Month-end close
The order to close a month in — interest, statements, payouts, and what each step locks.
Closing a month is mostly about doing things in an order where nothing has to be undone. The constraint is simple: sending a statement locks that period’s interest, so everything that could change the balance has to happen first.
The order
- Record every payment received.
- Record every expense incurred on an owner’s behalf.
- Issue credit notes for anything found wrong.
- Check the interest.
- Issue tenant statements.
- Issue owner statements and record the payouts.
1–3. Everything that moves a balance
Record payments or import them, then chase what has not arrived — see chasing a late payer.
Record expenses against the unit they belong to. An expense on the wrong unit produces two wrong owner statements.
Issue any credit notes now, while their effect on interest can still be absorbed.
Crediting a charge removes it from what interest accrues on. Do it before the statement goes out and the figures simply come out right; do it after, and the correction shows up as an extra line on next month’s account.
4. Check the interest
Open each lease with an overdue balance and look at its Interest tab while the figure is still provisional.
Adjust or waive anything that should not stand — a payment that arrived on time but reflected late, an arrangement you agreed. A waiver is recorded rather than deleted, which is what you want when it is queried later.
5. Tenant statements
Issue each tenant statement. This is the lock.
After this, that period’s interest is fixed. If you are unsure about a figure, resolve it before you send rather than planning to fix it afterwards.
6. Owner statements and payouts
Issue each owner statement — per unit, because that is where the books live.
Check that rent collected, less expenses and your fee, gives the payout you are about to make. Then pay the owners and record the disbursements.
If a scheme has levies
Reconcile the levy statement against what the body corporate charged. A gap is money coming out of someone — finding it monthly is the difference between a query and a year-end problem.
Related
- How late-payment interest worksInterest is worked out automatically, stays editable while it is provisional, and locks in when you send the statement.
- StatementsA running account over time — everything charged, everything paid, and the balance. An invoice is one entry on it.
- Expenses and disbursementsWhat reduces an owner's payout — costs incurred on their behalf, your fee, and the payment you make to them.
- The monthly cycleGenerate, review, approve, record payments, issue statements — the same five steps every month.