Quickly record regular tenant payments

If you are recording a random or ad-hoc receipt of rent or charges, you may record this as a simple payment from tenant, which is the default option in any case. 

However, if you receive a rent payment regularly via the same method, for the same amount, e.g. if a tenant has a direct debit or standing order in place, then you may save time by processing this payment each period using the Quick Receipts feature. 

This is solely for recording rent receipts; you cannot process charge receipts in this manner. Note also that housing benefit payments cannot be received via this quick rent receipt method. 

There are two separate steps involved in using this feature, outlined in detail below.

1. Set up a tenancy to use quick rent receipts.
2. Process these regular rent receipts.

Set up a tenancy to use Quick Rent Receipts

STEP-BY-STEP

1. If a tenant makes a regular rent payment in relation to a specific tenancy, start by going to that tenancy overview.
2. On the tenancy overview screen, you can click the link in the Rent Collection section on the left to set up quick rent receipts. 
   
   
   
   
3. Alternatively, from the List Rent screen, you can choose Options > Rent Collection.
   
   
   
   
4. Tick the Enable Quick Receipts checkbox to show the options relating to the regular rent receipt from the tenant. 
   
   
   
   
5. Specify the first date, either on or after the current date, on which you expect to receive a regular payment. Then specify how often you expect to receive that payment, how it is received, and the expected amount.
   
   The first collection date cannot be in the past. By default it is set to the next rent due date. 
   
   
   
   
6. Click Save.

Once saved, on each scheduled collection date an entry will appear in the Quick Rent Receipts page where it may be processed along with any other expected rent collections with a couple of quick clicks. 

Note that rent receipts do not have to necessarily align with the dates upon which rent is applied by the system. For example, if rent of £1000.00 is applied on the 1st of each month, you can use the Quick Rent Receipts feature to process a weekly payment of £250.00 from the tenant, if that is the way they pay in reality. 

Process these regular rent receipts

You can process any expected scheduled payments on or after their expected date using the Quick Rent Receipts feature. Any receipts expected on dates in the future will not be shown in this list for processing until their expected date has arrived. 

STEP-BY-STEP

1. From the main menu, choose Accounting > Quick Rent Receipts.
   
   
   
   
2. Filter the payment method to allow you to just see receipts expected via a particular payment method, e.g. direct debit. 
   
   
   
   
3. The screen will show a list of all expected payments up to and including the current date which have not been processed yet. 
   
   
   
   
4. If a payment has been received as expected, click Received. The row will turn green to indicate this receipt will be process when the form is submitted. Repeat this process for all other expected payments which have been received successfully.
   
   
   
   
5. If a payment has not been received and will not be forthcoming for this period, e.g. if a direct debit collection has failed, click Remove to delete the entry for this period - that row will turn red to indicate that it will be deleted. It will appear again on the next rent collection date unless Quick Receipts is disabled for that tenancy in the meantime. 
   
   
   
   
6. If a payment has been received for a different value than that expected then this scheduled receipt should also be removed and the actual receipt processed manually via Accounting > Rent and Charge Receipts. 
7. If a payment has not yet been received it may be left untouched and can be processed at a later date.  
8. Process as many receipts, or non-receipts, as you wish and click Save to process them all in a single action. 

These receipts will automatically be allocated against the relevant tenancies, paying off outstanding rent charges in order, from oldest to most recent. 

Future rent is NOT automatically applied

If no rent is due when the payment is processed as received, the system does not automatically apply future rent as would be the case for manual rent receipts.

Instead, the rent receipt is simply recorded as an overpayment on the tenant's account and this credit may be applied to rent when that rent is actually due. Alternatively, it may also be manually allocated to outstanding charges, if appropriate.