Delete a payment

Deleting a payment removes the recorded money and re-opens the charges it was covering. As with everything in TenantLedger, this is a soft delete: the payment is hidden from your lists and reports, but its underlying history is preserved.

To keep your bank records consistent, the app blocks a payment delete once the money has moved on — for example after you’ve put it in a deposit or reconciled that deposit against your bank statement. A payment that hasn’t been deposited and wasn’t made from a security deposit deletes with no trouble.

What blocks this delete

A payment cannot be deleted while any of these is true:

1. It was paid using Security Deposit funds. (Checked first.) You must reverse the security deposit application before you can delete the payment.
2. It has been deposited — it’s part of a bank deposit. You must delete the deposit first.
3. It has been deposited and that deposit has been reconciled. You must delete the reconciliation first, then the deposit, then the payment.

The removal order depends on which applies:

• Paid from a security deposit: reverse the security deposit application first, then delete the payment.
• Deposited, not reconciled: delete the deposit first, then delete the payment.
• Deposited and reconciled: delete the reconciliation first, then the deposit, then the payment.

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

• Paid from security deposit:

  “This payment cannot be deleted because it was paid using Security Deposit funds. Please reverse the security deposit application first.”

• Deposited (not reconciled):

  “This payment cannot be deleted because it has been deposited. You must delete the deposit first before deleting this payment.”

• Deposited and reconciled:

  “This payment cannot be deleted because it has been deposited and the deposit has been reconciled. You must first delete the reconciliation, then delete the deposit, before you can delete this payment.”

On the Payment Summary screen itself, the Delete Transaction link is swapped for a quick warning pop-up that reads “You cannot delete this payment because it was either deposited or refunded.” — a heads-up before you reach the confirm step.

Steps

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

What you’ll see

• On success — the payment disappears from your lists, the charges it covered re-open (their balances go back up by the amount that had been applied), and you see a confirmation.
• If it’s blocked — you see the matching warning above (the “Cannot Delete Payment” pop-up on the summary, or the red message on reload). Work backward through the chain — reconciliation, then deposit, then payment — and the delete will go through.

Tips

• Deleting a payment is how you correct a payment that was applied to the wrong charge or entered twice — once it’s deleted, re-record it correctly with Receive a rent payment.
• The deposit and reconciliation steps live in the Banking area. See the banking help if you need to find the deposit or un-reconcile.
• Not sure what’s blocking you? See Why can’t I delete this?.

Related articles

• Receive a rent payment
• Edit a payment
• Delete a charge
• Why can’t I delete this?