Billing tenants for water and service charge on one statement

A combined account can make water and fixed service-charge billing easier to review. Consider this illustrative example: A tenant says they're up to date. The water spreadsheet says they owe KES 1,240. The service charge book says they paid in full. The paybill shows a single KES 4,000 payment on the 6th with "B4" as the reference - and nobody can say which bill it was meant for.

Nobody in that conversation is lying. The problem is that one unit is being billed on two systems, and the money only ever arrives on one.

This piece is for landlords, managing agents and estate committees who charge for submetered water and a fixed service charge - and want both on one statement, with one balance per unit.

Where separate billing records create extra work

When fixed service charges and water usage are tracked separately, one payment can be difficult to allocate. These are the questions to resolve:

The fix isn't a better spreadsheet. It's one account per unit.

One unit, one account, one balance

Treat each unit - a flat, a house, a shop - as a single account. Put the agreed water and fixed service charges on the relevant account and check payments against them. When the tenant asks what they owe, there's one number.

In BillGrid, a billing account is exactly this: one account for each unit, with its own account number, service address, tariff, balance and payment link. Organise the property the way you walk it - zones for blocks or phases, routes for the caretaker's round - and every unit sits where you'd look for it.

The service charge is the fixed part of the bill

For this setup, the service charge is an agreed fixed periodic amount, separate from metered water consumption. Service charges can cover security, common-area cleaning or other shared costs, but they are not always fixed. A charge based on budgets, expenditure reconciliation or ownership shares needs a separate accounting process.

The neat way to set this up is a standing charge on the unit's tariff: a fixed amount added to every bill, whatever the meter says. In BillGrid, the standing charge appears as a separate line. Review the service start date and first part-period bill against the tenant's agreement before posting.

Illustrative example. Jay rents unit B4. The estate's tariff charges water at KES 70 per m³ and a KES 3,500 monthly service charge as the standing charge. In October, B4's submeter shows 9 m³ used. The bill reads: water 9 × 70 = KES 630, standing charge KES 3,500, total KES 4,130 - one statement, one pay link, one amount.

Different units, different charges

A studio and a three-bedroom rarely pay the same service charge, and a ground-floor shop often pays a different water rate. Handle that with categories: each category has its own default tariff, so every unit in it is priced the same way unless it has a tariff of its own. Use levies or minimum charges only where the agreement and applicable tariff permit them. Software settings do not authorize a new charge.

Charges that aren't every month

A replaced lock, a reconnection fee, a one-off repair the tenant caused - can be recorded against the same account as a separate charge where the tenant is responsible under the agreement. In BillGrid that's Add charge to an account, and it lands on the unit's balance straight away.

Read the submeters properly

The water half of the bill is only as good as the reading behind it. Check the reading and its dates before sending a usage charge.

• Read on a phone, at the meter. BillGrid's field reader works with no signal - basements and back courts included - and syncs when the phone finds a network.
• Take a photo of every meter. When a tenant disputes a charge four months later, a clear dated photo helps investigate the charge. It does not, by itself, resolve every dispute.
• Hold strange readings. A reading lower than last month, or far above the unit's usual, is held for review rather than billed.
• Never estimate a missed meter. Hold that unit back and read it - see why we never estimate a meter reading.

Bill the whole property in one run

With every unit on one account and every meter read, billing is a single run for the property: each unit's bill is built from its reading and its tariff, standing charge included. Anything that can't be billed - a missing reading, a unit with no tariff - shows up as needing attention instead of going out wrong. Post the reviewed bills and send them through the enabled channels for each customer. Check delivery status and any messaging costs.

Collect it once

A combined bill gives the tenant one total to review, with options for payment:

• The pay link. The tenant opens it, approves the M-Pesa prompt on their phone, and the payment is recorded against their account straight away.
• The property paybill. For tenants who pay straight into the paybill, ask them to use their account number as the reference. Import the M-Pesa statement, review the proposed account matches and confirm how the payments affect the balance. Investigate anything that cannot be identified. The routine is in how to reconcile M-Pesa paybill payments.

Money paid into your own paybill is yours - BillGrid takes no cut of it.

Answer the arrears question in one number

With one balance per unit, arrears are one list: who owes, how much, and for how long, aged by block, route or category. When the committee asks how much is owed, you hand over the figure. When a tenant asks what they've paid this year, you hand over a statement for that account over any period.

Plan the move-out before the move-in

Move-outs are where money quietly goes missing - a final water reading nobody took, a deposit applied to the wrong bill, a new tenant inheriting the old one's arrears.

Take a deposit on the account

Set a default deposit in your billing settings and it's charged when you create a new account, or use Record deposit for one agreed by hand. Keep the billing-account deposit distinct from any rental security deposit managed elsewhere. Agree permitted deductions and settlement terms with the tenant.

Close the account properly

When a tenant leaves, close their account with a final reading:

1. Enter the final reading for the unit's meter, and the reason for closing.
2. BillGrid bills the final consumption.
3. Review the final charges and the deposit offset recorded on closing.
4. Review any remaining credit and settle any amount owed back to the tenant under the agreement.

Illustrative example. When Jay moves out of B4, October's KES 4,130 is still unpaid and the final reading adds KES 420 of water - KES 4,550 owed. The KES 5,000 deposit covers all of it, and KES 450 stays on Jay's record as credit. In this illustration, the billed debt is cleared and KES 450 remains as credit in BillGrid. That credit does not itself return money to Jay: arrange any required refund separately and keep the settlement record.

Then open a new account for the new tenant

The new tenant gets a fresh account on the same meter - their own number, their own pay link, their own balance, and none of the previous tenant's arrears. If the incoming person is genuinely taking over the old account, BillGrid's Change holder shows exactly which unpaid bills they'd inherit before anything changes.

What this looks like at month end

This is a water and fixed-charge billing workflow. It does not replace lease administration, rent accounting or a full service-charge reconciliation. Review the charges, payments and settlement terms rather than assuming a combined bill resolves every property-management task.

See how it runs on the service charge and water use case, or start with water billing.