Handling rental payments for your property doesn’t have to be complicated, especially if you’re using RentBetter! The platform gives you more control over rental payments to ensure you get paid on time, every time. With automated reminders, receipting and income reporting, you can benefit from efficient and hassle-free rent collection.
Find out about how Rental Payments work in this guide.
In this Article:
How do Rental Payments Work on RentBetter?
Setting up and collecting rental payments from your tenant is simple. Here is a quick overview of the steps required on RentBetter:
Setup: When setting up your tenancy on RentBetter, you'll specify the rental amount, payment frequency, and start date for rental payments. There are two ways your tenants can pay, either through RentBetter (recommended) or outside of RentBetter.
Tenant onboards: Once your tenants are onboarded onto the platform, they set up their payment method and confirm their agreement to the rental terms. If you set up your tenants to pay through the platform, your tenants can pay using a credit card or their bank account, and our direct debit billing system will run payments for your schedule automatically.
Automatic Payments: (If selected) RentBetter handles the rental payments automatically based on the agreed-upon schedule. Payments are processed on the scheduled date and settle into your account automatically. The ledger is automatically updated, and receipts are sent to you and your tenants.
Notifications: Both you and your tenants receive notifications when payments are processed. This ensures transparency and keeps everyone informed.
Reminders: RentBetter sends automated reminders to tenants before payment due dates, reducing the chances of missed payments.
Receipts: Receipts for each payment are issued to both you and your tenants, providing a clear record of transactions, and they are available for download on the site at any time.
Income Reporting: The rental income automatically flows into your reports so when it comes to the end of the financial year (or any time really), you’ll benefit from knowing your investment property information is organised and ready to be sent to your accountant at tax time.
Setting up Rental Payments through RentBetter (Recommended)
Managing payments through the platform offers some great advantages. It means the payments will run according to the agreed schedule, no more checking bank accounts and entering data into spreadsheets, and it will completely automate a task that is usually quite tedious - no more chasing payments!
To create a Rental Payment schedule you will first need to set up your lease. Navigate to the Properties page and click on 'Tenancy setup'. You will be guided through the steps to set up your lease. In the second section under 'Payments' you will go through the steps to set up your payment schedule.
Step 1: Enter the weekly rental amount and the payment frequency for the schedule. Rent can be collected either Weekly, Fortnightly or Monthly.
Step 2: To collect payments through the RentBetter platform, select 'Yes' under the question 'Do you want RentBetter to collect the rent payments?'.
Step 3: Enter the date when you would like the payment schedule through RentBetter to begin. Typically, this would coincide with the start date of the lease. however, if you already have an existing lease, you should select the date from when the tenant is currently paid up to.
You will be able to view a preview of what the schedule and payment periods would look like in the section below:
On the final step of the set-up, you can review the details of the rental payments. The main points you need to review to ensure they are correct are highlighted in yellow.
It's important to check that you have the start date and rental amount/frequency set up correctly, so it is worth spending a moment to review the details before finalising.
Once everything is set up and you have sent it to your tenants, you can view the full details of the schedule from the 'Rental Payments' page.
The tenants will be invited to connect to your lease and requested to set up their payment method on the platform via their tenant dashboard:
Once they have set up their payment method, the payments will run automatically according to the set schedule.
Collecting an Early First Payment
You might consider collecting an 'Early First Payment' from your tenant at the beginning of a new lease with new tenants. This payment is requested before they move in and is designed to provide you with a first payment ahead of the start date and the first scheduled payment.
If you choose to collect an early first payment, your tenant will be notified to complete the payment by the due date you have set in their account on the platform.
To set up to collect the first payment early, select 'Yes' under the question 'Do you want to collect the first payment early?'. Then set how many payment periods you would like to collect early.
The maximum amount you can collect as an early payment is two payment periods so for example, if your payments are set up as fortnightly, you can collect up to two fortnights early.
Once you send the lease to your tenant they will be invited to get set up on RentBetter and once they have signed the lease and added a payment method, they will be able to complete the early first payment step on their dashboard:
The early payment is optional and should the tenant not complete it early, the first payment will run as part of the normal rent schedule automatically. Your tenant is also able to complete payment for additional payment periods should they wish to pay ahead.
Setting up Rental Payments Outside of RentBetter
If you wish to have your tenants make their rental payments outside the platform, it just requires a little more work in terms of manually tracking the payments and marking each one as paid on your payments page.
To create a Rental Payment schedule you will first need to set up your lease. Navigate to the Properties page and click on 'Tenancy setup'. You will be guided through the steps to set up your lease. In the second section under 'Payments' you will go through the steps to set up your payment schedule.
Step 1: Enter the weekly rental amount and the payment frequency for the schedule. The rent can be collected either Weekly, Fortnightly or Monthly.
Step 2: In the following section, you will be asked how you would like to collect the rental payments. To collect payments through the RentBetter platform, select 'No' under the question 'Do you want RentBetter to collect the rent payments?'.
Step 3: You can then enter the date when you would like the payment schedule through RentBetter to begin. Typically, this would coincide with the start date of the lease. however, if you already have an existing lease, you should select the date from when the tenant is currently paid up to.
Once you have finalised the set-up and sent it to your tenant, you will be able to start tracking your payments manually from the rental payments page.
You can use the 'Mark as paid' function next to each payment period to mark payments as paid as you receive them from your tenant.
Need further assistance?
Have more questions on rental payments? Reach out to our friendly team via the support chat or email info@rentbetter.com.au and we’ll be happy to help.