FAQ
Questions, answered.
Everything managers, committees and owners ask before they start — in one place. Can't find it? Write to [email protected].
38 questions in 10 categories
Getting started
Trials, imports, migration and what you need before you begin.
- How does the free trial work?
- Fourteen days, every feature, no card. Sign up, add a building and run a real month: allocate expenses, record payments, publish statements. At the end you choose a plan, and nothing is charged until you do.
- Can we import existing data from spreadsheets?
- Opening balances per unit import from a CSV file. Buildings, units and owners are entered through the six-step setup wizard — bulk import for those is not available yet. Tell us what you hold and we will help with the migration.
- Does Domera work for self-managed buildings without a property management company?
- Yes. A building committee signs up on Starter, runs the same allocation engine, statements, payments and reserve fund as a management company, and hands the account to the next committee with the audit trail intact. In Cyprus, for example, that is the management committee under Cap. 224; a self-administered WEG in Germany works the same way.
- Do we need accounting experience to use Domera?
- No. You choose an allocation method per category, enter or photograph invoices, approve the drafts and record payments; the allocations, statements and balances are computed for you. Domera does not replace your accountant for the annual return — it produces the figures they need.
- Should we pilot on one building before moving the portfolio?
- Yes. Choose a building with a lift (so the exclusion matters), a reserve fund levy and at least one owner abroad. Run one full month in parallel, compare every statement line with your current output, then move the rest building by building.
- What data do we need before switching from spreadsheets?
- Per building: the address, the allocation method per category, and the unit list with each unit's share (per mille or square metres), floor and lift share. Per unit: owner names, emails, and the current common and reserve balances. Historical periods are useful but not required to start.
- Do we need a native mobile app?
- Not for this job. A responsive website covers invoices photographed on site and owners checking balances abroad, without app-store approval or two codebases to keep in step. Check the software on your own phone before deciding.
Pricing & billing
Plans, changing plans and what support is included.
- Can we switch plans later?
- Yes. Move from Starter to Professional when you pass 3 buildings or 20 units, or to Enterprise for custom terms. Your buildings, statements and audit trail carry over unchanged.
- Is support included?
- Yes. Starter includes email support. Professional adds priority support, and Enterprise adds dedicated onboarding and commercial SLA options.
Expenses & statements
Allocation methods, the reserve fund, recurring expenses and owner statements.
- Do you support recurring and automated workflows?
- Yes. Recurring templates raise expenses on schedule — daily to annual, or a custom interval — as drafts for approval. Reserve fund levies run monthly, quarterly, semi-annually or annually per building. Payment reminders, compliance due dates and task deadlines are checked by scheduled jobs and sent through the inbox or by email.
- How are common expenses calculated?
- Each expense is allocated by one of six methods: ownership share (per mille in Cyprus, Miteigentumsanteile in Germany), square metres, equal parts, floor level, lift share or a custom rule. Amounts are computed in cents and the last cents assigned by largest remainder, so the lines sum to the invoice. A ground-floor unit can carry a zero lift share.
- What is a reserve fund (sinking fund) and how does Domera track it?
- A reserve fund is money set aside for major works such as a roof or a lift replacement. Contributions are levied per building on a monthly, quarterly, semi-annual or annual schedule and kept apart from common expenses: every statement and clearance certificate shows the reserve fund's own opening balance, levies, charges, payments and closing balance.
- Can Domera split elevator costs fairly when ground-floor units are excluded?
- Yes. Choose the lift share method for the lift category: each unit carries its own lift share, and a ground-floor unit's share can be zero while it still pays its full share of cleaning or insurance. The method is set per expense category, so one invoice follows lift shares and the next the ownership shares.
- How do I generate owner statements?
- Choose the building and the period. A statement is generated per unit with each charge line, the payments applied and the closing balance for the common and reserve funds. Statements render as PDFs in your company's locale and currency, and publishing them notifies owners in the portal inbox — or by email where an owner has no account.
- What is the difference between common expenses and the reserve fund?
- Common expenses pay for running the building this year: lift maintenance, cleaning, electricity, insurance, small repairs. The reserve fund is set aside for major works in later years: the roof, a lift replacement, structural repairs. They are levied together but must be accounted for separately, with their own balances on every statement.
- Who decides the allocation method?
- The owners, typically at the general meeting, within what Cap. 224 and the building's regulations allow; in practice the per-mille share from the title deed is the default in Cyprus. Different expenses may use different methods — the lift by lift share, insurance by per-mille — and the method should be recorded in the minutes.
Payments & arrears
Payments, balances and clearing a unit before it changes hands.
- How does Domera handle property ownership transfers?
- The transfer is refused while the departing owner holds an outstanding common or reserve balance. Once settled, a clearance certificate PDF is issued from the last finalised statement, listing co-owners and balances with a signature block, and its issue is written to the audit trail. The unit keeps its ownership history with valid-from and valid-to dates.
Compliance, contracts & meetings
Certificates, renewals, documents, the committee and the AGM.
- Can Domera track contract and insurance renewals for each building?
- Yes. Each building holds a register of service contracts and insurance policies with active or expired status, renewal date, premium, cover and deductible, linked to the source document. Dates read from the uploaded document are proposed for confirmation. Expiring or expired insurance lowers the building's health score and appears in the Action centre.
- Does Domera provide a central archive for invoices and building evidence?
- Yes. Each building holds its invoices, certificates, contracts, banking documents and inspection photos by category. A new version supersedes the old one and keeps it in the history, and downloads use signed links that expire. Owners reach the documents shared to their building through the portal.
- What happens when committee members change?
- Nothing moves. The new member is added as an admin and the outgoing one removed; every expense, payment, statement, document, meeting record and audit entry stays with the building. The history can be reviewed period by period from the first month.
Owners & the portal
What owners can see, and how they sign in.
- Can owners access their information directly?
- Yes. Invite an owner by email and they sign in with a password or with Google. They see their own units only: statements as PDF, common and reserve balances, payments, building documents, the compliance status and meetings. Finances are read-only, and owners can raise maintenance requests.
- Can international owners access the platform remotely?
- Yes. The owner portal is a website that works in any browser on any device, so an owner in London or Berlin reads the same statements, balances and payments as one living in the building — in Paphos, Limassol or anywhere else. Notifications reach them in the portal inbox or by email.
- How do I access the owner portal?
- Your management company or building committee invites you by email. Set a password from the invitation (or use "Forgot password" on the sign-in page), or sign in with Google. There is no app to install; any browser works.
- Can I see both common and reserve fund charges?
- Yes. Each statement shows the common fund and the reserve fund separately — opening balance, charges or levies, payments, closing balance — and the portal shows both current balances for each of your units.
- Can owners access their own financial data?
- Yes. Invite each owner by email; they sign in and read their own units' statements, balances, payments, the building's documents and its compliance status. They cannot see other owners' units or change any record.
Portfolio & teams
Working across many buildings with several managers.
- Can we monitor portfolio health on a map?
- Yes. Every building appears as a marker coloured by its health status — the same score the buildings list uses, built from collection rate, outstanding balances, draft expenses, overdue tasks, insurance and inspections. Clicking a marker opens that building's operations.
- How do we move an existing portfolio to Domera?
- Building by building. Set up the building in the six-step wizard, import opening balances per unit from CSV, run one month alongside your current process and compare the statements line by line. Bulk import of buildings, units and owners is not available yet; we help with the migration.
- Can different team members work on different buildings at the same time?
- Yes. Each manager is assigned buildings and sees only those — in the lists, the Action centre and the command palette; the restriction is enforced by database policy. Admins see every building in the company. Managers record and approve expenses and post payments in their buildings; deleting records and connecting an owner to a sign-in stay with admins.
- Does Domera handle the management company's own invoicing?
- Yes. Services you provide — the management fee, cleaning, administration — are invoiced from recurring templates with sequential numbering and the VAT amount, as PDFs filed to the building. Revenue is shown per building, per service type and per month. Domera does not file the VAT return; it produces the figures your accountant needs.
Security & data
Per-company data isolation, GDPR and where the data lives.
- How secure is the platform?
- Every table carries row-level security scoped to your company, so a query from one company cannot return another's rows. Roles limit managers to their assigned buildings. Changes to expenses, allocations, payments, statements, units and owners are written to an audit trail with actor, time, old and new values. Password forms sit behind Cloudflare Turnstile and rate limiting.
- Is Domera GDPR compliant?
- Data is hosted in the European Union. Each company's data is isolated by row-level security, changes to financial records carry an audit entry with actor and time, and owners see only their own units. Personal data is limited to what statements, notices and sign-in need, and is shared only with the processors that run the service — hosting, email and notifications.
- Is my data safe?
- Each company's data is isolated by row-level security, and every portal query is filtered to the units you hold, so you cannot see another owner's charges and no owner can see yours. Finances are read-only in the portal. Sign-in is protected by Cloudflare Turnstile, and data is hosted in the European Union.
- How do we check a vendor's security claims?
- Ask three questions: is isolation enforced in the database (row-level security) or only in the application; does the audit trail hold old and new values with actor and time, and can anyone edit it; and where is the data hosted. Ask for the answers in writing.
Countries & localisation
Every EU country plus the UK, Switzerland, Norway and Iceland by configuration — Cyprus as the first example.
- Does Domera support European building operations?
- Yes. Companies run in any of 31 countries — the EU-27 plus the UK, Switzerland, Norway and Iceland — each with its own locale, currency, VAT rate, IBAN format and date format. In Cyprus, for example, a statement reads €1,240.00 and 12.09.2026; a German company sees 1.240,00 €.
- Do you support Cyprus terms like koinohrista (κοινόχρηστα)?
- Yes. Domera is built in Cyprus, and Cyprus practice is the reference example: κοινόχρηστα allocated by per-mille share, the reserve fund, owner statements, the management committee under Cap. 224 and the clearance certificate before a transfer. Greek renders correctly in every PDF, alongside Latin and Cyrillic scripts.
- Are common expenses mandatory for all owners in Cyprus?
- Cap. 224 provides that the owners of units in a jointly owned building share the expenses of the common parts according to their share, so an owner cannot opt out. Arrears are typically pursued by the management committee, ultimately through the courts — confirm the procedure with a lawyer.
Choosing software
How to compare building management platforms before you commit.
- What is the single most important thing to compare?
- The allocation engine: which methods exist, whether they are set per expense category, and how the last cents are rounded. Where this is weak, the calculation returns to a spreadsheet and the software becomes a filing cabinet.
- Should we prefer software built for our own country?
- Prefer software that models your country's share system and reserve fund practice and renders statements in your locale — in Cyprus per-mille shares and the management committee under Cap. 224; in Germany Miteigentumsanteile and the Erhaltungsrücklage. Domera runs per-company settings for 31 European countries; ask any vendor to show your country's statement.
Still have a question? Write to [email protected] or read the guide to common expenses in Cyprus.
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