Most residential buildings charge every flat the same maintenance, or a fixed amount per flat type. Commercial buildings rarely work that way. Shops, offices and showrooms are usually charged by size: a rate per square foot, applied to each unit's area. Until now, the only way to do that in most software was to calculate every unit's amount by hand and enter it as a separate category.
Nizam now supports area-based billing natively, alongside fixed amounts.
How It Works
Every unit category in Nizam now has a billing method:
- Fixed amount: every unit in the category pays the same amount, as before.
- By area: you set a rate per area unit, and each unit pays its area × the rate.
An area-based category doesn't need a name invented for it. Nizam names it after its rate, for example 13 PER SQ FT, and keeps the name in step if the rate is revised.
The rate follows your billing cycle. If your complex bills quarterly, a rate of 1.11 per sq ft is 1.11 per sq ft per quarter, and the same applies to six-monthly and annual billing.
Choose Your Area Unit
Nizam supports square feet, square metres, square yards, acres and hectares. A complex chooses one unit the first time it creates an area-based category, and every area-based category uses it, so every area in the complex is measured the same way.
Mix Fixed and Area Billing in One Complex
Billing method is set per category, so mixed-use buildings work as they really are. A building can bill its apartments a fixed amount and its ground-floor shops per square foot, in the same complex, on the same bill run. Different area-based categories can have different rates, for example a higher rate for shops than for offices.
A Worked Example
A commercial centre bills quarterly and has three shops on a rate of 1.11 per sq ft:
- Shop A-1, 400 sq ft: 400 × 1.11 = 444.00
- Shop A-2, 1,250.5 sq ft: 1,250.5 × 1.11 = 1,388.06
- Shop A-3, 1,000 sq ft: 1,000 × 1.11 = 1,110.00
Amounts are rounded to two decimals, never to a whole number, so rates and areas with decimals stay exact in any currency. Residents and tenants see the breakdown on the bill itself, for example "1,250.5 sq ft × 1.11".
The rate is set once. The area is recorded once. Every bill after that calculates itself.
Bill your commercial units by area
Set a rate per square foot, record each unit's area, and generate bills. One month free, no credit card.
Start Free — 1 Month on UsSetting It Up
- New complex: during onboarding you first choose your billing frequency and late-fee rules, then add categories. For each one, pick Fixed amount or By area. The screen tells you the amount is charged per the frequency you just chose.
- Existing complex: go to Revise Rates. Add a new area-based category, or open an existing category and switch its billing method from the Billing method tab.
- Record each unit's area when adding units, in the bulk import file (a new area column), or from the unit's profile. If a complex has only one category, Nizam doesn't ask for it at all.
Across the app, area-billed units are labelled with their size, for example SHOPS · 400 sq ft, so it's always clear what a unit is billed on.
Reach Units by Size
Announcements and quick notifications have a new By area audience. Enter a lower and/or upper bound and Nizam reaches every unit whose area falls in that range, for example a notice only for shops between 300 and 500 sq ft. Before you send, you see how many units match and which ones.
Built So Your Books Stay Right
- Old bills never change. Revising a rate, moving a unit to another category, correcting its area or switching a category's billing method affects future bills only. Bills already generated keep their amounts.
- Switching billing method sets a new rate from today. A fixed amount is never accidentally multiplied by a unit's area.
- No unit is billed zero by mistake. An area-billed unit without a recorded area is skipped and flagged on the Maintenance and Revise Rates screens until its area is added.
- Accounting is unchanged. Area-based bills post to receivables and income exactly like fixed bills, and payments, receipts, late fees, dues and reports work the same way.
Area-based billing is available now for every complex on Nizam. Read more about maintenance billing and office building management, or start a free month today.