Rent Collection Process Checklist

Pull current lease data from AppFolio, Buildium, or Yardi for every active unit. Confirm rent amount, due date, grace period, and any concessions match the signed lease. Mid-month renewals and unsigned addenda are the common gotcha — a tenant disputing the amount due usually wins if the PMS doesn't match the executed lease.

Audit phone, email, and portal access for every active tenant. Bounced reminders are the most common reason a tenant claims they never received notice — keep contact data current before the cycle starts, not after a delinquency.

Run a $1 test through the portal to confirm ACH and card processing are live with the processor (Stripe, Plaid, AppFolio Payments, etc.). Failed processor connections at month-start are a recurring source of rent-cycle delays and tenant frustration.

Dispatch the reminder via portal notification, email, and SMS. Include the amount due, due date, grace-period end, and the late-fee schedule per the lease. Tenants on autopay get a separate confirmation that the autopay is queued.

Open the autopay schedule in the PMS and verify every enrolled tenant's payment is queued for the due date. A broken autopay enrollment at the processor level often only surfaces when the batch runs — catching it 3 days out leaves time to re-enroll.

Push updated ledger balances to each tenant portal so prior-month carryover, credits, NSF returns, or partial payments are visible before rent posts. Tenants seeing an unexpected balance after the due date is a common driver of late-payment disputes.

Run the rent-day batch and post payments to each tenant ledger. Watch for partial payments — applying them per the lease's payment-application clause (rent first vs. fees first) matters for any later eviction case, since the unpaid amount must be cleanly identified.

Match the bank's daily deposit total against the PMS rent-collected total. Discrepancies usually mean a misposted payment, a returned ACH that hasn't reflected, or a credit-card chargeback. Resolve before owner statements run.

Several states (NY, MD, others) require a written rent receipt on request for any non-electronic payment. Issue at the time of receipt rather than month-end so the dated record exists if a payment is later disputed.

After the grace period closes, pull the delinquency report from the PMS. Confirm each line is genuinely unpaid rather than a posting lag from an in-flight ACH. Cross-check against the bank reconciliation from the prior step.

Late fees are capped by state and sometimes local law — California requires the fee be a reasonable estimate of damages (commonly read as ~$50 or 6% of rent), Texas caps at 12% of monthly rent for properties of 4 units or fewer, NYC caps at $50 or 5%. Apply per the lease AND the state cap, whichever is lower. Posting an unenforceable fee jeopardizes the whole notice.

Issue the written late-payment notice through the portal and by certified mail with return receipt. Include the unpaid balance, the late fee, and the cure date. Save the proof of service in the tenant file — it is the foundation for any later pay-or-quit notice.

Reach delinquent tenants by phone and document the conversation in the PMS communication log. A signed payment plan is far cheaper than eviction; document the terms in writing either way so the trail is clean if the situation escalates.

Get the tenant's signature on the payment-plan addendum via DocuSign or the PMS-built-in e-sign. File alongside the lease and update the tenant ledger with the agreed milestones so the next cycle's delinquency report flags any missed installment.

Notice period is state-specific — California, Texas, and Florida are 3 days for non-payment; New York is 14 days. Use your state's required form verbatim and serve by a legally-recognized method (personal, posting, or certified mail). Wrong form or wrong service method is the most common reason an eviction filing gets dismissed.

Hand off to eviction counsel or the firm's eviction processor with the tenant ledger, the served pay-or-quit notice, and proof of service. Confirm the cure period has fully run before filing — a premature filing wastes the court fee and resets the clock.

Post collected rent and applied fees to each owner's monthly statement. Reconcile against the trust account before generating — owner statements that don't tie to the trust balance are the fastest way to lose an owner.

Generate the rent roll, occupancy %, gross potential rent, gross collected, and economic vacancy. Flag variances over 3% for owner narrative — concession overruns, NSF returns, and mid-month move-outs are the usual drivers.

File payment confirmations, late notices, pay-or-quit copies, payment-plan agreements, and tenant communications in the PMS document store. Retention is typically 3-7 years per state for rent and notice records; eviction-related records should be kept for the longer of state retention or any active litigation hold.