Configuring Billing: Utilities, Recurring Charges, and Generating Bills
How to set up water, electricity, and garbage rates per property, add one-off or automated recurring charges like parking or security fees, record meter readings, and generate a month's bills in one pass — with a preview before anything is committed.
What you'll learn
- Where to configure per-property water, electricity, and garbage rates
- The difference between reading frequencies (None, Ad-hoc, scheduled) and what each one means for backlog warnings
- How to set up a recurring charge like a parking or security fee, and who it applies to
- How to record a water meter reading and see the billed amount calculated automatically
- How to generate a full month of bills for a property in one action, with a preview before committing
- How to read the Payments dashboard once bills are out: revenue, outstanding balances, and per-tenant breakdowns
Step by step
Set property-level utility rates
Finance → Utilities → Property Rates is where water, electricity, and garbage charges are configured per property. Set the water rate (KES per m³), an electricity flat fee (KES per month), and a garbage fee (KES per month), with a toggle to enable or disable garbage billing entirely.
Choose a reading frequency
Each utility has a reading frequency: None (flat rate) means no meter readings are required and the flat fee shown is for reference only — to actually bill it monthly, set it up under Recurring Charges instead. Ad-hoc means readings are recorded whenever needed with no backlog warnings generated. Scheduled frequencies expect a reading on a regular cadence and will flag a backlog if one is missed.
Add a recurring charge
Finance → Recurring Charges → New Recurring Charge lets you set up an automated fee — parking, security, anything property-specific. Pick which properties it applies to (select all or specific ones), give it a name and optional description, a category, an amount in KES, a frequency (e.g. monthly) and billing day, and whether it applies to all units, specific units, or specific unit types.
Record a water meter reading
Finance → Utilities → Tenant Utilities lists each active tenant's water status — Current or Pending for the period. Click Add Water (or Water, for a tenant with no reading yet) to open Record Water Reading: set the billing period, the actual reading date, the previous and current meter readings in m³, and the rate per m³. The consumption and amount for this reading are calculated live before you save, and it compounds into that period's running total if a reading already exists.
Generate a month of bills
Finance → Bills → Generate Bills opens a modal showing exactly what will be included: monthly rent from each lease, water charges, garbage fees, and any recurring charges. Select the properties, pick the month and year, then Preview Bills.
Review the Bill Generation Preview before committing
The preview breaks down every tenant's bill line by line — rent, water, electricity, garbage, and recurring charges each shown separately, plus any one-off fees like a parking fee tagged underneath. A tenant who already has a bill for that period is clearly marked Already Exists so you don't double-bill them. Generate Bills only creates the new ones.
Track what's owed on the Payments dashboard
Finance → Payments shows total revenue, this month's revenue, and total outstanding across all tenants, plus a breakdown by payment method. The Outstanding filter lists exactly which tenants owe what, split between unpaid rent/bills and uncollected deposits, so nothing falls through the cracks after bills go out.
Tips
- If a utility's reading frequency is set to None, remember the flat fee shown is reference-only — nothing bills automatically from that screen. Set up a matching Recurring Charge if you want it to actually appear on tenants' bills every month.
- Run Generate Bills even if you're not sure whether bills already exist for the month — the preview clearly flags any tenant who'd be double-billed as Already Exists, so it's safe to re-run.
- Record water readings as soon as they're taken. Ad-hoc frequency won't warn you about a backlog, so it's easy to forget a unit if you wait.
Key terms
How often a utility expects a meter reading per property — None (flat fee, reference only), Ad-hoc (recorded whenever needed, no warnings), or a scheduled cadence that triggers backlog warnings if missed.
An automated fee — parking, security, or any other property-specific cost — configured once with an amount, frequency, and billing day, then applied automatically to the units it targets every billing cycle.
The review step shown before bills are actually created, listing every tenant's charges line by line and flagging anyone who already has a bill for that period so they aren't billed twice.
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