Security deposits: tracking, deductions, and refunds

Deposits get their own tracking because they're not income — they're the tenant's money you're holding, and reports treat them that way (a deposit never inflates your revenue or an owner's rent).

During the tenancy

When a booking is created (or an applicant moves to tenant), the required deposit from the lease terms opens a deposit record. The deposit charge posts to the ledger when the lease is signed (due a day later, or at move-in without a signed lease). A payment pays the oldest unpaid rent first, then the other charges oldest first, so a move-in payment fills the deposit only after any rent due by then.

The tenant's Deposit tab shows Required, Collected, Returned, Deductions and Held (collected, minus anything returned, minus deductions), with Where those numbers come from listing every deposit line on the ledger so it reconciles by eye. The dashboard's Deposits held widget totals what you're holding across all tenants and flags deposits still held after a move-out.

Money above what the deposit charges isn't held. Collected and Held stop at what the deposit charges. When more than that is on the deposit account (a payment entered on it, a deposit you lowered after it was paid, or a stay cancelled after its deposit was paid), the Deposit tab says how much, and the rest is credit on the account: it pays the oldest unpaid rent first, then other charges oldest first. Record refund doesn't return it; to give credit back, see charges, credits and refunds.

At move-out

On the Deposit tab:

• Add deduction — amount and reason (damages, cleaning, unpaid balance), each logged as its own line. Deductions can't add up to more than the deposit on hand.

• Reverse a deduction recorded by mistake: click Reverse on its line. The deduction stays listed (marked reversed) with its reversal under it, and Held goes back up by that amount. A deduction can be reversed once, from the Deposit tab that recorded it, and not once the lease's deposit money was returned (on a shared lease, a refund on another resident's tab counts).

• Record refund — after you've sent the tenant the rest: pick How was it sent? (check, Zelle, ACH / bank transfer, cash or other) and add an optional note (say, the check number). Nexxus records the whole remaining held balance as returned, dated today. Held drops to $0 and the deposit closes out; no more deductions after that. If By Account reads part of this deposit as unpaid because its money paid rent or other charges first (say, it was paid before its charge posted), the window says so before you confirm: the refund leaves that amount owed on the ledger.

• Reverse this refund — if a refund was recorded by mistake (the wrong resident, the wrong day, money you ended up not sending): click Reverse this refund on its line under Where those numbers come from and give a reason (required). Both of its ledger lines are marked reversed, Returned goes back down, Held goes back up and Record refund is offered again, so the Deposit tab, By Account, Due now, the Ledger's totals, the Tenant Ledger report and statements read as they did before the refund, and the resident no longer sees it in their portal. Its two lines stay on the Ledger, struck through and marked Reversed. It only corrects the record: no money moves, so if you did send it, getting it back is up to you. Your name and the reason go in the Ledger's Change history, which residents don't see. A refund is reversed from the Deposit tab that recorded it (if that resident has since left the lease, from the tab of the resident the deposit belongs to). Only a refund recorded on a Deposit tab can be reversed: a refund you made through Stripe really moved money and stays, and an imported return is corrected with a credit or a charge.

Nexxus does not send this money. No money moves through Stripe or your bank when you record a refund: pay the tenant back the way you normally would, then record how you sent it. The refund posts to the tenant's ledger as a matched pair on the deposit account (a refund line and a credit for the same amount, so the balance doesn't move), the same way an imported deposit return looks. That's why the Deposit tab, the Ledger tab and the dashboard all show it as returned. Deductions stay on the deposit record, so the property's Financials tile (it counts deposit payments on the ledger, money above the deposit's charges included) doesn't reflect them.

One deposit per resident. If the same resident books again, the new deposit adds to their deposit record and an earlier refund stays counted as returned, so the Deposit tab only ever offers what's actually still held. Clicking Record refund twice (or retrying after a slow connection) records it once. If the held balance changes while the window is open (a new deposit payment lands, or someone adds a deduction in another tab), Nexxus records nothing and asks you to reload, so it never records an amount the window didn't show.

Shared leases. When residents share a lease, each resident's Deposit tab shows what the lease still holds for them: the shared lease's deposit plus the deposit of any stay of their own, less what any resident's tab already refunded or kept. Record the refund from any of those tabs. Once one resident's refund or deduction is recorded, the other tabs show what is left (with a note), and a refund of the same money is refused. A resident's own stay stays theirs: another resident's refund on the shared lease never takes it. The Ledger tab's Deposit card shows the same figure as the Deposit tab.

Releasing a held amount (shared leases). To make sure no dollar is ever returned twice, a shared lease's Deposit tab counts each refund and deduction out of the money its resident's tab held when it was recorded, going by the dates on the ledger. When a payment on the shared lease is edited, re-entered or deleted after another resident's refund, those dates can no longer show the money was there, so a tab can show less than you know it holds; the tab then says how much more of the lease's deposit money is held back. If you know that money is this resident's, click Release held amount, enter the amount (up to what is held back) and a note saying why. The release is recorded on the tab with your name, the date and your note (listed under Releases), it is never deleted, and it moves no money: the tab's Held rises by that amount, and you then record the refund or deduction as usual, once. A release never lets the lease's Deposit tabs together record more than the deposit money the lease collected.

What the tenant sees

Less than you do. The resident portal shows the deposit amount on their Lease page, and the deposit charge and their payment toward it in Payments activity and on their invoices and statements. A refund you record shows there too, as the matched refund and credit lines with how it was sent and your note. The held balance and your deductions stay on your side — the portal doesn't show them.

So send the breakdown yourself. The Deposit tab's deduction list is the itemization to copy from, and an itemized accounting heads off most disputes better than a one-line total.

Common questions

• Can a deposit cover unpaid rent? Record it as a deduction with that reason at move-out, before you Record refund: a recorded refund returns the whole remaining balance and doesn't pay down rent. The deduction is on the deposit record, not the ledger, so the rent charge itself still shows open there. Mid-lease, rent and deposit stay separate: money on the deposit's lines never pays rent. Only money above what the deposit charges does, as credit.
• State rules on timing and interest vary; Nexxus records the accounting, but your jurisdiction's deadlines and notice requirements are on you.
• Autopay never touches deposits — it charges monthly rent only.
• Deposit history is part of a booking's financial record — it's one of the things that blocks a booking delete once real money exists.