Renting a unit for just 1 month

Robyn

We are rolling out Sitelink at our first location and currently everything is done old school by hand with ledgers.
Rental is a month to month with a minimum of 30 days. 
Currently if a tenant will only be with us for a month or less, we will take the day they rented and count 30 days. i.e Tenant moves in 6/11/18, we charge rent for 1 month (6/11/18-7/10/18) and if will extend out the "1 month" 1x before prorating them in to the 1st along with everyone else. 
Is there a way to charge a tenant for "1 month only" using the same practices we do now by hand??  

Orkocean

If i'm reading this correct you want to use anniversary date billing for the first month, possibly even extend to second month but then switch to 1st of the month billing? Off the top of my head this would be a manual adjustment you would have to do and go in and remember to switch the person to first of the month billing when it's time to so they get charged correctly.

teamcapitola

@Robyn -- I think you might be able to set Sitelink to do this automatically. We just use anniversary date so I have not actually done this, but I remember talking to Sitelink tech support about it years ago when we first setup as an option.

Check with Sitelink before listening to me by the way!

If you set your billing default to "1st of the month", then set First of month proration to "2nd month prorate" I think it will do what you are asking (charge the first whole 30 day period, then prorate to the first after.)

I could also be TOTALLY off base... anyone else want to chime in?

Orkocean

That's how we used to operate our move ins @teamcapitola - for what they're asking for though it *sounds* like they want to extend the anniversary billing another month which would make it the 3rd month they need prorate. But back to the billing setting you suggested, if you do use that and do a transfer during the initial month moved in, TRIPLE check your charges as you will be losing money if you don't manually re-add rent needed as it skews the #'s in the system and extends how far out the tenant is paid. 

teamcapitola

@Orkocean - Thanks for clarifying; as I said, we only do straight anniversary billing. Back when we first built, we went over various options...the post reminded me of one of those conversations.

I can see where a transfer in the middle of that would cause headaches! Especially if there are discounts or concessions added!

Robyn

I tried playing around with renting a unit using anniversary, taking a payment and then switching it to FOM.  On the individual ledger or tenant I couldn't find an option to change from anniversary to FOM.
I could be mistaken, but if I change the selection to anniversary, doesn't this universally change it to anniversary for everyone??
I think I will have to call tech support tomorrow morning to double check. 

Sue_C

teamcapitola said:

@Robyn -- I think you might be able to set Sitelink to do this automatically. We just use anniversary date so I have not actually done this, but I remember talking to Sitelink tech support about it years ago when we first setup as an option.

Check with Sitelink before listening to me by the way!

If you set your billing default to "1st of the month", then set First of month proration to "2nd month prorate" I think it will do what you are asking (charge the first whole 30 day period, then prorate to the first after.)

I could also be TOTALLY off base... anyone else want to chime in?

Robyn

Doesn't this then change the settings for ALL in coming tenants and not so much as each individual tenant???  Ugh, I think we will have to just remove allowing 1 month only rentals. It is such a hassle if they stay in the unit and want to prorate in because they decide to stay.

skinman

yes, it will change them all... depending on your corporate settings and what you are currently authorized to do. You can go into ledger settings for individual tenant's and change their billing period as well.

that's my understanding anyway.... 

skinman

which has nothing to do with your question really..... I need coffee... what can I say.

Robyn

I did see how to change individually on the ledge settings, however because the current months rent was due, I wasn't able to change it to the 1st  and have the remaining days in July prorated and start again on 8/1/18. It would only allow me to do another anniversary (7/20-8/20) and THEN prorate from 8/20-8/31 and start fresh on 9/1/18. Ugh. I wish my company would stop being so scared of small changes. GRRRRRR

Christa_Gray

Not sure if you have tried doing it this way, or if you have permissions to do so, however under the Company tab is Utilities, Click it. A new pop up will open with "edit Anniversary Billing date" click that... 

Another new screen will pop up, choose the unit you want to adjust and click edit on the right side of the screen, click the "first-of-month billing" and save. That should work. 

Robyn

I was able to change from Anniv to FOM using the Utilities tab, but I couldn't find a way around making the tenant FOM and prorating them in on the first month
I ended up just removing the option of 1 month only. Now all tenants will be FOM