Tenant ledger integrity

Tenant ledger integrity means the account can explain how it reached its current balance. Each line has a date, amount, transaction type, source, and relationship to the lease or a documented adjustment. The running balance must recompute from the opening balance plus valid charges, minus settled payments and supported credits, with returns and reversals preserved as later events rather than erasing the original history.

Integrity is more than a correct total. Two ledgers can end at $200 while telling very different stories: one may show a $1,500 rent charge and $1,300 payment, while another hides a returned payment behind a manual credit. The second total may be numerically right today but unreliable for a notice, payment plan, owner report, or migration because the transaction states and supporting evidence are missing.

Consider a $1,800 charge, a $1,500 ACH receipt, and a $100 approved concession. The balance becomes $200. If the ACH later returns, the ledger adds a $1,500 reversal tied to the processor event and the balance becomes $1,700. Deleting the receipt would conceal that the payment was attempted; posting an unexplained new charge would overstate what the lease created.

Protect integrity with restricted edit rights, stable transaction identifiers, dated adjustments, reconciliation to settlement records, and a review pause before consequential communication. A ledger is not made trustworthy by locking every mistake forever. Corrections must remain possible, but they should be additive or versioned so a future reviewer can see the original entry, correction reason, approver, and resulting balance.