Income, Expenditure and General Transactions
The application supports management of different types of
transaction that may occur during the running of your
business as described in the following sections:
Common Transaction
Information
All types of transactions share a set of common
attributes:
| Attribute |
Description |
| Actual Date Paid |
The actual date the financial transaction took
place. |
| Reporting Date |
The date on which to report the transaction on
balances and statements. This is optional and if not
specified, the transaction is reported on the actual
date paid. Specifying an alternative reporting date
is particularly useful for aligning income transactions
more accurately with payment due entries on a
tenancy balance.
|
| External Reference |
A reference value that you can optionally record for the transaction. This field is only
displayed if External Reference fields are enabled within your Business Setup
settings. See the help content for
the organization dialog
for further details.
|
| Amount |
The actual amount for the financial transaction.
- For income transactions, a positive value
means an amount was received from a tenant,
whereas a negative value means an amount was
refunded to a tenant (e.g. for a deposit).
- For expenditure transactions, a positive value
means an amount was paid to a supplier, whereas
a negative value means an amount was refunded
from a supplier to your business.
|
| Financial Period |
The financial period against which to record the
transaction. This is normally determined
automatically based upon the actual date paid (see
notes below for how this works). However, you can
select an alternative financial period if you wish.
You can view or edit the full list of available
financial periods by clicking on the Admin
link at the top of the page and then clicking on
the Financial Periods link.
|
| Payment Type |
The type of payment, e.g. Cash, Cheque, etc. |
Notes
|
Any general notes or comments for the
transaction.
|
Summary Line
|
A short summary of the transaction
which will be displayed on statements. If this is
not specified, the system will choose a suitable
default value. |
From Account
|
If account tracking is enabled then
you can specify the bank or cash account from which
the transaction is paid. The list of values will
include the known accounts for the source financial
party. If no accounts have been explicitly set up
then the system will automatically generate a
default one.
|
To Account
|
If account tracking is enabled then
you can specify the bank or cash account to which
the transaction is paid. The list of values will
include the known accounts for the target financial
party. If no accounts have been explicitly set up
then the system will automatically generate a
default one. |
| Show VAT Fields |
If VAT tracking is enabled, this
option controls whether or not VAT fields are
displayed. If VAT fields are not displayed, then any
new record will have zero VAT recorded for it. |
| Net Amount |
If VAT tracking is enabled, then you
can specify the Net Amount for the record (i.e. the
amount prior to VAT being added). |
| VAT Rate |
If VAT tracking is enabled, then you
can specify the VAT Rate for the record. |
| VAT Amount |
If VAT tracking is enabled, then you
can specify the amount of VAT - this is
automatically calculated from the Net Amount and VAT
Rate. |
| VAT Classification |
If VAT tracking is enabled, then this field allows you to override the way
in which the system classifies the transaction for VAT reporting purposes. There
are 4 possible values:
-
<Default>: The system will determine the VAT classification from
the type of transaction and whether your business is the target or source financial party.
Effectively, this means Income transactions to your business are treated as Sales and
Expenditure transactions for your business are treated as Purchases.
-
Excluded: The system will exclude the transaction from VAT calculations.
-
Sale: The system will include the transaction as a Sale in VAT calculations.
-
Purchase: The system will include the transaction as a Purchase in VAT calculations.
Notes:
-
Transactions where your business is neither the source nor the target financial party
will be excluded from VAT statements. This can typically occur when you are
managing property on behalf of another landlord and you are recording
income or expenditure on behalf of that landlord.
-
Income transactions which are for Non Taxable charge types (e.g. Deposits)
will be excluded from VAT statements.
|
Notes:
- The automatic assignment of financial periods will
attempt to find an open financial period that contains
the date of the transaction being created. If it cannot
find a suitable financial period then it will try to
find the nearest available open financial period and you
will see a warning message displayed to indicate that a
non-default financial period could not be found, as
follows: Unable to find an open financial period for
date <date>. The transaction has been assigned
to financial period <period-name>. If you
think the warning was incorrectly displayed then you
should check:
- (a) the date with which the transaction was saved,
- (b) there exists a financial period for the
specified date,
- (c) the financial period is open.
- The list of values for the account fields will be
restricted to those accounts which apply to the relevant
source/target financial parties. For example, the source
account for an expenditure record can only be an account
that belongs to the landlord that owns the property in
question or an account for your own business (as you may
be managing the property). A similar constraint is
applied to the target account for income records.
- See the Landlords topic
for further information on account tracking.
- See the Finance &
Taxation topic for further information on VAT
tracking.
- The system will, by default, remember the last used
transaction category and VAT rate for each supplier and
will default them for future transactions. This
behaviour can be disabled or enabled through your
preferences. See the settings
help topic for more details.
Attachments
The Attachments link at the top of the dialog displays the
file attachments that are stored against the record. This is
useful when, for example, storing digital scans of receipts
against expenditure. For further details see the attachments help topic.
Income Record
Each income record describes a financial transaction
which has occurred against a tenancy. It's name is
slightly misleading as it's also used to record refunds
(e.g. deposits) as well as income (e.g. rent). In addition
to the common transaction information described above, an
income transaction has the following attributes:
| Attribute |
Description |
| Tenancy |
The tenancy for which the income transaction
applies. |
| Charge |
The specific tenancy charge for which the
transaction applies. It's important to ensure that
transactions are recorded against the correct charge
(for example a deposit charge versus a recurring
rent charge) so tenancy balances are calculated
correctly. |
When creating a new income record it is also
possible to specify a management fee to record as an
expenditure item along with the income record. This makes
it much easier to record rent income which is received
through a management agent and which has a fee deducted by
the agent. To record a management fee, click on the
checkbox 'Record a management fee' and specify the fee
details:
| Attribute |
Description |
| Fee |
The amount of the fee, specified as either a fixed
value or a percentage. If a percentage is specified,
then the actual amount of the resulting expenditure
record is calculated automatically. |
| Agent |
The management agent to whom the fee was paid.
This can be chosen from the list of suppliers. |
| Category |
The transaction category under which to record the
fee. |
Notes:
- It is possible to set up default fee percentages and
agents for each portfolio or property unit. See the Properties help page for
further details.
- It is possible to specify the default category to use
for fees as part of your business setup. See the Business Setup help
for details.
- The option to record a management fee is only
available when recording a new income record. It is not
available when editing income records.
- The resulting expenditure record is independent of the
income record from which it was created. If you delete
the income record then you should make sure to delete
the expenditure record created for the management fee.
Similarly, if you change the amount on the income record
then you need to ensure the amount on the generated
expenditure record is correct.
Expenditure Record
Each expenditure record describes a financial transaction
which has occurred against a property unit. In addition to
the common transaction information described above, an
expenditure transaction has the following attributes:
| Attribute |
Description |
| Property Unit |
The property unit or portfolio for which the
expenditure transaction applies. |
| Supplier |
The supplier with whom the expenditure was
incurred. You can view or edit the full list of
available suppliers by clicking on the Admin
link at the top of the page and then clicking on the
Suppliers link. If the supplier has a
default expenditure category associated with it then
it will be automatically retrieved and set for the
expenditure record.
|
| Category |
The transaction category for the transaction. You
can view or edit the full list of available
transaction categories by clicking on the Admin
link at the top of the page and then clicking on the
Transaction Categories link. |
| Tax Category |
The tax category for the transaction. It's
important to ensure this is correct as it effects
the calculation of tax liabilities on the tax
worksheet. You can view or edit the full list of
available tax categories by clicking on the Admin
link at the top of the page and then clicking on the
Tax Categories link. |
It is also possible to split an expenditure record across
two financial periods, for example, to properly account
for an insurance payments which covers the period from
January to December and, hence, spans two financial
periods. To do this click on the checkbox 'Split across
two financial periods' within the Options on the right
hand side of the dialog box. This will display additional
entry fields for both the Amount and Financial Period so
you can specify how much of the expenditure's value goes
against each of the two financial periods.
General
Transaction Record
A General Transaction record is used to describe all
other types of transactions that can occur. In addition to
the common transaction information described above, a
General Transaction has the following attributes:
| Attribute |
Description |
| Property Unit |
The property unit or portfolio for which the
transaction applies. |
| From |
The financial party from which the transaction is
paid. This can be your business, a tenancy or any
organization such as a supplier, an agent or a
landlord.
|
To
|
The financial party to which the
transaction is paid. This can be your business, a
tenancy or any organization such as a supplier, an
agent or a landlord. |
| Category |
The transaction category for the transaction. You
can view or edit the full list of available
transaction categories by clicking on the Admin
link at the top of the page and then clicking on the
Transaction Categories link. |
| Tax Category |
The tax category for the transaction. It's
important to ensure this is correct as it effects
the calculation of tax liabilities on the tax
worksheet. You can view or edit the full list of
available tax categories by clicking on the Admin
link at the top of the page and then clicking on the
Tax Categories link. |
Examples of usages for General Transactions:
- To record Income from a third party other than a
tenancy:
- Set the From field to refer to the source of the
income
- Set the To field to refer to the receiver of the
income (typically your own business or a client
landlord that you manage)
- To record a Refund to a third party:
- Set the From field to refer to the financial party
making the refund (typically your own business or a
client landlord that you manage)
- Set the To field to refer to the third party to whom
the refund is being made
Additional notes:
- General Transactions will not appear on tenancy
balances. If you wish to see a transaction there, then
make use of Income records (either with a positive value
for rental income, or a negative value for funds being
returned to the tenancy).
- Refer to the Transactions
in Statements section for guidelines on how the
types of transaction appear in the different types of
statements.
Recurring Expenditure
If you have expenditure which occurs on a
regular basis then you can set these up as Recurring
Expenditure which will be automatically recorded for you.
To do this, click on the Admin link at the top of
the page and then click on the Recurring Expenditure
link. See the Recurring
Expenditure help section for further details.
Transactions in
Statements
It's important to understand the way in which the value
of transactions are treated in the different types of
financial statements and reports. The guidelines are as
follows:
Transaction Type
|
Regular Statements |
Landlord
Statement
|
| Income |
- Positive values are treated as credits to your
business
- Negative values are treated as debits to your
business
|
- Positive values are treated as credits for the
client landlord that owns the property unit of
the tenancy.
- Negative values are treated as debits for the
client landlord that owns the property unit of
the tenancy.
|
| Expenditure |
- Positive values are treated as debits to your
business
- Negative values are treated as credits to your
business
|
- Positive values are treated as debits for the
client landlord that owns the property unit for
the transaction.
- Negative values are treated as credits for the
client landlord that owns the property unit for
the transaction.
|
General Transaction
|
- Positive values are treated as credits to your
business
- Negative values are treated as debits to your
business
|
- Positive values are treated as credits for the
client landlord that owns the property unit for
the transaction.
- Negative values are treated as debits for the
client landlord that owns the property unit for
the transaction.
|
|
