Finances & reports: how-to

Step-by-step instructions for every Finances task, roughly in the order you’ll need them. For what each option means, see Finances & reports; for problems, see Finances & reports: troubleshooting.

Find your task

If you’re here because…	Go to
You’re about to settle with an owner for the first time	Set up settlements for an owner
A contractor’s invoice or a bill has come in	Add a financial item
You want to charge an owner a fee, such as tenancy set-up	Add a financial item
A cost or charge repeats every month or year	Add a repeating financial item
It’s time to pay your landlords	Create and send an owner settlement
You settle many owners at once	Create settlements for several owners
You’ve transferred the money	Mark a settlement as paid
An owner hasn’t received their statement	Send an owner their statement
Something on an approved settlement is wrong	Correct something that’s already been settled
Some items should never go to the owner	Keep items off future settlements
An owner asks about a management fee	Check a management fee
An owner has left you a float for small costs	Pay a cost from an owner’s float
You need to check what’s been paid in or out	Find and check financial items
You want to see how profitable your properties are	Create a profitability report
An owner wants a summary across several statements	Create a settlement report
You need a rent ledger for a property or tenant	Generate a rent statement
Your accountant wants your figures	Export data for your accountant
You want settlements in Xero	Send settlements to Xero
You want your own categories, or properties under a company	Set up categories and companies

Set up settlements for an owner

Do this once for each property owner, before their first settlement.

Before you start: the owner’s properties need their property ownership set (managed or rent-to-rent), with the management fee. The owner needs an email address if you’ll email statements.

1. On the Finances panel, open Settlements. Under “You have yet to configure some property owners to start settlements”, click View next to the owner.
2. Under Start settlements from, choose the date from which money should be settled. Pick a date on or before the first rent and costs you want to include.
3. Click Save.
4. To email the owner their statement automatically, go to Property Owners, edit the owner, tick Send settlement PDF upon publishing, and save.

What happens next: the owner appears under Owners to process with the amounts waiting to be settled.

Caution

Nothing dated before the start date can be settled, and rent paid before it isn’t counted. If you choose a date that’s too late, change it on the owner in Property Owners (Start from).

Add a financial item

Do this when you have a cost or income to record: a supplier invoice, a utility bill, your own fee, or a charge to pass to the owner.

Before you start: the property needs its property ownership set. You need permission to change finances. Have the invoice file ready: you can’t attach it later.

1. On the Finances panel, open Financial Items and click Add financial item. (For a supplier invoice on a maintenance job, click Create financial item on the invoice instead; COHO fills in the details from the job.)
2. Choose A property, Multiple properties or General, and the property.
3. Under Who provided the item or service?, choose You/Your team or Someone else.
4. Under What do you want to add, choose the type, then the Parent Category and category.
5. Choose Income or Expense. Enter a Description, and optionally Notes, Room and Tenancy. Click Continue.
6. Choose the supplier (needed to sync to Xero), enter the Invoice date, optional Invoice Number, Payment status and its date, attach the Invoice file, and enter the amount and VAT. Click Continue.
7. Under Who pays the cost?, choose Organisation, Owner, cost only, Owner, adjusted cost or Owner, additional fee, then Who is the invoice made out to? and any mark-up, fee or commission.
8. Click Preview, check the Item preview, then click Create financial items.

What happens next: the item appears in Financial Items. If the owner pays some of it, it will be offered on their next settlement.

Tip

Check the supplier carefully. It can’t be changed later, and Xero uses it for the bill. For rent, deposits or holding deposits, use the tenant’s rent schedule in Rent Collection instead.

Add a repeating financial item

Do this for a fixed cost or charge that recurs, such as insurance or a monthly service fee.

1. Open Repeating Financial Items and click Add repeating financial item.
2. Choose the Property, who provided it, the category, Income or Expense, a Description, and optionally a Room or Tenancy.
3. Enter the amount and the onward invoicing (No, Cost only, Marked-up cost or Cost plus fee).
4. Under Repeating Details, set Create from, Repeating, Create days in advance and Run Until (with Stop on if needed).
5. Click Preview, check the items it will create, then Save.

What happens next: COHO creates each item when it’s due (or the set number of days before).

• To create the next one early, for example before you settle, click View on the item, then Execute Next Run. Execute repeating items due does this for every item that’s due.
• To stop it, click View, then Stop. Items already created stay.

Find and check financial items

1. Open Financial Items.
2. Set the filters: Date range, owner, property, tenancy, paid status, category, supplier, or a description or settlement number (for example ST1051).
3. Click Filter table. Tick Show tenant funds or Show client money to include those.
4. Click View on an item to see who pays and receives what, and the settlements it’s on.

What happens next: to keep a copy, click Export (CSV).

Create and send an owner settlement

Do this when you’re ready to pay an owner: usually monthly, after rent has come in.

Before you start: the owner has a settlement start date. The month’s rent is recorded in Rent Collection, and costs are added as financial items.

1. Open Settlements. Under Owners to process, click Add settlement next to the owner (or click Add settlement below the list and choose the Owner).
2. Choose Per property or Per property owner and, for per property, the property.
3. Check Period start and Period end, Who are you paying out?, Include earlier items that can now be settled? and Include future-dated rent payments?.
4. In Financial items, check the items. Untick any you don’t want; you can settle part of an amount.
5. If the owner has a float, top it up if needed.
6. Check the Settlement name, Payment reference, Notes and Notes to owner.
7. Click Create draft.
8. Open the draft from the list and check it. When it’s right, click Approve, then confirm.
9. Click Publish, then confirm.

What happens next: the settlement gets its ST number and statement PDF. The owner can see it in their COHO account, and is emailed the PDF if Send settlement PDF upon publishing is on. Pay the owner from your bank using the payment reference, then mark it as paid.

Tip

Draft first, check, then approve. A draft can be changed freely; an approved settlement locks its items.

Create settlements for several owners

1. Open Settlements and click Add settlement.
2. Under Owner, choose several owners, or click Select all.
3. Choose the Settlement style, period and options. “Since multiple property owners are selected, most of the information will be defaulted. You can always edit the settlements later.”
4. Click Create bulk drafts.

What happens next: COHO creates a draft for each owner with something to settle, and skips the rest. Each draft includes items dated in the period and rent paid in the period. Check each one, then approve and publish them.

Mark a settlement as paid

Do this after you’ve transferred the money to the owner (or received money from them).

1. Open Settlements and find the settlement.
2. On the owner’s line, click Set Paid, then Yes.
3. Do the same on your organisation’s line, and any supplier lines, once those are paid.

What happens next: the line shows Paid and its items are marked paid. If you sync settlements to Xero, paying the bill in Xero marks it paid in COHO on the next sync instead.

Send an owner their statement

1. Open Settlements and find the approved or published settlement.
2. On the owner’s line, click Send Report.

What happens next: the owner is emailed “New settlement report shared to you” with the PDF. The line shows when it was last sent. To download the PDF yourself, use the download button on the line.

Note

The owner needs an email address on their record. To email every statement automatically when you publish, tick Send settlement PDF upon publishing on the owner.

Correct something that’s already been settled

Don’t delete an approved or published settlement to fix one item. Instead:

• Rent settled in error, for example paid directly to the owner, or to the wrong tenancy: open the tenant’s Rent Collection, open the rent due item, and click Reverse. COHO adds balancing items to the next settlement and releases the payment, so you can assign it again. Reverse doesn’t refund the tenant: to refund, assign the released payment to a new money due item and use Refund on that.
• A cost or fee charged in error: add a financial item with Is reversal ticked (an Income reversal or Expense reversal) for the amount to correct. It goes on the next settlement.
• A draft that’s wrong: click Edit to change it (COHO creates a new draft and deletes the old one), or delete it and start again.

Keep items off future settlements

Use this for items you’ll never pass to the owner, such as fees you’ve waived, or old items from before you used COHO.

1. Create a settlement for the owner and select only those items.
2. Name it clearly, for example “Not for settlement – waived fees”.
3. Click Create draft and leave it as a draft.

What happens next: while the draft exists, its items aren’t offered on other settlements. Deleting the draft releases them.

Tip

For items from before you started using COHO, setting the owner’s Start settlements from date is usually simpler.

Check a management fee

1. Open the tenant’s Rent Collection and open the rent due item.
2. Click Show financial items.
3. Look for the management fee item. If it’s been settled, it shows the settlement’s ST number.

What happens next: search that ST number in Settlements (or in Financial Items) to find the statement it’s on. If no fee is there, check the property ownership is managed with a fee percentage, and that the rent was paid on or after the owner’s settlement start date.

Pay a cost from an owner’s float

Before you start: the owner has a float set up in Property Owners, covering the property.

1. Add the financial item as usual (Add a financial item), with the owner paying.
2. At Do you want to use the property owner’s float?, choose Yes.
3. Check the preview shows the float’s new balance, then click Create financial items.

What happens next: the cost is taken from the float. To top the float up, use Top-up when you next create the owner’s settlement.

Create a profitability report

1. Open Profitability Reports and click Create report.
2. Choose the Date range, and optionally an Owner or Property.
3. Enter a name under What shall we call this report? and click Save.

What happens next: the report appears in the list. Click it to open it in a new window; it’s worked out from your current data each time you open it. Print it from your browser if you need a copy.

Create a settlement report

1. Open Settlements and click Generate report.
2. Choose the Property Owners, optionally Properties, the Date range and a name.
3. Click Create.

What happens next: the report lists totals paid to the owner and to you, rent paid, management fees and costs, across the owner’s settlements in that range. Click it to open it.

Generate a rent statement

1. On the Finances panel, under Other Reports, Statements & Exports, click Generate Rent Statement. (Or use Statement on a room’s rent panel.)
2. Choose Properties, Money types, From and To, and the options you need.
3. Click Create to view it, or Generate CSV to download it.

Export data for your accountant

1. Under Other Reports, Statements & Exports, click Export Accounting Data.
2. Choose From and To (up to a year), Properties and Categories.
3. Choose Ignore previous items? (Yes skips items you’ve already exported), Include pre-paid items? and Include client money?.
4. Click Invoices Export (CSV).

What happens next: a CSV downloads in a format accounting software such as Xero can import. Set your account codes first in Financial Settings > Xero Management (Manual Exports).

Tip

If you’re connected to Xero, syncing is usually better than exporting.

Send settlements to Xero

Before you start: Xero is connected, and your chart of accounts is mapped (see the Xero integration guide).

1. Open Connections & Synchronisations and edit your Xero integration.
2. Set Synchronise Property Owner Settlements to Yes, with a Staging date (Sync items from).
3. For automatic syncs, turn on Automatic Xero sync, choose the Frequency, and tick Sync property owner settlements.
4. Save.

What happens next: approved and published settlements go to Xero as bills on the next sync. Paying them in Xero marks them paid in COHO.

Set up categories and companies

1. Click the settings cog on the Finances panel to open Financial Settings.
2. Financial item categories: click Add category, choose the Parent Category, name it, choose Income or Expense, the VAT % and the HMRC MTD bucket, and click Create. To retire one, archive it.
3. Companies: click New Company, fill in the company details and click Save. Then assign properties to it in each property’s ownership.

Caution

Archiving a company resets the ownership of any properties assigned to it. Built-in categories can’t be archived.