Set up cost centres

A cost-centre set is a named list of the running costs a house draws on, like electricity or repairs. Every house links to one set. For how sets, lines and houses fit together, see cost centres and sets.

Create a set

Open Cost-centre sets in your settings. Under + New cost-centre set, type a name (for example, “3-bedroom Coastal home”) and select Add set. The new set appears in the Active list with no linked houses and no cost lines - you add both from here. Building the list yourself, line by line, is the normal way to start.

Start from a benchmark instead

If you do not have last year’s bills in front of you, you do not have to start from an empty list. Under Start from a benchmark, pick 3-bedroom house, 4-bedroom house or 5-bedroom house and select Use this template. SILWise creates a new set with the usual lines, and fills in Electricity, Water and Internet using published Australian regulator figures for that house size - these three are also the only lines switched on to start with.

The rest of the lines arrive blank and switched off, because they depend on your own contracts and menu, so none of them can block a calculation until you price them and switch them on yourself. Treat the three filled-in figures as a starting point too, and replace each one with your own invoice as soon as you have it. Where every number comes from, and how to check it yourself, is set out in benchmark templates.

A price switches a line on

Select the set’s name to open it. A note near the top states the rule this page runs on: each amount is for the period shown on its line, for the whole house, and SILWise divides it between the participants for you. A cost centre with no price is switched off - it charges nobody and never blocks a calculation. It is only a line that is switched On with nothing in its $ Amount that causes a problem, because SILWise has nothing to charge when it reaches that line.

If any line is in that state, a box above the lines names it, for example “2 cost centres still need a price: Electricity, Gas”, with each name a link that jumps straight to it. The box disappears once every switched-on line has a price.

Add cost centre lines

Lines are grouped under five headings: Utilities, Repairs & maintenance, Household supplies, Food and Other items.

Under any category, select its add-a-line button, for example + Add a cost line to Utilities. Fill in:

• Label - what the cost is, for example “Electricity”.
• Unit - Per house, per 90 days for a shared bill split across the house, or Per participant, per week for a cost that scales with how many participants live there.
• $ Amount - the dollar figure. You can leave this blank and fill it in later.
• On - starts ticked for a new line. If you are not ready to price this line yet, untick On so it cannot block a calculation until you are.

Select Add cost line to save it, or Cancel to discard it.

Edit, remove or reorder lines

Every saved line shows its Label, Category, Unit, $ Amount and On fields, with a Save button to confirm any change. Typing a price into a blank line that is currently switched off ticks On for you automatically - untick it again if you do not want your houses charged for it yet. Select Remove under a line to delete it - you’re asked to confirm first.

If the set is already linked to one or more houses, adding or changing a line warns you that it will change future calculations for those houses. Anything already saved and calculated stays as it was.

To reorder lines within a category, drag the handle on the left of a line up or down.

Archive or restore a set

To retire a set you no longer need, select Archive next to its name on the sets list, or in the header when you have the set open. You’re asked to confirm, because archived sets stop appearing in the dropdown when someone sets up a new house.

SILWise will not archive a set while houses still use it. If you try, it tells you which houses are linked and asks you to switch them to a different set first. Once no houses link to a set, archiving succeeds and the set moves into the Archived list.

To bring an archived set back, select Restore next to it. It returns to the Active list straight away and becomes available for new houses again.

What you should see

A working set sits under Active, showing its name, its linked-house count, and cost lines under each of the five category headings. Once every switched-on line has a price, select Next: add your house at the bottom of the page to continue.