Overview
What are existing leases? These are leases that have been active since before you began DoorLoop. Creating your existing leases in DoorLoop uses the same process as creating a new lease. The difference is that you will enter existing lease deposits differently and decide whether or not to enter historic charges and payments.
The Steps
Step 1 - Begin the New Lease Wizard
To add an existing lease, click the + Create New button at the top left corner and then click Lease under the Leasing section.
Step 2 - Setting up an existing lease
On the New Lease wizard, on the Overview step, enter the Lease Terms with the Start Date of when the lease actually started. This would be a date set in the past. Continue with the wizard until you get to the Rent step.
On the Rent step, when entering the Rent Charges, set the First Rent Date to the date when the first full rent payment will be made in DoorLoop. Normally, this would be the 1st of the coming month (after your DoorLoop start date.)
On the Move-in Fees step, enter the amount being held in security deposits and any other deposits being held.
Continue with the New Lease wizard and click Finish when completed.
Step 3 - Checking the Deposits on the Existing Lease
If the Lease Start Date (not to be confused with the First Rent Date) was before your DoorLoop Company Start Date, DoorLoop will automatically mark those deposits as collected. It does this by creating a Credit to the Opening Balance to show that the tenant has already paid the deposit charge and the money is currently in one of your bank accounts and part of your opening balances.
While the Credit will show the same date as the Deposit charge, the Applied Credit will show the day the deposit was actually created (most likely today's date).
This is because DoorLoop needs to account for when the credit was actually applied to the deposit charge for standard accounting purposes. We do this by creating a separate payment line item on the lease Transactions tab that ties the credit and the deposit charge together. The Applied Credit line item will be for $0.00, but if you click on that transaction, you'll see the deposit charge and credit listed together.
You can change the date of this $0.00 Applied Credit transaction line to match the date of the credit so you can see these transactions grouped together on the Transactions tab.
To do this go to the Transactions tab of the lease and click on the Applied Credit line that will say -- Split Values -- and have an amount of $0.00.
Change the Date field to match the date of the deposit credit, and then click Save.
Note: Because these deposits are already in one of your bank accounts, it is important to set up your bank account opening balances correctly to include these deposits. If your accounting start date and opening balance for this bank account is actually BEFORE you collected the deposit, then you wouldn't record a credit, but would record a lease payment instead.
If the credit for the security deposit does not appear automatically on the lease, don't worry because you can add those in manually if needed. Read on to see how.
Entering Historic Charges
We recommend sticking with creating new charges going forward from your accounting start date and using your previous property management system for historic charges. However, you can create past lease charges and payments if needed.
Create Past Charges
On the main menu, click Leasing and then click Active Leases, find the lease you want to enter historic data for, and click on it.
Click on the Transactions tab.
Click on Post Charge button to create the necessary charges. Refer to this page for more information on creating lease charges manually.
Click Save.
Create Past Payments
If you are recording tenant payments from AFTER your accounting start date, click on the Receive Payment button. Refer to this page for more information on creating lease payments manually.
Click Save.
Create Credits
If you are recording tenant payments from BEFORE your accounting start date, click on the Issue Credit button and enter the following:
Date Issued: Enter the date you received the payment.
Account: Select the Opening Balance equity account, because this money is already in a bank account and will be recorded in that bank account's opening balance.
Description: Add an optional description to help you recognize this credit in the future. For example "monthly rent payment" or something similar.
Amount: Enter the amount of the payment.
Click Save.
Next Steps
View and edit your leases by going to Leasing and selecting Active Leases to see your current leases. To view and update leases you created in a draft status, choose Draft Leases.