In order to use ACH transfers to collect security deposits via Landlord Studio, you need to first have online rent collection enabled on the lease and your tenant will need to set up an account in the tenant portal.

When creating or editing a lease, you will now be presented with the option to collect deposits online. Once enabled, Landlord Studio will make a one-off payment available in the tenant portal for the tenant to review and pay.

Tenants will need to log in to the Tenant Portal and pay manually.

If you'd like your tenants to pay using an alternative method please clearly communicate this with them to avoid confusion.

Below we detail the exact process with screenshots.

Step 1: Enable Online Rent Collection

In order to collect security deposits using Landlord Studio, you need to first have Online Rent Collection enabled for this property. You can do this when you create the lease or by editing an existing lease.

Find out how to set up Online Rent Collection with Landlord Studio.

Step 2: Enable "Collect Deposit Online"

To enable this feature, navigate to the relevant property and select Add Lease or Edit Lease. When creating or editing a lease with Online Rent Collection enabled, you will see an option to "Collect Deposit Online". Select "Yes" to create a one-off security deposit payment for your tenant.

Step 3: Pick a Due Date

Once Collect Deposit Online is enabled, a new date field "Due Date for Deposit" will appear. Use the date picker to select a due date for the deposit.

Note: the due date will be displayed to the tenant via the Tenant Portal.

Step 4: Complete setup by selecting “Save”

Make sure to select the "Save" button located at the bottom of the page to complete the setup.

Inform your tenant regarding the deposit due.

Step 1: Tenant logs into the tenant portal

When you enabled Online Rent Collection rent payments your tenants will have needed to create an account on our tenant portal.

The first thing the tenant needs to do is to log into the tenant portal using their current account login details. This can be done here: https://tenant.landlordstudio.com/

The email invoice they receive will have a link directing them to the tenant portal.

Step 2: Review deposit payment

In the tenant portal, they will be able to review all their upcoming and historical rent payments.

Step 3: Select “Pay”

Tenants will need to locate the unpaid deposit which will be at the top of the page. Selecting “Pay” will open up a review of the payment and ask them to confirm the payment.

Step 4: Select the date to initiate payment.

By default, the date for the payment will be set for today. However, tenants can select the date for the payment to be withdrawn from their bank account. If you need the tenant to pay before a specific date make sure to let them know.

Step 5: Hit “Pay”

Once they’ve reviewed they simply need to hit pay. The amount due will be withdrawn from their account and transferred securely into yours.

As with all Online Rent Collection transactions, payments will take 3-5 working days to process, clear, and be received into your account.

Online Rent Collection transactions are charged depending on the plan you are on or your online Rent Collection settings. If "Landlord Pay" is selected, we will automatically subtract the fee from the payment amount and log it as a separate expense in the system for you.

If you selected for the tenant to pay ACH processing fees when you enabled online rent collection they will also be assigned to pay the ACH convenience fee when making payments for tenant payable expenses via the Landlord Studio system.

Tenants are charged a flat rate of $2.50 per transaction.

Once the transaction is complete the transaction will be marked as paid in the system and show as paid in the tenant portal.

You will receive an email notification from our payment provider Dwolla on completion of the transaction.

You can use the existing email receipt system to generate a receipt of payment to send to your tenant once the payment has been completed.