Audience: Property Managers
Who Collects Rent?
When adding a Landlord to Housters, the Property Manager specifies whether they collect rent from Tenants or whether the Landlord does. This is super important because it determines whether the Property Manager owes the Landlord money or the other way around. If the Property Manager collects the rent, then it means they need to send on that rent money minus their property management fees to the Landlord. If the Landlord collects the rent, then it means they need to send property management fees to the Property Manager.
Generating Invoices
When you add or edit a Landlord or one of their Contracts, Housters auto-generates old Invoices for the amounts due to or from the Landlord, indicating how much was due in the past based on the contract terms. Housters will auto-generate new Invoices for the Landlord on the same schedule whenever payments are due in the future.
Invoices are simply a way to track payments due and how much was paid. Invoices will not be sent to your Landlords unless you choose to do so from the Send Invoice page.
Adding Payments
To indicate that a payment to or from a Landlord was made, add a new Payment Transaction and select the appropriate Landlord or one of their Properties. If the Landlord collects rent from the Tenants then the Transaction Type should be set to “Property Management Fees Received”. If the Property Manager collects rent then the Transaction Type should be set to “Payment to Landlord”. This will update the Amount Paid on the oldest open Payment Invoice for that Landlord. If the Invoice is fully paid, it will be closed automatically. The payment status of the Landlord will be updated to reflect the new payment.
If you want to add payments to or from Landlords as other Transaction Types, go to the Manage Types screen and then add a new Transaction Type and set the category to Income if the Landlord collects rent from Tenants or Expenses if you collect rent. Make sure that you set the “Updates Amounts Paid on Landlord Invoices?” option to Yes, otherwise Transactions logged with this Type won’t update the Amount Paid on Invoices for the Landlord.
Payment Status
A Landlord’s payment status is determined by calculating the amount still outstanding on all open Payment Invoices for the Landlord. For example, if they have two open Invoices, one with $1,000 due and $800 paid, and another with $1,000 due and $0 paid, their payment status will be $1,200 owed.
Invoice Adjustments
You can charge your Landlord a late fee or give them a discount on their property management fees either by clicking the Adjust button next to a Landlord’s unpaid amount or by going to Invoices and choosing Increase Payment Due or Decrease Payment Due.
Other Invoices
Tracking the property management fees owed by or to Landlords covers most scenarios, however there will be times when you want to charge the Landlord for something else. You also may owe the Landlord money and want to keep track of that.
For charging the Landlord for something not property management fee-related, on the Invoices screen you can click the down arrow next to Add Payment and choose the Add Other Invoice option. Other Invoices aren’t automatically updated as Payment Transactions are made, so you will have to update the Amount Paid on Other Invoices manually.
For tracking payments due to Landlords, you can click the View Invoices Due to [Landlord name] link to switch over to Invoices due to the Landlord. Then you can choose the Add Other Invoice option to create the Invoice. Again, Other Invoices aren’t automatically updated as Payment Transactions are made, so you will have to update the Amount Paid on Other Invoices manually.