When you transfer a property to another company, you can bring its current Outgoings Budget with it. Re-Leased recreates the budget on the new property and captures the income, expenses and owner contribution recorded up to the transfer date, so the new company can report on and reconcile the full budget year without re-entering anything.
You transfer the budget separately, after the property transfer itself has completed.
What Moves When You Transfer an Outgoings Budget
Transferring an Outgoings Budget does three things:
Recreates the budget structure on the new property: its schedules, areas, chart of accounts, allocation percentages, budgeted amounts, income codes and tenancy concessions.
Captures a pre-transfer snapshot of the expense and income actuals recorded against the budget up to the transfer date. The snapshot is a read-only record with no link back to the original invoices, so later changes in the original company do not affect it.
Records the previous owner's contribution for the period up to the transfer date, so the new owner is only responsible from the transfer date onwards. The previous owner's balancing invoice and owner statement are generated later, in the original company, when you reconcile its Outgoings Budget.
The original invoices and credit notes stay in the original company. They are not copied to the new company.
Which Outgoings Budgets Can Be Transferred
An Outgoings Budget can be transferred when all of the following apply:
The property transfer has completed.
The budget period includes the transfer date.
The budget is Draft, Approved or Reconciled, or it is Locked with a lock date on or after the transfer date. A budget locked before the transfer date cannot be transferred.
No budget for the same period has already been transferred to the new property. You can transfer one Outgoings Budget per period.
You have the Reconcile outgoings budget permission. Without it, you can review the figures but not confirm the transfer.
Note: Property transfers, including Outgoings Budget transfers, are not available for companies that use Client/Trust Accounting.
How to Open the Outgoings Budget Transfer
Navigate to Settings and, under General, select Property Transfers.
Open the completed transfer for the property.
Click Transfer outgoings budget.
The Transfer outgoings budget button also appears on the Property transferred screen straight after you transfer a property. It only appears when the property has an Outgoings Budget that qualifies for transfer.
The Outgoings Budget Transfer page opens with the Outgoings Budget Reconciliation step ready to start.
How to Choose the Outgoings Budget to Transfer
Re-Leased lists the Outgoings Budgets that cover the transfer date and qualify for transfer.
Select Transfer outgoings budget.
Choose the budget from the list beside it. Each option shows the budget's name.
If you don't want to bring a budget across, select Do not transfer outgoings budget and click Confirm reconciliation. Nothing is stored and no budget is created on the new property.
If no budget covers the transfer date, the page shows No outgoings budget covers the transfer date. There is nothing to transfer, and you can leave the page.
How to Match Account Codes and Tax Rates for a Budget Transfer
Every account code the budget uses needs a matching account in the new company. Re-Leased fills in the codes it can match.
Check each matched account under Account in the new company.
Choose an account for any code left blank.
If the budget charges tax, choose the matching Tax type in the new company for each tax rate. Only tax types with the same rate are offered, because a transfer never changes the tax charged.
You cannot confirm the transfer until every account code and tax rate is matched.
How to Clear the Allocation Check Before a Budget Transfer
The snapshot freezes the budget's actuals, so every expense and income line must be allocated first. The Allocation check shows the status of Expense to Schedule and Income to Area.
If either shows lines not allocated, click Go to allocations.
Complete the allocations on that page.
Return to the transfer and click Re-check allocations.
When both are allocated, the check shows Validation passed and the snapshot preview appears.
Reviewing the Pre-Transfer Expense and Income Snapshot
The snapshot preview shows what will be captured onto the budget under the new company, calculated up to the transfer date.
Current Expense Actuals lists the Pre-Transfer Amount for each schedule and expense code. These amounts appear in the new company's Expense Report and Budget vs Actuals Report.
Current Income lists the Pre-Transfer Amount for each area and tenancy. These amounts feed the Income Report and the year-end reconciliation under the new company.
Click View → on any row to see the contributing invoices. Where an invoice's service period crosses the transfer date, only the part up to the transfer date is counted. The rest belongs to the new company.
A tenancy marked Stayed behind did not move with the property. Its pre-transfer income still forms part of the snapshot.
Reviewing the Pre-Transfer Owner Contribution
The Owner Contribution — Pre-Transfer Slice section shows the previous owner's share of the budget up to the transfer date. It is worked out from the full-year figures and then prorated by the number of days before the transfer.
The section includes total actual expenditure by schedule, any Allocation Under Recovery, the owner's contribution for each tenancy and vacant area after concessions, and the Total Owner Contribution.
Under What happens when you transfer, click Preview to check the balancing invoice and the owner statement for the pre-transfer period before you confirm.
When the Previous Owner's Balancing Invoice and Owner Statement Are Generated
Confirming the Outgoings Budget transfer does not raise the balancing invoice or produce the owner statement. Both are generated in the original company when you reconcile the original property's Outgoings Budget.
A balancing invoice is raised at reconciliation: the previous owner's pre-transfer contribution is invoiced in the original company. The same contribution is recorded in the snapshot as an opening credit, so it is not charged to the new owner.
An owner statement is generated at reconciliation: the original company produces a full owner statement for the period up to the transfer date.
To generate them, open the original property in the original company and reconcile its Outgoings Budget as usual. The original property stays active after the transfer so you can complete this finance work. For the reconciliation steps, see Reconcile a Budget by Area.
How to Confirm the Outgoings Budget Transfer
Review the snapshot and owner contribution.
Tick the acknowledgement to confirm that all invoice data is up to date and that later changes to the original invoices will not be reflected in the new company.
Click Confirm reconciliation.
Re-Leased creates the budget on the new property and stores the snapshot against it. The step shows as complete, with the date the reconciliation was confirmed. The previous owner's balancing invoice and owner statement are not created at this point. You generate them when you reconcile the original property's Outgoings Budget.
Important: Confirming moves the budget and freezes the snapshot. You cannot transfer the same budget again or edit the captured figures afterwards, so complete all outstanding invoices and allocations in the original company first.
How Transferred Figures Appear in Outgoings Reports
On a transferred budget, the pre-transfer figures appear alongside the new company's own invoices. A banner on each report shows the date the property transferred.
Budget vs Actuals Report: Actual Cost includes the pre-transfer figures and is marked incl. Transfer. When you drill into Actual Cost, pre-transfer lines carry a Transfer Snapshot tag.
Expense Report: pre-transfer items are grouped under each account and included in all subtotals and totals.
Income Report: pre-transfer tenant income is included in the totals, and the Property Summary separates invoices raised before and after the transfer.
Pre-transfer lines are a frozen record of the original company's books. You can't open the original invoices from these reports, and you can't edit the lines.
Reconciling a Transferred Outgoings Budget
You reconcile a transferred budget the same way as any other Outgoings Budget. In the reconciliation wizard, expenditure and invoiced figures that include pre-transfer amounts are marked incl. Transfer. Open a figure to see the individual lines. Pre-transfer lines carry a Transfer Snapshot tag and are read-only.
The owner contribution is split at the transfer date:
Settled by previous owner shows the contribution captured at the transfer. It is for reference only and is never charged to the current owner.
The current owner's section covers the transfer date to the budget end date. Vacant periods are charged to the current owner from the transfer date only. Concessions cover the whole budget period, less the amount the previous owner settled at the transfer.
The year-end balancing charge to the current owner uses these amounts, so nothing the previous owner settled is charged twice.
Changes You Can't Make to a Transferred Outgoings Budget
To keep the captured figures accurate, some changes are blocked on a transferred budget:
You can't change the budget start date.
You can change the end date, as long as it stays after the transfer date.
You can't archive a schedule, or remove an expense code, that holds pre-transfer expenditure. You can still change budgeted costs and allocation percentages.
You can't remove an income code or area that pre-transfer income was charged to. You can still add income codes, and remove ones added since the transfer.
Note: Archiving a transferred budget means the figures captured at the transfer will no longer be visible to tenants or owners.
Troubleshooting an Outgoings Budget Transfer
The Transfer outgoings budget button doesn't appear. The button only appears for a completed transfer where a budget covers the transfer date and qualifies for transfer. Check the budget's status and lock date.
"Some allocations are incomplete". Line items are still waiting to be allocated to a schedule or area. Click Go to allocations, complete them, then click Re-check allocations.
"A budget covering this period has already been moved to the new property". Only one budget can be transferred per period, and this one has already been transferred.
"The new property already has a budget with this name". Rename the original budget, or the one already on the new property, then confirm again.
I can't find the previous owner's balancing invoice or owner statement. These aren't created when you confirm the transfer. Reconcile the original property's Outgoings Budget in the original company to generate them.
The Confirm reconciliation button is disabled. Check that every account code and tax rate is matched, the allocation check has passed, and you've ticked the acknowledgement. If you can't confirm, ask an administrator for the Reconcile outgoings budget permission.
UK and European customers will see Service Charge Budget in place of Outgoings Budget, and VAT in place of GST. North American customers will see Lease in place of Tenancy. Property transfers are not available for companies that use Client/Trust Accounting. For more information on regional terminology, see our Glossary of Regional Terminology.