The Collections feature in Revela gives your team a centralized workspace for tracking and managing delinquent tenant accounts from the moment a balance becomes past due. This workflow ensures total visibility into the full lifecycle of managing delinquent accounts, from sending demand letters, formal notices, and eviction proceedings. The Collections feature surfaces all late-balance activity in one place, organized by stage so you can take action quickly and consistently.
Understanding how Collections is structured, and where each tenant sits within the workflow at any given time, allows you to manage delinquencies more effectively, communicate clearly with owners, and ensure no overdue account falls through the cracks.
Before Getting Started - Demand Letter Configurations
Before working in Collections, it is important to confirm that your managed portfolio(s) have the proper criteria in place for delinquency management. Within the Configuration settings for each portfolio, the following options are available:
- Set a Minimum Late Balance for tenants to appear within Collections
- Set automatic fees to a tenant (or owner) ledger when a person is sent a demand letter
- Automatically prevent tenants from making electronic payments once they are moved to an eviction status
- Set automatic fees to a tenant ledger when a person is moved to an eviction status
Access Collections by navigating to Leasing > Collections in the left sidebar. The page opens on the Late tab by default and displays a paginated list of all active tenants with a late balance across your active portfolio(s). Use the Portfolio filter at the top right to narrow results to a specific portfolio, or use the Search bar to locate a specific tenant by name. The Export button in the upper right allows you to download the current view as a spreadsheet for reporting or owner communication purposes.
Understanding the Collections Workflow
The Collections feature in Revela is organized into four sequential stages, each represented by a tab at the top of the page. A tenant moves through these stages as your team takes action on their account. The count displayed on each tab reflects the current number of tenants at that stage.
Late
The Late tab is the starting point for all delinquent accounts. Revela automatically populates this list with any tenant who carries an outstanding balance past their due date. The table displays each tenant’s name, unit address, state, phone number, and Late Balance. Clicking the Late Balance amount takes you directly to that tenant’s ledger, where you can review the full transaction history behind the balance.
Sending Demand Letters
A demand letter is a formal written notice informing a tenant that they have an outstanding balance and must pay by a specified date. In Revela, demand letters can be sent individually from a single tenant’s row, or in bulk by selecting multiple tenants using the checkboxes and then clicking the Demand Letters hyperlink at the top of the table. Every row in the Late tab includes a Demand Letter hyperlink.
When you initiate a demand letter, Revela opens a Send Demand Letter module. The module confirms the number of leases included in the batch and prompts you to select a Delivery Method for the letter. Available delivery methods include Print, E-Mail, or Mailing through Postgrid. Once submitted, the tenant moves from the Late tab into the Notice Sent tab, and the action is logged in the History view.
Notice Sent
The Notice Sent tab shows all tenants who have received a demand letter but whose notice period has not yet expired. This stage represents a holding period: the tenant has been formally notified and is expected to pay or respond before the notice deadline passes. No further escalation is required until the notice expires.
Notice Expired
When a demand letter’s notice period lapses without full payment or resolution, Revela moves the tenant to the Notice Expired tab. In addition to the tenant’s name, address, and Late Balance, this tab displays the Demand Balance (the amount stated in the original demand letter), the Date Sent, and the Expiration Date of the notice.
This stage signals that formal next steps are warranted. Your team should review the outstanding balance, consult the lease terms, and determine whether to initiate eviction proceedings.
Evicting
The Evicting tab tracks all tenants for whom an eviction has been formally opened. The table displays the following information about the delinquent tenant:
- The tenant’s full name
- The tenant’s unit address
- The tenant’s current Eviction Balance
- The date the tenant’s Eviction was started
- The Assigned Vendor on the case, which is used to record the attorney or eviction service managing the case.
The Actions column provides two options for each row: View, which opens the full Eviction Summary, and Download Package, which generates a packet of eviction documents for the case.
Eviction Summary
Clicking View on any tenant in the Evicting tab opens their Eviction Summary. This page serves as the central record for the eviction case and contains a complete history of activity tied to the case. Information in this timeline includes:
- The tenant’s active lease dates.
- The date the demand letter was sent to the tenant and for what amount.
- The date that the eviction was opened.
- The date of the most recent payment received by the tenant.
From the Actions button at the top of the Eviction Summary, you can select Packet to generate and download the eviction document package; Edit to update the case details; or Close to close the eviction record once the matter is resolved. The Ledger button provides direct access to the tenant’s full account ledger, and the Print button allows you to produce a printed copy of the summary.
The Detail Panel on the right side of the page captures all key case data at a glance. It is recommended that your team keep these fields updated as the case progresses so that any assigned legal vendors have accurate information at all times.
History
The History tab provides an audit log of all demand letter actions taken in Collections. Each entry records the date and time of the action, the user who performed it, the action type, the total number of letters generated, and how many were sent via print versus email. This log is useful for accountability, verifying that notices were sent on time, and for documenting the sequence of events if a case proceeds to court.
- Review the Late tab regularly rather than waiting until balances become large. Early outreach is often more effective than formal notices and preserves the owner-tenant relationship where possible.
- Use the Portfolio filter to focus your review on specific portfolios at a time. This is especially helpful for property managers who oversee multiple portfolios with different delinquency patterns or escalation policies.
- Before sending a demand letter, confirm the balance shown in the Late tab against the tenant’s ledger by clicking the Late Balance amount. This ensures the letter reflects accurate figures and that the balance is not the result of a posting error or a payment that has not yet cleared.
- Use the E-Mail delivery method when you need tenants to receive their notice quickly and when you have confirmed contact information on file. Use the Print or Mail options when you need a physical record or when your jurisdiction requires mailed notice. Note that processing can take up to one hour regardless of the delivery method chosen.