Execution plan
Monthly close in five phases
Why monthly? Because the owners' statement is the building's main instrument of trust, and because the annual reconciliation (the Cyprus AGM accounts, the German Jahresabrechnung, the French approbation des comptes) is only as good as the twelve closes beneath it. A month that is not closed becomes a year that cannot be explained.
Phase 1: record expenses
- 01
Collect and check invoices
Gather every vendor invoice for the period. Check the amount against the contract, the VAT treatment against the invoice (in Cyprus the standard rate is 19 % under the VAT Law of 2000; confirm reduced rates with the Tax Department), and that each invoice is matched to the right building and expense category.
- 02
Record one-off expenses
Enter the non-recurring charges: emergency repairs, seasonal maintenance, one-time contractor work. Attach the source invoice to the expense record so the allocation can be traced back to a document. Document reading fills the vendor, date and amount from the PDF; check them before saving.
- 03
Generate recurring expenses
Run the recurring templates for cleaning, lift maintenance, management fees and similar monthly charges. A scheduled job generates them from the template; review the list once per building rather than re-typing last month's figures.
Phase 2: allocate charges
- 04
Review allocation rules
Confirm that each expense category uses the method the building's regulations prescribe: ownership share, floor area, equal share, per floor or a custom key. Check exclusions, for example ground-floor units that do not pay for the lift. In Cyprus the shares are usually set in the building's registered regulations under Cap. 224; in Germany the Teilungserklärung and § 16 WEG govern.
- 05
Run the allocation
Let the allocation engine distribute each expense across the units and check the result for anomalies: a new unit with no ownership share, a mid-month transfer that needs a pro-rata split. Spare cents are distributed by the largest-remainder method, so the allocations always sum to the invoice exactly.
- 06
Check reserve fund contributions
Confirm that the reserve fund levy has been generated separately from common expenses, on its own schedule, and that the amount matches the budget the owners approved.
Phase 3: issue owner statements
- 07
Generate owner statements
Produce a statement for every owner showing the opening balance, each new charge with its allocation method and share, payments received, and the closing balance, with the common fund and the reserve fund shown separately.
- 08
Review statements for accuracy
Spot-check statements for units with a recent ownership change, an open dispute or an unusual amount. Confirm that the sum of all owners' charges equals the building's expenses for the period.
- 09
Send the statements
Finalise and send the batch. Each owner receives the statement by email in the company's configured language and format; owners with portal access see it at the same moment. Owners without an account receive a short email with a link to create one.
Phase 4: reconcile payments
- 10
Record incoming payments
Post every payment received in the period: bank transfers, cheques, cash. Match each to the right owner and building. Bank statement reading proposes matches by reference and amount; confirm each one.
- 11
Apply payments to open charges
Payments settle the oldest outstanding charges first. Where a payment covers both common expenses and a reserve fund levy, record the split so both balances move.
- 12
Flag overdue accounts
Review the arrears list. Owners with a balance on their latest final statement receive the scheduled weekly reminder automatically; decide which accounts need a personal call or the next escalation step in your written procedure.
Phase 5: close and report
- 13
Review the building summary
Check the building dashboard: total expenses against total collections, the collection rate, the outstanding balance and the reserve fund position. Look for anything that moved more than you expect.
- 14
File the period's documents
Upload the bank statement, any new vendor contracts and the committee's minutes to the building's document library. These are the audit trail for the period, and the AGM pack draws on them.
- 15
Mark the period closed
Once expenses are recorded, allocations reviewed, statements sent and payments reconciled, the month is closed. A final statement is not edited in place: if one is wrong it is voided, with who did it and when recorded, and reissued. Move on to the next building.
A worked example
A twelve-unit building in Larnaca closes June. Expenses recorded: cleaning €480.00, lift maintenance €195.00, common electricity €312.40, insurance instalment €210.00, a one-off pump repair €640.00. Total €1,837.40. Cleaning, electricity and insurance are allocated by ownership share; lift maintenance by share among the ten units above ground; the pump repair is flagged to the reserve fund category and drawn from the reserve, not billed to owners this month. The reserve levy of €25.00 per unit is generated separately. Each owner's statement shows two closing balances. The sum of the twelve common-expense allocations is €1,197.40, matching the four invoices to the cent.
Figures are illustrative. In Cyprus the statement would carry dates as dd.MM.yyyy and amounts as €1,197.40; a company in Germany would see 1.197,40 € and the same ledger.