Charges and charge templates

These two words sound interchangeable and are not. Almost every question about “why did my change not apply” comes down to the difference, so it is worth two minutes.

A charge template lives on a unit. It is a default: this unit normally bills rent of R8 500, water, and a levy contribution. A template never bills anybody.

A charge lives on a lease. It is real. It is what actually appears on an invoice.

The rule: copied, not linked

When you create a lease, the unit’s templates are copied onto it as real charges. From that moment the two are independent:

• Editing a lease charge does not touch the unit’s template.
• Editing a unit template does not touch any lease that already exists.

This is deliberate, and it protects you. If templates stayed linked, correcting a typo on a unit would silently rewrite the rent on a live lease that someone had already negotiated down — and the tenant’s next invoice would change without anyone deciding it should.

So a template change affects future leases only. To change what an existing tenant is billed, edit the charge on their lease.

Which one do I want?

You want to…	Edit the…
Change what one tenant pays	charge, on their lease
Change what new leases on this unit will start with	template, on the unit
Set up a unit before it has a tenant	template, on the unit
Fix a mistake on next month’s invoice	charge, on the lease

Kinds of charge

Fixed — the same every month. Rent is the obvious one. A fixed charge set to zero doesn’t print on the invoice: a line for nothing is just noise.

Variable — the amount changes each month and you enter it per period. A municipal water bill that differs every month is variable. An invoice will not send while a variable charge for that period is still blank, because a blank is not the same as zero — a zero is a valid answer, and the system will accept it if you mean it. A zero prints no line, except on a metered charge with a reading, which keeps its line so the tenant still sees the reading.

Metered — a variable charge that also records the reading behind it, in kℓ or kWh. The consumption is kept with the amount, so a tenant querying a water bill can be shown the reading it came from rather than just a number.

Once-off — a single charge that does not repeat.

A fixed or once-off charge can be negative. It reduces the invoice it lands on, so it suits a standing discount, or a fee raised and deferred on the same invoice: “Admin fee for the renewal” R 395 and “Defer it, payable February” −R 395. To correct an invoice that is already approved, use a credit note instead: an issued invoice never changes. A scheduled charge’s total must stay positive.

Scheduled — a total spread over a set number of months, numbered on each invoice (“2 of 4”). It stops on its own after the last instalment. It is set per lease, never on a unit template: an instalment arrangement is agreed with one tenant.

Calculated — an amount worked out on each invoice from a formula over other charges, such as [Rent] × 10%. A unit template can be calculated too: copied onto a lease, its formula points at that lease’s own charges.

A formula can also read numbers that are not charges:

• A variable — a number you fill in each month, such as the days in a billing period. Type a new name in square brackets, 8,35 × [Days], and saving the charge adds the variable. It is shared: every formula on the lease that uses [Days] reads the one value, which you fill in with the variable charges. A variable is never billed and never appears on the invoice, and an invoice cannot be approved while one is still blank for the month.
• Days in month — the days in the invoice’s month, worked out for you.
• A meter’s units used — for a metered charge, the kℓ or kWh used that month, as opposed to its rand amount.
• A meter’s days since last reading — the days between the meter’s previous reading date and this month’s. Read on 22 February and again on 23 March, that is 29. If the bill states a different number, or it is the meter’s first reading, type it in the Days field beside the read date; leave the field blank to use the dates.

Changing a charge’s kind

You can change the kind of a lease charge in its edit dialog, for example from fixed to variable.

If the charge has never been on an approved invoice, it simply changes. If it has, the months already approved keep the old kind: they were billed that way, and the tenant has those invoices. So the charge stops at the end of the last approved month, and an exact copy with the new kind takes over from the next one, with the same description, owner income, levy and commission settings and the same place on the invoice. Amounts and readings already entered for the months it takes over move to the copy, and so do formulas that use the charge.

Pro-rata

A charge marked pro-ratable is scaled when a lease does not cover the whole month — a tenant who moves in on the 20th is billed for the days they actually had. Rent is normally pro-ratable; a fixed monthly admin fee usually is not. You choose per charge, because both answers are right in different cases.

Owner charges and tenant charges

A charge is borne by either the tenant or the owner. Tenant charges become tenant invoices. Owner charges — management fees, maintenance, levies paid on the owner’s behalf — reduce what the owner is paid out.

Both can be templated on the unit, and they are kept separate throughout, because a tenant must never see what the owner is charged.

Income for the owner

What the tenant pays for a charge is, by default, income for the owner: it appears on the owner’s invoice as its own income line, at the amount the tenant was actually billed. So the owner sees rent, water and refuse as separate lines rather than one lump sum, and a pro-rated or metered amount reaches them exactly as it was billed.

Some charges are the agency’s own, such as a lease renewal admin fee. Untick Income for the owner on that charge and the agency keeps it: the tenant still pays it, but it appears on no owner document. Such a charge is marked Agency keeps in the list.

• Rent is always the owner’s income. There is no switch for it.
• The setting is copied with a template, like everything else on it. The unit’s Charges tab lists the owner’s income from the tenant above the owner’s own charges: from the current lease’s charges when the unit is let, and from the defaults when it is vacant.
• You can also change it from the owner’s side. On the unit’s owner invoice (Owner Statements, the unit’s Invoices tab), each income line has the same tick, and the tenant charges the agency keeps are listed greyed under Kept by the agency. Ticking or unticking one there changes the tenant charge itself, and the owner’s draft updates straight away. The link icon on a line opens the tenant invoice it came from. Once a month’s owner invoice is approved its income is final, so the ticks are shown but can’t be changed for that month.
• The owner’s draft follows the tenant’s invoice. A rent change, a lease edit, a regenerated, deleted or voided tenant invoice all update the owner’s open draft for that month, so a draft is never approved on income the tenant is no longer billed.
• A rebate is negative income. A credit on a charge that is income for the owner (a water over-recovery, say) reduces the owner’s income and is shown under Income, not among the deductions.
• The owner can get a share. While Income for the owner is ticked, an Owner’s share field sets what percentage of the charge is theirs (100% unless you change it). At 90%, a R200 water charge pays the owner R180 and the agency keeps R20; the owner’s invoice says “Water (90% to the owner)”. Rent is always 100%.
• Ad-hoc invoices and credit notes have the same tick. A tenant ad-hoc invoice or credit note is the owner’s income in the month its effective date falls in, unless you untick Income for the owner when you create it. A credit note reduces the owner’s income. If that month’s owner invoice is already approved, the document can’t be added to it: the owner invoice shows it as not paid over, and you void and approve that month again to include it.
• Tenant interest. Late-payment interest charged to a tenant is the owner’s income by default. Once it is final (when the tenant’s statement is sent) it is paid over on the owner’s next invoice as “Interest charged to tenant”. Each unit has its own switch and a from month on its Charges tab, so switching it on never pays over old interest; Settings → Tenant interest sets what a new unit starts with.
• A percentage management fee is a share of the owner’s income, so a charge the agency keeps, or the agency’s part of a shared charge, is not part of it. Nor is a charge with Counts toward commission unticked - which is how a levy starts (tick it if you take commission on it).
• Levies are grouped. On the owner’s invoice the tenant’s levies (charges marked as a levy) are one income line, Levies paid by tenant - rename it in Settings, or per unit on its Charges tab. When the agency pays the body corporate (the unit’s Body corporate paid by), the same total is deducted again under Levies paid to the body corporate, with the owner’s own levies, so the owner only bears their own. Open either group on the owner’s invoice to see what is in it; the tick there is the charge’s levy setting. The owner sees one line per group.
• A calculated management fee (Owner Statements → Fees) works out the fee by month of the lease: a formula for each range of months, using Commission base (rent plus the charges that count toward commission, at their full monthly amount), Lease term and Lease month. For example, half of a 10% annual commission over months 1-2 and the other half over months 3-12. The months start again at 1 for each new term. A lease without an end date has no term, so a formula that uses it can’t be worked out; the owner’s invoice says so.
• In a calculated owner charge, Rent means the rent alone and Income means everything the owner earns from the unit.