Finance
Finance is the authority's books in Housing: what each household owes, what the authority spends and pays, its bank accounts reconciled, each month closed and locked, and the figures HUD and the IRS ask for at the end of it.
It is a paid add-on. CivicPort turns it on for one authority at a time; the authority cannot turn it on itself. Until it is on, the Finance group is not in the sidebar and every Finance page says "Finance is a paid add-on and isn't turned on for this authority. Contact CivicPort to add it." With it off, no rent posts and no payments are taken in.
The cutover month
Finance is turned on with a cutover month: the first month the tenant ledger is the record.
- Nothing before it posts. Rent is charged from the cutover month on, a CivicPort payment that settled before it is not taken in, and an office charge or credit has to be for the cutover month or later.
- What each household owed the day before is brought in once, as an opening balance.
- Once the ledger has posted anything, the cutover month cannot move.
Settings › Finance shows it at the top: "The ledger is the record from November 2026", for example. See Finance settings.
Turning it on (CivicPort staff)
On CivicPort's Authorities page, Finance on an authority's row opens Finance for the authority. Tick Finance is on, set the Cutover month and save. The cutover month is required before Finance can be turned on. An authority with Finance on shows a Finance chip on its row.
Who can do what
Finance follows the authority's own administrators. An administrator with the reviewer role can read every Finance page but changes nothing.
| Administrator | Reviewer | |
|---|---|---|
| Read ledgers, receivables, purchases, payments, reconciliations and reports | Yes | Yes |
| Post charges and credits, record purchases, prepare payment runs, load statements | Yes | No |
| Approve purchases, payment runs, statements and reconciliations; close a month | Yes, subject to the two-person rules below | No |
| Change Settings › Finance | Yes | No |
| Show the authority's EIN in full | Yes, and it is written to the audit log | No |
| Download the 1099 files or recipient copies | Yes, and each download is written to the audit log | No |
Two people, and named approvers
Most money in Finance needs two people: one to record or prepare it and another to approve it. The person who did the first step is always refused the second.
The authority can name approvers under Spending rules on Purchases, each with a limit. Until anyone is named, any other administrator may approve. Once approvers are named, only they can.
| What | Prepared by | Approved by |
|---|---|---|
| A purchase | Whoever records it | Someone else. With approvers named, one whose limit covers the amount |
| A payment run | Whoever prepares it | Someone else. With approvers named, one of them |
| A card statement | Whoever loads it | Someone else. With approvers named, one of them |
| A bank reconciliation | Whoever loads it | Someone else. With approvers named, one of them |
| Closing or reopening a month | With approvers named, one of them | |
| A petty cash count or top-up | Anyone but the box's holder |
The Finance pages
The Finance group sits in the sidebar between Vouchers and Authority.
| Page | What it is for |
|---|---|
| Tenant ledgers | What each household owes, and each household's ledger, statement, repayment agreements and security deposit |
| Receivables | What tenants owe by age, and HUD's tenant accounts receivable figure |
| Purchases | Everything the authority spends, however it was paid, and the spending rules |
| Vendors | Who the authority buys from, their W-9s and who needs a 1099 |
| Cards & cash | Purchase cards, their monthly statements, and petty cash |
| Payments | Payment runs: approved bills and the month's HAP, paid by direct deposit and check |
| Bank reconciliation | Each bank account's statement against what Finance recorded |
| Month close | The month-end checklist, closing and reopening a month, and the month-end summary |
| HUD reports | The VMS figures for a month and the Financial Data Schedule lines for a year |
| 1099s | Who needs a 1099 for the year, the filing files and the recipient copies |
The payer details, bank accounts, Plaid feeds and direct deposit details the pages use are in Settings › Finance. With Finance on, a household's page under Residents also has a Ledger button.
A month in Finance
- Rent posts. On the 1st, the monthly run charges each household's rent and credits its subsidy, so the balance is only the resident's share. A recertification that changes rent, even backdated, corrects the months it touches. See Tenant ledgers.
- Payments come in. Rent paid through CivicPort posts to the household's ledger by itself as it settles. A refund or reversal there reverses it here.
- Bills are recorded and approved. Each purchase is recorded with its receipt or invoice and coded to a program and an FDS line, then approved by someone else. Card and petty cash purchases are done once approved. See Purchases and vendors.
- Card statements are matched. The month's card charges come in from a file or the Plaid feed, each is matched to an approved purchase or explained, and the statement is approved for payment. See Cards and cash.
- Payment runs go out. Approved bills are paid from the operating account, and the month's HAP from the voucher account, each in a payment run that a second person approves before the bank files are made. See Payments.
- The bank is reconciled. Each account's statement is loaded and every line matched to what Finance recorded or explained. See Bank reconciliation.
- The month is closed. Once every account is reconciled and nothing is left open, an approver closes the month and nothing more can be dated in it. See Month close.
- Reports. The month's VMS figures and, at year end, the FDS lines and the 1099s come from what was recorded. See HUD reports and 1099s.