How to input property rental deposits?

[adnw]

i have read a few of the posts on here but none answer my question

i rent out a property.
i take a deposit equal to one months rent from the tenant.
i keep this personally until the tenant leaves.
i pay a fee to MyDeposits which is a government DPS (deposit protection service) and get a certificate. This costs roughly £30
when the tenant leaves i refund them their deposit personally (less any damages).
i do not send this money off to MyDeposits/DPS - i physically hold this.

how to i record each of these situations:

1. i want to be able to invoice the customer so they can pay me the deposit via gocardless, stripe or bank transfer. do i have to do anything special with the invoice? its not the sale of an item or rent…

2. once ive got the money via stripe, gocardless or bank transfer i keep hold of it until they leave. what do i do with this transaction? do i have to setup a separate dummy holding account in quickfile? how do i account for it?

3. what do i do with the cost of the deposit scheme from MyDeposits?

4. What do i do in quickfile and how do i account for it when i give the tenant their deposit back?

thanks

[QFBeth]

Hi @adnw

you may find this thread helpful for deposits: Accounting for a Deposit

You need to be careful with deposits as it shouldn’t be included with your income