When setting up a new lease, you can enter a minimal amount of information, and then enter more lease details as you get them. The Start Lease task also allows you to enter initial charges and payments, to cancel future leases and reverse charges and refund payments, and to activate leases.

These steps assume that you have set up your properties and units.

1. From the Tasks menu, select Manage Leases, Start Lease.
2. In the Start Lease window, click New Lease.
   1. Select the Property and Unit.
   2. If the tenant has already been set up, select the Tenant from the list. If the tenant has not yet been set up, click New Tenant and enter the tenant ID, name, and additional tenant information you need to store. Click Close when done.
   3. Enter the new Lease ID.
      • Tip: If you are setting up Property Management for the first time, determine a Lease ID numbering convention; otherwise follow the convention used on other leases in your folder. The Lease ID is a key field and cannot be changed after you close the Start Lease - New Lease window.
   4. Click OK.
3. The Edit Future Lease window opens. Click each tab and enter the appropriate information.
   1. If there are multiple tenants or units associated with this lease, enter them all on the General tab, Rental Info tab. If you don't know all of the lease information now, you can enter it later, before activating the lease.
   2. Set up charge controls (Chg Controls tab) for the lease.
      • Select a Statement Type.
      • Change the charge control information, including Chargeback Controls, if needed. This information prefills from the charge controls on the Property set up.
   3. Set up recurring charges (Recur Chgs tab) for the lease. Also set up Percentage Rent or Straight Line Rent, if needed.
   4. Set up the Deposits and late charge settings (Late Chgs tab), and complete the remaining tabs as desired.
4. You can click Other Charges to set up deposit charges and any other one-time charges or you can use the miscellaneous entries task (Tasks, Create Charges, Miscellaneous Entries) to enter charges later.
5. You can click Cash Receipts to enter payments received or you can enter receipts later using the cash receipts task (Tasks, Cash Receipts).
6. At this point, the lease is a Future lease. If you are not yet ready to complete the move-in process, click Close. Click Close again if you are done entering new leases, otherwise continue with the steps below.
7. To activate the lease and complete the move-in process, see article 18012 "DocLink: How do I activate leases in Property Management?"

If you are setting up Property Management for the first time, and need to set up leases and rental agreements that are already in effect, see article 18972 "DocLink: How do I set up pre-existing leases in Property Management using the original move-in date and effective date for the charges?"