Simplify, enhance and improve your service charges processes

Key Features

Customisable system

Integration with any third-party system allows data required to be generated

Level of Apportionment – deals with a spectrum of service charge types

Budget vs. Actuals - allows you to set budget against previous figures for better accuracy

Report generation directly from the solution

Letter templates can be held within the system to generate personalised customer letters

Our solution is designed exclusively for Social Housing providers to promote an accurate, fair and transparent approach to service charges.

Overview

Castleton knows the importance of fair charges, provided to customers on clear statements and the need to help staff produce budgets, reports and accounts efficiently. Our solution helps to simplify the process of calculating service charges and ensure your service charges are always accurate and fair.

Whether it is an individual property or an estate of thousands, CastletonService Charges breaks down charges to give a detailed account of actual costs against budgets, simplifying the budget-setting process to save youtime and money.

Castleton Service Charges provides: • Greater transparency with service charge billing, helping customers reassurance in

your services. • Management of all types of service charges ranging from standard, leaseholder

specific, housing benefit ineligible and personal charges. • A ‘stand-alone’ yet integrated system, with ability to interact with your existing

Housing management and Finance system. • Flexibility to manage property data to support any existing hierarchy. • Apportionment rules to simplify the calculation process and guarantee correct

auditable outputs. • Division of estates into groups of properties which can then be assigned the

appropriate service charge.

Service Charges

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Key Benefits

Simplifies the process of calculating your service charges

Flexible and easy to use

Provides a clear and accurate picture of your service charges

Transparency - Giving your customers greater insight and reassurance that charges are fair

Reduction in time and costs, improving efficiency

Enhanced reporting - generated faster and accurately

FinancialsService ChargesP2PHousingBrixx

Budget versus ActualsHaving a system that enables accurate budgets to be set that are based on the previous year’s actuals ensures a higher level of recovery of costs for services delivered. Plus, a lower level of complaints from tenants and leaseholders.

• Actual transactions are brought in automatically from your financial management system

• Rules can be set to individual charge codes enabling automatic apportionments to take place as the transaction comes into the system.

• Any apportionment type is handled i.e. per bedroom, per sq. m, equal split, capped to an amount etc.

• Miscoded transactions can be spotted easily and corrected

• Management fees can be calculated automatically on approved costs.

• Individual invoices can be viewed directly from within the system when linked to a document management system.

• Fine grained apportionment control allows for accurate accounts to be produced.

• Detailed cost’s data that is difficult to maintain within the financial system is automatically produced and reported on

• Calculation rules can be set to enable a budget to be started at any point, and calculate a proposed budget automatically

• Apportionment rules can be brought forward year on year, allowing the process to be as automatic as possible.

• A strong but flexible workflow. Extra steps can be introduced according to the individual attributes of an estate.

• Individual properties can be excluded from paying specific charges

Letter templatesEditable letter templates are held within the system for users. Using placeholders, the user can direct the system to insert personalised customer information into the letter (e.g. property address, new charge figures or surplus/deficit balance).

Castleton Service Charges’ sophisticated printing engine can select the correct letter template to use, based on the configuration of the property and tenancy.

ReportsCastleton Service Charges can produce all the required outputs directly within the system, saving you time and money on what could be a complex area to manage.

Report packsReport packs allow the system to intelligently combine different letters, statements and reports to produce a complete pack of literature – individually selected and relevant to each tenant. When printed, this pack will produce a collated set of correspondence.

Castleton Service Charges can group together several related management reports which can be produced and distributed as a single document.

Combined report packsReport packs can be combined to produce a collection of individual customer packs. The combination could be based on location and/or other criteria e.g. the number of pages used when printing – for compatibility with an automated enveloping machine.

Alternatively, a combined report pack could be printed and exported. The resulting file can then be sent off to your chosen mailing house for printing and distribution.

Developed with and for social housing providers

Service Charges

Software Solutions:0845 241 0220

Cloud & Core Services:0845 643 0642

info@castletonplc.com www.castletonplc.com

Castleton Technology pave the way for delivering the most comprehensive set of technology solutions and services, in an integrated way to support every aspect of your organisation’s needs. Contact Castleton for further information about our truly integrated solutions offering.

Consultancy Services

Lease ReviewsAre you complying with all your lease terms? With so many different style of leases out there it can be easy to get caught out. Castleton can conduct lease reviews, compare the terms of the leases to your current processes and provide recommendations where necessary.

Service Charge Health CheckWould you like a review of your current service charge controls and processes? We have experience in conducting reviews on all areas of service charges and can provide assurance on whether your procedures and systems are operating efficiently and effectively.

TrainingWe provide a service charge training course designed to be insightful and engaging and will benefit all staff who deal with service charges in their day to day role. This includes housing staff, finance, maintenance, asset management, sales, development and of course any specific service charges teams you may have.

Areas covered in the training include (but not limited to):

• Fixed vs Variable Service charges• Chargeable and non-chargeable costs• Housing benefit & the impact of Universal Credit• enancy agreements & lease requirements• S20 Consultation• Sinking funds vs depreciation• VAT• Budget setting and accounting for service charges

The training can be tailored to meet your specific needs as well as helping to address any issues facing you as an organisation.

Service Charges