4.3.2 Raising Service Charge / Ground Rent demands

4.3.2 Raising Service Charge / Ground Rent demands

Access via the menu option: Finance -> Fee collection


1. When service charge or ground rent demands are due to be produced the screen will display [Produce].
2. Once selected a Summary screen is displayed. 


3. The user is able to amend a number of items relating to the demands by clicking on the ‘ Edit’ button:
  1. Demand Template – This gives the ability to select the relevant demand templates that you wish to use (see 4.3.4 - Demand Templates for more details)
  2. Invoice date – This defaults to today’s date but can be changed by selecting the [edit] option
  3. Account date – This defaults to the first date of the service charge period.
  4. Due Date – This defaults to the later of 30 days after today’s date or the due date according to the terms of the lease.
  5. Bank Account - By default, the primary Service Charge bank account will appear, except for Ground Rent demands where the Primary Ground Rent bank account will appear. Users can over-ride this default selection if they so wish.
  6. Message Box – This provides for a specific message to be added to the demands.
A [View Draft] function allows for the demands to be viewed before they are produced.
Please check the View Draft before producing your demands. 
4. Attach document
The user is able to attach additional documents to the demand. These will follow after the demand and you can upload many PDF documents. 

Simply drag the PDF files into the left box and drop it or click on the 'Open the file Browser' button and choose the file. The uploaded documents will appear on the right under the File List. 
Be cautious of what you attach . This attachment will be generic and therefore attached to all units' demands. ALSO please note that you cannot attach any PDF documents that are Encrypted or Certified.

WARNING: if you are using DocMail to send out demands, DocMail only allows 70 pages per record as this is the limit that will fit into the standard C5 envelopes. Anything more will fail when being sent over. 
5. Budget Certificate - It will be auto ticked if you have it enabled in the Service Charge Collection screen. You can still manually turn it on or off. 

You can also choose whether to include the 'System Generated Block Certificate', 'System Generated Unit Certificate' or 'Uploaded PDF Certificate'. The block certificate is the one that shows the entire annual budget and the unit certificate is a breakdown of the budget per unit and its respectfully attached to the relevant unit.
The uploaded PDF certificate is the one that you yourself can upload as the user within the Annual Budget screen.
You will not get the option to include the uploaded PDF if the file attached file in the budget is not of a PDF format such as an Excel file. 


6. Standing Order - If you have it enabled


7. Production

When you click on ‘Next’ the following pop-up message will appear and allow you to re-order the documents that will be attached after the demand:


You have to simply drag the files into the relevant order. 

After you click ‘Create Demands’ another pop-up message will appear informing you that the Demands have been queued to be produced and the process has started and you will receive a Notification (see below) once they have been produced and are available in the Distribution Manager (this time taken for the production to be completed can vary from a minute or two up to several minutes depending on how many demands are being produced but you can continue to use the system while this process is running:


Notification – when demand production has been completed the Notifications Bell Icon at the top of the Workbench screen which will be displayed in red signifying there is an unread notification for you to view:


If you click on the Notifications Bell Icon, then a pop-up window will appear showing the notification messages (highlighted as a red number) that are related to you as a user and along with any other notification messages in regards to tickets or posts/comments from the Portal or Email Audit there will display the Demands have been created message for the Block you created them for:


If you click the checkbox next to each message then it will mark it as 'Read' and it will disappear from the list.

You can also select ‘Mark All as Read’ and this will clear the entire list of unread notifications.

You either View Unread notifications which is the default when you first see this window or you can View All. 

IMPORTANT: You can also set your preference here to receive an email with the Notifications as well, if you click on the ‘Change Email Notification Frequency’ at the bottom of the pop-up window the following pop-up will appear and you can set when to receive notifications by email according to your preference, if selecting ‘Immediately’ then the email notification should arrive within 1 to 10 minutes:



NB: In the Block Area Fee Collection screen a ‘Queued’ status will show when the demand production process is running and will change to ‘Issued’ when complete:



7. Once demands have been produced the user can either carry on using the block area or they can be directed to the Distribution Manager queue from where they can distribute the demands that have been produced. 
This provides the facility to physically print the documents and / or send the documents to clients via email (based on Leaseholder Preferences - see this KB article for more info on this: 5.3.4 Leaseholder Preferences).
NOTE: The option to send demands via email is only available if you have chosen to take the Leaseholder Portal module with us.
If the Portal has not been purchased then demands will have to be printed and sent via your own emailing software. 
Once documents have been printed, you can mark it as printed and this will then move these to the History Tab. 
Emails sent are also kept in the History Tab and also in the Email Audit. 

8. If demands are raised in error or if an issue is identified once the demands have been raised, they can be deleted using the Delete Fee Collection function. This function can be found in the Block Management area of the Workbench. See this KB article for more info on point 3:  3.1.2 Block Management
9. Depending on the unit's tenure ( see point  on Tenure on  4.2.2 STEP 2 - Set Up Block Information) the relevant detail is removed off the demands. If a unit is a freehold tenure then the demands are printed without the Section 47 and 48 and the Service Charge - Summary of Tenants Rights and Obligations page. The title is also changed to 'Rent Charge' instead of 'Application for Payment' for freehold units. 
The Produce button appears based on parameters set in the Agent Settings/Preferences screen (gear icon on the top right hand side of the Workbench):

The Fee Collection section is what drives the button to appear within the Block Area to 'Produce' demands that are based on the budget. 
These can be altered so demands can be produced earlier. 
NOTE: When demands are produced for units which has a credit control case against it, there is a warning in the Distribution Manager to outline this. More info on this KB article: 8.2 Queue


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