Rent Received vs Repairs

Rent and repairs both move money around a house. They are not the same column. ManjeProp’s desk records invoices for amounts people must pay, and repair logs for work that was done. Mixing them is how a parent is told their child’s rent “went on a geyser” without a document, and how an owner thinks a house is profitable because a ticket was closed.

Keep the two streams readable.

Rent received is a bank fact

An invoice is raised for rent or another charge the lease or a quote supports. It is marked Paid when the bank shows the deposit, with the bank reference in the controlled file. A promise, a screenshot of a pending EFT, or a voice note is not Paid.

The desk is not the accounting system. Sample invoices against the bank monthly. If the banking line on the company details is still a placeholder, do not issue live documents.

A booking confirmation is not rent. An enquiry is not rent.

Repairs are work in the world

A repair log has a date, a description, a who, an operations cost if you have one, and evidence. That cost tells the owner what the building consumed. It does not, by itself, become a tenant invoice.

Some work is ordinary maintenance the owner carries. Some damage is recoverable from a tenant under the lease, with inspection evidence and receipts. Some work is quoted first, accepted outside the desk, then invoiced.

Write down which of those three you are doing before you type a number next to a student’s name.

What not to do

Do not close a leak ticket and silently “deduct it from rent” in your head. Do not skip an invoice because you and the tenant “understand each other.” Do not mark rent paid because you spent a similar amount on a plumber that week. Do not hide a recoverable window in a repair note and hope accounts notice.

Do not put a tenant identity number on either document to “link them.” Invoice number and unit are the link.

Do not let a trade rebate decide whether a repair happens. A rebate is not rent and it is not a safety decision.

Tenants: how to read a message about money

If you receive an invoice, it should say what it is for. Rent is rent. A separate charge should point to a quote you accepted or a lease clause plus evidence. If a WhatsApp says “we kept R800 for the tap” with no photo and no receipt, ask for the file. Deposit rules are stricter still.

A fault report does not pause rent unless your lease and the law say so in your case. The form cannot decide that. Do not mark a rent dispute as a burst pipe.

Pay on the official banking details. If someone messages new bank details, call the number on manjeprop.co.za — +27 60 313 6961 — not the number in the suspicious message.

Staff sequence when work is chargeable

Ticket and photos.
Quote, printed, accepted outside.
Work done, repair logged with evidence.
Invoice converted from the quote if that is the path, or raised to match the acceptance.
Paid only from the bank.

If the work is owner maintenance, stop after step 3 and pay the contractor from the business account. Do not invent a tenant invoice to tidy your cash.

Why the split helps a later accountant

Clean rent invoices and clean repair costs can be discussed with a bookkeeper. A single chat history that says “he paid less because of the drain” cannot. The path to a later Xero or Sage conversation is this split, plus no names in URLs.

If a parent pays rent and a student reports a leak, those are still two streams. Thank the parent on the invoice thread. Fix the leak on the ticket. Do not mix the replies so a repair photo lands in a payment argument.

Owners who want a room let still confirm vacancy in the building. Money on an invoice does not empty a wardrobe.

Broken fittings still start on Report a fault. Money questions that are not leaks go to the enquiry form or the phone in daylight, unless the message is a fraud about bank details — then phone at once.