Rent Assistance Service Transactions

Rent assistance service transactions are recorded by all projects that provide rent and/or utility assistance. Facility-based voucher PSH projects (Keystone, The Nel, MLK) are exempt from this requirement.

Each component of a rent service transaction is listed here. Before you get started, remember:

• All transactions must be created from the profile of the person who is marked as Self (head of household) on the entry assessment. This will mark the head of household as the Primary Client on each transaction.
  
• Include all household members who are living in the unit on each service transaction.
• Make sure that the months you are paying rent for are eligible under your program’s requirements and that the months of rent have not already been paid by another project.
• The start date and time of every service must occur after the entry date and time. The end date and time of every service must occur before the exit date and time. If the date and time of a transaction does not sit in between the entry and exit, it will not be counted. If you create the entry before any service transactions and follow the instructions here, the transactions should already fall between entry and exit. If you use Back Date Mode to enter the entry and/or transactions, you may need to change the times manually for this to occur.

Create a transaction for each month of rent and each month of utilities. Make sure each field is filled out. Instructions for each field are below.

• Service Provider – this is always the same as the project on your entry
• Start and End Date - Each month of rent is its own service transaction. The start date should be the first day of the month and the end date should be the last day of the month unless
  • you are paying arrearages. An arrearage payment should have a start and end date of today and all months of arrears can be grouped into one transaction.
    • Ex: on March 1 you are paying for Dec-Feb arrearages. The arrearages will be one transaction with a start date of 3/1 and end date of 3/1.
  • you just created an entry for the client sometime between the 2nd-5th of the month and are now making a payment sometime between the 2nd-5th. This payment would not be considered arrears because it is made before the 5th of the month, but it cannot be dated for the 1st because then it would occur before your entry. In this case, make the start date the date of the entry (make sure the time occurs after your entry time!) and the end date will be the last day of the month.
    • Ex: on March 3 you are paying March rent. The March payment will have a start date of 3/3 and end date of 3/31.
• Service Type – Whether it is arrearages or a regular rent payment, the Service Type will be Rent Payment Assistance. Utility payments will have the Service Type of Utility Service Payment Assistance.
• Service Notes – include all months the transaction paid for and any other relevant notes
• Number of units – this is the number of months that was paid for by the transaction. Ex: arrearages for January-March would be 3 units. A single month of utilities would be 1 unit.
• Unit Type – the Unit Types available vary by project. Please use the Unit Type that makes the most sense for the type of payment you are recording. If you do not have a Unit Type option that works, contact the Help Desk.
• Cost per Unit/Total Cost of Units – please do not fill out these fields. 

• Apply Funds for Service – click the chevron to expand this section and fill out all required fields
  1. Vendor – all transactions must have a vendor attached. Please search and make sure the vendor does not already exist in the system before adding a new vendor (only admins or the LC HelpDesk can create a new vendor). If making a direct payment to a tenant, you can leave the vendor blank but please put that this was a direct payment in the Service Notes.
  2. Client Co-Pay – this must be filled out any time a client is receiving a subsidy instead of a full payment
  3. Add Funding Source – a funding source must be added to all transactions and the $ amount must be entered.

Click the photo to zoom in

• Follow Up Information - These fields are not required but they can be filled out if you want to send a reminder to yourself or another user about following up on this transaction. See Scheduling Follow Up Notifications for more details
• Need Information - If rent or utilities were paid, the Need Status is likely Closed and the Outcome of Need was Fully Met.