How do surcharges and admin fees work on tenant bills?

Surcharges let you add a management or admin fee on top of the utility costs you pass through to tenants. You can configure surcharges in two places: on the invoice template (default for all bills using that template) or per bill during creation (Step 3 — Settings).

Two surcharge modes

Separate Line (surcharge_mode = "separate_line"):
The surcharge appears as its own line item on the tenant's invoice. For example, if the electricity cost is 5,000 and you set a 15% surcharge, the invoice shows:

• Electricity: 5,000
• Admin Fee: 750
• Total: 5,750

This mode is transparent — the tenant sees the markup as a distinct charge. You can customize the label (e.g., "Administration Fee", "Management Charge", "Administrasjonsgebyr").

Distributed (surcharge_mode = "distributed"):
The surcharge is silently added to each line item. The same 15% surcharge would show:

• Electricity: 5,750
• No separate surcharge line visible

This mode blends the markup into each cost category. The tenant sees higher unit costs but no explicit fee line.

Per-line surcharges

You can also set surcharges per line item in the template designer. This lets you apply different markups to different cost types — for example, 10% on electricity but 5% on water.

Configuring surcharges

• Template level: Tenant Billing → Templates → edit template → Financial Settings → Surcharge
• Per bill: During bill creation Step 3, toggle "Add Surcharge", set the percentage and label, choose separate or distributed

Tip: Check your lease contracts — some jurisdictions require surcharges to be disclosed as separate line items.