Expenses and disbursements

Rent comes in; not all of it goes to the owner. This page is about the difference.

Where a rand goes

rent collected
  − expenses paid on the owner's behalf
  − your management fee
  − levies, where you pay them
  = the owner's payout

Everything on the left of that sum is recorded against a unit, because that is where the books live. An owner with four units has four of these calculations, and a roll-up across them.

Expenses

An expense is a cost incurred on the owner’s behalf: a plumber, a locksmith, a compliance certificate.

Recording one against the unit puts it on the owner’s statement and reduces that unit’s payout. It is not billed to the tenant — unless the tenant is genuinely liable for it, in which case it belongs on their account as a charge or an ad-hoc invoice, not here.

Deciding who bears a cost is the judgement call, and it is yours. Putting a tenant-liable repair through as an owner expense quietly moves money from the owner to the tenant, and neither of them will spot it.

Your management fee

Your fee is an owner charge — defined per unit, like any other. See charges and templates.

Because it is per unit, an owner’s statement shows what each property cost them to manage, rather than one fee against a portfolio.

Disbursements

A disbursement is the payment you actually make to the owner.

You record it after paying them; Domi Vera does not move the money (getting started). Where the payment covers several units, it is allocated across them so each unit’s books stay right.

Owning entities

Where units are held by different trusts or companies, disbursements follow the entity that owns each unit — separate books, separate payouts. See owning entities.

Levies

Levies paid to a body corporate on an owner’s behalf are an owner cost like any other. Reconciling what the body corporate charged against what you passed on is a separate job — see levies.