Monthly checklist: Costs

Essential steps to go through every month when issuing invoices for Costs.

Monthly Checklist

Before issuing Costs invoices for a new month, go over these questions:

Have you had a new Rental Contract(s) this month?
If yes:
– Add new Rental Contracts
– Link Meters to Contracts/Tenants (if Automatic meter linking is not activated)
– Set the Exceptions in Contract terms
– Fill in the Readings

Have some of the current Rental Contracts ended?
If yes:
– End Rental Contracts by adding an Actual end date in the Rental Contract.

Have there been any Space changes in existing Tenants/Contracts?
If yes:
– Add/remove Spaces from a Rental Contract (by creating a new line with the date and Spaces that should be included in the Rental Contract)
– Apply Space size changes in the Space card (with the date and a new Space size)
– Add/remove Spaces from Space sets if needed (Building Settings > Space sets)

Have you had a new Service/Cost for Tenants this month?
If yes:
– Add a new Cost (Building settings > Enabling cost types for period)
– Add and link Meters if applicable (Building settings > Enable meters)
– Set the Exceptions for the new Cost type (Contract terms)
– Fill in initial Readings if applicable (Readings section)

Have you added a new Meter(s) in any Buildings?
If yes:
– Enable a new Meter(s) (Building settings > Enable meters)
– Link Meters to Contracts/Tenants (manually in Contract terms or automatically using Automatic meter linking)
– Fill in initial Readings (Readings section)

Check out the Shortcuts at the end of this article for more info.

Step by step guide for Monthly Activities

1. Create period for current month

▶ Costs

Start by going to Costs > select the relevant Property-Building set (if a Property is not selected in the Main filter), click +ADD NEW to add a first period line or CREATE NEXT PERIOD (if this is a following period):

When you CREATE NEXT PERIOD, Readings and Bills will be automatically copied from the previous period

Select the current period and move to the next step.

2. Add/import readings for this period

Add or import Readings for the selected period. Use our complete guide if you do this for the first time: Importing Readings: step by step.
Review Readings and Usage after the import. For a more convenient overview, the program automatically marks in Red the values that should be reviewed and fixed in case of a mistake. In the column Previous usage difference the program marks in Yellow the values that exceed 20%.

In Costs (Electricity, Water, etc.) Totals Usage, we recommend adding consumption from the Invoice received from the Service provider. This will make the price accurate, as the Rate is determined by dividing the Total Bill Amount by the Total Usage.

If the information about Current Readings is collected manually rather than imported automatically, it may have slightly different figures

Do not forget to add manually the Previous Readings for new Tenants' meters or new Costs. The same applies if Tenants change in the middle of the month — you need to correct readings for both Tenants in order to allocate correct consumption. The program will automatically create two lines with the same Meter name so you can split the meter usage accordingly.

3. Add Bills

Moderan automatically copies all lines from the previous month into the Bills. You only need to update the invoice numbers and insert amounts from the Invoices.

If there are new Cost types created for this period, add new lines using the +ADD NEW button.

Copied lines are marked in Yellow. When amounts from the Bills are entered they become white

Add any exceptional, one-time invoices you might have this month. You may delete the yellow lines for one-time fees copied from the previous period.
If you had any Bills for direct Tenant services (e.g. office space cleaning, repair works, security on-call check, etc.), select the Rental contract to which this cost applies — this line will appear directly on the Tenant invoice and will not participate in cost calculations.

Once the Bills and Total Usage (in Readings) are entered, Moderan automatically calculates the Rates and distributes the Costs for each Tenant according to the rules set in Building settings and Contract Terms.

4. Review results

You can check calculations in the Profit, Summary and Cost calculation reports.

Profit report gives an overview of
- Income (how much of the Cost has been allocated to the Tenants),
- Cost (total amounts from the Invoices),
- Conversion (the amount of the Cost that went into Conversion),
- Difference (between Income and Cost), and % (the percentage expression of Difference).
Summary report gives an overview of each Cost distribution (General and Individual) to each tenant and Totals.

Cost calculation report is used as a preview of Tenant Invoices. It is grouped by Tenant and all Cost lines are listed for each Tenant.

5. Send out Cost invoices to the accounting

If you are using an integration with accounting software, in the Cost calculation section simply click Send to [your accounting software] and check the Integration log if any error occurred.

In case invoice(s) did not go through and you are not able to resolve the issue, please contact us and provide the property name and error description.

Shortcuts

Rental Contracts: add/end

One of the basic things to check each month: are your Contracts up to date? Before you can start Costs calculations, make sure all of your Rental Contracts are up to date.

How to check Contracts state

Using Reports > Tenant Changes, check if all new contracts have been entered.
Using Reports > Contract Deadlines, check Contracts with an End of Rental Period mark: finish the ones that actually ended, or update deadlines for the still active ones.

To add a Rental Contract

Go to Contracts > Rental Contracts.
Click +ADD NEW.
Fill in the Rental Contract details. Use our guides if needed: Rental Contracts.

To end a Rental Contract

Go to Contracts > Rental Contracts.
Select the Contract you need to end.
Click Edit and add the Actual End Date. This Contract will be available in Archive and will not be displayed as active from the date entered.

Rental space changes

For Costs calculation it is important to ensure the Rental space m² are up-to-date for each Tenant, as this is directly linked to the Costs calculations.

Go to Costs > Summary and check the column Rental Space for each Tenant and Total m².
If there were any changes in the Spaces leased out in this period, ensure the Space size change is reflected in Assets > Spaces > relevant Space card. For how to correctly change the Space size, please check the article Spaces: Basics.
If the Tenant acquired or dropped some Spaces, the changes should be reflected in Contracts > Rental Contract > Rental Space table:

New Cost

You have a new service or cost this month that you need to bill to your Tenants.

Add the new Cost type in the Admin section (Admin > Costs settings).
Enable this Cost for the current period in Costs > Building Settings. This is done only once — it will be automatically transferred to the next periods.

If you are using an accounting software integration, you must add an accounting code for each new Cost type in use. You can do that in Admin > Integrations.

Go to Contract Terms to manage Exceptions for the new Cost type (or if the tenant renegotiated exceptions).

To get more insights about General Cost exceptions and how to manage them, please check the article Contract terms.

New Meters

A new Meter has been installed to one of the Spaces or Buildings in the current period.

It should be added in Building settings > Enable meters.
If Automatic Meter Linking to Rental Contracts is switched on, the new Meter will be linked automatically if the Tenant's Space is specified.

For a full guide please read Enabling Meters in Moderan.

Explore more articles in the Moderan Knowledge Base. If you have any questions or need assistance, feel free to contact us via chat or at support@moderansolutions.com.

Search