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Refund a Payment to a Tenant on an Active Lease
Refund a Payment to a Tenant on an Active Lease

How to refund tenants for incorrect charges or overpayments on an active lease.

Samuel avatar
Written by Samuel
Updated this week

Overview

Although rare, you may need to issue a refund to a tenant. You might decide to refund late fees, or a tenant may have accidentally overpaid you for their rent. Here we'll show you how to record the refund on the lease and also how to issue the refund either physically or electronically.

The Steps

Step 1 - Record the refund on an active lease

  1. To refund a tenant on an active lease, click on Leases on the main menu and then click Active Leases.

  2. Find the lease for which you want to give a refund and click on it.

  3. Click on the Transactions tab and then the Give Refund button.

  4. Enter the following information:

    • Paid To Tenant: pick the tenant on the lease you are paying back (there might be more than one tenant on the lease.)

    • Pay From Account: choose the property bank account you are using to pay back the tenant. (This is likely the same bank account the tenant paid into.)

    • Payment method: pick among several options to remind yourself later of how you paid the tenant.

      • Choosing the Check payment method allows for entering an optional check number and the ability to print the check later.

      • Choose ePay if you want to send them a payment electronically and you have Checkbook.io already set up for Send Payments.

    • Due Date: change the date of the refund if needed.

    • Category: the refund should be associated with the same general ledger revenue account as the payment you are refunding.

      • For example, if you are refunding a rent payment, choose the Rent revenue account. If you are refunding a late fee payment, choose Late Fees.

    • Description: enter an optional explanation for the refund for informational purposes. (The tenant will see the word “Refund” on their lease ledger in the tenant portal.)

    • Add Line Item: use this link to add additional refund items if needed. (You could also create separate refunds for each line item.)

    • Add memo: add an optional note for your reference when reviewing the credit later.

  5. If the payment being refunded was an overpayment, turn on the toggle for “This is a refund for an overpayment (creates a charge to offset the overpayment)”. If the refund is not part of an overpayment, then toggle this option off.

    (For the refund to work in DoorLoop for overpayments, there has to be a charge associated with the money you are giving back to the tenant. DoorLoop can automatically create this offsetting charge for you.)

  6. Add any relevant files and click Save.

You’ve now processed a refund. Don’t worry about the accounting and reporting for the refund—DoorLoop will handle all that for you. For any payment method other than ePay, you’ll need to physically give the refund back to your Tenant, whether it be cash, check, money order, or any other method.

If you selected ePay as your payment method and want to send the refund electronically through your Checkbook.io account, move on to the next part of this tutorial.

Step 2 - Issue the refund to your tenant electronically (ePay)

This step is only necessary if you choose ePay as the payment method for the refund. You must have Checkbook.io active to send a payment to your tenant electronically through DoorLoop. Learn more about Checkbook.io.

  1. To send a refund to your tenant electronically, click Accounting on the main menu and then click Send Payments.

  2. On the Send Payments screen, you should see an entry from the refund you created. Look at the Actions column and you should a link labeled Add Info. (You'll see this if you've never sent the tenant an electronic payment before). Click it.

  3. You’ll need to enable send payments for this tenant you are sending the refund to.

  4. Scroll down to the Email Settings portion and enter the tenant's Billing Email. This is where the eCheck will be sent.

  5. (optional) You can also enable "Ask the payee for a PIN before accepting this payment." If you turn this on, you’ll need to provide a PIN Code and a Hint that will give the payee an idea of what the PIN is.

  6. Click Save.

  7. Under the Actions column, you should now see a Send link. Click it.

  8. On the Payment popup, check to make sure all the information looks correct, and then click Confirm to send the payment.

That’s it. Your tenant will receive an email with the payment, and they can choose to receive it electronically through ACH or print out a check and deposit it on their own.

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