Charging for things other than rent

A charge is an invoice line for something other than plot rent, such as a water levy, a membership subscription or a shared compost delivery. Charges appear on the same yearly invoice as rent.

To manage charges, go to Rent & Payments → Additional charges.

Create a charge

Each charge has the following settings:

• Name: shown to members on their invoice.
• Amount.
• Applies to: every plot holder, or one member group. To bill only some members, create a group (for example, "Water users") under Members → Manage Groups, add the relevant members, and select that group on the charge.
• Basis: once per member, once per plot, or once per linked member. A member with two plots pays a per-plot charge twice and a per-member charge once.
• Repeats yearly: when on, the charge is applied automatically each time you open a new billing year. When off, the charge is applied only when you apply it manually.

Apply a charge during the year

To add a charge to the current year, select Apply to this year next to the charge. The charge is added to every member it applies to. Members who already have the charge are skipped, so the button can be used more than once.

Adding members to a group does not bill them for that group's charges. After adding members, select Apply to this year on the charge. The group page shows a reminder.

To apply a charge to one member only, use Apply a charge to a member on the billing year page.

Change the amount of a charge

Editing a charge does not change invoices that already include it. To update those invoices, select Apply to this year again. This adds the charge to any member who qualifies but does not have it, and updates existing lines to the new amount.

Only the current year is updated. Previous years are not changed.

Remove a charge

• Remove from this year removes the charge from all current-year invoices. The charge remains available for future years.
• The × next to a line on an invoice removes that line only.
• Retire stops the charge from being used in future. Its history is kept.

When you delete a charge, you can choose to keep or remove its lines on the current year's invoices.

Note: If a charge has been billed in any year, retire it instead of deleting it, so that the record of what was charged is kept.