Upcoming Rent Reminders in the Rental Property Tab
Found at:
That is the way the default Quicken rent reminders work (and have worked since rental property features were first added to Quicken many years ago): at best it's a terrible design decision; at worst, it's a bug.
The Quicken default rent reminder (automatically created by Quicken when the user assigns a Tenant to a Property), is not like any other Quicken reminder, and the Quicken created rent reminder details are not available to (not modifiable by) the user.
Whenever the user Enters a rent income payment from the Rent Center (Add transactions > Enter Rent), Quicken uses the existing rent reminder for the Tenant/Property and advances the Next Due date of the reminder by one rental period. When using the Quicken created rent reminder: If Quicken ever gets out of sync between the actual rent due date and the Reminder due date, there is virtually no way to recover. [The op notes this when he says, " ... as I enter the transactions each month it pushes the next due date further to the future".]
The way to deal with this problem is to delete the Quicken created rent reminder and create a regular Quicken reminder for the rent. That can be done anytime, but to avoid problems such as reported in the above Community Discussion, do this as soon as a Tenant has been assigned to a Property.
To delete the Quicken created rent reminder:
- Go to Tools > Manage Bill & Income Reminders
- If not already selected, select the "All Bills & Deposits" tab
- Select the reminder for the specific Tenant in question
- Click "Delete" in the Bill and Income Reminders menu row
To Add a user-created rent reminder:
- Go to Tools > Manage Bill & Income Reminders
- Click "Add" in the Bill and Income Reminders menu row
To insure a correct Quicken rent reminder is created, make sure that:
- The reminder payee has the exact name of the Tenant for the property as specified in the Rent Center
- The reminder is an "income" reminder
- The reminder "Amount due" is the exact amount of rent due as specified in the Rent Center
- The reminder "To account" follows the guidelines below
- The reminder "Due Next On" date is correct for the next date the rent is due
- The reminder frequency is the same as the frequency of expencted rent payments as specified in the Rent Center
- The reminder category is a valid Quicken income category with a valid Schedule E rent income Tax Line Item assigned
- The reminder tag is the same tag assigned to the Property in the Rent center
Regarding the Quicken account for rent income deposits:
In some cases, an "intermediate" Quicken account may be necessary for recording the Quicken rent reminder. Rent reminders assume a single rent payment per payment-period. A payment made no earlier than the start date of the rental-period and no later than the end date of the rental period. [A rental income transaction intended to pay for the month of April, must be dated in the month of April for Quicken to apply the rent to the April rent period. If the tenant's rent payment is received in March (and given a March date in Quicken), Quicken will not apply the payment to the correct rent-period.
Situations that will require an intermediate rent deposit account:
- when the rent is paid prior to, or later than, the rent-period
- when the rent for a given period is paid by one person using more than one transaction
- when the rent for a given period is paid by multiple people each using a separate transaction
The simplest approach is probably to have the rent reminder always deposit the rent into an intermediate account; that way the resulting Quicken rent income transaction will always match what the Quicken Rent Center is expecting. The actual rent payments can be deposited in whatever Quicken account matches the real-world account where the rent payments are deposited. When the actual rent deposits are recorded in Quicken, their category should be the account where the rent reminder is recorded ... in square brackets (that is: a transfer from the intermediate account to the Quicken account where the actual deposit is recorded).
Example: Tenant Alpha owes rent of $1000 per month. The real-world account where rent is deposited is maintained in a Quicken checking account named "XYZ Checking". The intermediate rent account is a Quicken checking (or cash) account named "Undeposited Rent".
When the rent is due, the $1000 rent reminder is entered in the Quicken "Undeposited Rent" account. That transaction will have a date that falls with the rent-period, its category will be the Quicken rent income category specified in the rent reminder, and its Tag will name the Property. When any actual rent payment is received from Tenant Alpha: that payment will be deposited in the real-world "XYZ Checking" account; and in the Quicken "XYZ Checking" account with a Quicken category of [Undeposited Rent].
When a Tenant's rent has been paid in full for each rent-period, the Quicken "Undeposited Rent" account will have a $0.00 balance.