property management / tenant monthly rent

You'll want to use class tracking, wandamendoza.

Class tracking lets you track your account balances by department, business office or location, separate properties. Or in your case, per tenant.

1. Go to the QuickBooks menu, then select Preferences.
2. In the Workflow section, select Transactions.
3. Select the Use class tracking checkbox, then close the Preferences page to save the changes.

Learn more about class tracking: Set up and use class tracking

Since you want to track the payments, you can also create a sales receipt. This is used when you receive their payments right away. Here's how:

1. On the QuickBooks Home screen or the Customers menu, go to Create Sales Receipts/Enter Sales Receipts.
2. From the Customer: Job drop-down, select a customer or job.
3. Fill in the relevant information at the top of the form like the Date and Sale No.
4. Choose the payment method.
5. In the detail area, select the item(s) you propose to do or include as a sale.
6. Click Save & Close.

You can learn more about recording transactions here: Record transactions for a property management company.

We can create memorized transactions so you'll get a reminder every time you need to create an invoice/sales receipt.

1. Enter the transaction the way you want it to show up each month. 
2. Select Memorize [Transaction Name], from the Edit menu.
3. Enter a Name.
4. Enter any other info, then select OK.
5. Select Save & Close or Save & Next.

If you want to set up an automatic schedule, make sure to fill in the How Often and Next Data fields.

Also, you can see your memorized transaction. Go to Lists and select  Memorized Transaction List. For more information, please refer to this article: Create, edit, or delete memorized transactions.

I'm always here if you have additional questions.

if i use class tracking, what should be under the class list if i already have the customers set up as my properties and the jobs of the customers set up as my tenants?

also, is monthly rent considered a service or a payment?

Let me share additional information, @wandamendoza.

Determining what to put under the class list depends on the set up that works best for you and your business. You can use the location of your rental properties or the specific department such as Maintenance, Utilities, or Insurance as part of your class list.

On the other hand, you can use the following set up in tracking your rental property in QuickBooks:

• Customer ->  Properties you manage (i.e. Apartment A, Apartment B, Boutique, Flower Shop)
• Customer: jobs of properties ->  Tenants 
• Class Tracking by location: California
• Sub-class tracking per expenses: Maintenance, Building Insurance, Property Tax 

Also, you can create a service item for the different rent frequency in QuickBooks - Daily, Weekly, Monthly, Quarterly, or Annually. Here's how to do set it up:

1. Go to the List menu.
2. Choose Item List.
3. Click the Item drop-down.
4. Select New.
5. Pick Service from the Type drop-down.
6. Enter the Item details
7. Click Ok. 

Once everything is set, this is how your invoice looks like:

You can use this article for more detailed instructions: Record transactions for a property management company.

Also, I'd recommend consulting with an accountant so you'd be guided accurately in setting up your account's workflow in tracking your rental property business.

Keep me posted if you have other questions. I'm always here to help.

thank you! following up, after setting the invoice ,every time i try to make an invoice for one of my tenants, no matter what amount i type in, for example "1800.00", in the invoice box, it automatically saves the amount to "-1800.00". i don't know why it automatically puts a negative sign, but all my tenants currently have an open balance of 0.00 because i do not know what that open balance is. does anyone have a solution to this?

Hi Wanda,

I've read the whole thread, and I'd like to focus on your concern, which is having negative invoice amounts. Then, we'll also talk about correcting your records.

This situation can occur if the item you use is a Discount or a Payment type. These types will always show their amounts as negative on invoices and other sales transactions to reduce the total payable sale. With that effect, your Account Receivables will also reduce down to the negative level.

You can check the item type using these steps:

1. Click on the Lists menu and choose Item List.
2. Double-click the item you use.
3. See the TYPE.

After checking the type, we'll correct your record, but please back up your company file first to keep a copy of the original data.

To start, you can edit the affected invoices by replacing the items with a Non-inventory type. A Service type will also do, but I'd suggest using it when you'll only be invoicing for services. You can do this process per customer to easily track their transactions.

Going forward, you can use the new item when invoicing for rentals.

As for the payment records (deposits), you can delete and recreate them. But this time, you'll want to go through each invoice and select the Receive Payment option. Then, deposit them via Make Deposits from the Banking menu. Please note that you'll want to keep the same dates and amounts on your deposits because we're only changing the way to record them. Then, similar to invoices, you can also do this per customer records.

Please feel free to go back to this thread if you have other questions on your invoice.

quick question for you! when i choose the receive payment option and then do the deposits through the banking menu, am i depositing their payment twice?

Thanks for getting back to this thread, @wandamendoza.

The answer to your concern depends if you put the payment in the Undeposited Funds. If you select this account when receiving the payment, then it will not create a duplicate when creating a bank deposit.

Also, this account holds the customer payments in QuickBooks until you deposit them at your real-life bank.

If you already select the correct bank account when receiving the payment, then you no longer need to create a deposit. 

To learn more details about the Undeposited Funds account in QuickBooks, you can check out this article: How to put payments into the Undeposited Funds account in QuickBooks Desktop.

We'll be happy to help you again if you have more questions. Just click the reply button below and we'll get back to you.

I have a tenants who are often late on their rent. I would like to send them invoice reminders 12 days prior to the first of the month and I also would like to send them Sales receipts upon receipt of payment. Is it okay on QBO to send both invoices and sales receipts after that invoice has been paid or will this cause some sort of duplicate transaction as duplicated "income"?   should I match the actual Deposit in the bank to the invoice or to the Sales receipt? or can it be matched to both? Thank you kindly for your help.

It's good to see you here in the QuickBooks Community, @Sibemol.

I'm here to help record invoices and invoice payments from your tenants in QuickBooks Online (QBO).

You can manually send invoice reminders to your tenants 12 days prior to the first of the month. Here's how:

1. Sign in to your QBO account.
2. Click Sales & expenses from the left menu, then select Invoices.
3. Find the invoice you want to send a reminder.
4. Under the Action column, click the drop-down arrow and select Send reminder.
5. Click Send.

Once your tenant paid the invoice, you can receive the payment using the Receive Payment feature instead of Sales receipts. Thus, this can double your income. Let me guide you how.

1. Click the + New button, then select Receive payment.
2. Select the customer from the drop-down. Make sure the account from the Deposit to drop-down is Undeposited Funds.
3. Choose the invoice from the Outstanding Transactions.
4. Click Save and close.

After receiving the payment, you can match the deposit to the payment from the Banking feeds. To do so, you can follow the steps below:

1. Click Bookkeeping from the left menu, then choose Transactions.
2. In the Bank transactions tab, find and select the deposit you want to match.
3. Select Find match.
4. From the Match transactions page, put a checkmark on the payment.
5. Click Save.

I'm adding this article to learn more about matching transactions in QBO: Match online bank transactions in QuickBooks Online.

Just in case you're ready to reconcile your bank account, you can check out this article for more guidance: Reconcile an account in QuickBooks Online.

Come back to this post if you have other concerns or follow-up questions about this. I'll be around to provide further assistance.