Rent Collection: how-to

Step-by-step instructions for every rent collection task. For what each option means, see Rent Schedules & Rent Collection; for problems, see Rent Collection: troubleshooting.

Find your task

If you’re here because…	Go to
A new tenancy needs its rent set up	Set up or edit a rent schedule
A tenant was in place before you used COHO	Set up an existing tenant
A tenant has paid	Log a payment
A Rent Payment Due Action appeared	Log a payment
A tenant paid in full, on time	Mark rent as paid on time
The dashboard shows Unassigned payments	Link an unassigned payment
You need to charge a fee or record arrears	Add money due
The rent is going up or down	Change the rent
Rent is late	Chase overdue rent
You’ve given up on recovering some rent	Write off rent as bad debt
You need to give money back or waive rent	Refund, credit or reverse a charge
A tenancy seems to be missing rent	Fix missing rent charges
A tenant or owner wants a breakdown	Produce a rent statement
You’re moving records from another system	Import from a spreadsheet
You want a reminder Action when rent is due	Turn on rent-due Actions

Set up or edit a rent schedule

Do this when a tenancy has no rent set up (and wasn’t onboarded through COHO), or to change the rent day, method or grace period.

Before you start: you need edit permission for Rent Collection.

1. Open the property, then the room, then Menu > Rent Collection.
2. Click Create (no schedule yet) or Edit Schedule.
3. Set Which day of the month? (or the day or date for other frequencies) and the Payment method?.
4. For a grace period, click Change next to Payments will be overdue immediately and enter the number of days.
5. Choose Payment details, and set a Payment reference (or click Generate tenancy ref).
6. To have COHO keep adding rent once the tenancy is periodic, click Change next to Rent IS NOT automatically generated so it reads IS.
7. Check the list of rent records. Add, edit or delete lines if needed, and choose a Pro-rata calculation for part months.
8. Click Save.

What happens next: the rent records appear in the rent book, and the summary shows the method, rent day and reference. The panel closes after saving; open it again to check.

Caution

Regenerate replaces the whole list, including lines you added by hand, so add those last.

Set up an existing tenant

Do this when a tenant was renting before you started using COHO.

1. Open the tenancy’s Rent Collection panel and click Create or Edit Schedule.
2. Choose one:
   • Quickest: turn on Future rent only. Save. If they owe money, click Money due > Arrears and enter the total.
   • Full history, nothing owed: generate from the tenancy start date, save, then click Mark all paid and confirm.
   • Full history with arrears: generate from the start date, save, then Log payment for each past payment.

What happens next: the rent book matches what the tenant really owes. Old records show as overdue until you mark them paid or log payments.

Turn on rent-due Actions

Do this if you want an Action reminding you to check each tenant’s rent when it falls due.

1. On any tenancy’s Rent Collection panel, click the settings cog.
2. Turn on Remind me to check tenant rent payments by creating an action when their rent becomes due.
3. Click Save for this property, or tick Save for all properties (or Save for all properties in this building) first.

What happens next: for each unpaid rent charge, a Rent Payment Due Action appears from its due date, for up to 28 days. It closes itself when the rent is paid. You can log the payment straight from the Action.

Note

With Save for all properties, every tenant’s rent creates an Action, so this can mean a lot of Actions.

Log a payment

Do this when a tenant has paid by bank transfer, cash or any way not recorded automatically, or from a Rent Payment Due Action.

Before you start: you need edit permission for Rent Collection. If your bank is connected through the Transactions panel, match the payment there instead, so it isn’t counted twice.

1. Open the tenancy’s Rent Collection panel and click Log payment. (From the organisation panel, click Log payment and find the tenancy first.)
2. Check Amount paid, Date paid and Payment Method.
3. Under Associate this payment with amounts due, check which charges it covers. COHO starts with the oldest; untick or tick charges to change it.
4. If it’s late but should count as on time, tick Override ‘Paid Late’ status to show as paid on time.
5. Click Save.

What happens next: the payment appears in the rent book, the charges it covers become Paid, Paid late or Part-Paid, and the tiles update. The tenant isn’t notified. If any of the payment isn’t linked to a charge, it shows as unassigned.

Mark rent as paid on time

Do this when a tenant paid one charge in full, on time.

1. Click View on the rent record (on either panel).
2. Click Mark £X paid on time.

What happens next: a payment for the full amount, dated on the due date, is recorded, and the record shows Paid. On the organisation panel, reload the page to update the totals.

For several overdue charges on one tenancy that were all paid on time, click Mark all paid on the tenancy panel and confirm.

Link an unassigned payment

Do this when the dashboard’s Payments tile shows Unassigned, or the panel warns about unassigned payments.

1. Click Unassigned on the dashboard, or View next to “You have N tenancies with unassigned payments”.
2. Click View on a tenancy to open its Rent Collection panel.
3. Find the payment in the rent book and click View.
4. Link it to the charge it was for, then save.

What happens next: the charge shows as paid or part-paid and the warning goes. If a whole tenancy’s links are wrong and it has no owner settlements, Reassociate re-matches every payment to the oldest rent, but it can’t be undone.

Add money due

Do this to charge a fee (a replacement key, cleaning), record arrears, or add a deposit or rent in advance.

1. On the tenancy’s Rent Collection panel, click Money due.
2. Choose Rent, Tenant costs, Tenant money or Arrears.
3. Fill in the amount, VAT and due date (for tenant costs: category, description, and whether it’s Due with next rent).
4. Click Save.

What happens next: the charge appears in the rent book and the Next due tile updates.

Change the rent

Do this when the rent goes up or down from a date.

1. On the tenancy’s Rent Collection panel, click Rent.
2. Enter the Rent change date, the new Rent and VAT applicable.
3. Click Continue and confirm.

What happens next: rent from that date uses the new amount. Rent reviews with notice to the tenant are done in Rent Review.

Chase overdue rent

Do this when rent is late. The organisation panel opens on overdue rent.

1. Click Menu > Rent Collection. Leave grouping on Property to see who owes what, and for how long.
2. Choose No Grouping to list each overdue charge, then click View on one.
3. Click Mark overdue, choose a Missed payment reason, add notes if useful, and click Save.
4. To remind the tenant, click Send a Reminder, check the email and send it.
5. Repeat with Add overdue history each time you follow up.

What happens next: the record keeps an overdue history. An Overdue? status changes to Overdue once confirmed. The reminder goes to the lead tenant by email.

Note

Send a Reminder isn’t available on tenancies with more than one tenant, and you can send at most one overdue reminder every 24 hours. Use Credit Control to chase joint tenancies.

Write off rent as bad debt

Do this when you don’t expect to recover a charge.

1. Click View on the rent record.
2. Click Set as bad Debt and confirm.

What happens next: the record shows Bad Debt and no longer counts as overdue. Statements can include or leave it out (Include bad debt). To undo it, click Unset as Bad Debt.

A charge that’s been paid in full can’t be marked as bad debt.

Refund, credit or reverse a charge

Do this when you need to give money back, reduce what’s owed, or undo a charge already paid out to the owner.

To reduce what’s owed without paying money back (waived rent, a goodwill gesture):

1. On the tenancy panel, click Rent credit.
2. Enter the Credit amount and Date given, choose the charges it covers, and click Save.

To refund a charge paid in full (not yet on an owner settlement):

1. Click View on the rent record, then Refund.
2. Enter the Refund date and Reason of refund, and save.

To undo a charge already on an owner settlement:

1. Click View on the rent record, then Reverse, and confirm.
2. To give the money back, put the released payment against a new Money due item, then refund that.

What happens next: the record shows Refunded, Reversed or reduced, and the rent book updates. COHO doesn’t notify the tenant about refunds, credits or reversals.

Fix missing rent charges

Do this to check no tenancy is missing rent, or when a tenant’s balance looks wrong.

1. On the organisation panel, click Missing rent charges.
2. Change Date from, Date to and Weekly/Monthly if needed. Tick Include mismatched rent amounts to also find rent recorded for less than the tenancy’s rent.
3. For each gap, open the tenancy (click the tenant) and add the rent with Money due > Rent, or fix the schedule with Edit Schedule.
4. For a gap you know is fine, click Ignore.

What happens next: fixed gaps leave the list. Ignored gaps are hidden but not fixed; tick Include ignored and click Un-ignore to bring one back.

If gaps keep appearing for a periodic tenancy, check automatic generation is on in Edit Schedule.

Produce a rent statement

Do this when a tenant, owner or accountant wants a breakdown of rent and payments.

For one tenancy: on the tenancy’s Rent Collection panel, click Statement.

For several properties or tenancies:

1. On the organisation panel, click Generate Rent Statement.
2. Choose Properties, Rooms, Money types, and the From and To dates.
3. Set the options: Include prepayments, Include bad debt, Show past payments for rent paid in this period (untick to fold earlier payments into an opening balance), Current tenancy only.
4. Click Generate CSV.

What happens next: a CSV file downloads. Nothing is sent to the tenant or owner; share it yourself.

Export the rent list

1. On the organisation panel, set the cards, grouping and filters to show what you need.
2. Click Export (CSV).

What happens next: a CSV of the list downloads. Grouped by property, it includes the property owner and the 30, 60, 90 and 90+ day overdue amounts.

Import from a spreadsheet

Do this to bring in payments and charges from another system or a bank export.

1. Click Import CSV (on the organisation or tenancy panel).
2. Download the template from Guidance & Import Template and fill it in:
   • Type: payment, credit, rent, other, deposit or arrears;
   • PaymentMethod (payments only): cash, card, other, direct debit, bank transfer, standing order, cheque or housing_benefit;
   • dates as yyyy/MM/dd or yyyy-MM-dd, amounts as positive numbers, and the tenancy number from the template.
3. Upload the file (.csv, .xls or .xlsx) and check the preview.
4. Leave Associate all unassigned payments ticked to link payments to rent.
5. Import.

What happens next: the records appear in each tenancy’s rent book. If anything in the file can’t be read, a message says which row or value is wrong (see Rent Collection: troubleshooting).