#1 GET GOOD RESIDENTS
#2 Incentivise paying early. Discount the amount if paid before the due date, full amount on or after that day.
If you can't incentivise....you need late fees that are fairly significant.
...but if it's not in your lease/rental agreement, it's tough to rewrite after the fact.

Are you collecting late fees? Are they paying before it becomes problematic (as in seriously delinquent and having to file eviction)? If so sounds like just extra income to me..

Try a drawing for them to win something.. like a gift card to dinner, flat screen or tablet .. I did anyone pay there rent from the 1st thru 4th there name will be entered to win a gift card .. it helped .. some people that never paid on time actually paid on time..

Thanks everyone! I loved all the ideas.
My boss did not like the idea of incentivizing rent payments because he doesn’t think people aren’t paying because they don’t want to, rather that they simply can’t. Because of that, we made some adjustments to our income requirements and screening process. We did, however, agree that there should be a thank you gift or something to that effect at renewal because I thought it was important to keep long term residents happy and feeling valued.
I also loved the idea of sitting down with the consistent late payers to see if there is something going on and what we can do to help since it is in both parties benefit.
Thanks again

That eviction notice should be encouragement enough.

We have an early bird special. All residents who submit their payment on or before the 1st is entered into a drawing to win 100 off next months rent.