Overview
You might have tenants who get rental assistance from a housing authority or Section 8 voucher. How should you record these payments on your leases? You have several options, depending on what you want the tenant to see in their tenant portal.
Tenants see what they owe, and can view Section 8 payments
For leases that involve Section 8 payments, you'll want to move in a new tenant to that lease called Section 8. To do this, find the Section 8 lease and click the Tenants tab on the lease. Then click the Move-in button and add Section 8 as a tenant. (You will need to add contact information for the "Section 8" tenant.)
You can then create a recurring payment on the tenant's lease for the amount that Section 8 pays. (You could set this payment to post around the 28th of each month, or anytime BEFORE the rent charge posts).
This will create a credit on the tenant's lease, and when their rent charge posts on the 1st, that credit will be applied automatically to it. The balance left is what the tenant will see, which is the amount the tenant will need to pay on their tenant portal.
If the Section 8 payment arrives on a date that is not the same as the date you set the recurring payment for, you can always go back into the lease and edit the payment date to reflect when the actual Section 8 payment was received.
Note: You will need to manually deposit these recurring section 8 payments, otherwise they will appear as undeposited funds until they are deposited.
Tenants can only see what they owe
Adjust the recurring rent amount to the amount that the tenant needs to pay.
Record Section 8 payments as a bank deposit to the rent account for the property. (You can still create and move-in Section 8 as a tenant on the lease if you want to specify the payee on the bank deposit.)
My tenant doesn't pay online and I don't track separate payments
Leave the recurring rent amount as is.
Record full lease payments from the existing tenant if you have no need to track Section 8 payments separately. (Or, you can create and move-in Section 8 as a tenant on the lease if you want to specify Section 8 as the payee for the rent payment.)
Tip: These instructions for Section 8 leases can be modified for use with other financial support agencies that provide assistance for rent.