Rent Schedules & Rent Collection
This section will cover how to generate rent schedules for your tenants, how to reconcile rents manually and credit control settings.
If your organisation has bank accounts connected for automated rent reconciliation you should not be logging payments manually as this can result in duplicate rent payments.
Generating Rent Schedules
Here we will cover how to generate rent schedules. The criteria used to generate a rent schedule in COHO is the frequency of the rent, the amount of rent being paid and the AST dates for the tenancy.
It’s important to note that when you’re onboarding a new tenant, the rent schedule is generated as part of the onboarding process. See also Onboarding. In this section we’ll cover the options for generating rent schedules for existing tenants or tenants that have not been added through the Onboarding process.
To generate a rent schedule for a tenant, navigate to the tenancy that you wish to set the rent schedule for.
Click ‘set day’ to create the rent schedule.
NB. The frequency of the rent being paid, will already have been entered when adding the room onto the system. This will also be confirmed when adding the tenancy to the room/property. If any changes are needed, you will need to edit the tenancy.
Monthly: Here we will show you how to generate a rent schedule with a monthly frequency. It follows the same procedure for all other frequencies but with a few minor differences that will also be explained.
Which day of the month?: Here you can use the drop down menu to select which date in the month the rent is due.
Monthly: Allows you to set the date in the month the rent is due.
Weekly: Allows you to specify which day of the week the rent is due.
Per fortnight: Allows you to specify which day of the week the rent is due.
Every 4 weeks: Allows you to enter a date the rent schedule is to start from.
Per quarter: Allows you to set the date in the month the rent is due.
Per term: Allows you to set the date and amount of rent to be paid for each rent due record.
Payment method: Here you can use the drop down menu to enter the method of which the rent is to be paid by.
Payment reference: Payment references are important when reconciling rent whether you do this manually or using the COHO automated bank feeds. See also Transactions. We will by default suggest a unique payment reference for you to use for the tenancy. You can choose to use a different reference related to the tenancy, or you can type in your own payment reference.
Rent schedule notes: Here you can add any notes in relation to the rent schedule. Notes are only visible to the property manager and other team members.
It’s important to make sure you click ‘regenerate schedule’ after making any changes.
Automatically generate rent in periodic tenancy: This toggle will allow COHO to automatically add new rent due records once the tenancy becomes periodic i.e., has reached the fixed term end date of their AST. Depending on the frequency of rent being paid depends on how many future rent due records are automatically generated.
Monthly: 2 rent due records ahead.
Weekly: 2 months worth of due records ahead.
Fortnight: 2 months worth of due records ahead.
4 weekly: 2 months worth of due records ahead.
Quarterly: 1 rent due record ahead.
Termly: Will not add any future rent due records automatically. All termly rent payments need to be manually added.
Future rent only: The criteria used to generate a rent schedule in COHO is the frequency of the rent, the amount of rent and the AST dates for the tenancy.
The future rent only toggle allows you to generate the rent schedule based on rent due in the future only. For example, if a tenant has been added to COHO that has been a tenant for 2 years, you may not want to have the entire rent schedule generated since they moved in but would look to use future rent due only. See also Generating Rent Schedules for Existing Tenants.
Generate rent due from the tenancy start date: Here you can choose a date that you would like to start the rent schedule from if it differs from the AST start date or future rent only.
Calculate a pro-rata final rent due: Here you can pro-rata the final rent payment. This would be used if you do not expect the tenancy to go periodic at the end of the AST dates.
Pro-rata Calculation: Here you can change the basis of the pro-rata calculator between; Monthly: rent is divided by days in a specific month or Annual: the rent is multiplied by 12 and divided by 365.
+Add rent record: This can be used to add any additional rent due records.
Regenerate: Will regenerate the rent schedule. When you regenerate the rent schedule this will clear the rent schedule and remove all rent records including any manually added rent due records.
Clear: Will clear the rent schedule generated completely.
Copy rent schedule to others: If you have other tenants added to the same property that will have the same rent schedule, you can copy the rent schedule over to other tenancies.
Click ‘save’ to save the rent schedule or ‘Cancel’.
Rent Schedule Options for Existing Tenants
The criteria used to generate a rent schedule in COHO is the frequency of the rent, the amount of rent and the AST dates for the tenancy.
Future Rent Only: This will generate a rent schedule based on the AST dates but exclude historical rent due records. For example, if you have a tenant with AST dates from Jan 1st 2024 – 31st December 2024 and they are paying on the 1st of each month, the system will generate a rent schedule for the next 1st of the month.
If you have tenants that have gone periodic, the system will automatically generate rent due records a number of payments ahead of time depending on the frequency of rent being paid.
Monthly: 2 rent due records ahead.
Weekly: 2 months worth of due records ahead.
Fortnight: 2 months worth of due records ahead.
4 weekly: 2 months worth of due records ahead.
Quarterly: 1 rent due record ahead.
Termly: Will not add any future rent due records automatically. All termly rent payments need to be manually added.
Future rent only with Arrears: As above. To add a grand total of outstanding arrears, click to ‘+add money due’ to add the total arrears balance.
Entire rent schedule with no arrears: Toggle off the future rent only option and generate the entire rent schedule. What you may have are ‘Unconfirmed Overdue’ rents. If the tenant has paid on time and in full i.e., no rent arrears, you can click the ‘mark all paid’ button at the bottom to reconcile everything outstanding with one click.
Entire rent schedule with arrears: This is potentially the most admin heavy option. Generate the entire rent schedule toggling off the future rent only option. You will then have to systematically work through each line of ‘unconfirmed overdue’ rents and mark them off as paid, or log part payments. What you will have is a complete, accurate record of payments made and visibility of rent due records where any arrears have accumulated for the entire length of the tenancy.
Tenancy Rent Collection Panel
Edit schedule: This allows you to edit the rent schedule. Please note that if any rent payments have been recorded, they will remain as logged payments.
Show deleted rent records: Here you can toggle to see any rent records that have been deleted.
Show payments: Displays all payments that have been logged as paid.
Show rent due items: Displays all payments that are due to be paid.
Log payment: The Log Payment button should be used when the rent payment made differs from what is expected and/or the date the payment was received was not the rent due date. If your organisation has bank accounts connected for automated rent reconciliation you should not be logging payments manually as this can result in duplicate rent payments.
It is important to note that if you are logging a payment via the Log Payment button, ensure that the payment being logged is assigned to a rent due record. If a rent payment is being logged and is not assigned to a rent due record, you will have an unassigned payment that will need to be assigned and a warning will be displayed.
If your organisation has bank accounts connected for automated rent reconciliation you should not be logging payments manually as this can result in duplicate rent payments.
+Rent Credit: This allows you to add a rent credit to the rent schedule.
+Money due: This allows you to add new money due.
Mark all paid: Will allow you to reconcile every rent record that is listed as an ‘Unconfirmed overdue’ rent. This would typically be used to reconcile historical rent due records. Please use with caution.
Statement: Will allow you to generate a rental statement for the tenancy.
Rent: Allows you to make a rent change
Reassociate: Allows you to reassociate all rent payments. This can not be undone and should be used with caution. This can be useful on a simple rent schedule where payments have been logged out of step.
Import CSV: Allows you to upload a CSV file. We have created an import template that must be used when uploading your CSV file. More information can be found using the ‘Guidance & Import Template’ section.
Guidance & Import Template Information
The CSV allows for the following columns:
Tenancy
Tenancy Number of the tenancy. This can be found from the template. This should not be changed in any way, but can be used on multiple rows to add multiple entries.
TenantName
This column is just to help you easily identify who the tenant is on the template. It need not be filled in and will not be processed.
PropertyName
This column is just to help you easily identify who the tenant is on the template. It need not be filled in and will not be processed.
Type
This allows the following values
- payment: for rent paid
- credit: for rental credit
- rent: for rent due
- other: for other charge due (non-rent)
- deposit: a rental deposit due by the tenant
- arrears: for arrears, generally used when first adding a tenant to COHO
PaymentMethod
When the Type is payment, this allows the following values and is optional, otherwise leave blank
- cash
- card
- other
- direct debit
- bank transfer
- standing order
- cheque
- housing_benefit
Date
The date of the rent payment, in the format yyyy/mm/dd, for example, 2023/09/06.
Amount
The amount paid or due, as a positive value.
Description
A text description that will be stored with the payment or charge for your team's reference.
Credit Control Notes:
Here you can add manual notes in relation to the rent schedule for the tenancy. This can be useful to record notes about the rent schedule or recording any information about individual rent payments.Notes can also be viewed on the Audit Log. See also Audit Log.
Portfolio Rent Collection Panel
The Rent Collection panel on your main portfolio / organisation page allows you to see all rent due records in one place for all properties and all tenants.
Top Level Filter
Overdue: Displays all rent payments that are overdue.
Due today: Displays all rent payments that are due today.
This month: Displays all rent payments that are due in the current calendar month.
Next month: Displays all rent payments due in the next calendar month.
Second Level Filter
Property: Displays all rent records grouped by property.
Tenancy: Displays all rent records grouped by tenancy.
No Grouping: Will display all rent payments individually.
Include rent records from: This allows for further filtering options. You can filter by a date range, type of tenancy, include all previous overdue rent and include only rent & additional charges.
Log Payment: The Log Payment button should be used when the rent payment made differs from what is expected and/or the date the payment was received was not the rent due date. See also Manual Rent Reconciling.
Export (CSV): Allows you to export a CSV of rent records.
Generate Rent Statement: Will allow you to generate a rental statement for a property or tenancy.
Import Rent CSV: Allows you to upload a CSV file. We have created an import template that must be used when uploading your CSV file. More information can be found using the ‘Guidance & Import Template’ section.
Guidance & Import Template Information
The CSV allows for the following columns:
Tenancy
Tenancy Number of the tenancy. This can be found from the template. This should not be changed in any way, but can be used on multiple rows to add multiple entries.
TenantName
This column is just to help you easily identify who the tenant is on the template. It need not be filled in and will not be processed.
PropertyName
This column is just to help you easily identify who the tenant is on the template. It need not be filled in and will not be processed.
Type
This allows the following values
- payment: for rent paid
- credit: for rental credit
- rent: for rent due
- other: for other charge due (non-rent)
- deposit: a rental deposit due by the tenant
- arrears: for arrears, generally used when first adding a tenant to COHO
PaymentMethod
When the Type is payment, this allows the following values and is optional, otherwise leave blank
- cash
- card
- other
- direct debit
- bank transfer
- standing order
- cheque
- housing_benefit
Date
The date of the rent payment, in the format yyyy/mm/dd, for example, 2023/09/06.
Amount
The amount paid or due, as a positive value.
Description
A text description that will be stored with the payment or charge for your team's reference.
Manual Rent Reconciling
Manual rent reconciling can be completed on any Rent Collection panel. The organisation page Rent Collection panel will display all properties and all tenants.
When reconciling rent payments in COHO it’s important to look at the filtering for ‘No Grouping’.
No Grouping allows you to ‘view’ each rent due record in turn.
All information regarding the rent due record will be visible.
Mark £XXX as paid on time: Reconciles the rent as received in full and on the date it was due.
Log Payment: Allows you to enter a different rent amount and / or a different date that the rent was received. It is important to note that if you are logging a payment via the Log Payment button, ensure that the payment being logged is assigned to a rent due record. If a rent payment is being logged and is not assigned to a rent due record, you will have an unassigned payment that will need to be assigned and a warning will be displayed.
If your organisation has bank accounts connected for automated rent reconciliation you should not be logging payments manually as this can result in duplicate rent payments.
Send a reminder: Allows you to send a rent reminder message. If the tenant has access to their My COHO dashboard, they will receive a push notification that a message has been sent. If the tenant has no access to their My COHO dashboard, you can send the message via email. Emails can be previewed before sending.
Mark as overdue: Allows you to confirm that the rent due record is overdue. If you’re using the Credit Control solution, this will then act on rent due records that have been confirmed as overdue.
Set as Bad Debt: If you have any outstanding rent due records that you do not expect to receive, you can mark the rent due record as Bad Debt. This is useful in the case of a tenant vacating the room/property where there are rent records still due. Writing off debt is a last resort after trying to recover the rent due.
Edit: To make changes to the rent due record.
Delete: Deletes the rent due record.
Credit Control - Tenancy Arrears
Here you will see any tenancy arrears. You can ‘Choose bulk send template’ or ‘Execute proposed step for (X) tenancies’. See also Credit Control - Escalation Policy & Templates.
Credit Control - Escalation Policy & Templates
Here you can define a credit control process when rent becomes overdue. Templates can be set up as per your processes. COHO provides an example policy and templates for you, which can be used as is to help you get started, or edited as the basis for your own policies.
An escalation policy is a set of steps, emails and notifications that an organisation carries out depending on how late (how many days) and how large a tenant’s arrears are. Usually the policy is followed loosely with the credit control manager being given a lot of flexibility to agree repayment plans with tenants.
Show archived templates: Will allow you to see any templates that have been created and archived.
Help me make a policy: Here COHO provides example policy and templates for you to use and edit. To use the COHO example templates, click the ‘i’.
If your organisation does not already have a policy you can click the button to generate a proposed policy that COHO has put together.
It is paramount that you review each template generated, alter it to fit the style of your organisation, and only send out notifications or actions consistent with your organisation.
COHO DOES NOT take any responsibility for the accuracy or completeness of the proposed policy nor its legal correctness. It is provided purely for demonstrative and educational purposes.
Click ‘Create Proposed Escalation Policy’. This will generate an entire credit control escalation policy with emails and actions to be followed. Once created you can tweak, or remove any templates.
New credit control template
Manual only: A template that will always be sent manually.
Absolute Arrears: Arrears more than X amount and late (aged) by at least Y days. This option will ask for additional information including; Days overdue/late and Arrears greater than.
Relative Arrears: Arrears of more than X weeks/months relative to current rent. This option will ask for additional information including; Rent payment frequency.
Notification Medium: Here options include adding manager notes to manually send the email or set the notification medium as an email.
To: Tenants
Reply To (optional): A reply to email address can be entered.
CC Address(es) (optional): CC email addresses can be added.
Subject of email: Subject or title of the email being sent.
Body of email: This is the main body of the email being sent. You can also the COHO mail merge tags and use additional credit control merge fields.*
Email Attachments: Here you can also include any files you wish to be sent attached to the email.
Blocking step: Checkbox that if checked this template will be proposed unless skipped by a manager.
Name of Template/Trigger: A descriptive name for you and your team to identify the template.
Click 'Create' to create the template, 'Preview' to preview the template or 'Cancel'.
*Additional Credit Control Mail Merge tags include;
[CC:RENT_AMOUNT] = The currently set Rent for the tenancy as shown on the main tenancy page
[CC:DATE_DUE] = The due date of the oldest standing arrears
[CC:DAYS_OVERDUE] = The amount of days since the oldest standing arrears
[CC:AMOUNT_OVERDUE] = The amount in £ overdue
Missing Rent Charges
If you ever find that you are missing rent due records, they can be displayed here so you can make the required changes.
Rent due records may have been removed when a user accidentally removed a rent due record and didn't restore it or a user has changed the fixed term end date on a tenancy and in spite of ticking the box to confirm they will go and review and regenerate the rent schedule, this did not happen and has created gaps in the rent schedule.
Rent Collection Settings Cog
Here you can toggle to receive an action to remind you to check tenants rent payments by creating an action when their rent becomes due.
Rent Review
Staying on top of rents can be tough when you're managing a load of tenants (or focused on things other than your portfolio). COHO's Rent Review panel will help you track this. Reviews can be carried out not only against tenancies, but also properties and rooms themselves, allowing you to keep on top of what the market rent is for a place, even if the current contract doesn't allow increasing it.
Tenancies to review
This is going to be increasingly important with the Renters Right Bill. This looks at the tenancy currently in place, and tracks the rent reviews year by year (or sooner, if your agreement allows).
Here you can click 'view' to show further information.
Click 'Review Tenancy Rent' to set a rent review.
New Tenancy Target Rent: Enter the target rent amount.
Next Review: Enter a date for the review or use the calendar drop down menu.
Also review room target rent: Checkbox to also review the room target rent.
New Room Target Rent: Enter a new room target rent amount.
Update the rent listing amount for the room: Checkbox to update the room listing rental amount.
Current Room Minimum Viable Rent: Enter the current room minimum viable rent amount.
Checkbox: I understand that reviewing this rent will not automatically increase the tenancy rent, and that this will need to be carried out manually. See also Tenancy Summary & Information.
Click 'Save' or 'Cancel'.
Units to review
Even with a tenancy in place, the value of a property/room might go up higher than what you can increase it by. This will let you track the achievable rent, if a new tenancy was in place.
Here you can click 'view' to show further information.
Click 'Review Rent' to review the rent amount on the room/property.
New Target Rent: Enter the target rent amount on the room/property.
Update the rent listing amount of the room: Checkbox to update the room listing rental amount.
Current Minimum Viable Rent: Enter the minimum viable rent for the room/property.
Next Review: Enter a date for the next review or use the calendar menu.
Important: This will update the target rent, allowing you to track what you could be getting. If as a result you decide to change the rent for an existing tenancy, you must do that separately. See also Tenancy Summary & Information. Minimum viable rent is currently for information only within this Rent Review section.
Click 'Save' or 'Cancel'.
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