Overview
Prorated rent is a term used to describe rent that is charged on a pro-rated basis, which means that it is calculated based on the number of days that a tenant occupies a rental property. This can be necessary when a tenant moves in or out of a rental property during a month that is not the first or last month of their lease. In this tutorial, we'll teach you how to account for prorated rent on a lease when a tenant does not begin on the first of the month.
The Steps
You can create a prorated rent charge while creating a new lease in DoorLoop and the process is fairly automatic. We’ll walk you through the process here. If you need a refresher on how to create a new lease, read the article on how to Add a New Lease. The most important part of this tutorial occurs when entering the lease start date and entering the rent charge start date.
To set up prorated rent on a new lease, click Leasing > Active Leases on the main menu.
Click on the + New Lease button at the upper right of the display.
On the New Lease wizard, under the Overview step, select the Property and the Unit.
Then, under Define Lease Type, choose Fixed Term or Month-to-Month. If this lease has Prorated Rent for the first month, enter the Start Date of when the Tenant is moving in. (For instance, if the Tenant moves in on September 15, 2025 enter 09/15/2025.)
Click Next to continue.
Go through the New Lease wizard until you get to the Rent section. On the section that reads "When do you want to start charging rent?", change the First Rent Date to the first date that a full rent period starts. This is normally the 1st of the month, so we will set that for the 1st of the month that is coming up, in this case, it would be 10/01/2025. Then ever the amount of what a full month of rent will be.
You’ll see a new notification popup that reads, “Your first date is different than your lease start date. Should we prorate the charges?” Click the blue Prorate Charge button.
Once you do this, the Prorate Charges section will appear. The system will calculate the amount automatically.
Click Next to continue.
Go through the rest of the New Lease wizard as usual to create the lease.
You'll know if everything worked correctly when you go to the lease and see a charge for the Prorated amount and a Recurring Rent schedule that starts on the 1st of the month.
That’s how you would add Prorated Rent for the first month when creating a new lease. Again, the most important steps here is to set the Start Date on the day they actually move in and the First Rent Date to a date in the future that is the first day that a full rent period starts. DoorLoop will automatically calculate the prorated amount.
Next Steps
What if your tenant pays a full month of rent instead of the prorated amount? Read this article on Giving a Refund for the overpayment.
If you need to prorate the rent a different way, Prorated Rent Charges When the First Month is Taken in Full, or Prorated Rent When It's at the Last Month of a Lease.