Tenant Lease Ledger and Tracking Payments

The Tenant Ledger connects each lease's terms, people, documents, charges, and payments. It shows what is due and what has been paid, while the Transaction Ledger records the associated financial activity. Payment allocations connect the two views, so you do not maintain a separate payment history or count income twice.

One lease, one shared balance

Each lease belongs to one property or unit and can include one or more tenants. Each person has their own name, email, and phone. Payments from any of those people can settle the shared lease balance; the payment description can identify who paid.

Co-tenants do not each receive a duplicate rent charge or security deposit requirement. The lease holds the dates, payment due day, required refundable deposit, and applicable rent, parking, pet, and utility charges.

Open Ledger → Tenant Ledger to view leases and their balances. Select a lease to see its details, agreements, and Charges and Balances. Use the active and expired views and the property or portfolio filter to find the lease you need.

Set up the lease and its agreements

Select the property or unit, add the people on the agreement, and enter the lease dates and payment terms. For each applicable component, confirm its amount and frequency. The required security deposit is the total the tenant must provide, not an assertion that you have already collected it.

You can upload and scan an agreement to help fill in the lease information. Review the extracted names, dates, amounts, and applicable fees before saving. Keep the original agreement and subsequent extensions or supporting documents with the lease. Uploading a document does not itself record a payment.

Each agreement revision has an effective date: when the revised terms begin to apply. This is separate from the date you enter the change or upload its document. For example, a rent increase entered in November but effective December 1 leaves November rent unchanged. Existing paid obligations must not be silently rewritten by a backdated revision; affected activity needs an explicit reviewed adjustment.

Use Edit Lease to update terms. Record payments through the Transaction Ledger, using Tenant/Rent Payment. Allocating a payment does not change the lease terms.

How obligations and payments connect

An obligation is an amount the tenant owes for a particular item and period—for example, September parking. Recurring obligations follow confirmed lease terms; one-time charges can be added separately. Each payment allocation identifies which obligation it settles and by how much.

A charge identifies its category, covered period, due date, amount, and income account. A payment allocation identifies the exact charge it pays, the category, the covered period, and the amount applied. The receipt links those allocations to its journal entry in the Transaction Ledger.

This is how Mogul knows whether September parking has been paid: it totals the allocations linked to September's parking charge, accounting for refunds or returned payments. It does not infer payment from a matching bank amount or description alone.

Example: two payments toward September parking

Suppose the lease requires $100 of parking fees for September:

The charge remains partially unpaid after the first receipt and becomes fully paid after the second. Both allocations point to the same charge, even if the receipts arrive on different days or from different people on the lease.

Outstanding for a charge = amount due − net payments applied to that charge. Future scheduled charges remain identifiable separately from amounts already due.

Record and allocate a Tenant/Rent Payment

In the Transaction Ledger, choosing Tenant/Rent Payment on an incoming payment opens the allocation panel directly. The Lease dropdown includes current leases and those expired within the last three calendar months. Selecting a lease opens its allocation form. Generic Received postings to rental income, tenant fee accounts, or security deposits are blocked with a prompt to use Allocate tenant/rent payment, so the payment does not bypass the tenant ledger. Review the lease, receipt date, receiving bank account, amount, and payer description. For signed-in users, a unique full tenant name in the payment description selects the accessible lease without an AI call or AI charge. Ambiguous descriptions use AI matching when the user has AI access and credits. Strong, unambiguous matches are preselected for review; uncertain matches require a choice, and manual selections are preserved. When allocating an imported bank receipt, use that existing transaction rather than creating a second receipt.

The allocation grid shows months across the columns and payment types down the rows. It starts with a suggested allocation against the oldest outstanding obligations. An amount match can break a tie within the same due date and month, but never skips an older obligation to match a newer one.

Each cell shows the amount applied, with a green check when fully covered or a warning when a balance remains. Edit or clear an amount, then click another cell to apply the remaining payment. Only the months needed for the suggestion appear initially; use Show remaining months (number) to inspect alternatives. The screen flags older overdue balances left unpaid after a manual adjustment. Review Received in the header and Applied this month and Remaining in the table, then confirm to post. Security deposit appears as a single payment-type row rather than a charge for each month.

• One payment can cover rent, parking, pet fees, utilities, and a refundable deposit.
• One payment can cover several rental months, including future months.
• Several payments can settle the same charge.
• Money not assigned to a particular charge remains an explicit unassigned credit; it does not automatically mark a month as paid.

The allocation amounts must add up to the receipt total. An amount beyond a charge's remaining balance needs its own allocation to another charge or an explicit credit.

Example: one $4,000 receipt across two months

Assume October rent of $2,000, October parking of $500, and November rent of $2,000 are unpaid. Apply a $4,000 receipt as follows:

The receipt produces one journal entry: debit Bank $4,000; credit Rental Income $2,000 for the October allocation, credit parking income $500, and credit Rental Income $1,500 for the November allocation. Both rent portions use the same income account; their allocations retain the separate covered months.

A later $500 receipt allocated to November rent settles its remaining balance. It is a new receipt against the same obligation, not a new rent charge. The first receipt is not edited or counted again.

In Charges and Balances, charge types run down the rows and months across the columns. Click a paid amount to inspect the contributing allocations, with journal entries available below. The One-Time Charges row groups manually added charges regardless of their income category, plus one-time agreement charges. Hover over an amount for its description. Manually added charges without payment history can be edited using the pencil icon; charges with payment history stay protected. Charges due anywhere in the selected month are visible and included in the cumulative outstanding balance, even before their individual due dates; this does not post unpaid income to the GL. Unpaid charges in later months remain hidden until Show scheduled charges is selected. Use Export activity as CSV to download the activity.

How the general ledger handles rent and fees

Mogul's tenant payment workflow uses cash tax-basis accounting: rent and nonrefundable fee income post when received. Creating an unpaid charge does not post Accounts Receivable, income, or a liability to the general ledger. The obligation remains visible in the Tenant Ledger.

Parking and other nonrefundable fees do not need separate liability accounts. They retain separate charge categories and allocations even when they share an income account. For example, parking and pet fees can use 4030 — Laundry, Parking & Pet Income, while base rent uses 4010 — Rental Income. Utility charges use their configured income account.

A $2,100 receipt covering $2,000 of rent and $100 of parking produces a balanced journal:

The charge allocations preserve the lease, property or unit, category, and covered month behind those amounts. You do not need a separate GL account for every month's parking charge.

Advance payments: receipt date and covered month

If September rent is paid on August 30, the GL records the income on August 30. The payment allocation identifies September as the rental month it covers. September's charge is paid in advance; no additional income entry is made when September arrives.

For operating reporting, Mogul attributes collected rent and fees to the rental month they cover. Only payments actually received and allocated contribute to that period's collected operating income. Unpaid scheduled rent does not become NOI income simply because it is due.

This distinction also applies across year-end: a December receipt allocated to January appears in the receipt year's tax-basis GL and January's covered-month operating reporting. These are two reporting views of the same receipt, not two income transactions.

Where advance rent appears on the balance sheet

For $200 received in November toward December rent, debit Bank $200 and credit Rental Income $200 in November. Cash increases by $200, and current-year earnings within equity increase by $200 through the income statement. Under this tax-basis treatment, there is no advance-rent liability. December's tenant obligation shows $200 paid ahead, and December's covered-month operating income includes the allocation without another GL posting.

The IRS generally requires advance rent to be included in income in the year received. See IRS rental income guidance. Mogul's covered-month NOI view is distinct from its tax-basis GL and does not change that receipt-date posting.

Unassigned credits

If a $2,200 rent receipt settles a $2,000 obligation, the remaining $200 can be allocated to a future rent obligation or kept as unassigned rent credit until its covered month is known. Unassigned money does not mark any particular obligation paid and does not contribute to a covered month's NOI until assigned.

The receipt still needs an accounting category: unassigned rent credit is different from a refundable deposit. Assigning an already recognized rent credit to a future rent obligation reduces the available credit and that obligation's outstanding balance without recording cash or income a second time. A change in accounting category requires an explicit reclassification.

If a receipt was allocated to the wrong lease or charge, open it in the Transaction Ledger and choose Return to Needs Review, or choose Undo allocation from its payment allocations in the Tenant Ledger. This removes its allocations, restores the lease balances, and returns the same receipt to Needs Review, with its offset temporarily in Suspense. The bank receipt is preserved. The GL and tenant ledger update together in one database transaction, with the previous allocation retained in the audit history. Then choose Tenant/Rent Payment and allocate it to the correct lease. Reallocating does not record cash twice. Closed-period receipts and payments already used by a refund, credit application, or security deposit application cannot be undone until that restriction is resolved.

Refundable security deposits

A refundable security deposit is different from rent or a nonrefundable parking or pet fee. Its required total is saved on the lease. Only money actually collected creates a balance-sheet liability, using the lease's subaccount under 2200 — Security Deposits Held.

A $1,500 required deposit can be collected in three $500 installments. After the first installment, $500 has been collected, $1,000 remains to be collected, and the deposit liability is $500. Each subsequent installment adds to the recorded collection history and liability.

Refunds and applications are linked to the original deposit activity. Refunding a collected deposit reduces the amount held; it does not erase the collection history or automatically create a new collection requirement. Deposits are not automatically consumed to pay overdue rent. An explicit application connects the held funds to the selected charge.

Refundable deposits do not contribute to income or NOI while held. A refundable pet deposit follows this same deposit treatment; a nonrefundable pet fee follows fee-income treatment.

Applying a deposit to rent or fees

A deposit application uses funds already held. It does not move money through the bank.

For example, apply $500 of a held deposit to an unpaid rent obligation:

In the Tenant Ledger, deposit held falls by $500 and the selected rent obligation's outstanding balance falls by $500. The application links to the original deposit collection and the target obligation, preserving where the funds came from and what they paid. If several deposit installments fund the application, retain the source of each portion. Money already refunded or applied cannot be used again.

Income is recognized when the held deposit is applied; its covered-month allocation determines the operating reporting period. The original deposit collection was a liability, so this does not count income twice. Applying a deposit to parking or another nonrefundable fee credits that fee's income account instead.

The original deposit collection obligation stays settled. If the agreement requires the tenant to replenish the deposit, create a separate replenishment obligation rather than reopening the original collection. Requiring replenishment alone does not post to the GL.

Refunds, returned payments, and charge adjustments

A refund is money leaving the bank. Its effect on the tenant balance depends on why the money is returned. Link the refund to the original payment or deposit collection so that the same funds cannot be refunded twice.

For example, refunding $300 from a fully collected $1,500 deposit leaves $1,200 held. Collection history still shows $1,500 collected and $300 refunded; the tenant does not automatically owe another $300.

If a $500 rent payment is returned by the bank, reverse that payment's allocation and accounting effect. The $500 becomes outstanding again. Any bank fee is a separate expense, not part of the tenant payment reversal.

Refunding money and canceling a charge are separate decisions. If you refund rent because the tenant no longer owes it, explicitly reduce or waive the obligation as well. A payment reversal alone would otherwise leave it unpaid. For an unpaid tax-basis charge that never produced income, waiving it does not create a bad-debt expense.

Refunds and corrections retain their links to the original activity. Closed accounting periods require review; the system should not silently rewrite past journals. Prior-year refunds may require separate tax review.

Keeping lease balances and the GL together

Payment activity, its allocations, the affected outstanding balances, and the corresponding journal save together in a single database transaction for signed-in businesses. A failed posting must not leave an obligation marked paid. Concurrent payments must not consume the same available funds or overwrite the same balance, and retrying a submission must not create a duplicate receipt.

The allocation history supports reconciliation of each outstanding balance against its amount due and net payments. Lease-linked journal entries must be corrected together with their allocations, rather than edited independently.

The flows above describe the agreed accounting behavior. Payments, refunds, deposit applications, and their obligation balances are linked to the GL. Not every described charge waiver or historical adjustment has a dedicated screen in the current release; those changes still require an explicit reviewed correction.

Try the sandbox examples

Choose Try ledger review on the sandbox page to start a fresh sample portfolio with dates relative to today. Opening an existing session preserves your edits; starting the sandbox again replaces its sample data.

• Scottsdale Condo — Sarah and Alex Chen: inspect a fully paid first month, partial rent for last month, and rent paid ahead for this month and next month. Parking, pet and utility charges have their own rows, alongside a one-time parking-remote charge.
• Security deposit: the Chen lease requires $2,000, with $1,500 collected in two installments and $200 refunded. It shows $1,300 held and $500 still to collect. Click the payment activity to trace the collections and refund to their journals.
• Tempe Townhouse — Jordan Rivera: compare an unpaid lease with the Chen lease's payment history.
• Practice allocating: find the $1,500 ZELLE FROM SARAH CHEN receipt in Needs Review, choose Tenant/Rent Payment, and select the Chen lease. Review or change the suggested allocations before posting.

The sample Transaction Ledger also includes expenses, bank interest, transfers, card payments, member contributions and distributions, mortgage origination and payments, and a property manager payout awaiting its statement breakdown.

One connected accounting record

The Tenant Ledger explains what the lease requires and which charges each payment settles. The Transaction Ledger explains how that money affects the bank, income, and deposit liability accounts. Their receipt and allocation links let you trace a balance back to its underlying transactions without recording the money twice.