When should I close out the month?

In the first few days of the new month, while last month is still fresh. ProperLease puts a close-out card on the dashboard with one row per occupied lease, and you work down it confirming each one is settled. For most small landlords the whole job is about ninety seconds.

You will also get an email prompt in the first days of the month if rent reminders are switched on.

What closing a month means

A month is closed when every occupied lease has been paid in full for that period. It is a state you reach by logging the payments, not a button that locks anything. Nothing is frozen, and you can always go back and correct an earlier month.

Once every row is settled, the card collapses to a single line: what you collected against what was invoiced, what you spent, and the net, with a link straight to the report.

Why the habit pays

• Memory. In the first week of October you still know what the September cash deposit was. In April you do not.
• Late rent surfaces early. A lease that will not settle is a lease with a problem, and you see it while there is still time to act.
• Tax season becomes an export. Twelve closed months is a finished year. Reconstructing a year in March is a weekend you do not get back.

What to do in ProperLease

1. Open the Dashboard in the first days of the month.
2. Work down the close-out card. Each row shows the tenant, the property, the due day, and the amount.
3. Tap Mark paid on each lease that has paid. If a lease has no rent set, set it first, because confirming a payment with nothing invoiced would put a false figure in the ledger.
4. Add any expenses from the month you have not logged yet.
5. When the card collapses, open the report and read the net.