A rent receipt as a PDF solves the sending problem and creates a keeping problem, because a document sent is not a document filed. Two copies have to exist and stay identical: the one the tenant has and the one you can produce. This page is about making that automatic rather than remembering it, for a landlord issuing receipts one at a time.
Two copies, one source
The tenant's copy and yours should be the same file rendered once, not a document you sent and a note you made. Where those two are created separately they drift, and the drift is only discovered when the two are compared, which happens exactly when somebody is disputing something. Render once, send that file, file that file.
Name it so it can be found without opening it
Property, unit, tenant surname, the period covered, and the receipt number. A folder of files called receipt.pdf is a folder you will open one at a time. The period in the name matters most, because the question is almost always about a particular month rather than about a particular day money moved.
When a PDF beats a message
When it has to be forwarded to somebody else: an accountant, a housing office, a court. A message thread is evidence of a conversation; a rendered receipt is a document that stands alone. For routine monthly issue either works, and the PDF costs nothing extra once the worksheet is producing it anyway.
Where it belongs afterwards
With the tenancy, in the numbered run, next to the ledger it should agree with. Not in a sent-items folder, which is the most common resting place and the one that disappears with a job change or a mailbox migration. The test is the one that applies to everything in a let: could somebody who was not you find it in a minute.
Questions people ask about rent receipt pdf
Should I password-protect a rent receipt?
Rarely worth it. It contains less sensitive information than the lease and protection makes it harder for the tenant to keep, which defeats the purpose.
Is a scanned handwritten receipt acceptable?
Yes, provided it carries the period and the balance. The format matters far less than the content and the completeness of the run.
What if the tenant asks for a year of receipts?
If the run is complete and numbered, that is a two-minute job. If it is not, that request is the moment you discover it, which is an argument for issuing every time.