A co-owner pays $75 more than their contribution. Does that need a deferred-income entry? No — and the full answer comes in three parts, one of which people usually discover too late.
Inside the year, it is automatic
A unit's account is a running balance: month after month, CondoAide adds what was charged and subtracts what was paid.
When a payment exceeds the amount charged, the balance simply goes negative, and that negative carries into the next month, where it absorbs the contribution to come. That is the credit. There is nothing extra to record: the month concerned is marked "Credit", and the unit's balance shows it.
The two conditions
The payment must be recorded as income attached to the unit. It is the only entry needed, but it is indispensable: a receipt attached to no unit lands in nobody's account. It is operating-fund income, with the unit named.
A budget must exist for the year. Without one nothing is charged, so there is nothing for the payment to exceed — and the arrears page says so rather than showing zeros: "No fees calculated yet". That is the subject of the budget guide.
Carrying into the next year is not automatic
This is the part to remember, because it does not behave like the rest.
Month to month, the carry happens on its own. Year to year, it does not. No year-end close, no scheduled task, no automation turns a year-end credit balance into next year's prepayment.
You record it by hand, on the unit, as its opening credit (carried-forward prepayment) for the new year. CondoAide then applies it to the oldest months due, without touching the cash — the money, after all, came in and was accounted for last year.
Skip it and the co-owner restarts the year at zero, appearing to owe amounts they have already paid.
Two things the credit does not do
It does not put the unit in the arrears list. That list holds only units with an unpaid balance; a unit in credit counts among those up to date. There is no list of units in credit — the credit is read on the unit's own record.
It does not reduce the syndicate's arrears total. That total adds up unpaid balances only. One unit's credit never offsets another's debt, which is the only honest presentation: two different co-owners do not cancel each other out.
The neighbouring case: set-off against a supplier
Not to be confused. Where a co-owner is also a supplier to the syndicate and a set-off exceeds the contribution due, the excess is not credited to the unit: it goes to accounts payable. Set-off cannot go beyond what is owed (art. 1672 CCQ).