How does a lettings application ledger work in Street
Each lettings application is given its own ledger so you can easily track any transactions relating to the application, prior to being converted into a tenancy.
How to access a lettings application ledger
To access an application ledger, head to the Lettings Application page and click the Accounting tab.
Lettings Application Ledger
As with any ledger, you'll see the balance and the usual actions of adding charges, credit notes and issuing refunds.
If the ledger is empty and has no transactions on it, you'll also see the option to 'add opening balance'. This should only be used if the money you are adding is already in your bank account and has not been received since you started using Street to manage your client accounting, for example, when migrating from your old CRM to Street.
Below you will see the list of ledger entries. Typically, for a lettings application ledger, this would be entries like the holding deposit, full deposit and first month's rent.
Tip! You can use the search box in the top right of the ledger to quickly find transactions by description.
When the tenancy is created from the application, the tenancy ledger will be created, and the two ledgers become 'one'. The tenancy ledger will look identical to the application's ledger and, moving forward, the tenancy ledger should be used.
Stopping money received from allocating to rent charges
By default, funds on a lettings application ledger can be allocated automatically to the rent charge. For example, a holding deposit could be allocated to the first month’s rent and then included in your payments to the landlord before you meant it to be.
If you’d rather hold funds on applications until you’re ready to allocate them yourself, you can switch off auto-allocation for lettings applications:
Go to Settings > Accounting > Allocation > Tenancy.
Tick the option to "Hold rent charges on Lettings Applications" and click Save Preferences.
Tip! This is especially useful if you take holding deposits that you don’t want counted towards rent until the tenancy is confirmed.
Keeping a holding deposit when an applicant withdraws
If an applicant pulls out and you’re keeping the holding deposit (where permitted under the Tenant Fees Act), it’s important to process it on the application ledger before cancelling the application. Follow these steps in order:
Make sure the holding deposit receipt is linked to the lettings application ledger.
From the Actions dropdown, add a charge payable to your agency for the amount being kept.
Allocate the holding deposit receipt to this charge.
Cancel the lettings application.
Note: Currently, on a lettings application ledger, you can only add a charge with the charge type as Misc.
Important: Please don’t transfer the funds directly from the suspense account to your agency ledger. The money will still reach your agency, but there won’t be a fee recorded against it, so it won’t appear in your income report, and there will not be a trail of this money on the application ledger for audit purposes.
Refunding a holding deposit
If the application isn’t going ahead and you’re returning the holding deposit, you can issue a refund from the application ledger, using the Actions dropdown as usual. This can be done after the application has been cancelled.
Finding the ledger of a cancelled application
When a lettings application is cancelled, its ledger and any money on it stay in Street, but they’re less visible; you can still access it from the property page.
From the property:
Go to the property and open Info > Lettings Offers.
Click the applicant’s name on the cancelled offer.
Click View Application, then open the Accounting tab.
Tip! If you’ve received money for an application that has since been cancelled and you can’t see it elsewhere in Street, it will almost always still be sitting on the cancelled application’s ledger.
Other types of ledgers
If you're looking for help on the various other ledgers, please see the following help articles for Tenancy, Owner, Agency and Contractor ledgers.
Street is constantly being updated. This can mean that some of these articles become slightly out of date. If you spot something that looks a little bit different to your Street account, please let us know on the live chat so we can get it updated!