Creating a Lease

Set up a new lease agreement for long-term or permanent site occupants.

Accessing the Lease Form

Navigate to Leases and click Create New Lease.

Step by Step

1. Lease Terms

Start Date - Select the lease start date using the date picker.
Duration - Enter a number and select the unit using the tabs: Weeks, Months, or Years. The end date is automatically calculated from the start date and duration (inclusive). For example, a 1-year lease starting 17 April 2026 will end on 16 April 2027.
Campsite - After selecting the start date and duration, available campsites are loaded. Search or select a campsite from the list. You must set the lease period before campsites become available.

2. Payment Terms

Payment Frequency - Select how often rent is paid: Weekly, Fortnightly, Monthly, Quarterly, or Annually. The available options are dynamically filtered based on the lease duration. For example, you cannot select Annually for a 6-month lease.
Rent Amount - Enter the rent amount in dollars.
Invoice Method - Choose one of three options:
- Manual - You create each invoice yourself from the lease detail page. No automation runs.
- Automatic - Email PDF invoices - Invoices are generated automatically a configurable number of days before each billing period starts (advance billing) and emailed to the tenant as a PDF with a payment link for the tenant to pay manually. Each invoice covers the upcoming period and includes the date range in the description (e.g. "Rent - Monthly\n01/04/2026 - 30/04/2026"). The due date on each invoice is the day before the period begins. If a period is shorter than a full cycle, the invoice is automatically pro-rated.
- Automatic - Collect via Direct Debit (GoCardless) - Rent is auto-collected from the tenant's bank account on schedule. This option appears once GoCardless is connected. If Direct Debit isn't active when an invoice is due, that period falls back to an emailed PDF invoice. See Setting up Direct Debit (GoCardless).
Invoice Advance Days (Automatic only) - How many days before each billing period's due date the invoice email is sent, giving the tenant time to pay. Default: 7 days. Leave it blank to use the default.
What happens at the end of the lease? - Choose from: Convert to Month-to-Month, Renew for Same Term, or Lease Terminates. The "Convert to Month-to-Month" option is only available for leases with a duration of 1 year or longer.

Note: Once a lease is Active, the Payment Frequency and Invoice Advance Days fields are locked and cannot be changed.

3. Tenants

Add one or more tenants (up to 10) to the lease:

Click Add Tenant to add a tenant row.
Search for and select an existing customer for each tenant.
To create a new customer, click Create Customer (opens in popup) to add one without leaving the page.
Remove a tenant by clicking the delete icon next to their row.

4. Signed Lease Agreement (Optional)

Upload a signed lease agreement PDF document. This can also be done later from the lease management page. Only PDF format is accepted (max 5MB).

5. Lease Status & Summary

Initial Status - Choose Draft (Hold Site) to reserve the site while finalizing, or Active to activate immediately.
Generate first invoice upon activation (Automatic only) - A checkbox (defaulted ON) that controls whether the first invoice is created immediately when the lease is activated.
- Ticked - First invoice is generated immediately on activation, covering the full first period (start_date → period end). The next invoice will fire Invoice Advance Days before the second period starts.
- Unticked - The first period is treated as already paid (e.g. paid in cash on key handover). The first generated invoice will fire Invoice Advance Days before the second period starts.
A live preview shows you exactly when each invoice will fire and what period it'll cover, based on your current settings.
A lease summary is displayed showing the rent amount, lease period, and end of lease action.

6. Submit

Click Save Draft (for draft status) or Create Active Lease (for active status) to save.

Next Steps

After creating a lease, you'll typically:

Upload the lease agreement document (if not already done).
Activate the lease when both parties are ready (if created as draft).
For manual invoicing, create invoices for rent payments. For automatic invoicing, invoices are generated automatically a few days before each payment period.

Late and Pro-Rata Invoices

Late - If the system generates an invoice for a billing period that has already started (for example, you activate a lease back-dated by a week), the invoice is automatically flagged with a Late badge on the lease detail page so you and your tenant can see it was generated retrospectively.
Pro-rata - Whenever a billing period is shorter than a full cycle (a lease that starts mid-period, ends mid-period, or has had its dates edited), the invoice amount is automatically reduced to cover only the partial period and the description is suffixed with (pro-rata).
Pro-rata is always annualised: a stable daily rate is worked out as rent x cycles-per-year / 365 and charged for the actual number of days, so the per-day rate is the same no matter which month the partial period falls in.