Overview
A lease credit reduces the balance your tenant owes without actually collecting payment. There are several cases where you might need to issue a credit on a lease. For example, you might give a one-time rent discount, need to record an already-held lease deposit, or write off a lease balance you know the tenant will never pay.
The Steps
To issue a credit on a lease, click on Leasing on the main menu and then click on Active Leases.
Find the lease for which you want to issue a credit and click on it.
Click on the Transactions tab and then the Issue Credit button.
On the Issue Credit window, enter the following information to issue a credit:
Category: choose the account category for the credit. In this instance, you have several options based on the situation:
If you are reducing rent for a one-time discount or writing off rent you won't be collecting, choose Revenue > Rent.
(This reduces the tenant's balance and the amount of rent revenue you collected on your Profit and Loss report. You can also do this for Late Fees or any other revenue account.)
If you are paying a tenant for services rendered by reducing their rent charge, you can choose an appropriate expense account for the credit.
(This will show that you reduced the tenant's balance and will offset the revenue collected by increasing the expense account to record this expense transaction on the Profit and Loss report.)
If you are issuing a credit to record a past payment that you already have in the opening balance of your bank account, choose Equity > Opening Balance.
Description: enter an optional explanation for the credit. (What you enter here is what the tenant will see on their lease ledger in the tenant portal. If you leave it blank, the tenant will just see the word “Credit.”)
Amount: enter the amount for the credit.
Date Issued: change the date for the credit if needed.
Add Line Item: use this link to add additional credit items if needed. (You could also create separate credits for each line item.)
Add memo: add an optional note for your reference when reviewing the credit later.
Add any relevant files (optional) by dragging the file into the window or using the Click Here link to upload. Add any relevant files (optional) by dragging the file into the window or using the Click Here link to upload.
You also have the ability to Share files with the tenants if you click the box. This is a good way to share files like receipts or documents.
Click Save to finish.
Good work! You can review credits on the Transactions tab of a lease.
Note: You can not issue a credit to a single tenant on a multi-tenant lease since the credit will be issued to the lease and not to a specific tenant.
Tip: A credit to a lease will affect the overall balance on the lease. However, it will not affect the amount related to an auto-pay. An auto-pay will take payment for the original amount set regardless of any credits or increases to the outstanding balance. Inform your tenant to either adjust the amount of the auto-pay or cancel the auto-pay so they can pay the new amount.
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