Recording an off-network payment

When a tenant pays you outside of Habitia — cash in person, a check, a bank transfer, Zelle, ATH Móvil — record it on the lease so the ledger and the tenant’s portal stay accurate.

1. Open the lease

Go to Leases, click the lease, and scroll to the Ledger section.

2. Click Record payment

The green Record payment button is in the top-right corner of the ledger actions row. A modal opens.

3. Fill in the payment

• Amount — the dollars received. Defaults to the lease’s monthly rent.
• Date — when the tenant paid you. Defaults to today; change it if you’re entering a payment that came in earlier. A payment cannot be dated in the future.
• Category — what the money is for. Rent is the default. Pick Security deposit or Pet deposit when the check is the deposit: it then settles the deposit card instead of the rent balance, is held as a liability in your books rather than counted as income, and never flows into the owner’s statement. Late fee books to late-fee income; Other to other income.
• Payment method — pick from the list:
  • Cash
  • Check
  • Bank transfer — use this for Zelle, ACH outside Stripe, and any other electronic transfer between banks.
  • Credit card — only for cards processed outside Habitia (a Square or Stripe transaction outside the platform). Online card payments through Habitia show up automatically.
  • Money order
  • Other — fallback for anything that doesn’t fit.
• Reference number — the check number, Zelle confirmation, ATH Móvil transaction ID, etc. Optional but strongly recommended — this is what proves the payment if there’s ever a dispute.
• Description — anything internal (e.g., “Paid in person at the office”, “Mailed check arrived 3 days late”).

Tip on Puerto Rico methods: Zelle and ATH Móvil don’t have their own option in the list. Use Bank transfer and put the confirmation number or transaction ID in the Reference number field. Most landlords also put the method in the description (e.g., “ATH Móvil — confirmation 4HK2P9”) so it’s easy to spot later.

4. Click Record payment

The modal closes and the payment appears at the top of the ledger entry list, in green. The summary cards update immediately:

• Total payments goes up.
• Balance due goes down.
• The matching month tile in the by-month strip turns green (Paid) or amber (Partial), depending on whether the payment covers the rent in full.

5. (Optional) Attach proof of payment

Some landlords like to keep a copy of the check, the Zelle screenshot, or the ATH Móvil receipt. Hover the payment in the entry list, click the paperclip icon, and upload the file. It stays attached to that payment and can be pulled up any time.

Fixing a mistake

Recorded the wrong amount or method? Reverse the entry (hover → reverse icon → confirm) and create a fresh one. Habitia doesn’t allow editing a payment in place — every reversal stays visible in the ledger so the audit trail is intact. Reversing a payment also takes it out of your books: the income and the cash it posted are reversed, and if the property is managed, the owner’s share comes back on the next balance refresh.

When the bank returns a payment (NSF)

A check bounced or an ACH came back? Hover the payment, click the reverse icon, and tick The bank returned this payment. Habitia puts the rent back on the tenant’s balance, reverses the income and cash in your books, and lets you add a returned-payment fee to the tenant (it posts as an “Other” charge) and record the bank fee you paid (it posts as an expense). A returned payment cannot be returned twice.

Online payments through Stripe or ATH Móvil are refunded from the Payments page or the processor; the refund, a partial refund, or a chargeback then reaches the tenant’s ledger, your books, and the owner’s balance on its own.

What’s next

• Connecting Stripe so tenants can pay by card or ACH inside Habitia — payments come in automatically without you recording anything.
• Reviewing payment receipts and proof-of-payment — what tenants see and how to download a copy.