Record a payment you received

Who this is for

Landlords and property managers whose tenant paid without using the tenant portal. Payments a tenant makes online are recorded for you. Only the account owner can record, apply or void a payment, void an invoice, or write an invoice off.

Before you start

• The tenant, the amount, how they paid, and the date you received it.
• For money that is already in your bank (Zelle, a bank transfer), the bank account it went into.
• For a property manager: the property needs an owner before the payment can be applied to its invoices.

Steps

1. Open Rent & Payments under Money in the menu and click Receive Payment.
2. Search for the Tenant and type the Amount Received.
3. Pick the Payment Method: Check, Cash, Money order, Zelle, Cash App, Venmo, Apple Cash, ACH / bank transfer, Credit card, Debit card or Other.
4. For a check, cash, a money order, Cash App, Venmo or Apple Cash there is nothing to pick: it waits in Undeposited funds until you record the deposit on the Deposits page. Cash App, Venmo and Apple Cash land in your app balance, so record the deposit when you move the money to your bank. For any other method, pick the bank under Deposited to.
5. Optional: the Payment Date (today if left empty) and Notes, such as the check number.
6. Click Review Payment, check it, then click Confirm Payment.
7. The Payments tab opens with Apply Payment on top. eSamaHomes fills in an amount for each open invoice, down the list, until the payment is used up. Check each amount, change it if you need to, and click Apply on its line. When the whole payment is applied, the window shows Fully Applied and the button at the bottom reads Done: click it. Until then it reads Close, and what you haven't applied stays on the payment.

Example

Maria hands you a check for $2,350.00. Her October rent invoice is $2,350.00.

• Receive Payment → Maria, $2,350.00, Check, Notes "Check #1042" → Review Payment → Confirm Payment.
• In Apply Payment, apply $2,350.00 to the October invoice. The invoice shows Paid and the payment's unapplied balance is $0.00.
• The payment shows "Received — not deposited" until you take the check to the bank. See Checks, cash and bank deposits.

What happens next

• The tenant's balance and the rent status change at once.
• A paid invoice gets no more late notices.
• Money not applied to an invoice shows as Prepaid on the payment. When eSamaHomes next creates a rent invoice for that tenant, it applies the prepaid money to it. It is not applied to invoices that are already open: use Apply for those.
• For a property manager, the owner is credited once the payment is both applied and in a bank. A check, cash, a money order, Cash App, Venmo or Apple Cash reaches the bank when you record its deposit.
• Create Invoice makes a bill by hand. What you type in Description (optional) shows under the invoice number on the Invoices tab, in the invoice's details and on the tenant's bill in the tenant portal. A bill made by hand sends no email or notice to the tenant: tell them yourself.
• A late fee made by hand (Create Invoice with type Late Fee) asks Late fee for which rent? once you pick the lease, and lists that lease's open and recent rents. You must choose one. The automatic late fee is then not added to that rent, so the tenant is not charged twice.
• A written-off invoice shows Written off on the Invoices tab, with who wrote it off, when, why and how much under it. It leaves the Active list: the Written off status button lists them all. Its money is not counted as owed: not in the dashboard, rent status, late fees or notices, and not on the tenant's bill in the tenant portal. No money moves and nothing is posted to your books.

A tenant on a lease with an active eviction case. Confirm Payment doesn't record the payment. It shows Payment warning — Active eviction case first, with Accept and make the receipt, I'm returning it and Cancel:

• Accept and make the receipt records the payment. When it leaves a balance, type the Agreed date to pay the balance (after today) and the Date on the notice, then click Accept and make the receipt again. eSamaHomes makes the Partial Payment Receipt, keeps it on the lease's Documents as Payment receipt, emails it to every tenant on the lease and sends a copy to the attorney's case. The tenant doesn't sign it. A payment that pays everything owed makes no receipt. See Eviction cases through Evictions API.
• I'm returning it records nothing and says "Return the payment to the tenant within 5 days."

Write off rent a former tenant won't pay. When a tenant has moved out and you've stopped counting on what they still owe, click Write off on the unpaid invoice. Void an invoice that should never have been billed; write off one the tenant really owed and didn't pay. See Write off rent a former tenant won't pay.

If something looks wrong

• On a phone. Each payment and invoice is a card. Its Apply, Unapply, Void, Refund, View, Void invoice, Write off and Undo write-off are on a phone, under ⋯ on the card.
• An invoice or payment isn't in the list. Each tab shows 50 at a time, newest first, and says how many there are ("Showing 50 of 120"). Click Load more under the list for the next 50. The search box and the status buttons search every invoice or payment, not only the ones shown. The Invoices tab opens on Active, every invoice but a voided or written-off one; click Void or Written off to see those. The lists show the last 12 months; the Invoices tab also shows every unpaid invoice, however old. Once the last one is shown, click Show older for the rest.
• Wrong amount or tenant. Click Void on the payment, type a Reason and click Void Payment, then record it again. The void can't be undone; the payment stays in the list and its invoices are open again. Online payments can't be voided.
• An invoice that shouldn't be there. On the Invoices tab, click Void invoice on its row. Pick a Reason (Created by mistake, Wrong amount, Duplicate or Other; Other needs a Note) and click Void invoice. Tick Tell the tenant to send every tenant on the lease a short email; the reason is not sent. The void can't be undone: the invoice leaves the Active list and is kept under the Void status button, is no longer owed, and its details show who voided it, when and why. To bill the right amount, click Create Invoice.
• Voiding a rent invoice. Its unpaid late fees are voided with it, and the modal lists them. eSamaHomes won't bill that rent period again, so a wrong rent amount needs a new invoice from Create Invoice.
• "Void invoice" is greyed out. The reason is shown under it. An invoice with a payment, or whose late fee has one, is voided after you void that payment. An invoice with a bank payment in progress waits until the payment finishes. A management fee, a deposit settlement charge or a maintenance charge is undone where it was made.
• Giving money back. Click Refund on a payment that is applied and deposited, and type the Refund Amount (USD). See Refund a payment, and for a security deposit, Security deposits.
• Applied to the wrong invoice. Click Unapply on the payment, click Unapply on the wrong line, then Apply to the right invoice.
• "Assign an owner to …". A property manager's property has no owner. Follow the link, assign the owner, then apply the payment.
• Diagnostics shows an Unused Tenant Payment. The tenant has money not applied to any invoice. Apply it here on the Payments tab, or leave it if the tenant paid ahead on purpose.
• "Write off" is greyed out, or "Undo write-off" is missing. See Write off rent a former tenant won't pay.