Standing order helper

What it's about

In the Standing order area (under Finances), patchio works out how much you should set aside each month for the multi-account model (one shared account, several personal ones) – per account and in total. The idea: you set up a single standing order per account that covers every contract running through it. That way, enough money is always ready when it's due – even for annual or quarterly contracts.

Before you start

• The Finances module needs to be turned on under Manage → Modules (admins only).
• You've added Accounts and given your Contracts a debit account.
• You'll then find this area via the Finances overview (Standing order tile).

The monthly standing order

patchio converts every contract to a monthly amount – an annual contract of €120 counts as €10 a month, a quarterly contract of €30 also as €10 a month. The sum of these monthly amounts is your monthly standing order per account. That way, exactly the right amount is ready for each contract by the time it's due.

As a recommendation, patchio rounds the amount up – the small buffer absorbs price rises and rounding.

The upfront amount

If you're just starting out, longer-running contracts won't have built up enough monthly instalments yet. So that a contract is still covered when it's due, patchio tells you the one-off upfront amount to transfer today, on top of the regular standing order.

An example: an annual contract of €120, due in December, and today is June. By December, another 6 instalments of €10 (= €60) will have built up through the monthly standing order. So €60 is missing – you transfer that today, as a one-off. If a contract is due this month, the full amount is needed upfront, because no instalment can build up in time.

patchio shows you the upfront amount per account and in total, so you can transfer exactly one amount per account.

Marking as transferred

Once you've paid the upfront amount for a contract, you can mark it as transferred. It then drops out of the upfront statement, so you don't lose track. Use reset to take the mark back off, in case you made a mistake.

Next due date

For the calculation, patchio needs to know when a contract is next due. That comes automatically from the contract's start date and billing cycle – you don't need to do anything.

If the date is ever wrong (say, because the debit date has shifted), you can override it by hand on the contract, under “Advanced” → Next due date.

Related topics

• Accounts
• Contracts & notice periods
• Finances: shared expenses