Resources: hippoRENT v5: Month by Date Mode

If you’re running a monthly rental (or tier) operation, v5 boxes have a new mode that avoids you having to mentally turn days into dates; instead the box will work on the basis of a tenant’s rent/tier falling due on the same day each month (e.g. the 28th of every month).

Setting up Monthly by Date Mode

To put a box into month by date mode, price it by month (e.g. PRICE PER MONTH: 100) and then add MONTH BY DATE MODE: Yes to its Configuration Notecard. Or, if using web-enabled boxes, configure it like this example:

When a box in this mode is rented, rather than the usual time left counter over the top of the box, it will inform the tenant the date the current tenancy ends.



Likewise the status report given when the tenant clicks the box (or you choose Status from the main menu) will change and look like this ...

hippoRENT Rental Box 5.0 w/plugin whispers: Tenant: Ima Pseudonym
hippoRENT Rental Box 5.0 w/plugin whispers: Rent next due 21 Jun 2008

And if you’re using the web-enabled system, you’ll get information like this ...

How Does Monthly by Date Mode Work

Rent falls due on the same day each month. So if a tenant rents 3 months on the 21 June, then their months left count will decrement on the 21 July, 21 August and rent will be due again on the 21 September. (Please note that due to the way this mode works, the maximum time you can choose to let a tenant go into arrears is 30 days).

If they rent right at the end of a month and one of the following months has less days, then rent will fall due the day before; so if they rent 4 months on 31 January 2008, for example, then the months left count will decrement on 28 Februuary (it was a leap year), 31 March, 30 April and rent will be due again on 31 May.

Important Information

The way that a rental box handles month-by-date contracts is different to the way it handles renting by the day — meaning that the two types are not interchangeable. If you’ve got an existing tenant on an older rental type, you can’t simply tell the box to start renting in month-by-date mode. Rather, silently boot the tenant, configure the box for month-by-date mode, then add the tenant using the Edit Tenancy tool on the website, or a box’s Edit menu inworld.