Owners → Contracts → /owner-contracts Beta
An owner contract is the management agreement expressed in terms the system can act on: what you manage, what you charge for it, and how often you settle.
What a contract defines
| Section | Contents |
|---|---|
| Contract summary | Contract name, owner, status, and validity dates. |
| Units in scope | The units this contract covers. |
| Service types in scope | Which income streams the commission applies to — rent only, or rent plus utilities and service charge. |
| Commission | The management fee: rate or amount, applied per service type where terms differ. |
| Statement / payout cadence | How often statements are produced and payouts made. |
| Settlement lag | How long after the period end the payout is made — the gap that lets receipts clear. |
| Min disbursement | The threshold below which a payout is carried forward rather than paid. |
| Negative balance | How a period that ends owing you money is handled. |
| Accounting treatment | How the contract's amounts are recognised. |
| AR control account | The receivable control account used. |
| Version history | Every version of the terms, with valid-from and valid-to dates. |
Versioned terms
Commission terms are versioned, not overwritten. Each version has a valid from and
valid to, so a statement produced for March uses March's terms even if the agreement changed in
May.
The contract detail page shows rule source and override per line, so you can see whether a commission rate came from the contract default, a service-type-specific rule, or a manual override.
Creating an agreement
You can create an agreement from either end, and edit one wherever you can see it. Both need admin access.
From the owner, or from the agreements list
Owners → the owner → Contracts → New agreement creates it against that owner directly. Owners → Contracts → New agreement works too — it asks which owner first.
Name it meaningfully
Owners frequently have more than one — a residential block and a commercial unit on different terms — and the name is how they are told apart.
Set the status and dates
A Draft agreement records terms without acting on them; Active is the live one. The start date is when the terms take effect, not the day you typed them in. Leave the end date empty for an open-ended agreement.
Set the fee and what it is charged on
The management fee is a percentage, charged either on rent we collect (when the money arrives) or on rent we invoice (when it is billed).
Set the payout cadence
Monthly, weekly or on request. A monthly agreement can also carry a payout day — capped at 28 so every month has that day.
Verify on the next statement
The first statement under a new agreement is worth checking line by line.
To change an agreement later, use Edit on its row, or Edit agreement on the agreement's own page. Changes take effect immediately — there is no separate approval step.
Cadence, lag and thresholds in practice
| Setting | Typical value | Why it matters |
|---|---|---|
| Cadence | Monthly | Determines statement periods. |
| Settlement lag | 5–10 days | Rent received on the 28th has not cleared by the 1st. A lag that is too short produces payouts against uncleared money. |
| Min disbursement | A small fixed amount | Prevents a bank charge exceeding the payout. Amounts below it carry forward. |
| Negative balance | Carry forward | A period where costs exceeded income leaves the owner owing you; carrying it forward is normally cleaner than invoicing them. |
Contract lifecycle
| Event | Action |
|---|---|
| Terms renegotiated | Add a new version with the new effective date. |
| Units added or removed | Update units in scope; income follows from the effective date. |
| Contract ends | Set valid-to. Statements stop after the final period; any carried balance is settled. |
| Owner sells the property | End the contract and start a new one with the new owner. Do not re-point the existing contract — the history belongs to the previous owner. |