Overview
Monthly billing charges a full month of rent on a recurring day each month. That day can fall anywhere in the month, including the 29th, 30th, and 31st. When a month is too short to contain that day, such as February, billing moves to the last day of the month and returns to the usual day the following month. Every monthly invoice covers one full month, no matter how many days the month has.
Key Concepts
The terms below describe how monthly billing days work and appear throughout this article.
Monthly (anniversary) billing is a billing scheme in which a full month of rent is charged on the same day each month. The billing day repeats on that date for the life of the lease.
PTD (Paid Through Date) is the last date a tenant's rent is covered through. On monthly billing, the PTD sets the day each month on which the next full month is billed.
A full month of rent is the complete monthly rate, charged regardless of how many days fall in the billing period. Proration, by contrast, charges only for part of a period. On monthly billing, renewals are never prorated; only a one-time invoice used to move the PTD is prorated.
How It Works
Monthly billing applies to a tenant's lease and is managed at the Facility level. On this scheme, the platform charges one full month of rent each cycle and advances the PTD by one month each time.
The PTD repeats on the same day every month. When a month does not contain that day, the PTD moves to the last day of that month, and then returns to its usual day in the next month. The billing day does not drift earlier over time.
For example, a PTD of the 30th bills on January 30, then on February 28 because February has no 30th day, then on March 30 again. In a leap year, the February billing date is February 29 instead of February 28.
Each of these invoices covers one full month. A period that ends on February 28 is a full-month invoice, and so is the period that follows it, even though one period spans fewer days than the other.
ℹ️ Note: A shorter month does not reduce the rent. The full monthly rate is charged in February just as it is in a 31-day month.
Using the Feature
A late-month PTD can be set through several actions in the platform:
During Move-In, a tenant's first PTD can be set to the 29th, 30th, or 31st, either directly or through a pro-rate date.
For an existing lease, the Pro Rate PTD action moves the tenant's PTD to a new day, including a day late in the month. This action creates a single prorated invoice for the partial period between the old PTD and the new one. Every monthly invoice after that charges a full month.
Imported leases can carry a PTD on the 29th, 30th, or 31st.
When a tenant transfers to another unit, the monthly billing day carries over according to the new unit's billing scheme.
Edge Cases and Conditions
The scenarios below describe how the system behaves by design when a PTD falls late in the month.
If the PTD falls on the 30th and the current month is February, then the PTD moves to February 28, or to February 29 in a leap year, and returns to the 30th in March.
If the PTD is moved to the 28th, then every following monthly invoice ends on the 28th. The February invoice that ends on February 28 does not shift later invoices to the last day of the month; the March invoice still ends on March 28.
If the PTD falls on the 31st and the current month has no 31st day, then the PTD falls on the last day of that month, and returns to the 31st in months that have one.
FAQ
Does a shorter month reduce the rent?
No. Monthly billing charges the full monthly rate every cycle. A short month such as February is billed at the same rate as a 31-day month.
What happens to a PTD of the 30th in February?
February has no 30th day, so the PTD moves to February 28, or to February 29 in a leap year. In March, the PTD returns to the 30th.
Can a tenant's PTD be set to the 31st?
Yes. In months that have no 31st day, the PTD falls on the last day of that month, and returns to the 31st in months that have one.