Issue fees

A fee is a request for money addressed to one unit. In flatnumber you do not type fees one by one: you approve the budget and issue it, and flatnumber works out what each unit owes from the association's shares. Issuing fees is how the budget becomes money the association can collect.

Before you start

• The budget of the year must be approved, with no changes since. If it is not, the Issue fees window tells you and offers to approve it there. See Set your budget.
• The association's shares (how much of each cost falls on each unit) must be confirmed. You find them under the association settings, as Fee shares. Most associations use one key, taken from the deeds; you can add others for costs that are split differently, such as the lift.
• If this is next year's budget, you can issue early: flatnumber uses today's balance as an estimate of the opening balance and says so.

Steps

1. Open Funds (or the bottom of the budget on Decisions) and press Issue fees.
2. Read the sum: the approved expenses, less other income, plus the planned contributions to the funds, plus what is missing to reach the cash cushion, less what was already issued this year. That is the total to issue now. Open See the lines and keys used if you want the detail.
3. Choose the number of instalments, the first due date and the interval between them.
4. Give the fees a name owners will recognise. flatnumber proposes one with the year and, if you use funds, the fund.
5. Check the preview: one line per unit with what it will pay. Tap a unit to see the split by fund.
6. Press Issue and confirm.

What happens next

• flatnumber creates one fee per unit and instalment, each with its amount and due date. If you use several funds, each fund has its own fees.
• Each owner sees the fees under their unit, and their My balance adds up everything they still owe. Owners are not emailed for each instalment.
• The association's balance does not change yet. It changes when you record a payment.
• The budget's Association fees line now shows what has been issued. The year's report compares it with what has been collected.

Good to know

Issue again after a change. If the owners approve a bigger budget during the year, approve the changes and press Issue fees again: only the difference is issued, split between the units as before. A reduction is never turned into a negative fee; what is left over is settled when the year's accounts are closed.

Undo an issue. Under Previous issues in the same window, each issue has Undo, available while none of its fees has been paid. Fees created by an issue cannot be deleted one by one; undo the whole issue and issue again.

Fees for one unit only. Meter readings, a repair charged to a single flat or any other individual charge are recorded as unit charges and issued together as consumption fees, outside the budget split. Owners who pay nothing extra get nothing.

Unpaid fees do not disappear when the year ends. The debt carries on until it is paid or written off.

Common questions

The window says the budget changed since the approval. Someone edited a line, a fund contribution or the cushion after approving. Press Approve the changes in the same window, then issue.

Can two owners share one fee?
The fee belongs to the unit. If the unit has co-owners, they all see it.

How do owners pay?
Outside flatnumber, by bank transfer, cash or however your association collects. You then record the payment against the fee.

I used to issue fees by hand, one unit at a time. That is no longer needed. Set the budget, or use the quick start in Issue fees with one total for the year, and let flatnumber split it.