> ## Documentation Index
> Fetch the complete documentation index at: https://docs.nyumbazetu.com/llms.txt
> Use this file to discover all available pages before exploring further.

# Recurring invoices

> Define the charges that repeat every cycle and generate invoices from them automatically.

**Finance → Receivables → Recurring Invoices → `/charges`** ·
**Admin → Recurring Charges → `/lease/charges`**

A **recurring charge** is a rule on a lease: bill this service type, at this amount, on this
schedule. The recurring-invoice run turns those rules into real invoices each cycle. This is where
most of a property's revenue actually comes from — hand-typed invoices are the exception.

## The two surfaces

| Surface                                             | Use it for                                                                                              |
| --------------------------------------------------- | ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- |
| **Recurring Invoices** (`/charges`)                 | The finance view: all recurring charges across the branch, their status, and the invoices they produce. |
| **Recurring Charges on a lease** (`/lease/charges`) | The tenancy view: the charges attached to one lease, with a phase preview and editor.                   |

## Anatomy of a recurring charge

| Field                       | Notes                                                                                                                                  |
| --------------------------- | -------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- |
| **Lease / unit**            | The billing subject. Charges are always attached to a lease.                                                                           |
| **Service type**            | What is being billed — rent, service charge, garbage, parking, water standing charge. Determines the income account and tax treatment. |
| **Quantity and unit price** | The charge amount is quantity × unit price, so a two-bay parking charge is one line, not two charges.                                  |
| **Description**             | What appears on the invoice line.                                                                                                      |
| **Frequency**               | How often it bills (monthly, quarterly, annually, and other supported cycles).                                                         |
| **Start date**              | First cycle.                                                                                                                           |
| **End date**                | Last cycle. Leave open for an ongoing charge; set it to stop generation cleanly.                                                       |
| **Status**                  | Whether the charge is active for generation.                                                                                           |

<Tip>
  Amounts auto-fill from the service type's default when you pick it, so a branch-wide standard
  charge does not have to be retyped per lease — and a typo in one lease stands out against the
  default.
</Tip>

## Creating recurring charges

<Steps>
  <Step title="Open the lease">
    Recurring charges are usually created as part of lease setup — rent first, then the standing
    charges.
  </Step>

  <Step title="Add a charge per service type">
    One charge per billable thing. Do not roll rent, service charge and garbage into a single
    "rent" line: it destroys your revenue analysis and your arrears diagnosis.
  </Step>

  <Step title="Review the phase preview">
    The editor previews the phases the charge will generate — what will bill, and when. Read it
    before saving; it is far cheaper than reversing a bad run.
  </Step>

  <Step title="Save">
    The charge is now part of the lease's billing profile.
  </Step>
</Steps>

## Generation

Each cycle, the generation run creates invoices from active charges whose schedule falls due.
Generated invoices behave exactly like hand-created ones — they can be edited before issue, sent,
allocated, adjusted and posted.

The run is a scheduled job. Like every scheduled job on the platform it is individually switchable
and defaults to off outside production, so a non-production environment cannot write real bills.

### Recurring invoice status

Each recurring charge tracks its own generation status, so you can see at a glance which charges
are live, which are paused, and which have run out (past end date).

## Changing a charge

| Change                           | How                                                                                                             |
| -------------------------------- | --------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- |
| Amount changes going forward     | Edit the charge. Past invoices are untouched.                                                                   |
| Amount should rise on a schedule | Use [charge escalation](/guides/charge-escalation) rather than editing the amount every year.                   |
| Charge should stop               | Set an end date, or deactivate it.                                                                              |
| Charge was wrong for past cycles | Fix the charge for the future, and correct the already-issued invoices with [adjustments](/guides/adjustments). |

<Warning>
  Editing a recurring charge does not retrospectively change invoices that have already been
  generated. Correcting history is always an adjustment, never an edit to the rule.
</Warning>

## Importing recurring charges

Recurring invoices can be imported in bulk through **Admin → Bulk Upload** with the *Recurring
Invoices* type — useful when onboarding a portfolio. See [Bulk upload](/guides/bulk-upload).

## Checks before each run

<Steps>
  <Step title="New leases have charges">
    A lease created without recurring charges bills nothing and will look like a compliant tenant.
    Filter leases with no active charge.
  </Step>

  <Step title="Ended leases have end dates">
    A charge with no end date keeps billing a vacated unit, creating arrears against nobody.
  </Step>

  <Step title="Escalations are due">
    Check the escalation projections for increases landing this cycle.
  </Step>

  <Step title="Service types map to accounts">
    A charge whose service type has no account mapping generates an invoice that cannot post.
  </Step>
</Steps>

## After the run

* Review the generated invoices before sending — a spot check of five leases catches most
  configuration errors.
* Send in bulk from the invoices list.
* Watch the [Delivery Tracker](/guides/communications) for failures.
* Reconcile the run total against expected billing for the branch.

## Next steps

<Columns cols={2}>
  <Card title="Charge escalation" icon="arrow-trend-up" href="/guides/charge-escalation">
    Schedule increases instead of editing amounts by hand.
  </Card>

  <Card title="Invoices" icon="file-invoice" href="/guides/invoices-and-payments">
    What happens to a charge once it becomes a bill.
  </Card>
</Columns>