Managing Buildings in WeconnectU

Buildings normally consists of multiple units (residential and / or commercial) that are rented out as individual units. A building is an Asset Group of type Building in the RAMS context and the building normally have a single set of owners and is not managed as a sectional title scheme. the following specific features relates to the normal managing paradigm of buildings:

Rent and Services are normally billed on unit level, but recovered to a Building Wallet rather than the actual Building Owners. The beneficiary for Rent and Services are therefor setup as the Building Wallet which is an internally used Beneficiary.
Expenses can be billed and paid either on a unit level or on a Building Level. In this regards you would typically bill and pay for:
- Building Municipal Tax and Services on a Building Level
- Salaries of cleaners, caretakers and gardeners on a Building Level
- Security on a Building Level
- Maintenance on the outside and communal areas on a Building Level
In many instances, collection commission is charged on all collections of Rent and Services that are recovered to the Building wallet
Payments to the Building Owners are done from the Building wallet rather than from the individual units.
Buildings have Building Statements that combine Income and Expenses from the Unit level and the Building Level (Coming soon)

How to setup a Building

Select Asset Groups from the Portfolio Data menu
Click New Asset Group to open the Asset Group form
Complete the fields and make sure to select the Building option from the Type drop down menu
Click Create to create the Building Asset Group.
On the newly created Asset Group in the list of Asset Groups, click the View button to open the Asset Group dashboard for the building. Then on the Asset Group Dashboard:
- on the Overview tab - Select Collection Commission from the Commission drop down if the Commission is going to be taken on Building Level based on all Rent and Services and complete the Collection Commission Percentage field. Select the Municipal Beneficiary from the municipal drop down menu. Click Save.
- on the Contacts tab - click the Create new Contact icon to load the Landlord Contacts for the Building. Note that these contacts will automatically be linked to Assets when they are created as part of the building. In addition, you can also load Complex Contacts such as cleaners, caretakers, etc.
- From the Options drop down, select Edit Address to change the default address of the Building.
- The system will automatically create a Building Expense Account. You can access the account from the Accounts tab by clicking on the Accounts Dashboard button.

Working with the Building Expense Account

You can access the Building Expense Account by:

Clicking on the Accounts Dashboard button on the Accounts tab of the Building Asset Group dashboard
Selecting Account Dashboard from the Accounts menu. Then select Building Expense Accounts from the drop down filter. Navigate to the relevant Building and click View to open the Building Accounts dashboard.
Type Ctrl A to show the Accounts Search Box. Type the name of the building and select the Building from the list to open the Building Accounts dashboard.

In order to bill recurring building level expenses, you need to setup recurring Billing Rules for the Building:

Navigate to the Billing Rules tab on the Building Account
Click Add Billing Rule on the Account panel to Create a new Billing rule.

In order to make payments for Building Level categories, you need to link approved Beneficiaries to the relevant categories.

Navigate to the Categories tab on the Building Account
Click the Add Beneficiary icon to link a beneficiary to a category where required
The Landlord Beneficiaries are linked by clicking on the Beneficiary icon on the Building Summary card (top left)
Buildings have an additional category, Salaries, to provide for the payment of salaries on a Building level. To load Salaries on the Building Expense Account, you must have created and approved the associated salary beneficiaries beforehand.
- Use the Add Transaction feature to load Salaries against the Expense Account
- When you select Salaries on the Category drop down, you can select the Salary Beneficiary from the Beneficiary drop down.
- Complete the fields and click Create.

An example of a Building Expense Account is shown below:

With reference to the Building Expense Account shown above, note the following:

Building Summary Card (top left) - the summary card shows the total units in the building, the total collectable rent for the units in the building, the collection commission as well as the linked Landlord Beneficiaries for the Building.
Notes Card (top middle) - you can record, edit and delete account notes for the building on this card.
Balances Card (top right) - this card shows the current Building Wallet balance from where Building Category balances can be paid.
Transaction tab - this panel shows the Building Expense Account transactions. Click Add Transaction to load manual billing as well as account corrections.
Categories tab - the categories panel are used to link Beneficiaries to Categories.
Billing Rules - the billing rules panel are used to create and maintain Building Billing Rules
Building Expense Category Balances panel - this panel shows the Building Expense Account category balances.

When expenses have been paid, the system will make the corresponding Debit entries on the Building Expense Account and update the category balances accordingly. See updated Building Expense Account example below.

Payment Processing on the Building Wallet

You can navigate to the Building Wallet from the Allocations list as follows:

Select Payment Allocations from the Payments drop down
Use the search field to search for the Building Wallet
Click Allocations to open the Allocations Dashboard for the Building. See example below:

With reference to the example above, note the following:

Notes card - this card displays the account notes for the Building Expense Account
Payment Reference card - this card displays the Unallocated Building Wallet balance
Unsubmitted Payment Instructions panel - this panel displays all the Payment Instructions that have been created to pay the balances of Building Expense categories
Previous Payment Instructions - this panel displays Payment Instructions that have been submitted and are either approved or paid
Building Expense Category panel - this panel displays the Expense category balances for the building
Suggest Payments - you can use this button to auto suggest Payment Instructions to pay the category balances. Note that no auto payment instructions will be created to pay the owners of the Building.
Create Transfer - use this option (see screenshot below) from the Options drop down to transfer Money from the Building Wallet to any other Wallet.
Create Landlord Payment - use this option (see screenshot below) from the Options drop down to manually create Payment Instructions to pay the Owner beneficiaries of the Building.