# A rent collection tracker in SharePoint

> For the full documentation index, see https://250highstreet.com/llms.txt

> Track units, rent due dates, payments received and late fees in two SharePoint lists, with a view that shows what is unpaid and past due.

Short answer: one row per unit per month. A "Units" list holds each door and its rent. A "Rent charges" list gets a new row every month, and each row points back to its unit. The saved view "Unpaid and past due" shows every charge due before today that is not marked paid. This tracker is a record of what you type. It does not collect money, it does not send or receive payments, and it does not tell you what rules apply to rent, late fees or notices where you live. Ask your attorney or your local housing office about that. Exact names may differ on your screen.

## Why rent tracking gets messy

A small landlord may start with a notebook or a file with one row per tenant. It works for three units. With ten, the questions get harder. Who paid this month? Who paid half? Who is eleven days behind, and how much did they owe on the first?

Problems with the single-sheet approach:

- Each month is a new column, so the sheet grows wider every year.
- Nobody can filter to "unpaid" without scrolling.
- A partial payment is typed into a note, not a number.
- A late fee is added in someone's head, not on the row.
- Last year's rows are hard to find when a question comes up.

One row per charge fixes the shape. A new month is a new row, not a new column. Old months stay where they were.

If your rent history sits in a file today, start with "[Replace a spreadsheet tracker with a SharePoint list](/guides/replace-spreadsheet-with-sharepoint-list/)". If repairs are the bigger headache, read "[A property maintenance request tracker in SharePoint](/guides/property-maintenance-request-tracker/)". This page sticks to rent money and leaves list basics to those.

## Decide what you will and will not record

Settle the boundaries before you create anything. Our advice, not a Microsoft rule:

1.  The list should answer one question: what was owed, what arrived, on which day. Anything beyond that is clutter and a risk.
2.  Keep bank numbers, card numbers and government IDs out. The list notes that money arrived. It never touches the money.
3.  Rules on record keeping, retention periods and allowed late fees belong to your attorney or local housing office. This guide gives none.
4.  Write dates and amounts. Leave out opinions about the person living in a unit.

## Step 1. Create the "Units" list

Start with the small list. Microsoft's help page on creating a list says: "Or, you can create a new list from your SharePoint site home page or the Site contents page, select + New \> List." It then says: "Blank list: Choose to start a list from scratch." And: "When you're finished selecting options, select Create." Call it "Units". To add columns, Microsoft says: "select + Add column."

Columns to add:

1.  Title (Single line of text). Rename it "Unit", then enter the label you use day to day, such as "Unit 14".
2.  Monthly rent (Number). Pick Number over Currency. Our reason: Microsoft's page on lookup columns lists Currency under "Unsupported column types:", so Number can pass through a lookup and Currency cannot.
3.  Rent due day (Number). Which day of the month the rent falls due, for example 1 or 5.
4.  Tenant (Single line of text). The lease name only, nothing else.
5.  Status (Choice): 1 Occupied, 2 Vacant.

Then type one row for each unit you own.

## Step 2. Create the "Rent charges" list

Next comes the list that grows every month. Create another blank list called "Rent charges" and add these fields, top to bottom.

1.  Title (Single line of text). Rename it "Charge" and fill it with the unit and month, as in "Unit 14 2026-12".
2.  Unit (Lookup). This field ties each charge to a door. Microsoft says: "Under Select a list as a source, select the source list to get information from." The source here is "Units". Microsoft also says: "Under Select a column from the list above, select what information you want to display from the source list". Show "Unit". One more condition from Microsoft: "Lookup columns should be created and used within the same site." Put both lists on a single site.
3.  Due date (Date and Time, date only). When that month's rent is owed.
4.  Amount due (Currency). You key it in on the row, so the Currency type is safe. Never feed it through a lookup.
5.  Paid (Yes/No). Set its default value to No. Switch it to Yes when the full amount is in. The open-rent views read this flag.
6.  Date paid (Date and Time, date only). Blank until the money shows up.
7.  Amount received (Currency). The real figure. If Unit 14 owes \$900 and \$450 arrives, enter \$450 and do not switch Paid to Yes.
8.  Late fee (Currency). Blank unless you applied one, and only a fee the law and your lease let you charge. This guide does not tell you which.
9.  Payment method (Choice), numbered: 1 Check, 2 Bank transfer, 3 Cash, 4 Other. The kind of payment only, never account details.
10. Notes (Multiple lines of text). One factual line, such as "Remaining \$450 expected by the 12th".

## Excel or SharePoint for rent

A spreadsheet with one row per tenant and one column per month works for a few doors. This design keeps one row per charge instead, so a new month adds rows and never adds columns. It also splits the doors (Units) from the money owed (Rent charges), so each unit's rent amount lives on its unit row. Microsoft's lookup page is the source for the link between the two lists. Pick the spreadsheet if you track a handful of units and want the least setup. Pick the lists if you want a saved view of late rent that updates by itself.

## Step 3. Add the charges for a month

Once a month, add one "Rent charges" row for each unit marked 1 Occupied. Pick the unit, set the due date from that unit's Rent due day, and copy the Monthly rent into Amount due. Skip units marked 2 Vacant. Check that Paid reads No on each new row.

Our advice, not a Microsoft rule: give one person the job of adding the month's rows on the same day each month, so the list never has a missing month.

## Step 4. Record a payment, a part payment and a fee

One row can take several payments only if you keep a running total, so keep it simple: put the sum received so far in Amount received and describe each deposit in Notes. Example for Unit 14, due 2026-12-01 at \$900:

1.  On the 3rd, \$450 arrives by check. Enter Date paid 2026-12-03, Amount received 450, Payment method 1 Check, Notes "First \$450 received". Paid stays No.
2.  On the 12th, the other \$450 arrives. Change Amount received to 900, set Date paid to 2026-12-12 and edit Notes to "Second \$450 received on the 12th". Now switch Paid to Yes.
3.  If you charged a late fee, type the fee in Late fee on that same row and name it in Notes. The fee is a record only. It does not change Amount due.

## Three views

Microsoft's help page on filtering a view says: "There are two keywords that you can use to filter based on the current day \[Today\], or the current user \[Me\]." It also says: "It is not possible to use the \[Today\] or \[Me\] filters when filtering using a column header." And: "You must use the classic view editor to filter columns using these keywords." Build each view below in the classic view editor, from the view menu's "Edit current view" entry or from a new view, under "Filters" and "Show items only when the following is true".

- "Unpaid and past due": Due date is less than \[Today\], And Paid is equal to No. Sort by Due date, oldest first. The Paid rule drops a row the moment it reads Yes, so cleared months from earlier years do not pile up.
- "Partial payments": Paid is equal to No, And Amount received is greater than 0. Sort by Date paid, newest first. This is the view for rent that arrived in pieces: each row shows how much is in and, through Amount due, how much is left. Our advice, not a Microsoft rule: test the view with Unit 14.
- "Due in the next 7 days": Due date is greater than or equal to \[Today\], And Due date is less than or equal to \[Today\]+7, And Paid is equal to No. Sort by Due date. Microsoft gives this example of arithmetic with the keyword: "To view only items that have changed in the past week, apply the filter Modified is greater than \[Today\]-7." Our advice, not a Microsoft rule: the same pattern works with a plus sign for dates ahead.

To see the history of one unit, click a column heading and choose to filter from the header. That works for a quick check of Unit, because it does not use \[Today\].

## Step 5. Review it once a week

Pick a weekly slot and one named person. The routine:

1.  Open "Partial payments" and see whether any balance has been cleared in the bank.
2.  Open "Unpaid and past due". Any row whose payment is in your bank but missing here gets filled in now.
3.  Rows still open are a decision for you. No notice or fee rules appear in this guide.
4.  Open "Due in the next 7 days" to preview the week.

Related guides: "[Turn overdue rows red in a SharePoint list](/guides/highlight-overdue-rows-sharepoint-list/)" for colored late rows, and "[Send a reminder before a due date in a SharePoint list](/guides/send-reminder-before-due-date/)" for an advance email.

## What to avoid

Rent-only mistakes:

- Typing a late fee as if it were a rule. Record the fee you charged and nothing more; ask your attorney what is allowed.
- Adding a "Rent charges" row for a unit marked 2 Vacant. It will sit in "Unpaid and past due" with nothing to collect.
- Mixing a security deposit into Amount received. Keep a security deposit out of Amount received and out of the rent totals, and out of this list unless you build a separate one.
- Forgetting the move-out month. Enter the final month's charge as your lease sets it, then set the unit to 2 Vacant.
- Ticking Paid for a part payment. The row would leave every open view while money is still owed.
- Storing a bank, card or government ID number anywhere in the list.

## Honest limits

The list records rent only. A tenant on a payment plan, a deposit held against damage and a balance left at move-out each need their own columns or a second list, and the rules for deposits and move-out balances differ by place, so ask your attorney. Whatever a person types is all the list knows: it cannot see a bank account, and a payment nobody entered looks like no payment at all. It also sends no notice and adds up no balance across months.

## When to get help

You can build all of this yourself in Microsoft 365. If you would rather have it built and tested for your team, I do that. A tracker like this is a fixed price: \$5,000 for one, built in 2 weeks. See "[What a SharePoint tracker costs to build](/guides/what-a-sharepoint-tracker-costs/)". Bring one example of the problem to a free call.

I am Al Davies. I run 250 High Street LLC and build SharePoint trackers and Power Automate flows for operations teams. I work remotely. The first call is free, and I will not try to sell you anything.

See trackers I built: [Tools I built](/portfolio/)

## FAQ

### Does this tracker collect rent or process payments?

No. It records what you type. Money moves through whatever method you already use, and you then enter the date and amount here.

### Can this tell me what late fee I may charge?

No. Rules differ by place and by lease. Ask your attorney or local housing office. The Late fee column only records a fee you decided to charge.

### Can one tenant see another tenant's rent?

Anyone who can open the list can see every row, whatever view they pick. Keep tenants off this site, and ask your admin who can open it.

### What columns does a rent payment tracker template need?

Two lists. Units: Unit, Monthly rent, Rent due day, Tenant, Status. Rent charges: Charge, Unit (lookup), Due date, Amount due, Paid, Date paid, Amount received, Late fee, Payment method, Notes.

### Should I use Excel or a SharePoint list to track rent?

Excel with one row per tenant fits a few doors. A SharePoint list keeps one row per charge and a saved view of unpaid, past-due rent.

### How do I show only unpaid rent that is past due?

In the classic view editor, filter Due date to "is less than" \[Today\], and add a second filter, Paid is equal to No. Microsoft says the \[Today\] filter needs the classic view editor. It does not work from a column header.

## Sources

- [Microsoft Support, Use filtering to modify a SharePoint view](https://support.microsoft.com/en-us/office/use-filtering-to-modify-a-sharepoint-view-3d8efc52-0808-4731-8f9b-3dfaeacea3d4)
- [Microsoft Support, Create a list](https://support.microsoft.com/en-us/sharepoint/lists/data-and-lists/create-a-list)
- [Microsoft Support, Create list relationships by using lookup columns](https://support.microsoft.com/en-us/sharepoint/lists/data-and-lists/create-list-relationships-by-using-lookup-columns)
- [Microsoft Support, Use sorting to modify a SharePoint view](https://support.microsoft.com/en-us/office/use-sorting-to-modify-a-sharepoint-view-1e85d6e7-bdb3-4176-b1cb-62c5fbd3ef98)

## Related guides

- [A membership dues tracker in SharePoint](/guides/membership-dues-tracker-sharepoint/)
- [Event vendor tracker: quotes, deposits and day-of contacts](/guides/event-vendor-tracker-sharepoint/)
- [Wedding planner client tracker in SharePoint](/guides/wedding-planner-client-tracker-sharepoint/)

Source: https://250highstreet.com/guides/rent-collection-tracker-sharepoint/