POST LATE FEE CHARGES

The screen shot below is the pop-up screen that you will see if late fees are due. You are able to exit without posting, make changes, or post everything shown. Keep in mind that there are two different types of late fee charges, even though they both use the same account category, typically ‘Late Fee Charged’. There two types are:

Initial Fee: This is the fee that is initially charged either as a fixed amount or a percentage of rent or the balance due. Once posted, it will not be posted again until the next month. The exception to this rule is if you manually delete the ‘Late Fee Charge’ transaction from the ledger. In that case, the next day that you get into the program, it will attempt to charge the initial fee. If you have one amount that you charge your tenants when they are late (whether it is a percentage or a set amount), this is where you will set it up.

Daily Fee: This amount will change depending on the number of days that the rent is late. It can be setup as a fixed amount or a percentage. The Tenant File has a unique way of handling this charge.

For example suppose that you charge a daily rate of $5 per day. The charge will process on the first day that it is set to post (for example on the 10^th of the month). If the Tenant still owes rent the next time it checks (the next day or after the weekend for example), it will re-calculate the daily amount and post the new late fee owed. However, it doesn’t post ‘another’ late fee charge (which would result in multiple confusing postings). It simply updates the existing daily charge and changes the date to the current date. If you Tenants are setup for ‘Daily Fees’, this will happen each day that you enter into the program and then will start over again the next month.

You can setup both an ‘Initial Fee’ and a ‘Daily Fee’. For example, if your Tenants are due on the 1^st of the month and you charge your Tenants $25 on the 5^th plus a ‘Daily Fee’ of $5 afterwards, the program will automatically charge a $25 ‘Late Fee Charge’ on the 5^th and then will prompt you to charge the $5 each day until the Tenant pays.

If the ‘Daily Fee’ is based on a percentage of the ‘Current Rent Amount Due’, it will post a percentage against ALL rent payment amounts past due, not just the current month.

NOTE: We strongly recommend that you do not set the program to charge the daily late fees based on a percentage of the current balance, because the current balance changes with every posting, even the posting of late fees and credits. This can result in excessive daily charges or confusing amounts being posted. In addition, if you charge the daily percentage based on the current balance and the Tenant pays you a partial ‘Rent’ which will cause the current balance to be less, the

automatic calculation of a reduced amount will not be posted since the new daily amount will be less than what is already posted. If you delete the previously posted ‘Late Fee Charged’ transaction when you post a partial payment, the next day that you enter the program, it will calculate that percentage based on the reduced current balance which may not be correct. If you need to modify the daily late fee percentage (whether to delete it or change the amount) you need to also delete any daily late fee posted in the ledger first so that it can re-calculate the fee. Again, it is best not to post a daily late fee based on the balance due.

Also, be aware that once you credit a tenant’s ledger with ‘Rent Received’ (even if you received the payment late), the automatic late fee posting will not go back and post prior late fees because the Tenant will be current. It cannot post ‘Daily Late Fees’ based on previous balances, only the current day’s balance.

This screen displays the Rental Unit Address and the Tenant Name, however, if you want to see the Owner and Property Name, you can open up those columns by ‘dragging’ the columns open. The other columns are explained below:

Payment: This is the tenant’s monthly rent payment amount.

Due: This is the tenant’s due date.

Balance Due: This is the Tenant Ledger current balance.

Grace: This is the grace period which you set up for the tenant on the tenant screen.

Initial Fee: This is the amount of the Initial Fee which you set up on the tenant screen.

Daily Fee: This is the amount of the per-day fee, either a fixed amount or a percentage.

Prev Posted: This is the amount of late fees (initial and daily) previously posted to the Tenant Ledger this month.

New Daily: This is the new amount that will be posted into the ledger for daily fees.

New Initial: This is the new amount that will be posted into the ledger for the initial fee.

Increase: This is the difference between what is already posted for late fees this month and the new late fees that will be posted when you click the ‘Post Late Fees NOW’ button.

The above screen will automatically show when late fees are due, however, you can also display it manually by accessing the following screen. This is under the ‘Preferences Menu > Late Fee Settings’ choice. As indicated, you can have the program check for ‘Late Fees’ due every day or up to four separate times per month. Simply enter the day of the month that you want the program to check. If you charge one ‘Initial Late Fee’ each month and no ‘Daily Fees’, you would not need for the program to check every day. Of course, if there are no late fees due, the screen will not pop up when you enter the program.

To see the late fees currently owed, click on the ‘Check or Charge Late Fees Now’ button. If you manually made changes in the ledgers concerning late fees, this screen will show you if any new calculations are set to post.

If you have one consistent late fee for all of your tenants, you may prefer to charge late fees through the Posting > Charge Late Fees screen, since that method is quick and easy, and allows you to view each late fee individually before posting to the ledger. However, this method is the only way to have the program calculate and charge the late fees automatically. Every other method in the program will prompt you to determine if you want to post each fee.

IMPORTANT NOTE: If you charge a daily fee based on the current tenant balance (which we DO NOT RECOMMEND), we highly suggest that you print the ‘Late Fee Posting’ screen before you actually make the postings. This will give you the current balance ‘prior’ to the posting, which is what the fee is based on. If you charge a daily fee based on the ‘Current Rent Amount Due’ we suggest that you print the ‘Late Rent / Late Fees Due Report’ found under REPORTS > TENANT REPORTS to be sure everything is posted correctly. This report will detail the current rent amounts due along with the late fees due.