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Rent ledger
A payment history for a single tenancy. The header records the tenant, property and unit, monthly rent, due day, security deposit and lease dates. Each row logs the due date, amount due, date paid, amount paid, method, late fee, balance and who initialed it.
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On this page
What prints
The sheet is titled Rent Ledger. The header has three rows of write-in fields: Tenant and Property and unit; Monthly rent, Due on day and Security deposit; and Lease start and Lease end. If you typed a name in the settings, it prints at the top right.
The table has eight columns: Due date, Amount due, Date paid, Amount paid, Method, Late fee, Balance and Initials. A line at the bottom says to give the tenant a receipt for every payment and to keep the ledger for as long as your state requires.
The settings
- Name at the top. Optional; use the tenant's name or the unit number.
- Register type. Rent ledger on this page.
- Rows. 12 to 36 lines. Twenty-four rows cover two years of monthly rent, with a few to spare.
Filling it in
Use one ledger per tenant and per lease. Fill in the header the day the lease is signed, copying figures from the lease itself. Then add a row each month when rent comes due, even if the tenant pays early. Writing the Amount due before the payment arrives makes any gap visible right away.
The Balance column is what remains owing after each row. Many landlords have the person who took the payment initial the line, which helps when two people manage a property. Receipts go with the ledger: see the rent receipt, and note that some states require receipts for certain payments, as New York does for cash.
Worked example: three months
Rent is $950, due on the 1st. The lease allows a $50 late fee after the 5th. In January the tenant pays $950 on January 1, so Balance is $0. In February the tenant pays $950 on February 9. The payment is late, so you write 50 in Late fee and the Balance is 50.
In March, rent of $950 comes due and the tenant still owes the $50, so $1,000 is owed. The tenant pays $1,000 on March 1 by check, and the March balance is 1,000 - 1,000 = $0. Over the three months you were paid 950 + 950 + 1,000 = $2,900, of which $50 was the late fee.
Be careful with fees
Whether you may charge a late fee, and how much, depends on your lease and local law, so check before you write one in. Keeping rent records is also useful at tax time, and the IRS recordkeeping page is a place to start. This is a form, not legal advice.
Keeping it with the lease
Clip the ledger to a copy of the lease and the move-in paperwork. If a tenant asks what they have paid, you can answer in seconds. Start a fresh ledger when a new lease begins, even for the same tenant, so the terms in the header always match the rows below.