4.3.1 Setting an Annual Service Charge Budget

4.3.1 Setting an Annual Service Charge Budget

Before service charge demands can be issued, a budget needs to be set-up for the relevant financial year for the block.
Access via the menu option: Finance -> Annual Budget


NOTE: When a new block is registered, a template will be automatically created for the first year’s budget upon details being entered into the opening balance screen. The start date of this budget will be the Opening Balance date; the end date of this budget is the service charge year-end date.

The screen shows the Financial Year and you can select previous year’s budgets by selecting from the dropdown menu.

The main tab displayed is ‘Budget and Notes’ and this displays the following columns:

Service - the relevant service item description.

Total Budget – the sum of the values input in the Schedule Columns created for the Block (in the screenshot above there are 3 schedules, ‘Block A’, ‘Block B’ and ‘Estate’)

Comment – a comment can be added against each service and that comment will appear on the ‘Budget Details’ Report or Excel version (see more about this below)

To enter budget amounts against the relevant service description items and the schedule(s) they apply to and also where relevant add any comments against those line items the click on the ‘Edit’ button at the top right of the screen and that will enable you to put values in the relevant fields.

NB: the budget amounts entered against each service description line item for the relevant schedule(s) will automatically add up to the Total Budget amount shown.

If you scroll down the budget page you will be able to enter values in the ‘Reserve Fund’ section and also if you wish you can also add notes into the ‘General Notes for Certificate’ section, the notes will appear on the Budget Certificate that is generated by the system which you can send out to the leaseholders when you have agreed and loaded the final budget.

Status – this field shows the current status on the budget and can be changed when in ‘Edit’ mode, the options are:

  1. 'Being drafted’
  2. ‘With Property Manager for Review’
  3. 'With Client for review’
  4. ‘Agreed and Loaded’ - once the budget is confirmed then the status should be changed to this which will enable you to then raise demands.

The ‘Part Year Budget’ is usually left un-ticked. In this case a pro-rata amount of the budget is collected when each set of demands are produced (e.g. when there are two service charge collections per year, half the budget will be demanded each time).However, if the financial year has already started and / or demands have already been raised then a part year budget may be loaded – The ‘Part Year Budget’ box should be ticked. This will result in the budget that is entered being collected during the remainder of the year; NOT a pro-rata collection over the full year. For example, if there are two collections per year and the first has already produced, then the full amount of the budget will be collected via the second collection.

Add Budget
To create a new budget, simply click on ‘Add’ on the top right hand side. This creates a full year's worth of budget and opens up another financial year for you to post financial transactions into. 

Copying a Budget
You can make a copy of the annual budget regardless of what status it's in, to do this click on ‘Copy’ on the top right hand side. Take note that if a budget is Agreed and Loaded and you make a copy of it, the new budget will be in 'Being Drafted' status.

The Service Charge Expenditure and Reserve Fund Collection details will be copied across to the new annual budget (with the new financial year dates) saving time on the manual copying of figures and pasting from the previous budget and prevent any user errors.

You can also alter the new expenditure figures if they are higher in the new annual budget.

If at a later stage you wish to change the budget then there are two scenarios:

      • If no service charge demands have been issued then the status of the budget can be changed to ‘Budget being drafted’ (or a similar status). The budget can then be amended.
      • If service charge demands have already been produced then these demands have to be deleted and the budget status has to be amended. This function is only available to authorised users through:
        • Workbench: Block Management -> Delete Fee Collection
        • Workbench: Block Management -> Block Budget Administration                                                                 

Budget Document/Certificate – this is automatically generated by the system and you will be able to click on the button next to this field to display a PDF copy of either a draft or live version depending on whether you have agreed and loaded the budget or still in a draft stage.

You can upload your own budget certificate if you wish. If this is a PDF file, you can include it as an attachment just like the system generated budget/unit certificate when producing demands.
However, other file formats uploaded can not be attached to the demands. 
If the budget was unlocked (to add comments or amend figures) and a previous document that was generated by the system is still attached to the budget, you are presented with the option to regenerate the document when you Agree and Load the budget:


If the budget was unlocked (to add comments or amend figures) and a previous document that was manually uploaded is still attached to the budget, you are presented with a warning when you Agree and Load the budget and it in up to your discretion to upload the updated version:

Budget Details – at the top right of the screen you can click on this button and you will have three options:

This is not available if you are adding or editing a budget.



  1.  ‘Report’ – if you click on this it will create a PDF document showing all of the budget information including comments and the breakdown of ‘Annual Budget by Unit’
  2. ‘Excel’ – if you click on this it will create a spreadsheet version showing the same information as the Report PDF.
  3. ‘Unit Budget Certificate’ - If you click on this, it will create a PDF document showing the all of the budget information broken down by schedule and service per unit. This can be attached to the demand on the demand production screen. 

Finally if you click on the ‘Annual Budget by Unit’ tab it will display a breakdown by each Unit of the relevant Total Budget and amount by relevant schedule that the unit owner will pay. 





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