How do I reconcile rent payments with my bank statement?

What rent reconciliation and the tenant ledger mean

Every rent day raises a charge on the tenancy. Reconciling is matching each payment on the bank statement to the charge it pays. What is left unmatched is the point of the exercise: a charge with nothing against it is rent owed, and money with no charge against it is something else, to record or to set aside.

The tenant ledger, or rent ledger, is the record that comes out of it: for each tenancy, every charge, what was paid against it and when, and the balance. It is what an accountant asks for, and what a rent statement and an arrears claim are built from. Here it is kept on the tenancy: each charge in its payment history, each payment that arrived as a rent entry in Finance dated the day it came in, and the rent statement adding them up.

How a line is matched to the rent due

Download the statement from online banking as a CSV file and import it on Bank statements. Each line of money in is then compared with the rent charges not yet paid. Nothing is recorded until you press a button.

• The exact amount. A line for the amount of a charge, to the penny, dated from 10 days before its due date to 31 days after, is offered as that rent. Up to three charges are offered, and one whose tenant is named in the line comes first, marked Name matches. Mark rent paid marks the charge paid on the day the money arrived and adds the rent to Finance as rent received
• Less than the rent. A smaller line is offered under Part of a rent payment?, but only when other lines in the same days add up with it to the rent exactly, or a name on the tenancy is in the description. Otherwise every refund would look like somebody’s rent
• Rent already recorded. If the charge was already marked paid by hand, a line of the same amount near its due date or the day it was marked paid shows under Rent already marked paid, to link with This is it. That includes a Direct Debit that failed and was then paid by hand. Rent collected by Direct Debit is not offered here: it is matched through its Stripe payout, below. A Finance entry of the same amount within a week shows under Looks already recorded in Finance. Linking adds nothing, so nothing is counted twice
• A Stripe payout. Rent collected by Direct Debit through LetCompliance reaches your bank as one Stripe payout, after fees. It is matched to the charges it paid when the figures add up to the penny, and adds no income, because each charge was recorded when it was paid

Amounts are compared to the penny on purpose. A tenant who paid £5 short is never offered as the full rent, because marking it paid would hide £5 of arrears.

What Confirm all files, and what it leaves

A line that fits one charge with confidence arrives with a suggestion: it is the only charge that fits, or the only one whose tenant is named. Confirm all files those and tells you what was filed and what was skipped, and why. It never files:

• a part payment: each one is your decision on the line
• a line with the same date and amount as one from an earlier import, in case it is the same payment twice
• a line two charges could be, with no name to tell them apart, such as two £950 flats due the same week
• rent Stripe is handling: a Direct Debit still being tried, or one that failed or was taken back

A worked example

One tenancy, rent £950 due on 5 November. The statement shows £900 on 6 November with the tenant’s name in the description, so it is offered as part of that rent.

When the last £50 arrives, its line matches the £50 still owed and Mark rent paid clears the month. Finance then holds £950 of rent for November, in two entries dated the days the money came in. Those two entries are what match the statement line by line. The Rent ledger report shows the month as one figure: £950 received on the day the last £50 arrived.

Joint tenants who pay separately

Rent is charged to the tenancy, not to each tenant. Two tenants paying £600 each towards £1,200 show as two lines, and each is offered as part of the rent, with a note that the two make up the £1,200. Record one as a part payment. The other then matches the £600 still owed, and Mark rent paid clears the month.

Two lines with the same date and amount in one file are two payments, which is what joint tenants paying on the same day look like. Only a line matching one from an earlier import is flagged as a possible copy.

When a tenant pays more than the rent

The rent ledger does not carry a credit from one charge to the next. A line for more than the rent due is not offered as that rent, and a part payment larger than what is owed is refused, with the figure that would clear it. So split it yourself:

• Mark the rent paid on the Rent page. It asks for the date when the rent was due before today. If the rent is not due yet, or is due today and the money came in earlier, record the full rent as a Part payment on that charge in the tenancy’s payment history instead, with the date it arrived: a part payment that clears what is owed marks the charge paid
• If the extra is towards the next rent, record it as a Part payment on that charge in the tenancy’s payment history on the property page, dated the day it arrived. Marking the rent paid adds the next charge if it is not there already
• If the extra is for something else, add it in Finance
• Then set the statement line to Nothing to record. Both parts are already recorded, and recording the line as well would count the money twice

Money in that is not rent

• Rent from a letting agent, less their fee. Where the agent runs the tenancy and it has no rent charges here, use Record as income, keep Rent received and enter the agent’s fee: the full rent is recorded as income and the fee as a separate cost. Where the tenancy’s charges are on the Rent page, mark the charge paid there, add the fee in Finance as a cost, and set the line to Nothing to record
• A tenancy deposit. Money you hold for the tenant, or move into a protection scheme, is not income: choose Nothing to record. The part you become entitled to keep at the end of the tenancy is income, and the screen asks for it as Other property income
• Your own money. A transfer between your own accounts is not income either: Nothing to record

On the tax side: HMRC’s notes to the SA105 for 2025 to 2026 list management fees paid to an agent for rent collection as an allowable expense in box 27, and HMRC’s Property Income Manual (PIM1094, on the cash basis) counts a deposit only when, and as far as, you become entitled to keep it.

The arrears flags it leaves behind

Once the lines are matched, the Rent page shows each tenancy’s position in the words used across the app:

• Overdue: past its due date with nothing recorded against it
• Part paid: some money arrived, and the amount shown is what is still owed
• Missed: counts as overdue rent once its due date has passed
• Collection failed or Taken back: a Direct Debit that did not complete, or that was reversed

Two tiles add it up: Overdue rent, in pounds and tenancies behind, and 3+ months’ rent owed, the tenancies at the Ground 8 threshold.

In England, Ground 8 needs at least three months’ rent unpaid where rent is paid monthly, or thirteen weeks’ rent where it is paid weekly or fortnightly, both on the day the Section 8 notice is served and at the hearing (Housing Act 1988, Schedule 2, as amended by the Renters’ Rights Act 2025 from 1 May 2026). Rent paid every four weeks gets no Ground 8 figure here; the screen says to take advice.

Two things the count cannot know. Ground 8 ignores rent unpaid only because a tenant entitled to Universal Credit for housing has not yet received that payment. And a payment you have not matched yet still shows as owed. Reconcile the statement before you rely on the number.

Where the ledger lives

• Rent ledger, a button on the Rent page, lists every charge due in the dates you choose: due date, property, tenant, amount, paid date, amount received and status. It shows each charge, not each payment. A part-paid charge shows the balance still owed, with nothing yet received. A charge paid in parts shows the full rent received on the day the last part arrived. It downloads as a CSV or a PDF
• Each part payment, with its date, is listed under Part payments on the charge in the tenancy’s payment history while the charge is part paid, and is its own rent entry in Finance, dated the day it arrived
• Rent statement, from the Rent page or Reports, is the version for one tenancy, a line for each month, or for each rent period when the rent is weekly, fortnightly or every four weeks: charged, paid, the balance carried forward and the closing balance. It is the one to give a tenant or an accountant
• The payment history on the property page is where one charge is corrected, a part payment removed or a receipt opened

If a line was matched wrongly

Back to review reopens the line only. The rent charge or Finance entry stays as it is, so change it on its own page: set the charge back to unpaid in the tenancy’s payment history, or remove the part payment from that charge’s list.

Which plans include it

Bank statements, the Rent page and the rent ledger come with the 3-day trial and every paid plan, from £7.99 a month. On the free plan the rent is tracked on the tenancy for one property, and payments are recorded there by hand. There is no live bank connection: the statement comes in as a CSV file you download from your bank.

Sources

Each read on 25 October 2026: the Housing Act 1988, Schedule 2, Ground 8, revised to that date (legislation.gov.uk); HMRC Property Income Manual PIM1094, Cash basis for landlords: receipts and expenses (GOV.UK); HMRC UK property notes 2026 for the SA105, box 27 (GOV.UK).