You think of yourself as a professional landlord, but do you come off as one?
It’s a question we often don’t want to think about, but it’s an important one. The way you conduct your business as a landlord is crucial to maintaining a thriving business.
And if you don’t look and act professional, you won’t come across as professional.
This extends to even something you may not think about much: Your rental receipt.
It’s an element of your job that isn’t always first and foremost on your mind, but it’s something your tenants receive regularly.
And why not remind them that they are dealing with a professional who isn’t looking to take advantage of them.
Having a modern and good looking rental receipt template is a powerful way to maintain professionalism and foster trust with your tenants.
And isn’t that the best way to keep a happy tenant/landlord relationship going for years on end?
If you are looking for some great templates for rental receipts, as well as vital information about them, keep reading!
Rental Receipts
As you probably already know, it’s highly advisable (and in some states mandatory) to provide your rental tenants with a receipt of their monthly rent.
For states where providing a rental receipt is mandatory, neglecting to provide them can result in fines.
Every lease you and your tenants sign has a stipulation that they will pay their monthly required rental payment. So if you have a rental receipt, there is a clear record of this transaction.
And a lack of one when the tenant is behind on a payment.
Not only are rental receipts (sometimes called rental invoices) important for your bookkeeping, they are important for the tenant’s bookkeeping as well.
Some states allow for former tenants to also request copies of their rental receipts for up to a year after they move out.
But jotting down “paid” on a piece of paper isn’t exactly a good look. And it leaves out some important information that should be going back to the tenant every time.
And at the same time, you are a busy person. You don’t have time to be re-entering the same data for every tenant each month. Especially if you are the landlord at a multi-family residence!
Do’s and Don’t’s
Here are a couple do’s and don’t’s when it comes to providing rental receipts.
Do
- Provide your tenants with rental receipts as required by local or state laws.
- Keep copies of the rental receipts for your own records in a safe place.
- Use a rental receipt template to make sure your records are consistent, accurate and easy to work with.
Don’t
- Prepare and give your tenants receipts before their make their payments
- Forget to sign the receipt or use your company’s official stamp on it.
- Leave out any remaining balance due
Vital Information
Here are the essential pieces of data that should always be included on rental receipts:
- The amount of payment made
- The landlord’s name (or the company’s name)
- The date the payment was made
- A valid signature of the landlord or manager
- The tenant’s contact information and name
- The specific time period that the receipt is covering
In addition to that, here are some optional things that you can include on your receipts:
- How the payment was made (e.g. credit card, check, etc)
- If there were any other services, like utilities and security deposits, that were made as part of the payment
- A “received by” line, in case a third party received the payment
- A “paid by” line, in case someone other than the tenant made the payment.
Receipt Books or Receipt Templates?
Another option that some landlords use is a rent receipt book. Let’s talk about some of the pros and cons of the rent receive book as opposed to a rent receipt template.
Rent receipt book pros:
- They’re easy to find and purchase. Most office supply stores, online resources, and even dollar stores will have them.
- They don’t require a lot of tech savvy, and you can use them offline if Internet access isn’t readily available.
- They are fairly straightforward and easy to use.
Rent receipt book cons:
- You most likely don’t have backup copies. So if you lose your book, you lose a lot of vital information
- You can’t reorganize the receipts in any order other than how they were entered into the book. Or, in order to do this, you’d need to tear all the sheets out. In which case you have a bunch of loose paper on your hands.
- You are stuck with whatever template and information the book came with.
Rent receipt template pros:
- Since you’re using a computerized template, you can save backup copies online. This means you’ll never lose your information.
- Templates are easy to customize. They are also easy to make updates to as the years go by, and easy to make multiple copies of since it’s all electronic.
- Unlike a book, templates can be shared online so multiple people have access to them. This is valuable when you have more than one person dealing with the bookkeeping.
Rent receipt template cons
- They require at least some level of tech experience. And most likely you’ll need regular access to the Internet to download and update them. So if that’s not readily available, it could be an issue.
- Like all software based items, there is always the risk of update issues when a new version comes out, or when your operating system is updated. Some software companies are slow to update their products, so you might be stuck for a bit.
- You might have to buy additional software that goes with the template.
Things to Take Into Account
When you are looking at several different rent receipt templates, there are some important factors to consider before figuring out which one is right for you.
- Are you a landlord of a residential or commercial building?
- Are you the manager of a property management company?
- How many payments per month do you receive?
- Are you collecting on a weekly, monthly (or even quarterly or annually) basis?
- Are you look for a form that is more suited to being printed out, or one that will remain digital?
- Will you be customizing the template, or are you more likely to keep it as is?
- Are you primarily using a Mac or Windows computer, or potentially both?
Receipt Templates
This receipt is Excel-based, meaning it’s in spreadsheet form. What we like is that it will calculate the balance owed to you automatically once you input the amount due and amount paid.
And when you enter a number into the spreadsheet, it will automatically populate the receipt with a word version of that number, which is great.
In addition, it also has two worksheets. The first has one receipt, and the second has three extra receipt copies for your tenants.
This template is available in multiple sizes, it’s easily editable, and it supports both Google Docs and Sheets. It’s available for both Mac and Windows machines, it’s print ready, and you can change the orientation style to portrait.
This paid template’s features are that it’s fully customizable, available in multiple sizes, and easily sharable through social media and apps.
You can easily print it at home, and it supports Word, Pages and Google Docs. You can instantly download it from anywhere.
This template is available in multiple sizes, it’s easily editable, and it supports both Google Docs and Sheets. It’s print ready, and you can change the orientation style to portrait. It’s available for both Mac and Windows machines and has suggestive headings.
This free template supports both Google Docs and Sheets. It’s print ready, and you can change the orientation style to portrait. It’s available for both Mac and Windows machines, has suggestive headings and is very customizable.
This template is free and was professionally designed. It’s fully editable and customizable and it supports both Google Docs and Sheets. It’s print ready, and you can change the orientation style to portrait.
This template is simple and great for editing in every version of Word. You can instantly download it from anywhere. It’s available for both Mac and Windows machines, has suggestive headings, and it’s easy to change the colors.
This shop rent receipt template is free. It’s instantly downloadable and can be used in all versions of Word. It’s is available in multiple sizes, it’s easily editable, and it supports both Google Docs and Sheets. It’s also print ready.
This is a nicely formatted template for people who are renting out offices. It’s customizable with Word. It’s available for both Mac and Windows machines and it’s easy to change the colors. You can also use Portrait mode on it.
This is a receipt template designed for hostel tenants. It’s free and easily editable in Word.
Pick The Right One For You!
Hopefully, this explainer for rental receipts gave you a better sense of how vital they are. And these 10 templates will get you on your way to picking the right rental receipt for your business.
