Settings & Preferences

Why preferences matter

Almost every record in TenantBuddy starts from a default. When you create a new property, lease, or invoice, it copies its starting values from your settings. That means getting these right up front saves you from correcting the same setting on record after record later. The guiding idea is simple: set your defaults once, and inherit them everywhere.

What lives in Settings

Your Settings → Preferences area gathers the choices that define how your company runs in TenantBuddy:

• Company identity & branding — your business name, logo, and contact details. These appear on every invoice, receipt, and document your tenants receive, so they should match how you want to be presented.
• Currency, date format & time zone — set these once so amounts and dates display consistently everywhere in the app.
• Notification preferences — which events email you and your tenants, so nothing important slips by.
• Invoice & late-fee defaults — your invoice numbering, payment terms, and the late-fee policy that new leases inherit unless you override them.

Listing & website preferences

Your public-facing listing settings live under Settings → Listing Preferences . These control how your vacancies and rental website present to prospective tenants: your branding, contact information, and the look of the listings the public sees.

Property Types

The Settings → Property Types list defines the categories you choose from when adding a property: for example apartment, single-family, or commercial. Maintaining this list keeps your portfolio organized and your reporting consistent.

Features & Amenities

The Settings → Features & Amenities library is the master list of unit features and property amenities: in-suite laundry, parking, a gym, a pool, and so on. Build the library once and then simply tick the relevant items on each unit or property, rather than retyping them every time.

Compliance Requirements

Under Settings → Compliance Requirements you define the documents and credentials your vendors must keep current: insurance certificates, licenses, and the like. These requirements are applied to vendors so you can track who is compliant before assigning work. See the Vendors guide for how this ties into your contractor records.

Reviewing your preferences

If you're setting up for the first time, or just want a periodic tidy-up, walk through your settings in this order:

1. Open Settings → Preferences and confirm your company identity, logo, and contact details.
2. Set your currency, date format, and time zone so everything displays the way you expect.
3. Review your invoice numbering, payment terms, and late-fee defaults.
4. Check your notification preferences so the right people are alerted to the right events.
5. Tidy up the supporting lists: Property Types, Features & Amenities, and your Listing and Compliance settings.