Lease records in Cove connect tenants to the suites they occupy and provide the billing context that drives work order charges, tenant statements, and accounting exports. When a lease is properly configured, Cove can automatically assign the correct billing lease code to work orders based on the suite selected, route charges to the right tenant, and ensure that billing reports and Yardi exports are accurate.
Leases are managed from a tenant's Leases tab in the Directory module. Building Admins and Building Managers can add and edit leases. For properties that use an automated RentRoll integration, leases are created and updated nightly from the RentRoll file rather than manually.
Getting leases set up correctly has significant downstream impact. A work order submitted for a suite with a lease record will automatically carry the correct billing lease code. If no lease is configured for the suite, the system falls back to the billing ID on the tenant's main profile. If neither is present, the work order will not have a lease code attached, which can block billing verification and cause accounting export failures. For properties that export to Yardi, accurate lease codes per suite are essential.
- Add a Lease
- Mark a Lease as Month-to-Month
- How Lease Codes Are Applied to Work Orders
- Archive a Lease
- RentRoll Import
Add a Lease
- Navigate to the Directory module and click on the Tenants page.
- Open a tenant record by clicking on the tenant name.
- Click on the Leases tab and select + Add Lease. Fill out the following fields:
- Lease Start Date: Required. The date the lease begins.
- Lease is Month-to-Month: Check this box if the lease has no fixed end date. When checked, the Lease End Date field is greyed out and is no longer required. See below for more detail.
- Lease End Date: Required for standard leases. Enter the date the lease expires. This field is disabled when Lease is Month-to-Month is checked.
- Billing Lease Code: The lease code used to identify this lease in billing reports and accounting exports such as Yardi. This should match the code in your accounting system. When a work order is submitted for a suite associated with this lease, this code is applied to the work order automatically.
- Floors: Associate the floors the tenant occupies under this lease.
- Suites: Associate the specific suites the tenant occupies under this lease.
4. Click Save.
Note: If a tenant has multiple leases across different suites or buildings, add a separate lease record for each. The system uses the suite on the work order to determine which lease code to apply. Having separate lease records per suite ensures the correct code is used for each location.
Mark a Lease as Month-to-Month
A month-to-month lease is an ongoing lease with no fixed end date. To mark a lease as month-to-month:
- Open the tenant's Leases tab and add a new lease or edit an existing one.
- Check the Lease is Month-to-Month box on the form. The Lease End Date field will grey out and is no longer required. The lease will remain active with no end date until it is archived manually.
- Click Save.
Once saved, the lease will appear in the Leases tab with Yes in the Month-to-Month column. Standard fixed-term leases show No. Month-to-month rows will show a dash in the Lease End column, which is expected and not an error. You can filter the Leases tab by the Month-to-Month column to quickly identify all ongoing leases.
How Lease Codes Are Applied to Work Orders
When a work order is submitted, Cove determines the billing lease code using the following logic:
- If the work order has a suite selected and that suite is associated with a lease that has a billing lease code, that code is applied.
- If no lease is found for the suite, or no suite is selected, the system falls back to the billing ID on the tenant's main profile.
- If neither is present, no lease code is applied and billing verification may be blocked depending on your site's verification settings.
This means that keeping leases up to date and associating them to the correct suites is essential for accurate billing. If a lease code is added or updated after a work order has already been opened, you can trigger a re-evaluation by editing the work order details and saving again.
Note: The lease code is stored on the work order at the time it is created or last saved. This ensures that if a tenant's lease changes mid-ticket, the original billing relationship is preserved.
Archive a Lease
When a lease ends or is no longer active, archive it from the tenant's Leases tab rather than deleting it. Archiving preserves the historical record while removing the lease from active billing logic. To archive a lease, open the lease record and select the archive option.
Note: If a tenant has multiple active leases for the same suite, the system may apply an incorrect lease code to new work orders. If a tenant renews and receives a new lease code for the same suite, archive the old lease to ensure the correct code is used going forward.
RentRoll Import
For properties that use an automated RentRoll integration, leases are created and updated nightly from the RentRoll file. Each row in the file represents a tenant's lease on a specific suite. When the file is processed, Cove creates or updates the tenant record, associates the suite and floors to the tenant, and applies the billing lease code from the file to the suite.
Month-to-month leases via RentRoll
To allow RentRoll imports to create month-to-month leases, the Allow Month-to-Month Lease Creation setting must be enabled in the RentRoll Data Mapping setup under Integrations > RentRoll > Data Mapping. When enabled, rows in the RentRoll file with a blank end date are brought in as month-to-month leases. When disabled, those rows are skipped.
When a month-to-month lease from a RentRoll import is no longer present in the latest file, the lease is automatically archived. This is how ongoing leases are ended through the automated process since they have no end date to expire on their own.
Note: If a tenant previously had a month-to-month lease added manually with a placeholder end date, enabling this setting without cleanup may create a duplicate lease. To avoid this, ensure the existing manual lease has a billing lease code that matches the RentRoll file before enabling the setting. The system will match on billing lease code, tenant, and lease start date, and update the existing record in place rather than creating a duplicate.