Finances & reports · Product guide
Finances & reports
The Finances panel is where you keep your property money in order beyond rent. You record income and expenses (financial items), settle money with property owners and send them statements, and run reports and exports for yourself, your owners and your accountant.
Rent itself is set up and recorded in Rent Collection. COHO turns that rent, and any management fees on it, into financial items here, so most of what you settle with owners arrives on its own.
For step-by-step instructions, see Finances & reports: how-to. For problems, see Finances & reports: troubleshooting.
Why you’d come here
Section titled “Why you’d come here”| You want to… | Usually you start from | Go to |
|---|---|---|
| Pay a landlord their rent, less your fees and costs, and send them a statement | Settlements > Owners to process | Create and send an owner settlement |
| Record a bill or charge, such as a contractor’s invoice, a utility bill or a tenancy set-up fee, and pass it to the owner | Financial Items > Add financial item (or Create financial item on a maintenance invoice) | Add a financial item |
| Set up a regular cost or charge, such as insurance or a monthly service fee | Repeating Financial Items | Add a repeating financial item |
| Check what’s been paid in and out for a property or owner | Financial Items filters | Find a financial item |
| Answer a landlord’s question about their statement | Settlements: the settlement, then its owner line | Settlements |
| See how profitable your portfolio is | Profitability Reports | Create a profitability report |
| Give your accountant data, or move figures into your accounting software | Export Accounting Data, Generate Rent Statement, or Connections & Synchronisations for Xero | Export data for your accountant |
| Get set up before your first settlement: start dates, categories, companies | The settings cog, and Settlements > configure owners | Set up settlements for an owner |
Which panel to use:
| Panel | Use it when you’re thinking about |
|---|---|
| Finances (Menu > Finances) | Everything money-related across your organisation: items, settlements, reports, exports, Xero |
| Rent Collection (on a tenancy or room) | One tenant’s rent: what’s due, what’s paid, refunds and reversals. Rent shows in Finances once recorded here |
| Property Owners | Who the owner is, their settlement start date, and whether they’re emailed their statement |
| Property Ownership (on a property) | Owned, managed or rent-to-rent, and the management fee. This decides how money is split |
How it works
Section titled “How it works”Every amount in Finances is a financial item. Each one says who earns or pays what: your organisation, the property owner (client money), or the tenant (tenant funds, such as deposits).
- Property ownership comes first. A property needs its ownership set (owned, managed, or rent-to-rent/master lease) before you can add financial items to it. Ownership decides whether money belongs to you or is client money held for an owner, and the management fee.
- Rent arrives from Rent Collection. Each rent due item creates a financial item, and its paid status follows the tenant’s payments.
- Management fees are added for you on managed properties, as a percentage of the rent (see Management fees).
- You add everything else as financial items: supplier invoices, your own fees, and costs to pass to the owner.
- You settle with the owner. A settlement gathers the unsettled items for an owner over a period and works out what the owner receives and what your organisation keeps. You approve it, publish it, and mark it paid once you’ve transferred the money.
Where to find it
Section titled “Where to find it”From your dashboard, click Menu > Finances. The panel reads “Manage your finances, profitability and owner settlements”. It has these sections, each opening as an accordion:
| Section | What it’s for |
|---|---|
| Financial Graphs | Quick charts of income and expenses |
| Financial Items | Every income and expense record, with filters and totals |
| Repeating Financial Items | Items COHO creates for you on a schedule |
| Profitability Reports | Reports of your income and costs over a period |
| Settlements | Owner settlements and statements: “For client money passing to property owners and your organisation” |
| Connections & Synchronisations | Your Xero connection: “Manage your Xero API Connections for pushing COHO data into Xero” |
| Other Reports, Statements & Exports | Generate Rent Statement and Export Accounting Data |
The settings cog opens Financial Settings.
Owners you’ve invited to COHO see a Finances panel on their own dashboard (“View owner settlements”), showing their published settlements.
What you see
Section titled “What you see”Financial Graphs
Section titled “Financial Graphs”Filter by property and owner. Quick View compares income and expenses month by month; Expense Breakdown splits costs by category over 1 month, 3 month or 6 month. With no data yet, COHO says it will show charts once you add some financial data.
Financial Items
Section titled “Financial Items”Set your filters, then click Filter table.
| On screen | What it does |
|---|---|
| Date range, Min amount, Max amount | Narrow by date or amount |
| Owner, property, tenancy | Narrow to an owner (or Self-owned), properties or a tenancy |
| Paid status, category, supplier | Unpaid or Paid; a category; a supplier, No supplier linked or Any supplier linked |
| All descriptions/Settlement no | Search by description or a settlement number such as ST1051 |
| Show tenant funds | Include deposits, holding deposits and rent in advance |
| Show client money | Include rent and other money held for owners (managed properties) |
| Show ONLY repeating items | Only items made by repeating items |
| Totals | Client money, Client expenses, Tenant funds, Income |
| Export (CSV) | Downloads the list |
| View | Opens the item |
Each row shows the date, property, room, tenancy, category, description, settlement and payment status (Settled, Not settled, Part settled; Paid on, Due, Overdue, Part paid) and the amount. Items split across properties are grouped; click Expand to see each part.
A financial item’s page shows what the owner will receive or must pay, what your organisation receives or pays, the supplier, any float used, and the settlements it’s on. From here you can Set Paid, Set unpaid or Delete it, if it isn’t locked.
Settlements
Section titled “Settlements”| Part | What it shows |
|---|---|
| Filters | Status, property owner, property, date range, tenancy, paid status and Search…, then Filter |
| The list | Name, Property owner, Date, Org. total, Owner total, Status. Switch between list and card views |
| Totals | Unprocessed (Organisation) and Unprocessed (Client) (not yet settled), To be paid (owner lines on published settlements not yet marked paid) and Total held (all three together) |
| Owners to process | “Settlement-enabled property owners and their current unprocessed amounts”: each owner’s Unprocessed (Org.) and Unprocessed (Client), with Add settlement. Owners appear once they have a settlement start date and a managed or rent-to-rent property |
| Owners not yet set up | “You have yet to configure some property owners to start settlements”, with View to set a start date |
| Add settlement | Starts a new settlement |
| Generate report | A summary report across an owner’s settlements |
A settlement shows its name, ST number, payment reference, period, status, notes, and a line for each party:
- the property owner: what they receive (or owe), with each item listed;
- your organisation: your fees and income;
- suppliers: bills paid from the owner’s money.
Each owner and organisation line has Generate Report (the PDF statement), view and download buttons, Send Report (owner only), Set Paid, and Export (CSV) as Bill To Pay (owner) or Invoice (organisation). The line also says whether the report has been sent, for example “The property owner will be sent the settlement report by email upon publishing.”
Settlements
Section titled “Settlements”A settlement is a statement of client money for a period: rent received for an owner, less your management fees and any costs passed on, plus your organisation’s own income. It shows what to pay the owner and what your organisation keeps.
Creating a settlement
Section titled “Creating a settlement”| Option | What it means |
|---|---|
| Owner | One or more property owners. Select all picks every owner; with several, COHO creates one draft each (Create bulk drafts) |
| Settlement style | Per property (one settlement for one property) or Per property owner (all their properties together) |
| Period start, Period end | The settlement period |
| Who are you paying out? | Both (owner and organisation) or Organisation only |
| Include earlier items that can now be settled? | Yes brings in older unsettled items from before the period start (but not before the owner’s start date) |
| Include future-dated rent payments? | Yes includes payments dated after the period end |
| Financial items | The items available, each with its Client amount and Organisation amount. Untick any you don’t want, or settle part of an amount |
| Floats | For owners with a float: its balance, and a Top-up to take from this settlement |
| Settlement name | “A descriptive name for your team’s reference” |
| Payment reference | “A reference to be used on the bank transfer (usually max 18 chars)” |
| Notes | “These will only be visible to your team” |
| Notes to owner | “These will be visible on the settlement” |
COHO fills in the period (start of this month to today), a name and a payment reference (for example “Rent” with the postcode and date); change them if you need to. Include earlier items starts on Yes and Include future-dated rent payments? on No. Click Create draft.
What’s included:
- Rent is included by the date the tenant paid it, not the date it was due. Rent due on 30 March and paid on 1 April appears in April’s settlement.
- Other items are included by their invoice date.
- Nothing before the owner’s settlement start date (Start settlements from) is ever available, whatever period you choose. COHO warns you if your period starts earlier.
- An item can only be settled once. Once it’s on a settlement, including a draft, it isn’t offered again, except for any part you didn’t settle. Items stay held by a draft until you delete it, so delete drafts you don’t need.
- Bulk drafts (several owners at once) tick only items dated in the period, or rent paid in the period. To include older items, create the owner’s settlement on its own.
Settlement statuses
Section titled “Settlement statuses”| Status | Meaning | What you can do |
|---|---|---|
| Draft | Being prepared. Its items are held, but not yet settled | Approve, Edit (re-creates it as a new draft), Delete |
| Approved | Final; the items are settled, the ST number is set and the statement PDF is made. The owner can’t see it yet | Publish, Set Paid, Edit (name, date, reference and notes only), Delete |
| Published | Visible to the owner in their COHO account, and emailed if you’ve turned that on | Set Paid, Send Report, Edit (details only), Delete |
| Voided | Deleted. Its items are released to be settled again | None |
Each owner and organisation line of an approved or published settlement is also Unpaid, Partially Paid or Paid. Owners don’t see the paid status or your organisation’s line.
Floats
Section titled “Floats”A float is money an owner leaves with you to pay small costs. When a property’s owner has a float, you can pay a financial item from it, and top it up from a settlement. Floats are set up on the owner in Property Owners. COHO blocks a payment that would overdraw the float.
Management fees
Section titled “Management fees”On managed properties, COHO creates your management fee for you from the fee percentage on the property’s ownership:
- When it’s charged: On rent paid (a fee for each payment received, worked out on that payment) or On rent due (a fee on the full rent due).
- VAT: worked out from the ownership’s VAT settings: no VAT, VAT included in the percentage, or VAT added on top.
- No fee when the percentage is 0, the property is owned or rent-to-rent, or the rent is reversed or refunded. Payments made as a rent credit don’t earn a fee.
Fee items are locked: you can’t delete them or mark them paid yourself. To see whether a fee was charged, open the rent due item in Rent Collection and click Show financial items; a settled fee shows its ST number. If you change the fee on the property ownership, COHO offers to regenerate the fees, but only those not yet settled.
Financial items
Section titled “Financial items”Adding a financial item
Section titled “Adding a financial item”The Add Financial Item form asks, step by step:
| Step | Options |
|---|---|
| Does this item relate to a property or a company? | A property, Multiple properties (the cost is split between them) or General (not property-specific) |
| Who provided the item or service? | You/Your team (your own service, such as tenant find or an inspection) or Someone else (a supplier) |
| What do you want to add | Compliance, Tenancy, Ownership, Marketing, Property Health, Maintenance, Rent & Tenant Charges, Utilities & Bills, Other, or Management Fee (your own service on a managed property) |
| Parent Category and category | Your categories; see Settings |
| Is this an income or expense | Income (the owner receives money) or Expense (the owner pays). Is reversal turns it into an Income reversal or Expense reversal |
| Description, Notes, Room, Tenancy | Room and tenancy are optional |
| Supplier | Specific supplier or Misc. Supplier. A specific supplier is needed to sync to Xero |
| Invoice date, Invoice Number, Payment status | Unpaid (with Payment due on) or Paid (with Paid on) |
| Invoice file | Optional. Attach it now: you can’t add it later |
| Cost | The amount and VAT. The category’s VAT rate is filled in for you |
Then Onward invoicing (“Who pays the cost?”), for managed and rent-to-rent properties:
| Option | Meaning |
|---|---|
| Organisation | Owner is not charged. You can still show it on the settlement as a zero-cost item |
| Owner, cost only | Owner pays the invoice amount only |
| Owner, adjusted cost | Owner pays a marked-up (or reduced) amount; they see only the amount they pay. Shortcuts: 50/50, +5%, +10%, +15%, Other |
| Owner, additional fee | Owner pays the invoice plus a separate management fee they can see. Shortcuts: 5%, 10%, 15%, 20%, Other |
Who is the invoice made out to?
- Owner: “We pay using their client money.”
- Your organisation: “Invoice payed from working capital and recovered on settlement.”
Take your accountant’s advice on this; it affects VAT. You can also pay from the owner’s float, and record a commission (kickback) from a specific supplier. Click Preview, check the Item preview (COHO warns of possible duplicates), then Create financial items.
Repeating financial items
Section titled “Repeating financial items”A repeating item creates the same financial item on a schedule, for example monthly insurance or a service charge. It’s always for one property.
| Option | What it means |
|---|---|
| Create from | The first date |
| Repeating | Weekly, Fortnightly, Every 4 weeks, Monthly (default), Quarterly, Every 6 months or Annually |
| Create days in advance | Create each item this many days before its date. “Leave as 0 days to have the financial item created on the same date it is due for.” |
| Run Until | Until stopped, or a set date (Stop on) |
| Onward invoicing | No, Cost only, Marked-up cost or Cost plus fee, and whether to pay from client money or working capital |
COHO creates due items automatically, checking every hour. Execute Next Run on one item, or Execute repeating items due for all, creates the next items now and moves the schedule on, for example to charge an owner before settling. Stop and Delete don’t remove items already created.
Reports and exports
Section titled “Reports and exports”| Report | What it gives you | Who it’s for |
|---|---|---|
| Profitability Reports | Your organisation’s income and costs by property and category, for a date range, owner or properties. Uses items by the date they were paid | You |
| Settlement report (Generate report in Settlements) | One owner’s settlements over a period: totals paid to the owner and to you, rent paid, management fees and costs | You, or to share with an owner |
| Owner statement (each settlement’s report) | The settlement as a PDF, also as CSV (Bill To Pay / Invoice) | The owner |
| Generate Rent Statement | A rent ledger by tenant: due, paid, variance and running balance, with an opening balance. Options: Money types, Include prepayments, Include bad debt, Show past payments for rent paid in this period. Create (to view) or Generate CSV | You, or to share |
| Export Accounting Data | A CSV of invoices for your accounting software (up to one year at a time), with Ignore previous items? to skip items already exported | Your accountant or bookkeeper |
Reports are made when you ask for them; they aren’t emailed, and they recalculate from current data each time you open them.
Connections & Synchronisations connects COHO to Xero and pushes COHO data into it: rent (invoices and payments), supplier bills, and owner settlements (as bills payable). COHO is the source of truth: changes in Xero don’t come back to COHO, except payment status. Set it up from the accordion; the Xero integration has its own guide.
- Automatic sync: optional. Choose Daily (every morning between midnight and 9am UK time) or Weekly (Monday mornings), and which of Sync tenancies, Sync property owner settlements and Sync supplier items to include. Otherwise sync by hand.
- Settlements sync once approved or published. A deleted (voided) settlement voids its Xero bill on the next sync.
- Paid in Xero: when a settlement’s bill or a supplier invoice is paid in Xero, the next sync marks it paid in COHO. A supplier invoice that is still unpaid in Xero is set back to Unpaid in COHO, even if you marked it paid here; settlements aren’t changed back.
- Errors appear in the sync log. With Pause automatic syncs when the latest connection-wide sync has errors set to Yes, automatic syncs stop and you get an Action until the errors are fixed.
Settings
Section titled “Settings”Click the settings cog on the Finances panel to open Financial Settings.
| Setting | What it does |
|---|---|
| Xero Management (Manual Exports) | Account codes, tax types and property tracking options used by Export Accounting Data |
| Companies | Child companies (for example an SPV) that own some of your properties. Properties are assigned in their property ownership. Archiving a company resets the ownership of its properties |
| Financial item categories | Your categories: name, parent category, income or expense, VAT % (0%, 5% or 20%) and HMRC MTD bucket. You can archive your own categories (Show archived to see them), but not built-in ones |
Two settings live on the property owner, in Property Owners:
- Start settlements from: “No financial items with an invoice date before this date will be available for settlement.”
- Send settlement PDF upon publishing: emails the owner their statement when you publish.
Who can use it
Section titled “Who can use it”| To | You need |
|---|---|
| See the Finances panel, financial items and graphs | View finances |
| Add, pay or delete financial items, repeating items, categories | Change finances |
| See settlements | View owner settlements |
| Create, approve, publish, pay or delete settlements | Create owner settlements |
| See profitability reports | View reports |
| Create or delete profitability reports | Generate reports |
| Generate a rent statement | View Rent Collection |
| Connect or change Xero | Integrations (and view finances) |
With only Integrations, the panel says “You do not have access to finances, but you can still manage the Xero integration below.” Users with a restricted role may not see Add financial item; ask an admin.
Rules and automatic behaviour
Section titled “Rules and automatic behaviour”Financial items
- Property ownership first: you can’t add a financial item to a property without ownership.
- No editing: once created, a financial item can’t be edited. Delete it and add it again, or add a reversal if it’s already settled.
- Locked once settled: an item on an approved or published settlement can’t be deleted, marked paid or unpaid. Rent and management fee items are always locked.
- Split items are paid together: use Set all in split group as paid.
- Supplier and attachment can’t be changed after the item is created.
Settlements
- Start date: nothing dated before the owner’s Start settlements from date can be settled, and rent paid before it isn’t counted.
- No overpaying: you can’t settle more than an item’s remaining amount, or the opposite sign.
- Approving needs a draft whose items are all still valid (not deleted, refunded or already fully settled). Approving locks the items and gives the settlement its ST number.
- Editing an approved settlement only changes its name, date, payment reference and notes, not its items.
- Deleting voids the settlement and releases its items to be settled again. It’s best done only on drafts.
- One at a time: if someone else in your organisation is creating settlements, wait a moment and try again.
What COHO sends
| When | Who gets it | How |
|---|---|---|
| You publish a settlement, and the owner has Send settlement PDF upon publishing turned on | The property owner | Email, “New settlement report shared to you”, with the PDF |
| You click Send Report | The property owner | The same email |
| A published settlement | Owners with a COHO account | It appears on their Finances panel |
| An automatic Xero sync is paused by errors | The assigned team member | An Action |
Nothing else is sent. Publishing doesn’t send owners a separate alert: if Send settlement PDF upon publishing is off, they only see the settlement when they next log in. Nothing is sent to tenants from Finances, and reports and exports aren’t emailed.
What COHO does automatically
- Rent into Finances: each rent due item gets a financial item, and its paid status follows the tenant’s payments. COHO also checks every hour for any that are missing.
- Rent matched from your bank: a rent match rule in Transactions records the tenant’s payment in Rent Collection, which marks the rent item paid and creates any fee due on it.
- Management fees on managed properties, from the ownership’s fee settings.
- Repeating items: creates due items, checking every hour.
- Paid status: a settlement line marked paid marks its items paid; a supplier invoice or settlement bill paid in Xero is marked paid in COHO on the next sync.
- Xero: syncs on your chosen schedule, if automatic sync is on.
- Owner statement email on publishing, if turned on for the owner.
What COHO doesn’t do automatically
- create or approve settlements. You create each one (several at once with Create bulk drafts);
- pay owners or suppliers. You transfer the money, then Set Paid (or it’s marked paid from Xero);
- mark a financial item paid when you match a bank transaction to it in Transactions. Mark it paid yourself;
- bring in bank or card fees, such as GoCardless fees. Add them as financial items;
- attach supplier invoices to the owner statement PDF;
- regenerate fees that are already settled.
Related guides
Section titled “Related guides”- Finances & reports: how-to: step-by-step instructions for every task.
- Finances & reports: troubleshooting: fixes for common problems and error messages.
- Rent Schedules & Rent Collection, Transactions, Deposits and Credit Control.
- Property Owners, Property Ownership, Maintenance and the Xero integration guide.