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Refunding a Security Deposit and Any Other Lease Deposit
Refunding a Security Deposit and Any Other Lease Deposit
Recording tenant security deposit refunds.
Samuel Huang avatar
Written by Samuel Huang
Updated over a week ago

Overview

Although you can refund a lease deposit as part of the Ending a Lease wizard, you might need to refund a deposit before you end a lease. Perhaps you collected a pet deposit and the tenant no longer has pets.

The Steps

Recording the Deposit Refund

  1. From the main menu, click on Leases and then click on Active Leases.

  2. Find the lease you want to refund a deposit for and click on it. You can either sort the list by the various columns and filters or use the Search Leases search bar.

  3. Click on the Deposits tab where you will see a list of all available deposits, including the Security Deposit.

  4. Click the Refund Deposit button.

  5. Enter the following information:

    • Paid To Tenant: pick the tenant on the lease you are refunding (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 should be the same bank account holding the lease deposit.)

    • 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.

      • Choosing ePay will allow you to send a refund electronically if you have already signed up for Checkbook.io.

    • Description: enter an optional explanation for the refund.

    • Amount to Refund: enter the amount of the deposit to refund. If there is more than one lease deposit, you can refund multiple deposits, or put $0.00 in the deposits you don't want to refund.

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

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

  6. Add any relevant files and click Save.

  7. If you chose ePay as the payment option, move on to the next section.

Refund the Tenant via ePay using Checkbook.io

This step in the process is only necessary if you chose ePay as the payment method for the expense. If you also have Checkbook.io active, you’ll be able to send an outgoing payment to pay the bill electronically through DoorLoop. Learn more about Checkbook.io.

  1. From the main menu, click Accounting and then click Send Payments.

  2. Once on the Send Payments screen, you should see an entry in there from the bill pay you created before. Look at the Actions column and you should a link labeled Add Info. (You'll see this if you've never sent the vendor an outgoing payment before). Click it.

  3. Here you’ll need to enable send payments for this payee you are sending the payment 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 enable this, 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.

Good work! You refunded a lease deposit. Now this deposit is no longer a liability on your balance sheet.

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