Add a metered charge and capture readings

Start: the lease, Invoices tab Result: a charge whose amount is backed by the consumption that produced it.

A metered charge records what was consumed, not just what was billed - so a tenant querying a water bill can be shown the reading rather than a bare number.

Setting it up

1. Add a charge on the lease and choose the metered kind.
2. Choose the unit of measure - kl for water, kWh for electricity.
3. Choose how you will capture it:
   • Consumption - you enter the usage directly. This is the common case, because most body-corporate and municipal statements already print it.
   • Readings - you enter the previous and current readings, and the consumption is derived.
4. Save.

Each month

On the lease’s Invoices tab, the meter’s line takes the month’s figures: the previous reading (filled in, and editable), this reading or the units used, the read date and the bill amount. They are saved together when you leave the line, and the invoice updates straight away. A reading waits for its bill amount before it is saved.

The read date fills itself in. It starts as last month’s read date plus one month. If you skipped a month, it moves on to this month. With readings capture, the previous reading also comes from last month’s closing one. Change either if this month was different.

Type the date once. Meters on a property are usually read on the same day, so the first read date you change is copied to that lease’s other meters for the month. This works on the lease’s Invoices tab, the Variable Charges page, the Levies tab and the onboarding form. It only fills meters you haven’t dated yet, so a meter read on a different day keeps its own date.

Pick consumption unless you genuinely read the meters yourself. Demanding two readings when your source document only gives you the usage forces you to invent numbers, which defeats the point of recording them.