Overview
Sometimes your tenants pay late and they need to be charged late fees. Rather than track this yourself, you can configure late fee schedules and let DoorLoop handle the late fee charges and notifications for you.
DoorLoop has late fee settings available at the company, property, and lease levels. Lower-level late fee settings override those set at a higher level. For example, property late fee settings override the company-level settings, and lease-level late fee schedules override both property and company settings.
By default, all your properties use the company late fee settings. If your leases have the same late fee schedule, all you have to do is set your company's late fee settings and turn on late fees when you create your leases.
Tip: Your Late Fees Policy needs to be set up before any rent charges are posted for late fees to work correctly. If the Late Fees Policy is set after Rent charges have already been posted, they will not run for that month for those charges. Late fees will run on future rent charges that are posted or any other accounts you have set up.
The Steps
Set Up Company Late Fee Settings
To set up your Company Late Fee settings, click Settings on the main menu and then click Late Fees under the Property Settings section.
In the Late Fees window, toggle on Charge late fees.
Set the basic Late Fee settings which include the following:
When should we charge this late fee?
Enter the number of days after rent is due to charge the late fee.
For example, if you charge rent on the 1st and want to charge a late fee on the 5th, enter “4” because the 5th is four days after the 1st.
How often should we charge this fee?
Select the frequency for this late fee. In other words, do you charge this late fee Once, Daily, Weekly, or Monthly?
How should we calculate this fee?
You can set a Fixed Amount for the late fee, or charge a Percentage of entire outstanding balance (note that this will only apply to the default income account for Rent).
How much should we charge?
If you charge a fixed amount, this will be a dollar amount. If you charge a percentage, enter the percentage amount here.
You can also use the Show advanced options link to add the following additional Late Fees Options:
Which income account should the late fees go into?:
By default the Late Fees revenue account is selected, but you could charge the late fees to a different revenue account you created if you wish.
Description:
Enter an optional explanation for the late fee charge.
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 “Charge.” You will also see it in the “Memo” column in relevant reports.
Use the Add another late fee link to set a second late fee schedule. For example, you might charge a one-time late fee, and then charge another daily late fee after this.
If you scroll down, there will be additional advanced options you can turn on and off:
Send a reminder one day before late dees will be charged:
Send a notification reminder to the tenant via email or push notification one day before late fees are charged.
Notify tenants of late fees once charged:
Send an email to the tenant notifying them that they were charged a late fee.
This only works if you have an email address entered in the tenant’s info.
Enable SMS for late fees (each message will use one communication credit):
Send a text message to the tenant about the late fee charge.
This only works if you have a cell phone number entered in the tenant’s info.
Charge late fees only on the most recent outstanding charge:
A late fee is created for each outstanding charge. If rent hasn't been paid in several months, multiple late fees will be created unless this is turned on.
Set monthly late fee limit:
Specify an amount at which point the late fees should stop for the month.
Set daily late fees limit:
Specify an amount at which point the late fees should stop for the day.
Set minimum balance to charge late fees:
Specify a minimum lease balance that needs to be reached before late fees will be charged.
Charge late fees only on specific outstanding charges:
By default, only lease charges to the revenue account set as your default Rental Income account will incur late fees (Rent). (Learn about your Default Account settings using this article.) If you want to charge late fees when there are outstanding balances on other accounts, select these income accounts here.
You can select more than one account.
Also keep in mind that if you create revenue accounts as sub-accounts of your default Rental Income account in your chart of accounts, they will not automatically incur late fees. You have to select the revenue sub-accounts in this drop-down to charge late fees on charges to these accounts.
Click Save to finish.
Good work! Your late fee policy is set up. Now you need to turn on Late Fees for each lease you want them to run on. You can do this while creating your leases or after.
Going forward, this late fee policy will automatically charge the appropriate late fees to any lease using the company settings. You can return to the company late fee settings at any time to adjust them as needed.
Set Up Property Late Fee Settings
Late fee settings for an individual property can either use or override your company's late fee settings.
To set up your Property Late Fee Settings, click Rentals on the main menu and then click Properties. find the property you want to set a late fee schedule for, and click on it.
Click on the Settings tab and then the Late Fees button.
In the Property Late Fees window, select from the following options:
Use company default late fee structure: uses the same late fee schedule as your property settings.
Specify a late fee structure for this property: set a unique late fee schedule for this property that you will create now.
If you chose "Specify a late fee structure for this property", then you will need to create the late fee policy for this property. It is similar to how you would set it up on the Company Level Late Fee settings.
Click Save to finish.
Good work! Your late fee policy is set up. Now you need to turn on Late Fees for each lease you want them to run on. You can do this while creating your leases or after.
Going forward, this late fee schedule will automatically charge the appropriate late fees to any lease using the property settings. You can return to the property late fee settings at any time to adjust them as needed.
Set Up Lease Late Fee Settings
Late fee settings on individual leases override all other late fee settings. This is also where you turn on or off whether to automatically charge late fees at all for a lease.
The first step in setting up your Lease Late Fee settings is to click Leases from the main menu and then click Active Leases.
Find the lease you want to set a late fee for and click on it.
Click on the Settings tab and then the Late Fees button.
In the Lease Late Fees window, toggle on Automatic Late Fees. This turns on late fees for the lease. Then select from the following options:
Use property default late fee structure: uses the same late fee schedule as your property settings.
Select a late fee structure for this lease: set a unique late fee schedule for this lease that you will create now.
If you chose "Specify a late fee structure for this lease", then you will need to create a custom late fee policy for this lease. It is similar to how you would set it up on the Company Level Late Fee settings.
Click Save to finish.
Good work! Going forward, this late fee schedule will automatically charge the appropriate late fees to this lease for your tenant to pay. You can return to the lease late fee settings at any time to adjust them as needed.
Turn on Late Fees for Each Lease
You will need to turn on Late Fees for each lease for the late fee policy you set up to work. This is done on the lease level.
The first step in setting up your Lease Late Fee settings is to click Leases from the main menu and then click Active Leases.
Find the lease you want to set a late fee for and click on it. You can either sort the list by the various columns and filters or use the Search leases search bar.
On the lease, click Settings. Then click Late Fees.
Toggle on Automatic Late Fees and click Save.
That's it. The lease is now set up for Late Fees. Note that you can also set up Late Fees directly when creating a new lease.