Your outgoings reconciliation runs once a year, so it is easy to lose track of the order between cycles. This checklist takes you through the full annual cycle in one place — approving the budget, allocating expenses, locking, working through the six reconciliation steps, generating balancing charges, and rolling over into the next period. Each stage links to the detailed article if you need more depth.
Note: Your budget period is set when the budget is created and does not have to match your financial year. Work to your budget's own start and end dates rather than to 31 March or 30 June.
Before You Start Your Outgoings Reconciliation
Have the following in place before you begin:
The budget period has ended, or is close enough to ending that no further expenses are expected.
All supplier invoices for the period have been entered against the property.
All expenses have been allocated to a schedule under the Expense to Schedule tab.
Any accruals or prepayments spanning the period end have been entered as invoice and credit note pairs.
Areas are configured on the property, and tenancies active during the period are linked to an area.
You can reach every stage below from the property's Outgoings tab.
Stage 1: Confirm the Budget Is Approved
A budget must be approved before it can be locked or reconciled. If your budget is still in draft, approve it first.
Navigate to the property and click the Outgoings tab.
Select the relevant budget and click Approve.
Choose an allocation type — Single Line Budget Allocation, Multi-Line Schedule Allocation, or Multi-Line Expense Allocation.
Select the relevant Rent or Outgoings Template for each tenant, confirm the Chart of Account and Tax Type, and decide whether to Add or Replace Line Items.
Click Save All and Approve to approve the budget and update the templates, or Skip and Approve to approve without changing templates.
For full detail, see Approving a Budget by Area.
Set Up Owner Contribution Invoices Before You Lock
The Owner Contribution tab includes a Create Repeating Invoice button for recurring invoices based on the approved budget. Locking the budget disables this function, so set up any repeating owner contribution invoices while the budget is approved and still unlocked.
Important: Once a budget is locked, you cannot create repeating owner contribution invoices against it. Set these up before you lock.
Stage 2: Allocate All Expenses to Schedules
The Lock button stays inactive until every expense in the budget period is allocated to a schedule.
Open the budget and navigate to the Expense to Schedule tab.
Allocate each expense to the correct schedule.
Confirm no expenses remain unallocated — the Lock button becomes available once they are all assigned.
For full detail, see Budget by Area: Expense to Schedule.
Stage 3: Lock the Budget and Set the Lock Date
Locking creates a time-stamped cut-off for the budget period. Invoices dated on or before the lock date are included in this reconciliation. Invoices dated after it roll into the next budgeting cycle.
Confirm the budget period has concluded and you are ready to reconcile.
Open the budget and click the Lock button in the top-right corner.
Enter the Lock Date. This defines which invoices are included in the current period.
Read the warning message, then click Save.
Important: The lock date decides which invoices are included in this reconciliation. A lock date set too early leaves valid period expenses out of the reconciliation; a lock date set too late pulls in expenses belonging to the next period. Check the date against your budget's end date before you save.
How to Unlock a Budget to Add Missing Invoices
If you find an invoice that should have been included after you have locked:
Return to the budget and click Unlock.
Enter the missing invoices or make the necessary edits.
Re-lock the budget before continuing to reconciliation.
Unlocking is only possible before the budget is finalised at the end of Step 6.
For full detail, see Locking a Budget by Area.
Stage 4: Work Through the Six Reconciliation Steps
Once the budget is locked, the Reconcile option appears. Click it to begin. Each step must be fully completed before the next becomes available, and completed items turn blue or green with a checkmark.
Step 1 — Schedule Reconciliation. Check actual expenditure against each schedule and mark every schedule complete. Required if you have expense accounts covering multiple schedules.
Step 2 — Allocate Income to Area. Use Auto Populate to pre-fill allocations, adjust as needed, and mark each tenant as Complete. Required if tenants have occupied more than one area.
Step 3 — Reconcile Areas. Review adjusted expenditure per tenancy, check the invoiced amount per tenancy, and mark each area and tenancy complete.
Step 4 — Client/Owner Contribution. Review total budget expenditure across schedules, click through non-recoverable amounts and shortfalls, and adjust the total owner contribution if needed.
Step 5 — Summary. Review the reconciliation overview and total balancing charges.
Step 6 — Generate Balancing Charges. Set the default account code and tax type, choose the PDF template, generate the invoices and credit notes, then finalise the budget.
Important: You cannot return to earlier steps once you move past Step 5 (Summary). Check your figures in Steps 1 to 4 before you continue.
For full detail on each step, see Reconcile a Budget by Area.
Stage 5: Generate Balancing Charges and Finalise
Step 6 is where the reconciliation produces the invoices and credit notes that settle the difference between budgeted and actual costs. A reconciliation is not complete until this step is done.
Set the default account code and tax type to apply to all invoices and credit notes.
Choose the PDF template used to generate the documents.
Select which invoices or credit notes to generate and confirm to start the process.
Edit individual document details if needed.
Finalise the budget once all documents are generated.
Important: Finalising the budget is permanent. Once finalised, the budget cannot be re-opened, unlocked or modified, and no further documents can be generated against it. If you finalise in error and no balancing charge invoices have been issued to tenants, contact our support team as soon as possible.
Stage 6: Roll Over the Budget for the Next Period
Rolling over carries the key details from the completed period into a new draft budget, so you do not re-enter everything manually. Cancelled tenancies are not carried over.
Navigate to the property, click the Outgoings tab, then the Budgets tab.
Select the budget you have just reconciled and click Roll Over.
Update the New Budget Title, and confirm the New Start Date and New End Date.
Under Bulk adjust, choose your Base figures — Last Year Budgeted or Last Year Actual. Reconciled actuals are usually the better base after a completed reconciliation.
Enter a percentage in Apply to all to increase every line, choose a Round up to nearest value if wanted, and click Apply to all to update the grid.
Adjust individual schedules or accounts directly in the grid. Lines you change show an Edited chip and can be reverted individually.
Click Roll Over Budget to generate the new draft budget.
Review the draft, add any new tenancies using Edit Allocations, then approve it to start the next cycle.
For full detail, see Rolling Over a Budget.
Common Problems During Outgoings Reconciliation
A step is greyed out or unavailable. Return to the previous step and confirm every schedule, area and tenancy has been marked complete. Partially completed steps block progression.
An area or tenancy is missing from Step 2 or Step 3. Check that the tenancy was active during the budget period and has an area record configured on the property. Tenancies vacated before the budget period started do not appear.
Unexplained amounts in Step 4. These are commonly caused by non-recoverable expense amounts, shortfalls from vacancies during the period, or expenses not allocated to a schedule in Step 1. Click through each amount to expand the breakdown.
Accruals and prepayments spanning the period end. Enter these as invoice and credit note pairs dated across the two budget periods. See Service Charge Reconciliation – Handling Accruals and Prepayments.
Quick Reference Checklist
Work down this list each year:
All supplier invoices for the period entered.
Budget approved and tenant templates updated.
Repeating owner contribution invoices set up (before locking).
All expenses allocated under Expense to Schedule.
Budget locked with the correct Lock Date.
Step 1 — Schedule Reconciliation complete.
Step 2 — Income allocated to areas, every tenant marked complete.
Step 3 — All areas and tenancies reconciled.
Step 4 — Owner contribution reviewed and confirmed.
Step 5 — Summary checked (last point at which you can go back).
Step 6 — Balancing charges generated and budget finalised.
Budget rolled over and the new draft approved for the next period.
Budget terminology varies by region: Asia-Pacific customers refer to it as Budgeted Outgoings, European customers as Service Charge, and North American customers as Operating Expenses. For more information on regional terminology, see our Glossary of Regional Terminology.