Collecting revenue
Everything the assembly collects begins with the fee fixing resolution and ends with a serialised receipt. This chapter follows that line from one end to the other.
The fee fixing resolution
Each year the Assembly passes a resolution setting every rate, fee, licence and fine. In the system this becomes a list of revenue items, each with a code, a classification, a basis and a rate. Nothing can be billed or receipted against an item that is not in the resolution for that year, which is what keeps the cash book and the resolution in step.
A rate can be charged in one of four ways: a flat amount, an amount per unit, a daily ticket, or a percentage of rateable value. Property rates use the last of these.
The valuation list
A property carries its rateable value and the impost for its use class. The annual rate is simply one multiplied by the other, so correcting a valuation corrects every future bill without anyone recalculating anything. Residential and commercial imposts are separate revenue items, so the resolution stays the single source of truth.
Raising demand notices
Go to Demand notices → Generate. Choose the year, whether you are raising property rates or business operating permits, the date of issue and the date the notices fall due. You can restrict the run to one electoral area.
The run is idempotent: a property already billed for that year is skipped. You can safely run it again after adding new properties without creating duplicates. Unpaid balances from earlier years are carried forward as arrears unless you untick the box.
A notice cannot fall due before it is issued, and it cannot be dated after its own fiscal year has closed. The form will refuse both.
Posting a payment
- Open Post a payment.
- Attach the payment to a demand notice where one exists. The notice balance updates by itself and the status moves to part paid or paid.
- Record the manual GCR serial if you issued a counterfoil receipt in the field.
- For mobile money and cheques, put the transaction ID or cheque number in the reference.
- Save. The receipt prints on a counterfoil layout the resident can keep.
You cannot receipt more than the balance outstanding on a notice — the form will refuse it. Collections with no notice behind them, such as market tolls and lorry park tickets, are posted the same way but with no notice attached.
Reversing a receipt
A posted receipt cannot be edited. If it is wrong, reverse it and post a fresh one. The reversal restores the balance on the parent notice, and both the original and the reversal stay visible with the reason recorded. Only a revenue superintendent or the administrator can reverse.
Value books and lodgements
Printed GCR books and ticket rolls are issued to named collectors and tracked by serial range, so a missing book is visible. Cash handed over and banked is recorded as a lodgement against the pay-in slip, which is what makes the difference between "collected" and "banked" auditable.
Watching performance
- Revenue against target compares each line of the resolution with what has actually come in.
- Collector performance compares each collector with their monthly target and shows the variance.