Use case
Mixed-use property management software that separates commercial from residential
One building, three kinds of space, two kinds of occupant, and rarely one allocation key that fits both. The system models flats, business spaces and storage separately, and bills each on its own terms.
- Housing units are typed Flat, Business Space or Storage Space, each with its own rooms, areas and contracts
- Sub-meters can sit under a main meter, so a metered shop and unmetered flats coexist in the same statement
- Allocation formulas are configurable per rebilling entry: per square metre, per person, per unit, per consumption share or a custom expression
- Invoices can be issued from several legal entities under one account, with VAT-on-payment supported through the invoicing platform integration
The structure
A unit model that admits shops and storage exist
Most portfolio software assumes every unit is a flat. A mixed-use building is not built that way. The ground floor is let to a business, the basement is let as storage by the square metre, the courtyard is shared, and the parking lot is let separately again.
The hierarchy is explicit: Property Group, then Property, then Housing Unit, then Rooms and Common Spaces. Housing units are typed as Flat, Business Space or Storage Space. Rooms carry their own type — living room, bath room, kitchen, storage room, gangway, loft, basement, staircase — and common and outdoor spaces cover courtyard, parking lot, land lot, building, gangway and staircase.
Areas and dimensions roll up automatically from rooms to units, from units to properties, from properties to groups. You record the measurement once, at the level where it was actually taken, and the totals that allocation keys depend on stay consistent.
Cadastral, land registry and topographical details sit on the entity they belong to. Free tags let you mark what the hierarchy does not express — ground floor, retail, cold storage, own use — and the visual hierarchy graph shows the whole structure at once.
Metering
Commercial sub-metering alongside residential consumption
A business tenant usually consumes more, at different hours, and expects to be charged for what was measured rather than for a share of the building. That requires meters below meters, and a reading process that survives contact with a real staircase.
Meters and sub-meters
Register a main meter at the supply point and sub-meters beneath it, per unit or per circuit. The consumption of a metered business space can be deducted before the remainder is allocated to everyone else.
Consumption sites
Group meters by the site they measure, so a building with several supply points, or a group of buildings on one contract, stays legible when the reading period closes.
Batch reading entry
Enter readings for a whole building in one screen, in the order you walk it, rather than opening one record per meter. Readings are dated and kept as a series, not overwritten.
Supplier invoices
Book the supplier document that has to be reallocated, with supplier meter readings recorded against it. Compound supplier invoices cover one document that spans several utilities or several periods.
Unmetered positions
Standing charges, basic fees and flat components are recorded as unmetered consumption positions, so the fixed part of a bill is allocated on its own key instead of being smuggled into the metered part.
Reading timelines
Every meter keeps a timeline of its readings and derived consumption. A commercial tenant who queries a figure can be shown the series the figure came from, period by period.
Allocation
Two allocation keys in the same building
Cost reallocation in a mixed-use building rarely reduces to one rule. Heating may follow measured consumption for the shop and heated floor area for the flats. Water may follow sub-meters where they exist and occupancy where they do not. Cleaning of the staircase may not concern the ground-floor tenant at all.
Rebilling entries are grouped by utility type and by rebilling mode, and each carries its own allocation formula. The formula engine evaluates configurable expressions, so a key can be per square metre, per person, per unit, per consumption share, or an expression you write for a case that has no standard name.
Because the keys are data rather than code, changing the treatment of one cost group for one period does not require a new system, a new spreadsheet, or a call to us. The formula is stored with the entry it produced, so a statement issued two years ago still explains itself.
The rebilling dashboard shows which entries are complete, which are waiting on a reading or a supplier invoice, and which are ready to be issued.
The cycle
From supplier invoice to issued tenant invoice
The order of work is the same every period. The system holds the state between steps, so an interrupted reconciliation can be picked up where it stopped.
-
Record supply contracts
Utility suppliers, supply contracts and price schedules are recorded once per consumption site, including the periods each price applies to. Later steps read them instead of asking you to retype rates.
-
Take the readings
Walk the building and enter meter and sub-meter readings in batch. Supplier meter readings are recorded separately, so the difference between what the supplier measured and what your sub-meters measured stays visible.
-
Book the supplier document
Enter the supplier invoice, or a compound supplier invoice covering several utilities and periods, and attach the scan. This is the amount the reconciliation has to distribute in full.
-
Build rebilling entries
Entries are grouped by utility type and rebilling mode, each with its allocation formula. Metered commercial consumption is deducted first; the remainder is distributed on the key configured for that cost group.
-
Preview before issuing
The invoice preview shows what each occupant would receive before anything is issued. Corrections are made against the entry, not against a document that has already gone out.
-
Issue in batch
Issue the whole period at once. Invoices go through the connected invoicing platform, and each client can receive a rebilling sheet PDF that shows how their figures were derived.
Invoicing
VAT, legal entities and who the invoice comes from
Mixed-use portfolios are usually not owned by one company. The shop is held by an operating entity, the flats by a family holding, and the parking lot by whoever bought it. Each account can hold several legal entities, and contracts are assigned to the entity that actually owns them, so revenue reporting and invoicing follow the real ownership rather than a convenient simplification.
Invoicing runs through the connected invoicing platform, with document types, numbering scheme prefixes and suffixes, and support for VAT on payment where that regime applies to the issuing entity. Credentials are held per user, so a document is issued under the account of the person who is entitled to issue it.
For accounting, the connector talks GraphQL over a connection authenticated with client SSL certificates. The integration layer is built to take further connectors.
The software applies the tax and numbering settings you configure on the connected platform; it does not provide tax advice, and it does not determine which VAT regime applies to your entity. Connectors currently cover one invoicing platform and one accounting system — the integrations page lists them.
Transparency
What a commercial tenant can actually be shown
Business occupants query statements more often than residential ones, and they query them in writing. Everything below exists so that the answer is a document rather than a reconstruction.
- Per-client rebilling sheet — a branded PDF per client showing how each figure was derived: the pool, the key, the readings, the share. It is the document you attach when a tenant asks why the amount changed.
- Consumption reports — consumption per meter and per unit across periods, so a rise can be attributed to a longer period, a higher rate or genuinely higher use before anyone argues about it.
- Reading timelines — the full reading series behind any consumption figure, with dates. Useful when a sub-meter was replaced mid-period and the arithmetic needs to be explained.
- Attached evidence — supplier invoices, contracts and correspondence are stored on the entity they belong to, in S3-backed document storage, so the supporting document is where the figure is.
- Audit comments — comments on records keep the reason for a manual correction next to the correction itself, which matters when the person who made it is not the person answering the query.
- Your branding, your sender — logo, colour scheme and font sizes on generated PDFs are set per account, and per-account SMTP means statements leave from your own domain rather than ours.
Cost
What a mixed-use configuration costs
Portfolio management is the core and is always included. Mixed-use work usually adds two modules: contracts and utility billing.
Standard
For a single portfolio that has outgrown the spreadsheet.
- Users 3
- Properties 10
- Housing units 50
- Rooms and common spaces 200
- Document storage 25 GB
All prices are net and exclude VAT.
Extended
For managers running several buildings and legal entities.
- Users 10
- Properties 50
- Housing units 250
- Rooms and common spaces 1,000
- Document storage 100 GB
All prices are net and exclude VAT.
Modules are flat-rated per month, capacity beyond the Extended allowances is charged per unit, and onboarding is a separate one-off package. The full breakdown, with an estimator, is on the pricing page.
Modules
The modules mixed-use work usually adds
Rentals & Contracts carries the commercial leases and the residential tenancies. Utility Billing / Cost Reallocation carries the meters, supplier invoices, allocation formulas and rebilling sheets. Accounting & Invoicing Integration carries the connectors and the per-user credentials behind an issued document.
Rentals & Contracts
Rental contracts, bailment agreements, tenants and deadline reminders.
Utility Billing & Cost Reallocation
Meters, supplier invoices, allocation keys and rebilling invoices.
Accounting & Invoicing Integration
Issue documents on your invoicing platform and post them to the ledger.
Investment & Business Analyses
Revenue timelines, consumption analysis and investment calculations.
Facility Management
Technical asset register, asset connections and service partners.
Every module is switched on per account and can be switched off again. Facility Management is quoted rather than listed.
Beyond the plan
When the building count passes the Extended allowances
A mixed-use property with storage bays, common spaces and outdoor lots produces more records than a block of flats of the same size. Capacity above the largest plan is charged per unit per month rather than by moving you to a different product.
| Allowance | Included in Extended | Each one beyond that |
|---|---|---|
| Properties | 50 | €1.00 per property |
| Housing units | 250 | €0.25 per unit |
| Rooms and common spaces | 1,000 | €0.10 per room or space |
| Document storage | 100 GB | €0.10 per GB |
All prices exclude VAT. The estimator on the pricing page prices your own property, unit and room counts.
Getting started
Onboarding and support
The onboarding package sets the account up and trains the people who will run the period. Support and consulting after that are charged by the hour.
Onboarding package
€ 400
Account setup, 4 hours of on-site training, travel, plus 5 calls and 10 email exchanges in the first 6 weeks.
Support, consulting and training
€ 75 /hour
Support, consulting and training after onboarding, delivered on a best-effort basis.
All prices are net and exclude VAT.
Questions
Asked by owners of mixed buildings
Can one building contain both commercial and residential units?
Yes. A property holds housing units typed as Flat, Business Space or Storage Space, in any combination, each with its own rooms, areas, contracts and meters. Areas roll up from rooms to units to the property regardless of type, so allocation keys based on square metres stay correct when the mix changes.
Can commercial and residential occupants be billed on different allocation keys?
Yes. Rebilling entries are grouped by utility type and rebilling mode, and each entry carries its own allocation formula. A metered business space can be charged on measured consumption while the remaining cost is distributed to flats per square metre, per person, per unit or by a custom expression.
Does the system handle VAT on payment for commercial invoices?
Invoices are issued through the connected invoicing platform, which supports VAT on payment along with document types and numbering scheme prefixes and suffixes. The software applies the settings configured for the issuing legal entity and the issuing user's credentials. It does not give tax advice or decide which regime applies to you.
How do sub-meters work when only some units are metered?
Sub-meters are registered beneath a main meter at a consumption site. Measured consumption is deducted from the supplier's total first, and only the remainder is allocated to unmetered occupants on the configured key. Unmetered consumption positions cover standing charges and flat components so they are allocated separately.
Can invoices be issued from more than one company?
Yes. An account can hold several legal entities, and each contract is assigned to the entity that owns it. Invoices and revenue reporting follow that assignment, and revenue timelines can be grouped by legal entity, by property group, or by both together.
Next step
Bill the shop and the flats from the same reconciliation
Model the building as it is, allocate each cost group on the key it deserves, and issue the period in one pass. If you want to see it against your own building, describe the mix and we will walk through it.