Tenant Ledger

Delete a charge

Deleting a charge removes it from the tenant’s ledger. As with everything in TenantLedger, this is a soft delete: the charge is hidden from your lists and reports, but its underlying history is preserved.

To keep your books accurate, the app blocks a charge delete while money has already been recorded against it. This is the most common “why can’t I delete this?” situation: you can’t delete a charge that a tenant has paid, or that you’ve covered with a credit, until you first remove that payment or credit. An unpaid charge with nothing applied to it deletes with no trouble.

What blocks this delete

A charge cannot be deleted while either of these is true. They’re checked in this order:

  1. A payment has been applied to the charge (the charge is paid or partially paid). You must delete the payment first.
  2. A credit has been applied to the charge. You must remove the applied credit first.

So the removal order is:

  1. Delete the payment(s) applied to the charge. The payment may have its own blockers — for example if it was deposited, you’ll need to delete the deposit first. See Delete a payment.
  2. Remove the applied credit(s) on the charge. You un-apply a credit from the Credit Summary page. See Delete a credit.
  3. Then delete the charge.

The exact messages the app shows when a charge is blocked are:

  • When a payment is applied:

    “This charge cannot be deleted because it has 1 payment(s) applied. You must delete the payment(s) first before deleting this charge.”

  • When a credit is applied:

    “This charge cannot be deleted because it has 1 credit(s) applied. You must delete the applied credit(s) first before deleting this charge.”

(The number reflects how many payments or credits are applied.) On the Charge Summary screen itself, the Delete Charge link is also swapped for a quick warning pop-up that reads “You cannot delete this charge because it was paid or partially paid.” — same idea, just a heads-up before you reach the confirm step.

Steps

  1. Open the Charge Summary for the charge (from the lease’s Financials tab, click View on the charge).
  2. Click the Action menu and choose Delete Charge.
  3. Confirm by clicking DELETE in the pop-up.

What you’ll see

  • On success — the charge disappears from the lease’s Financials tab and reports, the lease balance updates, and you see a confirmation.
  • If it’s blocked — you see the warning above (either the “Cannot Delete Charge” pop-up on the summary, or the red message on reload telling you exactly how many payments or credits are in the way). Remove those records in the order listed, then delete the charge.

Example: a charge that has a payment

This is the most frequent case. Say you billed a tenant rent, recorded their payment, and then realized the rent charge itself was a duplicate. If you try to delete the charge straight away, the app stops you:

“This charge cannot be deleted because it has 1 payment(s) applied. You must delete the payment(s) first before deleting this charge.”

The fix is to work from the payment outward: open the payment, delete it (clearing any deposit first if it was deposited), and only then delete the charge. Once no payment or credit is applied, the charge deletes normally.

Tips

  • A charge with no tenant (a lease-level / shared charge) is owed by the whole lease, not one person — but the same delete rules apply: clear any payment or credit on it first.
  • Not sure which payment or credit is blocking you? See Why can’t I delete this?.
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Still stuck? Email support@tenantledger.com and a real person who knows the product will help.