Rent Overpayment Advice

[Bruce Gardner]

One of my tenants overpaid their rent (by 14%, not just a few bucks).  I know why (they mistakenly thought they had to pay for something that I had agreed to cover).  It's their money, I'm giving it back...my question is:

1)  Give it back in the form of a "refund"?

2)  Apply it to future rent?

3)  Something else I haven't thought of?

Applying it to future rent is "easier", but I like the idea of keeping "clean" books and handling the refund separately from future rents. Does this really even matter?

What do y'all think?

[Richard Sherman]

Once again I agree 100% with @Patti Robertson ..haha, we are starting a trend....anyone saying give it back and keep the books clean is clearly not running double entry accounting...doing a return transaction after you already took payment and cashed it causes LESS clean books...unless they paid you IN cash in which case you can return if it hasn't been deposited.  100% DO NOT return it in cash if they did not pay in cash!!!  Then you have no record of it.  I let people pay ahead ALL the time, aside from someone you are trying to evict trying to pre-pay rent, why the heck would you NOT take the money.