picture below. 

Notes: 

• The Action drop-down allows you to choose other options including a customized Rent Charge (with or without associated Surcharges). Information on creating a custom Rent Charge can be found here: Customize and Add Other Tenant Charges.
• Creating a Rent Charge with associated Surcharges saves time so that you won't need to add additional individual recurring charges to a ledger. More information on Surcharges can be found here: How to Setup Surcharges
  

Recurring Transaction - Recurring Expense 

Pro Tip: Hover over the "?" for more details in each field

In the example below, this recurring expense is set up to post only to the tenant's ledger as an additional amount owed. 

Notes:

• The Bank is set to "none," so the transaction does not reflect on a bank ledger
• Property is indicated to document which property the tenant was associated with
• When recurring charges and expenses are posted directly to the property or tenant ledger, the correct fields will automatically populate

Note: For recurring property expenses, the bank the funds are coming out of will also be populated. This will result in accurate financial history and reports.

Understanding Interval Settings: Weekly, Bi-Weekly, Monthly, Quarterly, or Yearly.

System Advice: A common mistake is not setting the interval day correctly. This setting sets the day in which this charge will occur. It is important that this setting is accurate, otherwise, your recurring transaction may not function as intended.    

Interval details per transaction frequency are as follows: 

Daily transaction: This setting does not apply. 

Weekly or Bi-Weekly transaction: The interval day indicates the day of the week it will post. Sunday (1) through Saturday (7). 

Monthly and Quarterly transaction: The interval day indicates which day of the month the system will run this transaction. First (1) through Thirty-First (31). If set to 29 or higher, the transaction will run on the last day of the month, which could be the 28th through the 31st, depending on the month. 

Yearly transaction: The interval day indicates which day of the year the system will run this transaction. January 1st (1) through December 31st (365). 

For example, if you set the Interval to Monthly and the Interval Day to (1), this means that you want the transaction to post on the 1st of the month. In this case, you would also need to set the Begin Date to the 1st. The Interval Day and the Begin Date must be the same day of the week or month, depending on which Interval you have selected. 

Posting Recurring Transactions

New Recurring Transactions should be posted to the tenant or property ledger.

In your Rentec Direct account:

1. Click on
   1. Tenants (to post a charge only to a tenant) or
   2. Properties (to post an expense to a property with or without a tenant)
2. Right-click on the tenant or property and select Post Charge or Post Expense
3. Enter transaction details 
4. Click on the Recurring box
5. Using the dropdown, select the Frequency and enter Date Begin / End 
6. Click on Post Expense / Post Charge

System Notes:

• The Recurring Transactions setting is designed to view, modify, or cancel existing recurring transactions. It is recommended that new recurring transactions be entered using the steps above.
• An End Date is helpful when entering past transactions. Most recurring transactions will not need an end date. (For example, if a lease end date is indicated in recurring rent, the rent will stop charging when the lease expires. 

Troubleshooting Recurring Transactions

• Recurring transaction posting on the wrong Interval Day
  • Edit the recurring transaction and change the interval day for the transaction to appear the following cycle
  • You may want to delete the recurring transaction and post a new recurring charge/expense to the appropriate ledger
• Entering past recurring transactions
  • If you enter a historic beginning date, a recurring transaction will post retroactively.
  • If an incorrect frequency date and need to make changes, the system will not delete those historic charges. They will need to be removed manually. 
  • Past recurring transactions can be entered with an end date, if the end date was within the past three months.
• Recurring transaction not posting
  • The Delinquent Tenants report will indicate an asterisk in front of the rent amount if there is no recurring transaction set up.