Overview
Normally when you create a lease, you are given the option to add a security deposit charge to it. However, if you forget to add the security deposit charge to the lease, you can still do this once the lease is created. Once you do add this charge, then what? What do you do next?
Next would be to record the actual deposit in DoorLoop. How you record the security deposit in DoorLoop will depend on whether or not this is a new lease or if it's an existing lease you are adding that was active before you started using DoorLoop and before your Accounting Start Date.
The Steps
Step 1 - Post a Charge for the Security Deposit
Before you can receive a Security Deposit payment, you'll need to first post a charge for the security deposit. This can be done when you are creating the lease or it can be posted manually after the lease has been created.
For this set of instructions, we'll reference how to manually post a security deposit charge for those who didn't add the security deposit charge while creating the lease.
To post a charge for the security deposit on a lease, click Leasing on the main menu and then click Active Leases.
Find the lease for which you want to receive a deposit and click on it.
Click on the Transaction tab and click the Post Charge button.
Enter the following information:
Category: Use the Liability > Security Deposit account
Description: (optional)
Amount: Enter the amount you are collecting for the security deposit
Click Save to finish.
You will now see an open balance on the lease for the amount due for the security deposit.
Step 2 - Record a Security Deposit on a Lease
You have two options here for recording the security deposit, depending on whether this is a new or existing lease:
Receive payment for the security deposit on a new lease
The instructions here will be for a new lease that was created and already had security deposit charges posted to them. These could be deposits charged during the lease creation or manually posted charges after the lease was created. You would use this method if the tenant gave you a payment for the security deposit outside of DoorLoop.
To receive payment for the security deposit, click Leasing on the main menu and then click Active Leases.
Find the lease for which you want to receive payment and click on it.
Click on the Transaction tab and click the Receive Payment button.
Enter the following information:
Lease: this is the lease that the payment is being received into.
Date: change the date for the payment if needed.
Received From: this will automatically fill in the tenant you added to the lease.
Deposit account: this will automatically fill in the bank account set as the default operating account for the property. (If you’ve also defined a default escrow account for this property, you can choose this bank account for the payment, depending on where you will be depositing the money.)
Amount Received: enter the amount of the payment.
Payment Method: pick among several options for informational purposes. Choosing Check allows you to record an optional Check Number.
Add Memo: add an optional memo for your reference when reviewing the charge later.
The Automatically Apply Payments toggle allows you to choose between the following options:
On will apply the payment to the oldest open charge first.
Off will allow you to choose the charge or charges to pay
We suggest toggling this off so you can manually apply the payment to the Deposit.
The Automatically Deposit Funds toggle will automatically create a bank deposit when you complete the payment. This causes the payment money to immediately reflect in your DoorLoop bank account balance, rather than showing in Undeposited Funds until you create the bank deposit for this payment.
Use this if you’ve already deposited the money or if you don’t want to create a bank deposit later and don’t care that the bank deposit date will be the same as the lease payment date.
The Email Payment Receipt to the Tenant toggle will email the tenant, notifying them that you recorded their payment.
Add any relevant files (optional) and click Save.
The settings for Automatically Pay, Automatically Deposit, and Send Payment Receipt are on by Default. If you would rather have them off by default, you can toggle off the setting and then click Set as Default. DoorLoop will remember your settings for the next time when you Receive a Payment.
Good work! You can review payments on the Transactions tab of your leases.
When you deposit a payment into your bank account, make sure you record the bank deposit in DoorLoop.
Tip: If your tenant makes a payment online for the security deposit, it should automatically allocate to the security deposit charge. If not, you can reallocate the payment.
Issue a Credit for the security deposit for an existing lease that started before using DoorLoop
When recording a security deposit on a lease that was already active prior to starting DoorLoop, you'll need to ask yourself if you had already accounted for the deposit in the opening balance for that property and the bank account associated with it. If the answer is yes, then we'll need to record the deposit in a different way than the steps described above.
The steps below assume you already posted the charge for the security deposit.
To issue a credit to the lease for a security deposit, click Leasing on the main menu and then click Active Leases.
Find the lease for which you want to issue a credit and click on it.
Click on the Transaction tab and click the Issue Credit button.
Enter the following information:
Lease: This should be automatically filled in already and be associated with the lease you are issuing a credit to.
Date: Enter the date when the Deposit was originally received.
Category: choose the Equity > Opening Balance account. (This is because the security deposit should have already been accounted for as part of your opening balance.)
Description: enter an optional explanation for the credit. (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 “Credit.”)
Amount: enter the amount for the credit.
Date Issued: change the date for the credit if needed.
Add Line Item: use this link to add additional credit items if needed.
Add memo: add an optional memo for your reference when reviewing the credit later. (You will also see it in the “Memo” column in relevant reports.)
Add any relevant files (optional) and click Save.
If you take a look at the Transaction tab now, you'll also notice a new line item which is a $0 Applied Credit item. Do not delete this payment line. Instead, click on it.
Once inside the Receive Payment window, make sure that the Charges item to which the Opening Balance credit is being applied is the Security Deposit charge and that the amount matches that of the Opening Balance.
That's how you would receive a security deposit on a lease.