Lease management best practices

The lease is the heart of your bookkeeping in TenantLedger — rent charges, payments, credits, the tenant statement, and most reports all hang off it. Getting the lease set up correctly on day one, and reviewing it on a sensible schedule, prevents missed rent, messy reports, and last-minute scrambles when a term ends. This guide covers how to choose a lease type, automate billing the right way, keep a clean rent-change history, and stay ahead of expirations.

Choose the right lease type

When you create a lease, TenantLedger asks for a Lease Type. Pick the one that matches the real agreement — it changes how the term behaves.

Lease Type	Use it for	What it means
Fixed	A lease with a firm end date (for example, a 12-month term at Riverside Apartments)	The lease runs for a defined term with a start and end date.
At Will	A month-to-month arrangement with no fixed end	The lease continues period to period until you or the tenant ends it.

You also choose what happens when the end date arrives:

Automatically End Lease = Yes — the lease is marked Terminated automatically once the end date passes. Good for true fixed terms you do not intend to roll over.
Automatically End Lease = No — the lease stays Active past the end date until you end it yourself. This is the usual choice for month-to-month, or for a fixed term you expect to renew so billing does not stop unexpectedly.

Why it matters: If you set a fixed lease to auto-end and the tenant stays on month-to-month, recurring rent stops generating the day the term lapses — and you may not notice until rent is missing. When in doubt for a renewing tenant, choose No and end the lease manually when they actually leave.

Set payment responsibility deliberately

For shared (roommate) leases, choose Payment Responsibility based on who actually owes the rent:

Individual Responsibility — one named tenant is billed for the rent. You then pick the Main Tenant Responsibility.
Multiple Responsibility — the rent is owed by the lease as a whole, shared across co-tenants, not billed to one person.

Picking the wrong one here is awkward to unwind later (and the main responsible tenant cannot be removed from the lease while they hold charges), so set it correctly when you create the lease.

Set up recurring charges the day you create the lease

Recurring charges are TenantLedger’s billing engine: you define the schedule once, and the app generates each rent charge automatically on its due date. Set this up while you create the lease, not “later.”

On the Add Lease form, check the Recurring Rent Charges box and set:

Start Date — when billing begins
End Date — or leave it to run for the term
Frequency — Weekly, Monthly, Quarterly, or Yearly

The recurring rent charge uses the Rent Amount you entered on the lease. (You can also add recurring charges afterward from the Lease Summary → Financials tab → Add Recurring Charge.)

Why it matters: A recurring charge only generates charges going forward from its schedule — it will not back-fill a date that has already passed. If you wait two weeks to set it up, you have to add the first month’s rent by hand, and manual entry is where inconsistencies and missed charges creep in.

Use a separate recurring entry for each fee

If a tenant owes more than just base rent — parking, pet rent, storage, a monthly utility allocation — create a separate recurring charge for each one rather than rolling them into a single inflated rent figure.

When you add a recurring charge from the Financials tab, you choose a Chart Account that categorizes it (for example, Rent Income for rent, a parking-income account for parking). Separate entries let you:

Report parking income, pet income, and rent income each on their own line.
Change one fee (say, raise pet rent) without touching the others.
Show the tenant a clear, itemized statement.

Example — Unit 101, Jane Tenant:

Recurring charge	Frequency	Chart Account
Rent	Monthly	Rent Income
Parking	Monthly	Parking Income
Pet rent	Monthly	Pet Income

This is far cleaner at tax time and in owner reports than a single “$1,450 rent” line that secretly bundles three different income types.

Tip: Choose the Chart Account carefully — it determines where the generated charges land on your reports. A misfiled fee quietly distorts your income breakdown all year.

Track rent increases with a documented history

When rent changes, do two things — they are separate steps and both matter:

Record the rent increase (Lease Summary → Action menu → Increase Rent, or Financials tab → Add Increase). This logs the old amount, the new amount, and the effective date as a dated history entry on the lease. It is your proof of “rent went from this to that on this date” for the tenant statement and your own records.
Update the recurring charge to the new amount so future generated charges actually bill the higher rent. Recording the increase by itself does not change how the lease bills — see Edit a recurring charge.

Why it matters: If you only update the recurring charge, you lose the paper trail proving you gave proper notice and what the prior rent was. If you only record the increase, the tenant keeps getting billed the old amount. Do both, every time.

Tip: Recording the increase ahead of its effective date is fine — set the Date to when the new rent applies. Just remember to update the recurring amount so the right charges generate from that point.

Review ending leases 60–90 days out

Do not let a lease term sneak up on you. Build a recurring habit of looking ahead so you have time to renew, renegotiate, or re-market the unit.

The Dashboard includes an Ending Leases quick link that surfaces leases expiring soon — check it as part of your regular routine.
Aim to review each lease 60–90 days before its end date. That window gives you time to send a renewal offer, document a rent increase with proper notice, or start marketing if the tenant is leaving.

Monthly lease-review routine

Run this checklist once a month:

Open the Dashboard and review Ending Leases for the next 60–90 days.
For each ending lease, decide: renew, convert to month-to-month, or let it end.
Renewing? Extend or recreate the lease term, and if rent is changing, record the rent increase and update the recurring charge.
Going month-to-month? Confirm the lease type/auto-end setting so recurring rent keeps generating.
Ending? Plan the move-out and deposit settlement (see below) and flag the unit for re-marketing.
Spot-check that recurring rent charges generated correctly for the current period.

End a lease and settle the deposit cleanly

When a lease ends, work in order so the final balance and the deposit are right before any money moves. Security deposits are tracked as a liability — money you hold in trust for the tenant — not as income, so settling them correctly keeps your books honest.

Recommended sequence when you use End Lease (Lease Summary → Action → End Lease):

Enter any final or additional charges.
Apply the deposit to unpaid charges (record it as a payment against the outstanding charges).
Refund any remaining deposit to the tenant.
Print the tenant statement so they have a clear record.

For one co-tenant leaving a lease that continues, use Move Out Tenant instead — it records their move-out date and resets payment responsibility while preserving their history. See Move a tenant out.

Common mistakes to avoid

Don’t set up recurring rent “later.” Do it the day you create the lease, or the first period won’t auto-generate and you’ll be entering rent by hand.
Don’t bundle parking, pet rent, and storage into one rent figure. Use a separate recurring charge with the right Chart Account for each so your income reports stay accurate.
Don’t record a rent increase and stop there. Also update the recurring charge, or the tenant keeps getting billed the old amount.
Don’t update the recurring amount without recording the increase — you’ll lose the dated history that proves notice and the prior rent.
Don’t auto-end a fixed lease you expect to renew. If the tenant stays month-to-month, billing stops silently. Set Automatically End Lease to No and end it manually.
Don’t treat the security deposit as income. It’s a liability — apply it to charges or refund it when the lease ends.
Don’t wait until a lease has expired to deal with it. Review ending leases 60–90 days out using the Dashboard’s Ending Leases link.
Don’t use real client or property names in your records when sharing examples — stick to generic names like “Riverside Apartments” and “Jane Tenant.”