Tenant Debt

First.....Prev.....Next.....Last

Screen Location... Tenants main screen >

Tenant Debts may be created from two different places:-
  • directly from the Tenants screen > Transactions > [Add] button > Debt entry.
  • as a function of entering a Supplier Invoice and ticking Charge Tenant

    Skip to the description of the screen elements

    Discussion

    A tenant debt is a record in a tenant account requiring the tenant to pay for something for which he is responsible under the terms of the tenancy agreement.  It may be water he has used or damage done to the property, it is immaterial.

    In the Aspect Property Manager any bill related to the property, is paid in the first instance by the landlord.  Where the tenant is responsible the bill is then charged to the tenant by creating a Tenant Debt record.  This only says the tenant owes the landlord money.  When the tenant pays the bill the money is allocated in the receipt to Debt and the landlord gets reimbursed.

    This approach has been taken for several reasons:-
      4 If the tenant does not pay the bill the landlord will have to pay it anyway.
      4 If you do not pay your supplier promptly because you are waiting for the tenant to pay he may withdraw his services.
      4 Many bills carry late payment penalties, rates as an example, disconnection and reconnection fees may be applied too, so if the tenant doesn't pay the bill and does a runner the landlord will get hit with those too.
      4 Sometimes the landlord will pay the bill directly and ask you to recover the money from the tenant.

    So when you are paying a supplier account on behalf of the landlord by having the supplier invoice process transfer money from the landlord account into the supplier account you keep the supplier happy, you protect the landlord from any late payment fees and don't expose yourself to paying suppliers for work done if the landlord is slow paying or doesn't pay you.  He may be disgruntled if you don't collect the money from the tenant but that is another story.

    In the situation where the landlord pays a bill and asks you to collect the debt from the tenant the debt is entered directly in the Tenant Transactions grid and no supplier is involved.  You should require a copy of the account from the landlord as proof of debt for the tenant.

    Once the debt details have been completed a second screen will allow the production of a system generated invoice statement to send to the tenant.  By default the invoice statement will cover any unpaid debts by selecting the last period where the brought forward debt balance was zero through to the current period.  If only the current period is required change the From Date selection.


    Scheduled Debts
  • When a tenant can not reimburse the landlord in one sum set up a schedule of regular payments.
  • Enter the date the repayments are to start in Date Due.
  • Enter the regular payment amount in the Debt field.
  • If there is any tenant Held the transfer amount will be the amount entered in the Debt field and may be over keyed.
  • In the "Repeats" section tick "Schedule Multiple Charges".
  • Choose how often the debt is to be paid, weekly, fortnightly or monthly.
  • Enter the total number of debt payments to be made.
  • Murphy' Law says the total debt will not be evenly divisible by the "Debt" amount so the final payment field is used to adjust the last scheduled debt record Debt.  
  • The total displayed should equal the total debt payable.
  • When [OK] is clicked a series of debt records will be created and any transfer receipts will be created.
  • When End of Period processing is run it moves all the future dated Debt records forward into the new period.

    Example
  • If $35 is to be repaid in three payments then
      4 Debt = $10, No of Repeats = 4, Final payment = $5.
      OR
      4 Debt = $10, No of Repeats = 3, Final payment = $15.


    Re-printing Tenant Debt Tax Invoice Statement
    Use the Print menu to re-print any tax invoice statement required.  By default the selection will cover any unpaid debts as above but ant period range may be selected.



    Description of the Tenant Debt screen

    Refer to the Glossary for information about the screen fields not mentioned below.

    Reference
  • This field should have an invoice or receipt number or some other identification entered which ties the debt to a physical bill.
  • Whether the debt is entered directly, or as a result of ticking Charge Tenant when entering a supplier invoice, the same screen fields are used, however, in the latter case the Reference field will be pre-loaded with the Supplier Code and as much of the Supplier Name as will fit the fixed length field.

    Date Due
  • Enter the date of the invoice / debt.

    Debt
  • Enter the total debt the tenant is required to pay.
  • See Scheduled Debts above if an arrangement has been made to pay the debt off as a series of smaller payments.

    Transfer Amount
  • This field will "auto-fill" with the lesser of the total debts, including the one being entered, and the amount in the tenant's Held account.
  • The value can be overridden with zero or any amount up to the total amount in the tenant's Held account.
  • If a transfer amount is present and [OK] is pressed the debt record will be created along with two receipts in the tenant's transactions which will transfer the amount from held (one minus receipt) and a (plus) receipt for the equivalent transfer amount.

    Text
  • When the Debt screen is invoked by ticking Charge Tenant on a supplier invoice, the invoice line item text will be shown and may be over keyed.
  • When entering a debt to recover a bill already paid by the landlord the text entry is made when creating the debt record.
  • In both cases the debt text will appear on the Tenant's Tax Invoice / Statement.

    Memo
  • Use this field to provide more detailed information.
  • Any entry in the Debt record memo is only printed on the Tenant Tax invoice Statement and Tenant Statement.


    Related Topics
    Supplier Invoice
    Tenant Transactions
    Tenant Statements