Use case
Housing association management software for shared costs and member transparency
An association spends most of its administrative effort on two things: dividing costs that belong to everyone, and explaining the division to people who pay it. This handles both from the same record.
- Common spaces are first-class records: courtyard, parking lot, land lot, building, gangway and staircase, each with its own area
- Allocation formulas are configurable per cost group — per square metre, per person, per unit, per consumption share or a custom expression
- Every member can receive a branded PDF rebilling sheet showing how each figure was derived
- Meter-reading and consumption timelines make year-on-year comparison a lookup rather than an exercise
Allocation
Dividing costs that arrive as one invoice
The supplier sends one document for the whole building. The association owes each member a defensible share of it. These are the pieces that turn the first into the second.
Configurable allocation keys
A formula engine evaluates the key per cost group: per square metre, per person, per unit, per consumption share, or a custom expression for the case your statutes describe and no standard key covers.
Supplier and compound invoices
Book the supplier document that has to be distributed, including compound invoices where one document covers several utilities or several periods, with the scan attached to the record.
Standing charges kept separate
Unmetered consumption positions hold basic fees and flat components, so fixed costs are allocated on their own key instead of being folded into consumption and quietly distorting it.
Meters and sub-meters
Where sub-meters exist, measured consumption is deducted before the remainder is shared. Where they do not, the whole pool is distributed on the configured key. Both cases live in the same reconciliation.
Grouped rebilling entries
Entries are grouped by utility type and rebilling mode, so heating, water, electricity and building services can each follow the treatment agreed for them rather than one blanket rule.
Reconciliation dashboard
The rebilling dashboard shows which cost groups are complete, which are waiting on a reading or a supplier invoice, and which are ready to issue. Closing a period stops being a memory exercise.
The document
The rebilling sheet that ends the argument
Most disputes in an association are not about the amount. They are about not being able to see where the amount came from. A total on a payment request invites suspicion; a derivation does not.
The per-client rebilling sheet is a branded PDF, generated per member from the same records the invoice was generated from. It shows the cost pool, the allocation key applied to it, the readings or areas that fed the key, and the resulting share. Every figure on the sheet traces back to something recorded, dated and attributable.
Because it is produced by the system rather than assembled by hand, it does not disagree with the invoice, and it can be reproduced years later for a member who joined after the period in question.
Branding is per account: logo, colour scheme and font sizes on the generated PDF. Statements can leave from your own domain through per-account SMTP, so the association's correspondence looks like the association's correspondence.
Comparison
Multi-year consumption comparison, without rebuilding last year
The most common question at a members' meeting is whether this year is worse than last year. Answering it well requires that last year still exists in a comparable form.
Readings kept as a series
Meter readings are dated records in a series, not a current value that gets overwritten. Every period keeps the readings that produced it, including readings taken when a meter was replaced.
Meter-reading timelines
Each meter has a timeline of readings and derived consumption. Put two heating periods beside each other and the difference between a colder winter and a leaking riser becomes visible.
Consumption reports
Consumption per meter, per unit and per site across periods. Useful before a members' meeting, and useful when one owner insists their share has doubled.
Revenue and cost timelines
Revenue timelines can be viewed globally, grouped by property group, grouped by legal entity, or grouped by both — relevant where an association administers more than one block.
Periods that stay reproducible
The allocation formula is stored with the entry it produced. A statement from three years ago still explains itself under the rules that applied then, not the rules that apply now.
Cached dashboards
Chart dashboards are cached and heavy work runs in background jobs, so a large association's history opens at a usable speed rather than timing out on the way to a meeting.
Answering members
What you can hand a member who asks
Transparency in an association is mostly logistics: having the document, having it in the right language, and being able to let someone look without letting them change anything.
- The derivation, in writing — a per-member rebilling sheet PDF showing pool, key, inputs and share. It answers the question in the form the question was asked — a document, not a phone call
- Read-only access — roles cover admin, supervisor and read-only, plus a support role. A board member can be given sight of the records without the ability to alter a reading or reissue a statement
- Supporting documents in place — supplier invoices, contracts, correspondence and photographs are stored on the entity they belong to in S3-backed storage, so the evidence sits with the figure rather than in someone's inbox
- Audit comments on records — comments record why a manual adjustment was made, next to the adjustment. This matters when the administrator who made it is not the one facing the members a year later
- Deadline reminders — notification events send email reminders before contract end and renewal deadlines, issued by background workers, with an audit trail of what was sent and to whom
- Three interface languages — English, German and Romanian. Mixed-nationality ownership is normal in EU blocks, and the interface should not be the obstacle
The model, in numbers
What the association layer actually contains
Not market claims — the shape of the data model you would be working in.
Scope, candidly
What this covers, and what it does not
This is a portfolio and rebilling back office, not an association governance package. Knowing the boundary before you buy is more useful than discovering it afterwards.
| Task | In the product | Notes |
|---|---|---|
| Modelling shared parts, units and rooms with areas | Core portfolio management, always included | |
| Allocating supplier costs to members on configurable keys | Utility Billing / Cost Reallocation module | |
| Per-member derivation sheet as a branded PDF | Generated from the same records as the invoice | |
| Multi-year consumption and revenue comparison | Timelines and reports; analyses in the Investment & Business module | |
| Issuing invoices and posting to accounting | Via the invoicing and accounting connectors | |
| Contracts with occupants, including gratuitous use | Rental contracts, bailment agreements, early termination | |
| Members' meetings, agendas, minutes, voting | Keep these where they are; the product has no governance module | |
| Reserve fund accounting and association bookkeeping | Handled in your accounting system, which the connector feeds | |
| Maintenance ticketing or a resident mobile app | Facility management covers the asset register, not ticketing |
Facility Management is available as a module and is the newest area of the product. It provides a typed technical asset register per building, asset connections, service partners with agreed price lists, and documents per asset. It does not provide ticketing or a mobile app.
Questions
Asked by boards and administrators
Can the software allocate shared building costs to individual owners?
Yes. Supplier invoices are recorded as cost pools and distributed through rebilling entries, each with its own configurable allocation formula. Keys can be per square metre, per person, per unit, per consumption share, or a custom expression. Metered consumption is deducted before the remainder is shared, and standing charges are allocated separately.
How do members see how their share was calculated?
Each member can receive a per-client rebilling sheet as a branded PDF, generated from the same records as the invoice. It shows the cost pool, the allocation key, the readings or areas that fed it, and the resulting share. It can be reproduced later, including for periods that predate a member's arrival.
Can we compare consumption between years?
Yes. Meter readings are stored as a dated series rather than a single current value, and every meter has a reading and consumption timeline. Consumption reports cover meters, units and sites across periods, and revenue timelines can be grouped by property group, by legal entity, or by both.
Does it handle members' meetings, minutes or voting?
No. This is a back office for portfolio data, cost allocation and invoicing, not an association governance package. There is no meeting management, no voting and no reserve fund bookkeeping. The accounting connector feeds your accounting system, which is where association bookkeeping belongs.
Can board members be given access without being able to change anything?
Yes. Roles include admin, supervisor and read-only, plus a support role. Read-only access lets a board member inspect records, statements and timelines without altering readings, formulas or issued documents. Supervised user switching for support is recorded in an audit trail.
Next step
Make the allocation explainable before the next meeting
Record the shared parts once, allocate each cost group on the key your statutes actually describe, and hand every member the derivation instead of the total.