Overview
If you receive payments from your tenants manually and accept checks as a payment form, you might encounter some payments that may bounce and be returned. In these instances, the bank will most likely charge you a Merchant Returned Payment Fee. If you want to pass this fee on to your tenant, you can do so easily by posting a charge to their lease. Here's how.
The Steps
Reverse the payment and charge the returned payment fee to your tenant
The first step is to reverse the payment on the lease and charge the returned payment fee to the tenant. Click Leasing on the main menu and then click Active Leases.
Find the lease you want to charge the fee to and click on it.
Click the Transactions tab.
If the payment was entered on the lease already, you'll need to reverse the payment. Click the 3-dots menu on the payment line and then click Reverse Payment.
On the Reverse Payment window, enter the Returned Payment Date that the returned payment took place.
If you plan on applying a returned payment fee for the reversed payment, toggle on the "Apply a Returned Payment Fee" option. Enter the Amount you want to charge and which account category it should go into (ex. Revenue > Returned Payment Fee). Enter an optional Memo if you want to make a note about the returned payment.
Click Save. You should now see the Reversed Payment in the transactions list. Note that you will need to record a bank deposit for this reversed payment transaction to your operating account.
You should also see a charge posted for the Returned Payment Fee for the amount you entered in the previous steps.
Click Save to finish.
That's it. Now when the tenant pays the Returned Payment Fee, it'll show up in your expenses as being paid.