Start a lease

Activate a draft so it begins billing, recording when the tenant actually took occupation.

Before you start

Start: the draft lease Result: an active lease that the invoice engine bills.

Steps

  1. Open the draft lease.
  2. Record the occupation date - when the tenant physically took the keys. This is often the contractual start date and sometimes not.
  3. Activate it.

Why the occupation date matters

Billing follows the days the tenant actually had, not the days the contract predicted. A tenant given the keys three days early is billed for those days, provided the charge is pro-ratable.

Get this date right before the first invoice. It drives the pro-rata on the first month, and correcting it afterwards means a credit note rather than an edit.

What happens now

The unit is occupied - no second lease can be activated on it. The lease appears in invoice generation from its billing start.

Related

  • LeasesThe agreement tying a tenant to a unit for a period, at a rent. It is what billing actually runs from.
  • Create a draft leasePrepare a lease without billing anything yet - stage it, collect the deposit, then activate.
  • Generate the month's invoicesProduce the draft invoices for a billing period from each lease's charges.