What are Rent Payments?

A rent payment is a monthly fee paid by the tenant to their landlord or property manager in accordance with their lease agreement. Rent payments are typically due on the first of the month, though landlords can decide which day rent is due.

How to Collect Rent Payments Online

Each landlord gets to decide how they’ll collect rent and what forms of payment they’ll accept, as long as local landlord-tenant laws are followed. Some landlords choose to allow paper checks, but if you’re looking to maximize your accounting efforts, you should collect rent payments online.

To get started, find a platform specifically designed for landlords, such as TurboTenant. Landlords can collect rent online for free when using TurboTenant, and their service allows you to track payments, set up automatic late fees, and enable Auto-Pay for your tenants. Your tenants can also leverage their free Rent Reporting feature, which helps build their credit history by reporting on-time rent payments to TransUnion for free.

If you’d like to set up online rent payments through TurboTenant, you’ll first need to create a free account. Select “Payments” during onboarding, navigate to the Payments section within a lease, or click on the Payments page itself. Then select or create a lease with an attached rental property and tenants. You can implement this step during the onboarding process, too.

Once your lease creation or selection is complete, you can set up charges (both recurring and one-time as needed). You only need to set up one charge if you’re still working through the logistics with your tenant. Once you’ve created at least one charge, you can set up your business or individual account, which is managed via TurboTenant’s integration with Stripe. Afterward, you’ll connect your bank account to receive payments.

Once you’ve verified your information, you’ll be asked if you’d like to enable partial payments, automatic payments, and/or automatic late fees. Lastly, you’ll see a summary screen which allows you to view and edit most of the information you’ve provided. When everything looks good to go, you can complete the rent payment setup, which automatically invites your tenant to their portal. For more information about collecting rent payments through TurboTenant, check out our support article.