Taking on a new tenant

From a signed agreement to a first invoice. The whole sequence can be done before the tenant moves in, which is what you want — a lease prepared in advance bills correctly from day one.

Before they move in

1. Add the tenant. For a couple or a house-share, put everyone on one lease: one rent, one invoice, one balance.
2. Create a draft lease with the term, the rent and the due day.
3. Check the charges. They come from the unit’s templates, and are yours to adjust on this lease.
4. Record the deposit — see deposits.
5. If someone is standing surety, add the guarantor and attach them to the lease.

A draft bills nothing. You can prepare all of this while the current tenant is still in the unit — a unit allows only one active lease, but any number of drafts.

Collect the deposit first

A deposit is held, not earned, and it is your security against damage and arrears. Collect and record it before handing over keys.

A deposit is not a month’s rent in advance. A tenant who asks you to use it for their final month is asking you to give up the thing that covers damage — the answer is almost always no, and the lease usually says so.

On the day

6. Start the lease, recording the real occupation date — the day they actually got the keys.

That date drives the first month’s pro-rata. Get it right before the first invoice; correcting it afterwards means a credit note rather than an edit.

The first invoice

7. Generate and approve it.

Read this one carefully. A part-month of rent alongside full-month utilities is normal and looks wrong at a glance; a full month of rent for a tenant who moved in on the 20th is genuinely wrong and means the charge is not marked pro-ratable.

8. Invite them to their portal, so they can see the invoice themselves.

Then

They are on the monthly cycle like every other lease.