Annual Budget Management & Financial Reporting — v1.0.7 Release

Annual Budget Management & Financial Reporting

Introduced in: v1.0.7

This release delivers the core financial management infrastructure required for Irish Owners' Management Companies (OMCs). It covers the full budget lifecycle — from annual budget creation and unit-level cost allocation through to expenditure tracking, sinking fund management, and AGM-ready financial reporting.

Background: Irish Legal Requirements

Under the Multi-Unit Developments Act 2011, every OMC in Ireland must:

Maintain a service charge scheme that fairly apportions running costs across unit owners (s.18)
Maintain a sinking fund for long-term capital expenditure (s.19)
Present audited accounts and financial statements at the Annual General Meeting (AGM)

Failure to meet these obligations exposes OMC directors and managing agents to legal risk. This release provides the platform tooling to fulfil these requirements.

Annual Budget Creation

Each OMC development can have one active budget per financial year. Budgets are created by the managing agent and, once approved, form the basis for service charge demands issued to unit owners.

Key concepts

Concept	Description
Financial Year	The 12-month period the budget covers (e.g. 01 Jan – 31 Dec)
Budget Line Item	A named expenditure category with a projected amount
Approved Budget	A locked budget from which service charge demands are generated
Variance	The difference between projected and actual spend for a line item

Cost Allocation by Unit Type / Share

Not all units in a development carry equal cost liability. Share schedules define how the total approved budget is divided among units.

Supported allocation methods

Equal share — each unit pays an identical proportion of total costs
Floor area — liability proportional to the unit's gross floor area (m²)
Percentage ownership — uses the ownership percentage as registered in the OMC's title documents
Custom weighting — manually assigned weights per unit or unit type

Share schedules can be applied globally across the development or configured differently per budget line item (e.g. lift maintenance allocated only to units with lift access).

Expenditure Tracking

Once a budget is approved, actual expenditures can be recorded against each line item as invoices are received and paid.

Recording an expenditure

Select the relevant budget and line item
Enter the amount, date, supplier name, and payment reference
Optionally attach a scanned invoice or receipt (PDF/image)
Save — the platform immediately updates the variance report for that line item

Variance reporting

At any point during the year, managing agents can view:

Amount budgeted per line item
Amount spent to date per line item
Remaining balance per line item
Variance % (over/under budget)

This gives directors and auditors a live view of financial performance against the approved budget.

Sinking Fund Management

The sinking fund is a separate, ring-fenced reserve for major capital works (e.g. roof replacement, lift overhaul, external redecoration). It is legally distinct from the annual service charge fund.

Sinking fund features

Create a named sinking fund account per development
Define annual contribution amounts per unit (can be included in the service charge demand or invoiced separately)
Record capital expenditure disbursements from the fund
View a running balance: Opening balance + Contributions − Expenditures = Closing balance
Generate sinking fund statements for inclusion in AGM packs

Note: The Multi-Unit Developments Act 2011 (s.19) requires that a sinking fund be established and that contributions be "fair and reasonable". The platform supports managing agents in documenting and demonstrating compliance with this requirement.

Financial Reports

All reports are accessible from the Finance section of the development dashboard. Reports reflect data in real time and can be exported as PDF or CSV.

Available reports

Income & Expenditure Report

A full year-to-date summary of all budget line items with:

Projected budget amount
Actual expenditure to date
Variance (£/€ and %)
Categorised totals

Suitable for board meetings, director reviews, and interim financial reporting.

Service Charge Demand Schedule

A per-unit breakdown listing:

Unit identifier and owner name
Annual service charge liability
Sinking fund contribution (if applicable)
Total amount due

Can be used as the basis for issuing service charge demands to unit owners.

Sinking Fund Statement

A period statement showing:

Opening balance
Total contributions received
Total expenditures in the period
Closing balance
Itemised transaction list

AGM Financial Pack

A consolidated report bundle generated for the Annual General Meeting, containing:

Approved annual budget
Income & Expenditure Report (full year)
Sinking Fund Statement
Service Charge Demand Schedule
Variance summary

This pack is designed to satisfy the AGM financial reporting requirements under s.18 and s.19 of the MUD Act 2011.

Database Schema Reference

The following tables were introduced in v1.0.7:

Table	Purpose
`budgets`	Annual budget records per OMC and financial year
`budget_line_items`	Categorised line items with projected and actual amounts
`share_schedules`	Unit-level cost allocation configurations
`expenditures`	Actual spend records linked to budget lines
`sinking_funds`	Sinking fund accounts per development
`sinking_fund_transactions`	Contributions and disbursements against a sinking fund

Compliance Reference

Requirement	Legislation	Platform Feature
Service charge scheme	MUD Act 2011, s.18	Annual Budget + Service Charge Demand Schedule
Sinking fund	MUD Act 2011, s.19	Sinking Fund Management
AGM financial presentation	MUD Act 2011, s.18(5)	AGM Financial Pack report
Fair cost apportionment	MUD Act 2011, s.18(3)	Share Schedule configuration

For questions about configuring budgets or generating reports, refer to the Getting Started guide or contact support.