Add a charge to a lease

Start: the lease, Invoices tab Result: a charge that appears on that lease’s next invoice.

Editing a lease charge affects this tenant only. It does not touch the unit’s template or any other lease.

Steps

1. Open the lease and go to its Invoices tab, on the month the charge starts.
2. Click Add charge, the line just above Total due.
3. Give it a description, its kind and its amount. Active from starts as the month you are looking at.
4. Set whether it is pro-ratable, and save.

The invoice updates straight away. To change a charge later, use the pencil on its line. The bin stops it from the month you are looking at: earlier months, and approved invoices, keep it. Drag a line by its dotted handle to change the order on the invoice.

A month’s figures are typed on the line itself: a variable charge’s amount, and a meter’s readings, read date and bill amount. A calculated charge opens to show how it is worked out.

Which kind?

Kind	Use when
Fixed	the same every month - rent, a fixed admin fee
Variable	the amount changes monthly - a municipal bill
Metered	variable, and you want the reading on record - water, electricity
Once-off	it does not repeat
Scheduled	an agreed amount paid off over several months - backdated utilities, a repair contribution
Calculated	the amount follows other charges - a percentage of rent, a share of two charges

A variable charge blocks the invoice from being issued while its amount for that period is blank. A blank is not a zero - if the answer genuinely is zero, enter 0 and the invoice will issue.

Paying something off over several months

Choose Scheduled, then enter the total, how many months it is spread over, and the first month. The form shows the whole schedule before you save. R555.41 over 4 months bills R138.86 in the first month and R138.85 in each of the other three, so the instalments always add up to the total exactly.

Each month’s invoice numbers its instalment for you, as in “Backdated electricity - 2 of 4”. You don’t edit the description as it goes, and the charge stops on its own after the last month.

• Already part-way through? Set the first month to when instalment 1 was billed. The months before the lease went live count as already billed, and the next invoice carries on from where the arrangement is.
• The tenant leaves early? Ending the lease shows the instalments still to come and bills them all on the final invoice, unless you choose to waive them.

A charge worked out from other charges

Choose Calculated and write a formula. Type numbers and + − × ÷, brackets and %, and put each charge in square brackets - or type @ and pick it from the list, or click it under Insert:

([Rent] + [Water levy]) × 10%

Underneath, the form works the formula out on this month’s invoice, showing each charge’s value and the result, so you see the figure before you save.

It is recalculated on every invoice from what that invoice actually bills. In a part month the rent is part of a month, so a percentage of rent follows it. A charge that isn’t on that month’s invoice counts as R 0,00. The invoice shows only the charge’s name, not the formula.

A charge used in a formula can’t be deleted while the formula uses it. Deactivate it instead (it then counts as R 0,00), or change the formula first.

For something genuinely one-off and unrelated to the monthly cycle, an ad-hoc invoice may fit better - see invoices.