🔍 What’s Last Month’s Rent?
Last month’s rent is collected at the start of a tenancy to cover the last month rent invoice.
Creating Refundable Deposits (Security, Last Month's Rent, Key and Pet)
When a new lease is added there is the option to add the deposit required for the lease. A default amount will display based on local regulation, this can be adjusted as required by editing over the amount.
This will automatically create a Last Months Rent invoice for the tenant(s) in the Receivables page.
You can then complete the following tasks once the tenant(s) have made payment:
*if you are using Autopay and the deposit has already been paid by the tenant before the 1st of the month be sure to post the security deposit/LMR as paid or toggle off the Collect with Autopay as Autopay will collect all outstanding invoices.
You can also add Key and Pet deposits. If these are added separate invoices will be created to track each one independently.
🏠 Who Holds the Funds
Option 1 — Owner Held
Choose Held by Owner when the owner will receive and hold the last months rent. This could be if the tenant directly pays the owner the deposit or if after collecting the deposit it is paid out to the owner and not held in your Security Deposit Trust account.
If the tenant directly pays the deposit to the owner:
Use a general ledger account to record owner held deposit for the deposit such as Security Deposits Liability or a 'fake' bank account such as Owner Held.
Do not deposit the funds into your operating or trust account as this will be caluclated into the funds available for distribution to the owner in an owner income payout.
This selection ensures your records reflect that the PM never took custody.
If the tenant pays the security deposit to your company then it is sent to the owner during an owner payout:
Use the operating bank account for the deposit. All funds deposited to this account are included in the income payout.
Option 2 — Property Manager Held
If the property manager collects and holds the deposit or last month’s rent:
Do not select Held by Owner
Use the trust bank general ledger account for your last months rent
💰 Collecting Deposits
When collecting a deposit or last month’s rent
Go to Accounting, Receivables and locate the invoice for the deposit.
Select the last months rent and other deposits (Key and Pet) invoice that is being paid and select Post if recording the deposit or Process Deposit if you are pulling the funds with Autopay. Ensure to change the bank account, date and payment method based on the payment received.
Trust account if required by your province.
Operating account if you’re holding and paying out to the owner.
The funds should be recorded as going to the account that it was actually deposited to. For example: if the deposit was made to the Operating account you would post it as such. Then after you have physically transferred the funds from operating to the trust account with the banks you can create a journal entry moving the funds from the Operating account to the Trust account in Propra.
🗓 Handling Last Month’s Rent
When the tenant’s payment represents last month’s rent, you’ll use the Issue Deposit workflow in Propra to process it correctly. Here’s how:
Go to the tenant’s lease and select Issue Deposit.
The total amount of the last month’s rent will be shown as well as the calculated interest amount owed as per the recorded collection date.
Select the “Retained for Rent Collection” box and in the amount field, enter the same amount that will be applied toward the tenant’s final month of rent.
This records that the funds were not returned to the tenant but used to cover rent.
Propra automatically updates the accounting entries, creating a receivable credit that can be applied to the last rent invoice for the tenant. This ensures that the retained funds are accurately reflected maintaining precise financial records.
The next page when issuing a deposit will display the information regarding the deposit for you to confirm or leave additional comments.
You can select Print PDF to generate the deposit statement
This ensures your records clearly show that:
The tenant’s deposit was used for rent, not damages.
The owner’s payout and accounting balances remain accurate.
Once you have completed this step you can then go to your Receivables page and Post your Rent Invoice as paid. To do this:
Select both the Rent Invoice and the Last Months Rent invoice and then Apply Credits.
Select the bank account and posting date then Post. Remember if the owner has the funds select your owner held bank account.
If your Last Months Rent collection is lower than the new rent invoice due to rent increases then there may be an outstanding amount owed.
You can then select the invoice with the outstanding amount and post it as paid or process the deposit.
Select the bank for deposit, date, and payment method then select post or process.
*Autopay will not collect on a last months rent invoice if the lease is set to end. For example: If the lease is ending June 30th, Autopay will post the rent invoice for June 1 but will not collect the funds.
🔄 If You Accidentally Issued a Deposit
If you’ve accidentally clicked Issue Deposit, don’t worry — you can undo it.
Once a deposit is issued, the Issue Deposit button will disappear, but you can restore it by following these steps:
Go to the Lease and open the Financial page.
Click Manage Deposits — this will take you to the main deposit page.
You’ll see that the Returned box is selected. Unselect that box.
Click Next to move to the next page.
Delete the interest accrued by clicking the trash can (🗑️) icon.
Click Update Refundable Deposits to save your changes.
Go to your Payables page and delete the bill that was created when the deposit was originally issued.
After these steps, the Issue Deposit button will reappear on the lease, and your deposit records will return to their previous state.
🗓️Editing a Security Deposit Collection Date
If you need to update the collection date of a security deposit, you can do this directly from the lease page. To edit the deposit collection date:
Go to the Lease page for the tenant.
Select the Financial tab.
Click Manage Deposits.
The first page will show you if the deposit has been collected. On the second page, you can edit or add the collection date.
Select the pencil icon beside the collection date.
Choose the correct date from the calendar picker.
Click the floppy disc icon to save the new date.
Once saved, select Update Refundable Deposit to apply the change.
Your updated collection date will now appear in the lease’s financial details.