How rent billing works

Who this is for

Landlords and property managers who want to know when rent invoices are created and how to change it. Only the account owner can change the billing settings.

Before you start

• The lease is started, with a rent amount, a due day and how often rent is due. A draft lease out for signing is not billed.
• Your billing settings are in Settings, on the Notifications tab, card Automation Schedule: Auto-bill days before due (5 unless you change it), Grace period and Late notice schedule. The last two are explained in Late fees and late notices.

Steps

Every morning, eSamaHomes:

1. Looks at every started lease.
2. Creates the rent invoice for each due date that is now within Auto-bill days before due, for the lease's rent amount.
3. Tells every tenant on the lease about it inside eSamaHomes.
4. Emails every tenant on the lease a rent reminder 3 days before the due date, if the invoice is still unpaid. The primary tenant's email has a Pay Now button; the others' have View Portal.
5. Shows the invoice on Rent & Payments, on the Invoices tab, as Pending until it is paid, then as Paid.

To change when invoices are created: open Settings, the Notifications tab, change Auto-bill days before due, and click Save.

Example

Maria's rent of $1,800.00 is due on the 15th of each month, and Auto-bill days before due is 5.

• October 10 (15 − 5): the October invoice for $1,800.00 is created, and Maria is told inside eSamaHomes.
• October 12 (15 − 3): Maria gets the rent reminder email.
• October 14: Maria pays from her bank account in the tenant portal. The rent status shows Processing for a few days while the bank payment clears; then the invoice is Paid.
• November 10: the November invoice is created.

What happens next

• If rent is still unpaid after the lease's grace period, the lease's late fee is added as a separate late fee invoice, and late notices follow your Settings. See Late fees and late notices.
• A month-to-month lease keeps billing until you end it. A fixed-term lease stops billing at its end date. A lease set to "Fixed term, then month-to-month" also stops billing at its end date: rolling it over to month-to-month is not built yet.
• eSamaHomes never bills the same month twice for a lease, even if you also created that month's invoice by hand with Invoice Type Rent.
• A due date that had already passed when the invoice was created, such as the first rent of a lease added late, is billed without a notice to the tenant, and gets no late fee or late notices. It is still owed.
• For a tenant who already lived there before eSamaHomes, billing starts on the first due date you chose for them. Nothing before it is billed. See Move your tenants in.
• Money a tenant paid ahead is applied to their next new rent invoice. See Record a payment you received.

If something looks wrong

• No invoice yet. It is created Auto-bill days before due days before the due date. Check that the lease is started and its due day is right.
• The tenant got no reminder email. The reminder goes out 3 days before the due date. If Auto-bill days before due is less than 3, the invoice is created after that day and no reminder is sent. An invoice already partly paid gets no reminder.
• The amount is wrong. Open the lease, change Monthly Rent and click Save Changes. Invoices already created keep their amount.
• An invoice you don't want. An invoice can't be voided in eSamaHomes yet. Email hello@esamahomes.com with the tenant and the invoice.