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Set Up Prorated Rent Charges When the First Month is Taken in Full

Learn how to charge a full first month's rent and shift the prorated amount to the second month instead, when a tenant moves in mid-month.

Written by Samuel

Overview

This tutorial is for those leases where the tenant is moving in at any time of the month other than the 1st. Instead of charging them a prorated amount for the first month, you are charging them a full amount of rent for the first month and then charging them the prorated rent for the second month. On the third month, the full amount of rent starts to post as normal for every month after that.

The Steps

There are a few ways you can account for prorated rent being charged in the second month instead of the first. For this method, we'll start off at the very beginning when you first create the lease.

  1. To set up prorated rent charges when the first month is taken in full, we will need to start by creating a new lease. Click the Create New button at the top of the main menu. Then under the Leasing section, click Leases.

  2. On the New Lease wizard, under the Overview step, fill out everything as normal until you get to the Start Date. Enter the Start Date as when the Tenant is actually moving in. (For instance, if the Tenant moves in on September 15, 2026 enter 09/15/2026.)

  3. Click Next to continue.

  4. 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 the 1st of the coming month, For instance, if the lease is starting 9/15/2026, set the First Rent Date to 10/01/2026. Then, set the amount for what the prorated amount is for that month.

  5. DO NOT click the Prorated Charges for this example. Instead, click "Schedule future rent increases."

  6. Here, you'll want to schedule a rent increase for the following month with the full amount of what rent should be. Using our example, schedule a rent increase for 11/01/2026 with the amount of what rent is supposed to be each month.

  7. Click Next to continue.

  8. Go through the rest of the New Lease wizard process as usual by going through the remaining steps to create the new lease.

  9. Now that the lease is created, you should be on the lease's page now. Click the Transactions tab and click the Post Charge button.

  10. Create a rent charge for 9/15/2026 for the full rent amount. When you do this, the balance due for the tenant will reflect that they owe the 1st-month full rent. This is what the tenant will pay when the lease starts.

  11. Next, go to the Rent tab. You will see two recurring rent schedules on there. The first one is a one time rent charge that will post next month for the prorated amount you had set. The second recurring rent schedule is for the every month after that for the full amount of rent for the remainder of the lease term.

In summary, the lease now looks like this:

  • The start date is 09/15/2026, and the full amount of rent has already been posted to the lease.

  • On 10/01/2026, a prorated amount for rent will be posted automatically.

  • On 11/01/2026, full rent will start to be charged and will be posted every month after for the full amount.

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