Tenant Bills

Manage Your Property

Jodie Cartmer avatar
Written by Jodie Cartmer
Updated over a week ago

It's never been easier to bill your tenants. On RentBetter, you can create and send a bill in under a minute and completely remove unnecessary back-and-forth between you and your tenant.

Create and Send a Bill to Your Tenant

Create and send an invoice to your tenant by indicating how much the tenant has to pay with the attachment of receipts or related documents.

Bill Details

Each bill includes the details of the invoice and is tagged with the tenant payment status. Stay organised with the bills being sorted by the financial year.

The Tenant Pays

The Tenant will receive a notification for the bill which they can directly make payment for on the RentBetter platform.

In this Article:


How to Record a Tenant Bill on RentBetter

To create a new Tenant Bill, head to the My Properties page and locate the property you wish to create the Bill for. On the right-hand side, you will see a menu underneath the Manage My Property section. Click on Tenant Bills.

Step 1: To create your first tenant bill, click the Create Bill button.

Step 2: Fill out the form with the relevant details and upload any attachments for your tenant to view.

Step 3: You can choose to send the bill request through to your tenant instantly or, save it and send it at a later date.

If you choose to save it and send it later, you’ll need to navigate back into your bills dashboard once you are ready to send it, click on the bill to open it up and then click on the 'Send Tenant Bill' button.

Step 4: When your bill is sent, your tenant will receive a notification in their email informing them that there is a bill to pay and to log into their RentBetter account to make the payment. Once the tenant has paid the bill, it will be shown as paid.

If you are not collecting the bill payment through the platform, you can go back to the bill and click the option 'Mark as Paid' once your tenant has paid the bill directly to you.

For more information, you can watch our Tenant Bills Webinar here.


Viewing & Managing Tenant Bills

Once you have saved a tenant bill, you can view it in the Bills Dashboard:

From here you can take the necessary action to edit or delete your bill, mark it as paid or resend the bill to your tenant.

Bill Status

Your bills will appear on your dashboard with a status reflecting their current state.

  • Draft - The bill has been created but has not been sent to the tenant.

  • Awaiting Payment - The bill has been sent and is waiting for the tenant to make the payment

  • Processing - The bill payment has been made by the tenant and is in progress.

  • Paid - The payment was successful and you should see the funds in your bank account.

  • Failed - The payment was unsuccessful. The tenant will need to try to process the payment again.

Bill Transaction History

You can view the transaction history of any bill by clicking on the 'Activity' tab inside the bill. The bill receipt is emailed to the tenant and they can also download their receipt via their tenant account.


Connecting a Bill to an Expense

If your bill is connected to another expense line item, you can add this to the bill.

Click on the 'Add line from expenses' button and it will bring up the options from your expenses that you can choose from to add to your bill.

Once you have saved the line item, it will be added to the bill total and you can send it to your tenant.


Tenant Bills FAQs

What kind of things can I bill my tenant for?

As a general rule, utilities like electricity, water and gas*, in most states if the property is separately metered as well as other items like:

  • Repairs, if the tenant has damaged the property

  • Lost Keys/Key fobs

  • Extra services or modifications, like gardening or cleaning if agreed and are not included in the tenancy agreement.

    *Please check the guidelines for your local state authority

Some rental providers prefer to include bills in their rental payments but you should assess your situation to understand what works best for you. It's important to remember that your tenancy agreement should always state who is responsible and what is not included in the rent.

Do tenants receive reminders for bill payments?

The tenants are sent an initial email letting them know that there is a new bill in their account for them to view and pay. They will also have a notification on their dashboard to view.

If the tenants have not taken action to make the payment, you can click resend the tenant bill to send them another notification.

How does the tenant pay a bill?

When you send the bill to your tenant they receive an email to log into their tenant account to make the payment by clicking on the 'Proceed to pay' button on their tenant bills dashboard.

Is the bill automatically deducted from the tenant's account?

No, bill payments are not automatically deducted from the tenant's account. The tenant will need to take action to initiate the payment via their tenant account.

My tenant paid the bill but it says 'processing' and hasn't reached my account yet.

If your tenant has paid the bill and it is processing, it means that the payment is in progress. There is a short settlement time, but typically, the payment should appear in your account within 2 business days from the date the tenant made the payment.

If this time has passed and you still can't see the payment in your account, feel free to get in touch with our team via email or chat, and we can assist you further.

My tenant's bill payment failed - will it run again?

It is unusual for a bill payment to fail because tenants typically ensure they have adequate funds available before proceeding with the payment through their account.

If your tenant's bill payment has failed, both you and the tenant will be notified, and the tenant will need to log back into their account to process the bill payment again. It will not run automatically until the tenant completes this process.

Can I bill my tenant after the tenancy has ended?

Yes, you may create a bill for your tenant to pay after the tenancy has ended and they will be able to make the payment via their tenant account. Whilst you should always aim to bill your tenants as soon it comes in to ensure they have enough notice and time to pay, you might need to do this in situations where the final bill has come in after the vacate date.

If I want my bill to be paid outside the RentBetter platform, how will my tenant know where to send the payment?

If you would like the bill payment to be paid outside of the platform you can send the bill to them through RentBetter and then let the tenants know where to make the payment directly. Once they have made the payment to you, you can mark the bill as paid via your account.

Need further assistance?

Have more questions on Tenant Bills? Reach out to our friendly team via the support chat or email info@rentbetter.com.au and we’ll be happy to help.

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