Help
Help
Last updated 4 October 2026
Short answers to what people actually ask. If yours is not here, write to support@ratably.io — a person answers, usually the same business day.
Straight answers
Is this legal or accounting advice?
No. Ratably is software, not a law firm or a CPA firm. It compares the numbers on your statement with the words in your lease and shows its work. What you do with that is your call, ideally with your attorney, CPA, or broker.
What happens to my lease?
We never store the PDF. Each time you upload, you choose what we keep from it: nothing, or the figures your check uses. Whatever you keep, you can reopen or delete from your account at any time. To read a lease we send its text to Google's Gemini model on Google Cloud in the US, which does not train on it and, for our account, does not log or cache it. The privacy policy has the detail.
Which measurement standard do you use?
We use the square footages your lease states; we do not apply a measurement standard of our own. If your lease names one, such as a BOMA standard by year, the areas it states are the ones measured under it.
Will my landlord know?
Not unless you tell them. Most leases give tenants a right to review the reconciliation. Asking for backup is routine, and the draft letter is polite and specific.
Can you read a scanned lease?
Yes. Scanned PDFs work too; a clean scan reads best. Upload it the same way as a text PDF, up to 150 pages, including for your free Discovery check. For the free 60-second check, which does not take an upload, paste the clauses that state your square footage and your cap into its paste box instead: we look only for the tenant name, square footage and cap, and put them in the check. Enter the other figures yourself.
Getting started
What do I need before I begin?
Your lease with any amendments, as a PDF — scanned PDFs work too, up to 150 pages; a clean scan reads best — and the landlord's year-end reconciliation statement for the year you want checked. You type the statement's figures into the check; we do not read the statement itself.
Do I need an account to try it?
No. The 60-second check runs on our server, stores nothing, and needs nothing from you. An account is needed to upload a lease and check it (including your free Discovery check), and to download the report and draft letter. We don't keep reports or letters, so save them when you make them.
My lease is a scan. What now?
Scanned PDFs work too; upload it the same way as a text PDF, including for your free Discovery check. A clean, straight scan reads best — if a page is blurry, skewed, or very low-resolution, it may read less reliably, so check what comes back against your own copy. For the free 60-second check, which does not take an upload, paste the clauses that state your square footage and your cap into its paste box instead — we look only for the tenant name, square footage and cap, and put them in the check; enter the other figures yourself.
Reading your reconciliation
Where do I find the review clause?
Look for a heading like "audit", "review of statements", "tenant's right to audit", or "examination of records", usually near the operating-expense section. It gives a number of days, counted from when the statement was delivered. Most leases allow somewhere between 30 and 180 days.
What is a cap, and why does it matter?
Many leases limit how much controllable expenses can rise year over year. The limit may be cumulative or not, and may apply only to some lines. Getting the type wrong is one of the most common ways a statement ends up too high.
What counts as a capital item?
A roof, a parking lot resurfacing, a new HVAC unit. If your lease allows them to be passed through at all, it usually requires them to be amortised over their useful life rather than billed in the year they were paid for.
I rent in Texas. Can a tenant protest the property tax?
This property looks like it is in Texas. If your lease makes you reimburse the owner for property taxes, Texas law gives a tenant in that position three rights.
- If the owner does not protest the appraised value, you may. Only one protest is allowed for the property, by the owner or by you. (Tax Code 41.413(b))
- The owner must send you a copy of the notice of appraised value within 10 days of receiving it. You may also ask the appraisal district to send it, or look the value up on the district's website. (Tax Code 41.413(d), (e), (f))
- You may name an agent to act for you. (Tax Code 41.413(g))
This is general information about Texas law and the calendar, the same for every Texas property. Ratably is not a property tax consultant, does not advise on whether to protest or on value, and does not file protests. Ratably is software, not a law firm or a CPA firm. Your notice and your appraisal district's instructions govern, and the dates for your property can differ. More from the Texas Comptroller: https://comptroller.texas.gov/taxes/property-tax/protests/
The dates for the coming year are shown with your check when the property is in Texas.
Running a check
How long does it take?
Lease upload and processing can take a few minutes, please be patient.
What if it finds nothing?
Then nothing in the five tests came back outside the lease terms you entered. That does not mean the whole statement is right: costs your lease excludes, taxes, insurance, and the rest of the statement were not tested. We do not refund a completed check for finding nothing: the work to produce that answer was done, and a clean result on the five tests is a real answer.
Can I trust the findings?
Check them. Every finding shows its arithmetic and names the kind of lease provision the check relies on, precisely so you can verify it against your lease rather than take our word. The extraction is done by an AI model and can misread a clause.
The letter
What is the draft letter?
A polite, specific request to your landlord for the backup behind the statement — the invoices and calculations for the lines you are asking about. You edit it and send it under your own name. It is not a legal demand, and we are not your attorney.
Billing
Does anything renew?
No. Every purchase is one-time. Pack credits last 12 months; a single check's credit does not expire.
Where are my receipts?
Stripe emails a receipt and an invoice for every payment. Signed in, "Manage billing" on the Billing page opens the billing portal, where the invoice history lives.
How do I get a refund?
See the refund policy. Failed checks are refunded without argument.
Account and data
I have forgotten my password.
Use "Forgot your password?" in the sign-in box. The link is good for an hour and can be used once. Resetting signs out everywhere else, which is the point of resetting it.
What happens to my lease after the check?
The PDF is never stored, unless you choose to share one for accuracy testing (see below). Before you upload, you choose what we keep from it: nothing, or the figures your check uses. What you keep is under Your account, where you can reopen it to check next year's statement, or delete it. See the privacy policy for exactly what is kept and for how long, and the subprocessor list for who else touches it.
What happens if I share my lease for accuracy testing?
Separately from the choice above, the upload card offers an optional "Help us measure accuracy" section. If you tick both boxes there, we keep a copy of that lease and, if you attach it, the landlord's year-end statement, to test how accurately Ratably checks a reconciliation — never for our own statistics and never to train any AI model. Before we use it, we redact names, addresses, account numbers and anything else that identifies you, your landlord or your property, on hardware we own, using a model that runs there; the document is never sent to a cloud service for redaction. We keep the original only until it is redacted, 30 days at most, and the redacted copy for up to 3 years. You get one free check for opting in, and can withdraw at any time from your account page or by emailing legal@ratably.io; we delete your copies within 30 days. Many leases restrict sharing their terms — check your lease's confidentiality clause, or ask your landlord, before ticking the boxes. Skipping this never affects your check.
How do I delete my account?
Sign in, open Your account, and choose Close my account. You will need your password. Or write to support@ratably.io from the account's address.