How do you identify tenants with similar payments in multi-family

[Jorge Garifuna]

Short version:

How some of you identify deposits of payments made by tenants that pay the same rent amount and do not necessarily indicate their names or unit number in the bank deposit slip?

Long version:

We currently have a mixture of SFR and a few duplexes, all of which have distinct rent amounts (not a single tenant pays the same amount). We operate the properties from out of state and some tenants do direct deposits and some walk to the bank to make their deposits into our bank account.

We tell all tenants to write the address of the property they're making a deposit for, but not all of them do it consistently. 

In cases when the tenant does not fill out the property they're making the deposit for, the website of the bank only shows front/back copies of the deposit slip with our names and bank account number, but nothing that identifies the property or person making the deposit.

Up until now it hasn't been a problem that some tenants do not indicate which property they're paying for because we can simply match the amount of the deposit to the rent amount we expect to get from a property to figure out which tenant made the deposit.

Now we're considering an 8-plex where the amount of the rent is the same for all 8 tenants and I would like to know how some of you identify deposits of payments made by tenants that pay the same rent amount and do not necessarily indicate their names or unit number in the bank deposit slip.

Of course there's the option of calling the tenants to ask if they made their deposits, but that may create a whole string of issues and arguments with some dishonest tenants claiming that they made their deposits when in fact they didn't.

[Grace Hutchinson]

I have a friend who uses a "cent code" for example she owns 12 properties so she goes in order of purchase and house number one will deposit $700.01 house two would deposit $700.02 and so forth. Seems to be working pretty efficient for her. Hope this helps :)