Record the deposit you hold, and pay the interest on it

Wealthru keeps two separate facts about a deposit, because they really are two things.

• The deposit agreed is what your lease says. You type it when you add the tenancy, and the lease agreement document quotes it until you record the deposit you hold.
• The deposit held is money you actually took. That is what goes on your books, what earns the interest your province requires, and what you return at move-out.

Typing the agreed figure does not record money. That is on purpose. Recording a deposit means telling Wealthru that cash arrived, and it also means saying which kind of deposit it is, which some provinces have rules about. Wealthru will not assert either of those for you.

Record the deposit you are holding

Open the lease, go to the Money tab, and find Security deposits.

If your lease agreed a deposit and nothing is recorded yet, the panel says so at the top and gives you a Record as held button with the amount already filled in. Choose the type, check the amount, and save.

Types available are last month's rent, damage, and key or fob. Wealthru checks the amount against your province's rules and tells you the specific reason if it refuses. In Ontario, for example, a damage deposit is not allowed at all.

The limit is for the whole tenancy, not for each entry. Wealthru adds up every deposit of the same type you already hold on the tenancy, including on earlier terms before a renewal, and checks the total. In Ontario a last month's rent deposit can be at most one month's rent in total, so a second one on top of a full first one is refused, and the message says how much is held and how much more, if any, you can add. Each type has its own limit, so a key deposit beside a last month's rent deposit is fine. A deposit waiting for approval counts toward the limit, so approving it can never take the tenancy over. In British Columbia a single damage deposit can be at most half a month, and the tenancy can hold up to a month in total, because British Columbia allows a separate pet damage deposit next to the security deposit. Record the pet damage deposit as a damage deposit for now.

The Collect move-in payment form counts what is already held too. If you have recorded a last month's rent deposit, the form leaves that box empty, or fills in only the difference if the rent has gone up since.

Once it is recorded, the panel shows the agreed figure and the held figure matching, and the prompt goes away.

What the lease agreement says about the deposit

The lease agreement Wealthru writes, including the copy your tenant reads from their signing link, only says a deposit was provided when your books show it.

• Nothing recorded yet. The agreement says the tenant will pay the agreed deposit on or before the lease start date. It does not say the tenant has paid it. In Ontario it is called a last month's rent deposit, and elsewhere a damage deposit.
• A deposit recorded as held, for the agreed amount. The agreement lists what you actually hold, by type, with the recorded amounts.
• Less than agreed. The agreement states the agreed deposit, then what the tenant has provided as of the day the document was made.
• More than agreed. The same, plus a sentence that the extra amount may be applied to any future amount owing under the tenancy. Wealthru does not apply it for you. A key or fob deposit is listed but not counted toward the agreed deposit.
• Québec. The agreement states the agreed figure as the amount any deposit paid is recorded as.

A lease you put together clause by clause words an unpaid deposit the same way.

• A deposit waiting for approval, or one that was rejected. It is not listed, because no money was posted for it.

Record the deposit before you send the lease for signing if you want the agreement to show it as provided.

If the agreed figure is wrong

You can correct it from the same panel, using Correct the agreed deposit, up until the tenant moves in. After that the figure is part of a live agreement, so it stays as signed, and what you correct instead is the deposit record itself.

This only changes what the lease says. It moves no money and posts nothing to your books.

Interest you owe the tenant

Every deposit you hold builds up interest month by month, and Wealthru tracks it against the deposit. In Ontario that interest is payable every year rather than only at the end, and the tenant is allowed to take it off their rent.

Each held deposit with interest owing shows a Pay interest action.

• Paid to the tenant. Record how it went out, such as a cheque number, so you have proof it moved. Your cash goes down and what you owe the tenant goes down by the same amount.
• Credited against rent. No money moves. The interest lands on the tenant's rent ledger as a payment, so their balance drops by exactly what you owed them.

Either way, the amount comes off what you owe at move-out, so nobody is ever paid the same interest twice. The remaining interest shown on the deposit is always what is still owed, not the running total.

The interest rates Wealthru uses were reviewed by counsel and confirmed. This is still tooling, not legal advice, so check the rate and the payment date with your provincial tenancy authority, and tell us if your province publishes a new annual rate.

Returning the deposit at move-out

Use Settle on the deposit, or the settlement step in the move-out flow. Itemize any deductions, pick how the refund left, and save.

Your tenant sees every line you enter, not just the total. Each deduction reaches them with its own label and amount, in their portal and in the settlement email and text. Write labels a tenant can understand, because that is the version they will ask you about. If you withhold money and enter no lines, their portal tells them a breakdown was not recorded and to ask you what it was for.

The settlement step also shows the deadline your province expects the deposit back by, and whether a forwarding address is on file. See Return a deposit on time, to the right address.

If you are an operator rather than an approver, your settlement waits for sign-off before any money moves. That is deliberate, because it sends money to a tenant.

Troubleshooting

• Move-out says there is nothing to return, but my lease has a deposit. That is the gap this page is about. Check Security deposits on the Money tab. If the agreed figure has nothing recorded against it, record it, or set the agreed figure to zero if you never took one.
• The settlement step will not let me continue. A deposit that is still held blocks it. Return or settle it first, and the step says how many are outstanding.
• Pay interest is not showing. Either no interest has built up yet, or you have already paid all of it. A deposit that is still waiting for approval has not been posted, so nothing accrues on it yet.
• Wealthru refused my interest payment. If you are an operator, an account owner or an approving manager has to record it. The message says so.
• I cannot delete a deposit. Once you have paid interest on it, the deposit stays, because real money went to the tenant against it. Settle it at move-out instead, which keeps the whole record.
• Wealthru refused a deposit and says the tenancy already holds some. The limit is for the whole tenancy. Check the deposits already on the Money tab, including one recorded by the move-in payment. If one of them is a duplicate, remove it, then record the right amount.
• I recorded the deposit twice. Remove the duplicate with Remove on the row, as long as no interest has been paid on it and it has not been settled.