Payment Category
A payment category names one kind of money a buyer owes: a down payment, a monthly instalment, a possession charge, a transfer fee, a refund. Every instalment, additional charge and fee line in Real Estate carries one, and the account a payment is credited to is found through it.
What it is for
Every line of money in this module is labelled with a payment category: the instalment lines of a Sales Agreement, its additional payments, the fees of an Ownership Transfer, and the lines a Billing Proposal clears. The category decides two things that matter later.
- The account. When a billing proposal is prepared, each line looks up the account set for its payment category on the posting profile, under the real estate posting lines. A category with no account there stops the billing proposal (see below).
- Whether a charge is part of the payment plan. Required In Payment Plan, ticked, makes an additional charge of that category part of the instalment plan total; unticked, the charge is billed on its own.
The one rule people get wrong: creating the category here is not enough. Its account must also be set on the posting profile, or no billing proposal can be made for it.
Every field in plain words
| Field | What it means | What to put |
|---|---|---|
| Payment Category | The code of the category | A short code, for example INST or POSS. Required |
| Name | What the category is called on documents | Monthly Instalment, Possession Charges. Required |
| Tax Group | The tax group a line of this category carries | Pick one if the charge is taxed; it is brought onto the line when the category is picked |
| Payment Basis | Whether the category is paid by stage or by instalment | Stage or Installment. It is brought onto payment plan lines when the category is picked there |
| Period Unit | How often an instalment of this category falls | Monthly, quarterly, half-yearly or yearly. Brought onto payment plan lines |
| Required In Payment Plan | Additional charges of this category are folded into the instalment plan | Tick for a charge the buyer pays inside the plan; leave unticked for a charge billed separately |
How to configure it
Create one category per kind of money, then name the special ones on Real Estate Setting: the outright payment category, the buy back outright category and the refund categories. Set each category's account on the posting profile in the general ledger setup.
Scenarios
- A developer sells apartments with a 20% down payment, 36 monthly instalments and a possession charge. Make three categories: Down Payment (Stage), Monthly Instalment (Installment, monthly) and Possession (Stage).
- Utility connection charges are billed on their own, not inside the plan. Make a category for them and leave Required In Payment Plan unticked.
What it is connected to
- Real Estate Setting names the outright, refund and adjustment categories.
- Real Estate Unit and Pricing Profile price additional charges by category.
- Sales Agreement carries a category on every instalment and additional payment.
- Billing Proposal finds each line's account through its category.
- Posting Profile - where each payment category gets its account, in the real estate lines.
If something looks wrong
- "Account is not defined in Posting Profile of Payment Category ..." when a billing proposal is created. The category has no account on the posting profile's real estate lines. Set it there and create the billing proposal again.
- The category does not appear in a lookup. The lookup shows the categories of the legal entity you are signed into. Create it in that legal entity.