In this guide 6 sections
Keep five linked records: rooms, tenants, deposits, rent due and mess. Give every tenant one row with a room, join date, deposit and term end. Log refunds and room changes on the day they happen. Students arrive together and leave together, so the register must handle both rushes.
Start with the room list, one row per bed
A room is not the unit. A bed is. A triple-sharing room holds three tenants with three rents, three deposits and three exit dates. Number the beds 204-A, 204-B and 204-C.
Add the facts that vary by bed: attached bathroom, cot or bunk, window side, almirah and monthly rent. Parents ask about these. So do students comparing your rooms with the PG down the lane.
Mark each bed vacant, occupied, reserved or under repair. Four states are enough.
- Bed number and floor
- Sharing type: single, double, triple
- Rent per bed and the date the rate last changed
- Status: vacant, occupied, reserved, repair
- Notes such as fan, locker or study table
One tenant sheet that survives a term
Your students come from Chennai, Salem, Madurai and further, many living away from home for the first time. Record the course, college, year, a local guardian’s phone and the parent’s.
Add the ID proof copy, join date, expected leaving date and the bed. The leaving date is the field most registers miss. Housemen, interns and first-years finish at different times, and you need to see a month ahead which beds fall vacant before the lorry of trunks arrives.
Keep the agreement terms on the same sheet. Notice period, rent due day and the rule on partial months all belong there.
Track the deposit as money you owe back
A deposit is a liability until the tenant leaves. Treat it as one. Record the amount, the date received, the mode and the receipt number, and never mix it with a month’s rent in the same column.
At exit, list deductions one by one: a cracked window, unpaid rent, a lost key, a burnt hot plate. Each gets a line and a reason. The refund is the deposit less those lines, paid on a stated date by UPI or transfer, with the reference noted.
Disputes in a PG are rarely about the sum. They are about memory. A dated line for each deduction ends the argument in a minute.
Rent due, mess and room changes as they happen
Make the rent register a calendar, not a list. For each bed and month, show amount due, amount received, date and balance. Late payers stand out, and a quarterly payer stops looking like a defaulter.
Add mess as its own line. Count meals taken, or record the plan chosen, and bill it with the rent. Mess disputes grow when charges arrive late and nobody remembers who skipped the Sunday dinner.
Room changes need an entry the moment they occur. Close the old bed, open the new one and carry the deposit across. A change noted on a scrap of paper becomes a rent argument by the third month.
Run the term-end rush with a checklist
Two weeks before exams end, print the list of beds falling vacant. Call each tenant to confirm the leaving date. Book a handover slot per bed and inspect the cot, mattress, almirah and tube light with the student standing there.
On the day, tick off keys returned, room photos taken, deductions listed and refund paid. Update the bed status before the tenant reaches the gate.
Then open the next term’s enquiry list and match students to beds. Start the sheet again from a clean copy.
PG register starter workbook
A workbook with four tabs. Beds lists each bed with sharing type, rent and status. Tenants holds the student details, join date and leaving date. Deposits records receipts, deductions and refunds line by line. Rent and Mess is a month-by-month grid of due, paid and balance for each bed.
Open a blank worksheet to printQuestions owners ask
Should the deposit and the first month’s rent be one receipt?
Keep them as separate lines even if the tenant pays together. The deposit comes back later and rent does not, so mixing them confuses the refund.
How do I handle a tenant who leaves mid-month?
Write the rule into the agreement and the register: whether you charge the full month, a daily rate or the notice period. Then apply the same rule to everyone.
When does a spreadsheet stop being enough?
When rent reminders, mess counts and term-end handovers eat your evenings. Software that sends reminders and keeps the bed status live starts to pay for itself around then.
Do I need the parent’s details as well as the student’s?
Yes, for a first-year student living away from home. Record a parent contact and a local guardian, and keep both numbers current on the tenant sheet.