1.1What QuickMastro Dominius is

QuickMastro Dominius is the programme an administrator uses to manage the entire accounting year of one or more buildings: registries and shares, the journal, instalments and payments, statements, meetings and tax obligations.

Compared with a spreadsheet, the advantage isn't the number of features but the fact that the calculation is done once: the budget, instalments, payments and year-end statement all read the same figure. If you correct a share, the apportionment, the instalments and the balancing payment update accordingly, without you having to remember everywhere else that number had been copied.

One archive per building

Each building has its own archive file, separate from all the others. It can be copied, moved, set aside or handed to a colleague without touching anything else. A central register — the master database — keeps the list of buildings managed, the users and the licence.

1.2System requirements

QuickMastro Dominius installs on a Windows computer and is used from the browser. It isn't a subscription service running on someone else's server: your data stays on your computer or on your firm's network.

The programme runs as a Windows service: it starts on its own when the computer is switched on and listens on the port chosen during installation, normally 5001.

1.3Installation

1. Download the installer from the website and run it. Windows will ask for administrator permissions.
2. Choose the port. Leave it at 5001 unless that port is already used by another programme.
3. Decide whether to allow access from other PCs in the firm. If you tick this option the programme listens on the local network and colleagues can connect from their own browser; otherwise it stays reachable only from the computer it's installed on.
4. Wait for the installation to finish. At the end the service is registered and started, and the browser opens on the sign-in screen.

Where it installs and where the data ends up

The programme installs in the folder C:\Program Files\QuickMastro.Dominius. The archives don't live there but in C:\ProgramData\QuickMastro.Dominius\dati; in that same QuickMastro.Dominius folder under ProgramData the programme also keeps its logs and licence status. This is deliberate: an update to the programme can never touch the archives, and the folder is easy to include in the computer's backup.

1.4First start-up and licence

On first start-up the programme creates the central register and the administrator user. The initial credentials are ADMIN / ADMIN: change them straight away, from user management.

A second, technical account is also created, master, with a randomly generated password written once to the event log. It's there to recover access if the administrator's password is lost: keep it somewhere other than the computer and protect the installation's log files.

The licence covers one accounting year

The licence carries the financial year, not the purchase date. With the 2026 licence you can manage buildings for the whole 2026 accounting year, even if you buy it in November. To work on the 2027 financial year you need the 2027 licence.

The licence's year is also the upper limit of the periods you can work on: you can manage financial years from 2002 up to and including the licence year. With the 2027 licence you can work up to 31/12/2027, but you cannot create the 2028 financial year or any later one. This is checked every time a new accounting archive is created (see 6.10).

Without a licence the programme runs as a 30-day trial, with every feature available. When it expires the archives stay where they are and unlock as soon as the key is entered.

1. Open Licence from the Firm menu.
2. Paste in the key you received, in the form QCxx-xxxx-xxxx-xxxx.
3. Confirm. The status changes to "active" and the expiry date disappears.

1.5Interface overview

The window is divided into three parts: the menu on the left, the bar at the top showing the active building, and the work area.

The menu and the manual's chapters

The menu on the left follows a year's work, not accounting theory: it starts from the registry, moves on to generating instalments, recording expenses, collecting payments, checking and reporting, meeting tax obligations, and calling the meeting. The chapters of this manual follow the same order and the same names as the menu: to find a feature, just look up the menu entry in the table below.

The menu only shows the features available for the firm's country and for the user's role: Delete archive and Audit log are reserved for the administrator. The most-used entries are highlighted: for example People under Registry is shown in green.

Version, support and updates

At the bottom of the menu you'll find the programme's version and the date of the last update. Below that are the support details (website, email, phone) when they have been set; the same details open from the Support link on the sign-in page.

After a programme update there's no need to clear the browser cache: the first page you open notices the new version and reloads the updated pages on its own.

Two chapters don't correspond to menu entries: installation and the firm's network, with the VPNs needed to work from home, are in chapter 13 "Cloud, but at your place"; the frequently asked questions are in chapter 14.

The active building

At the top you're always shown which building you're working on. Every screen shows only that building's data; to switch, go through Buildings managed. There is no view that mixes data from different buildings, the only exception being the Firm dashboard, which shows the deadlines for all of them.

The building's Dashboard

In the financial-year bar at the top you'll find the year you're working on and three buttons:

• − Previous year and + Next year create the financial year for the year before or after (see 6.10).
• Edit building details opens the building record to correct the name, address, registered office, tax code and IBAN, without going through Buildings managed.

The New transaction button in quick actions records, on the spot, an expense, an income or a transfer: with a transfer the same Debit/Credit panel from the journal appears (see 4.10). The offsetting account is the list of expense items in alphabetical order.

In the Instalments due box the All link opens the Collection overview, with the full list of instalments still to be collected.

The "How it works" guides

Many screens have a bar under the title with a ? icon and the text Guide: how it works and what to do. It's always collapsed, so as not to get in the way of someone who already knows the procedure: one click opens it, another closes it again. The icon is the same on every page, so help is always found the same way. The guide doesn't appear in printouts.

Windows and entry forms

The windows and forms where you type data have a light grey-green background and the fields are white with a clearly visible border: it's immediately obvious where to type.

The test building

To try out the programme without real data, in Buildings managed the Test building button creates «TEST BUILDING» with the accounting year you choose: 7 floors, 42 units with different shares by floor and surface area, water meter readings, an ordinary budget, special expenditure and payments collected up to June. The data is made up. If no building exists yet at start-up, the programme offers to create it.

The financial year you're working on

The financial year and working date chosen at sign-in apply to every screen: the journal, expense entry, statements and so on always open the selected financial year, even if more than one is open at once (for example 2026 and 2027). If you change year from the Dashboard or from Buildings managed, the working date realigns to the new period. An entry dated outside the financial year is rejected, with the correct period shown.

Screen conventions

• Lists have a search box at the top and a result count.
• Documents download as PDF through a dedicated button, not the browser's print function.
• Amounts are always shown with a thousands separator and a decimal point, even under ten thousand: 3,000.00, not 3000.00.
• Printouts produced by the browser (lists, overviews) always leave a margin of at least 4 mm, so no column gets cut off by the printer.
• Operations that can't be undone ask for confirmation and explain what will happen.
• Errors show a request code: giving it to support traces the event in the log.

2.1People and people entry (table)

Menu entry Registry → People — Owners, tenants and other people.  ·  Registry → People entry (table) — Registry in table form: enter several people at once, even from Excel.

A "person" record is an individual or a company: owner, tenant, usufructuary, bare owner. It's recorded once and then linked to the property units with whatever role it holds.

1. Open Registry → People and press New person.
2. Choose whether it's an individual or a legal entity: this changes which fields are required, surname and first name or company name.
3. Fill in the tax code, address and contact details. The email is used for sending communications, the certified-mail address for legally binding ones.
4. Save.

Many people at once

To enter a whole building you don't need one record at a time: Registry → People entry (table) works like an Excel sheet (you can also paste from Excel), or you can import a file with Import CSV/XLSX. See Imports from Excel and CSV.

A person is a single record even with more than one role: someone who is both an owner and a supplier to the building appears once in the registry, with the two roles linked.

2.2Property units

Menu entry Registry → Property units — Units, land-registry data and intended use.

A property unit is the flat, the parking space, the cellar, the shop. It carries the land-registry data, the shares in the various tables, and the link to the people who occupy it.

1. Open Registry → Property units and press New unit.
2. Assign a short, meaningful code, for example A1 for unit 1 on stairwell A. This code appears in the instalment code and on payment notices: it's worth choosing it carefully and never changing it again.
3. Enter the land-registry data: map sheet, parcel, sub-unit, category and cadastral income.
4. Link the owner and, if there is one, the tenant.
5. Enter the shares in the tables the unit takes part in.

Importing the units

Units can be imported from an Excel or CSV file (Import CSV/XLSX button) or from the land-registry file downloaded from the cadastral office (Import from land registry). Owners are then linked in bulk with Import owners: see Imports from Excel and CSV.

Discontinued units

A unit that gets split or merged isn't deleted: a discontinuation date is recorded instead. It then stays in past years' documents, where it rightly belongs, while disappearing from later apportionments.

2.3Ownership changes and transfers

When a flat changes owner partway through the year, expenses need to be split between seller and buyer. QuickMastro Dominius calculates the split on the completion date, without you having to work out the proportion by hand.

1. Open the unit and choose Record ownership change.
2. Enter the new owner and the completion date.
3. The programme calculates the transfer statement: how much is due from the seller and how much from the buyer for each expense item, in proportion to the number of days.
4. Check the statement and confirm. It can be printed as a PDF and handed to the parties or the notary.

2.4Shares and apportionment tables

Menu entry Registry → Shares and apportionments — Share tables and apportionment criteria.

A share table says how an expense is split. A building always has more than one: general property, stairwell use, heating, lift, roof terrace.

1. Open Registry → Shares and apportionments.
2. Create the table, giving it a recognisable name: the name will appear on the documents presented at meetings.
3. Enter the shares for each unit. The total must add up to 1000: the programme always shows it and flags any discrepancy.
4. Save. From this point the table can be assigned to expense items.

A table's shares can also be loaded from a CSV file with the Import button: one row per unit, with the unit's code and its share. The import is cancelled if the total doesn't match the table's.

How to read an apportionment

A €3,000 expense on a 1000-share table splits like this: the unit with 145 shares pays €435.00, the one with 305 pays €915.00. The last row absorbs the rounding, so the sum of the shares matches the expense to the penny.

2.5Suppliers

Menu entry Registry → Suppliers — Supplier records and contact details.

The supplier registry holds, besides identifying details, the information needed to calculate withholding tax.

To load many suppliers at once, use Import from Excel on the Suppliers page: the file holds both the company details and the tax details (status, withholding, rate, IBAN). See Imports from Excel and CSV.

2.6Tables

Menu entry Registry → Tables — Withholding tax, payment methods and other base tables.

Under Registry → Tables are the lists that feed the other screens. They're created with default values when the building is set up and adapt as needed.

• Withholding rates — percentage, description and an optional explicit tax code. If you set the code, it overrides the automatic rule: useful when the tax authority introduces new ones and you don't want to wait for a programme update.
• Payment reasons — the reason codes for the Single Certification.
• Expense items — managed under Tables → Expense items: each item has its own chapter, its own share table, and may have a cost account from the chart of accounts. Every change (name, chapter, table, cost account) saves itself as soon as you leave the field, with no button to press; a new item is saved as soon as a name and table are set. The actual chart of accounts lives under General accounting (see 4.9).

When a building is created the programme automatically seeds 12 share tables and 51 expense items in common use: you start from there and adjust, instead of writing everything from scratch.

3.1Generating instalments (apportionments) and instalment code

Menu entry Service charge instalments → Generate instalments (apportionments) — Generates apportionment instalments from the budget.

Once the budget is approved, the shares turn into instalments on the chosen schedule.

The page is organised into four boxes side by side: 1 · Define the expense (financial year, items, source of the amounts, number of instalments and due date), 2 · Share tables and percentages, 3 · Temporary reductions and 4 · Automatic balancing. Below the first box are the buttons Calculate preview, Issue instalments, Reset and Payment requests; below the other three, the Apportionment preview; at the bottom, the Issue history. Messages (for example items excluded because they have no table or a zero amount) appear in a narrow box on the right, which doesn't cover the buttons.

1. Open Service charge instalments → Generate instalments (apportionments).
2. Choose the financial year, the frequency (monthly, bimonthly, quarterly, half-yearly) and the first due date.
3. Check the preview: how many instalments, for what amount, for which units.
4. Confirm.

The instalment code

Each instalment gets a unique code, which ends up on the payment notice and which the owner copies into the bank transfer reference. An example is A1AB2601, made up of four parts:

The code is self-explanatory: anyone reading it in a payment reference can tell the unit, expense, year and instalment number without opening the programme. A database uniqueness constraint stops two instalments sharing one.

3.2Apportionment plan

Menu entry Service charge instalments → Apportionment plan — Apportionment statements by unit and expense item.

The apportionment plan shows how an expense is split across units: for each one the share, the amount, and the calculation that produced it.

Each expense item follows its own table. Heating expenses are apportioned on the heating table, stairwell expenses on the stairwell table, general ones on the general-property table. That's why the expense item needs to be chosen carefully at the time of entry.

Ordinary and special-expenditure management

Special expenditure has its own apportionment, often on a different table, and generates instalments separate from day-to-day management. They stay distinct in the statement, so the meeting sees one and the other without having to separate them out. Special expenditure is managed under Special-expenditure instalments.

3.3Statement and instalment plan

Menu entry Service charge instalments → Statement and instalment plan — The financial year's statement and the instalment plan.

The statement is the document taken to the meeting. It brings together the final expense figures, the apportionment for each unit, the payment position and the instalment plan for the following year.

1. Open Service charge instalments → Statement and instalment plan.
2. Choose the financial year.
3. Check that every expense is recorded and the shares are up to date.
4. Generate the PDF document.

3.4Financial position and creditors/debtors

Menu entry Service charge instalments → Financial position — Receivables, payables and payments still to be allocated.  ·  Registry → Creditors and debtors — Open positions towards and from the owners.

The financial position is the live list of open positions towards and from owners: receivables, payables and payments still to be allocated. It opens from Service charge instalments → Financial position and from the Registry → Creditors and debtors tab: it's the same page, placed wherever whoever is checking the registry, wondering if an owner is up to date, looks for it.

It isn't filled in by hand: it's calculated from the instalments and transactions recorded, so it changes on its own whenever a payment or an expense is recorded. For a single owner's detail, go to the statement of account.

3.5Building budget/statement data

Menu entry Service charge instalments → Building budget/statement data — Entering budget and statement figures.

The comparison between budget and actual spend, item by item. It shows the variances and produces the year-end balancing payment, owed by or due to each owner.

1. Open Service charge instalments → Building budget/statement data and choose the financial year.
2. Check the items with the biggest variance: those are the ones the meeting will ask about.
3. Generate the statement and the balancing-payment apportionment.

The same screen manages the expense items: name, chapter, share table and the chart-of-accounts cost account that decides where the item's expenses end up in general accounting.

The spending chapters open collapsed, so you get the overview straight away: they expand one at a time with a click, or all together with Expand all (and collapse again with Collapse all). The How to enter the items guide, under the title, explains how to fill in the budget and statement, and only opens on request.

3.6Special-expenditure instalments

Menu entry Service charge instalments → Special-expenditure instalments — Resolved or urgent special expenditure: instalment plan, dedicated bank account, fund and accrual.

Special expenditure — a new gate, re-rendering the façades, replacing the boiler, an urgent job — is often paid in many instalments, sometimes over several years, from a bank account opened specifically for it. This feature keeps it in an archive separate from day-to-day management, prepares the instalment plan, sends out payment slips with the right IBAN, and generates the correct accounting entries on its own, even when the works invoice and the instalments fall in different years.

When to use it

• Works resolved by the meeting (façades, gate, boiler, lift): the resolution date is recorded.
• Urgent expenditure without a resolution (Art. 1135 Italian Civil Code): the administrator decides and reports it at the first meeting; the expense is flagged as urgent and the reason is written down.
• Not for every year's ordinary expenses (cleaning, electricity, lift): those follow the budget and are split into instalments from Generate instalments (apportionments).

The page in brief

On the left the list of expenditure items; on the right the detail of the one selected. At the top New special expenditure and Print.

Recording a special expenditure item

1. Open Service charge instalments → Special-expenditure instalments and press New special expenditure.
2. Fill in the form (fields below).
3. Press Save: the item appears in the list and the instalment plan opens straight away.

Along with the expenditure item, without touching the chart of accounts by hand, the programme creates on its own: the expense item with its name, the fund account (group 2.04, for example 2.04.06 Boiler works 2026 fund), the cost account (group 3.09) and the deferred-cost account (group 1.04). Edit lets you change the description, amount, resolution, urgency, bank account, IBAN and notes; changing the description also renames the item and the accounts.

The instalment plan

1. Press Edit plan (it opens on its own after the expenditure item is created).
2. Enter the number of instalments, how many months apart (1, 2, 3, 4, 6 or 12) and the first due date, then press Generate due dates: the amount still to be split is divided into equal instalments and the last one absorbs the rounding.
3. Check the table: each due date can be corrected (date and amount), removed with the bin icon, or added with Add a due date.
4. At the bottom the page compares the total with the resolved amount: Matches the resolved amount in green, or the difference in orange.
5. Press Save plan. If the total doesn't match the resolved amount, the programme refuses and explains the difference.

• Due dates already issued can't be changed; to correct them, cancel the issue first (see below).
• Regenerating the plan only re-splits what hasn't been issued yet.
• The plan can run past the end of the financial year: later due dates show the status Next financial year.

Example: for €24,000 of boiler works in 24 monthly instalments of €1,000, you'd enter 24 instalments, every 1 month, first due date 01/11/2026. That gives 2 due dates in 2026 (November and December), 12 in 2027, and 10 in 2028 (January to October).

Issuing this year's instalments

1. Check the working financial year at the top (for example 2026): instalments are issued against it.
2. Press Issue this year's instalments.
3. The programme shows the amount it's about to issue and the entry date (the working date): confirm with Issue.

For every due date up to the end of the financial year, even if it's already past, the programme creates one instalment per unit, split according to the table's shares, each with its own instalment code. In the journal it writes one entry per owner and due date: a receivable from the owner on the debit side and the expenditure's fund on the credit side. Due dates past the end of the financial year stay in the plan. Pressing the button again creates no duplicate instalments: the programme reports there's nothing to issue.

Cancel issue, on an issued due date's row, removes the instalments and their entry and returns the due date to "To be issued". This isn't possible if an instalment has already received a payment, nor in a closed financial year.

Later years' due dates are issued on their own when the financial year that contains them is created (see 6.10), but only for expenditure whose plan has already started, i.e. with at least one instalment issued. If something's wrong at that point (for example an unbalanced share table), the final message says so and the issue can be done from this page.

How it's accounted for

Each special-expenditure item has its own fund and its own deferred costs. The instalments don't go among the year's income but feed the fund; the cost of the works goes to the cost account as invoices come in. At year end the programme spreads the costs in proportion to the plan's instalments: the part accrued for the year is closed against the fund, the part due to later years stays in deferred costs and is released as the instalments fall due. That way special expenditure doesn't distort the result of day-to-day management, even when the invoice and the instalments fall in different years.

The financial year's accrual: how the programme calculates it

At the end of each financial year the programme does the following, item by item:

1. Costs recorded up to the end of the financial year (across all years, excluding opening and accrual entries), on the item's cost account or expense item.
2. Plan instalments due up to the end of the financial year, even if not yet issued.
3. Accrued amount = the smaller of the two previous figures.
4. Deferred costs at year end = costs recorded minus accrued amount.
5. Change in deferred costs = deferred costs at year end minus deferred costs at the opening (those already present in the year's entries). If positive, the cost is deferred; if negative, it's released.
6. Covered by the fund = the year's costs minus the change in deferred costs: this is the cost accrued for the financial year.

• If the works cost less than the accrued instalments (for example €10,000 against €20,000 of instalments), there's no deferral: the whole cost is accrued, and the fund keeps a credit balance for the surplus collected.
• If they cost more than the plan, the difference stays in deferred costs until the instalments cover it: it's worth updating the resolved amount and the plan.

The boiler-works example, year by year: in 2026 the accrual entries put €22,000 into deferred costs and cover €2,000 with the fund; in 2027 they release €12,000 and cover it with the fund; in 2028 they release the last €10,000. In every year the expenditure's cost returns to zero and the fund clears, so the result of day-to-day management doesn't change. The deferred costs (€22,000 at the end of 2026) carry over into 2027 with the opening balances, along with the receivables from owners and the dedicated bank account.

The "This year's accrual" box

The accrual is posted on its own, with nothing for you to do:

• when the financial-year closing starts and when it completes: in the example, in 2026 it puts €22,000 into deferred costs; in 2027 and 2028, when those years are closed, it releases €12,000 and €10,000;
• when the next financial year is created, if the old one is still open.

From the box you can also:

• Post now — does it immediately, for example to see the figures before closing;
• Redo — recalculates it with today's costs and plan, when another invoice has arrived or the plan has changed since posting (the page flags this);
• Cancel — removes it.

A closed financial year can't be changed: the box shows the Year-end closing button, and to change the accrual you reopen it and close it again (see 6.9). On re-closing, the programme recalculates the accrual and realigns the opening balances of the following year.

Below the figures, these messages appear when relevant:

Linking invoices to the expenditure item

The accrual only counts costs recorded on the expenditure's cost account (3.09.xx) or its expense item: when recording the invoice, choose the item that carries the expenditure's name. An invoice recorded on a different item, or on the generic "Special works" account, isn't counted, and the page flags it with a warning. To link it:

1. Open the invoice's entry (from the ledger or the journal).
2. On the cost row change the cost account to the one shown in the expenditure's header (for example 3.09.04).
3. Go back to Special-expenditure instalments: the "Spent" figure and the accrual box update; if the accrual was already posted, use Redo.

Payment requests and collections

1. On the instalment-plan box press Payment requests: the notices page opens already filtered to this expenditure's instalments (the All instalments / Ordinary only / Special: … filter can be changed).
2. Slips and emails carry the expenditure's IBAN; if none was set, the building's is used.
3. With "one slip per person" each owner gets one slip for the ordinary instalments and one for each special-expenditure item with its own IBAN: instalments on different accounts are never merged. If you try to merge them, the programme refuses and explains why.
4. To record a payment, open Record payment (see 4.10): choosing instalments from an expenditure item with a dedicated account, the programme suggests that account, with a note explaining it; if the same payment includes instalments from different accounts, a warning appears and it's best to record one payment per account.

Details on payment notices in 5.1.

Printing and the statement by unit

At the bottom of the page the statement by unit shows, for each one, shares, share of the resolved amount, issued, collected, outstanding receivable and still to issue, with totals. Print produces the full picture (figures, plan and statement) to take to the meeting.

Closing or deleting an expenditure item

• Close expenditure — once the works are finished: it no longer appears among the proposed expenditure items and the programme stops issuing its instalments; instalments, payments and entries remain. Before confirming, the programme reminds you if the fund still has a balance (to be settled with an extra due date or a refund to owners) and if future due dates remain unissued. Reopen puts it back among the open ones.
• Delete — only if the expenditure item has never been used: no instalments issued (not even cancelled ones), no transactions and no entries on its accounts. The plan, item and accounts created for it disappear too.

The lifecycle of a special-expenditure item, start to finish

1. The meeting resolves the works (or the administrator decides on urgent expenditure).
2. New special expenditure: amount, table, dedicated bank account and IBAN.
3. Instalment plan: due dates through to the balance, possibly over several years.
4. Issue this year's instalments: instalments per unit, a receivable from owners and the fund.
5. Payment requests with the expenditure's IBAN; then payments into the dedicated account.
6. Invoices arrive: recorded against the expenditure's item or cost account.
7. Year-end closing: the accrual posts itself (deferred costs and coverage from the fund).
8. + Next financial year: deferred costs, fund and receivables carry into the opening, and the new year's due dates are issued on their own.
9. In following years, steps 4 to 8 repeat until the plan is complete: deferred costs and the fund return to zero.
10. Once the works are finished, the expenditure item is closed.

4.1Trial balance and ledgers

Menu entry Accounting → Trial balance and ledgers — An account's debit and credit entries with running balance, PDF printing, trial balance.

Accounting → Trial balance and ledgers is where double-entry bookkeeping is checked. It has three tabs and opens on Account balances.

Ledger

Choose an account (typing the code or name, or from the list) and press Show: the entries appear with Debit, Credit and running balance, between the opening and closing balance. You can filter by period, amount, and, for owner and supplier accounts, by person or unit.

• Summary view (default): instalments grouped by due date and owner, payments grouped by transaction. Detailed view: one row per entry line.
• Cash book opens the cash ledger; Print bank ledgers produces a single PDF covering banks and post office accounts.
• Clicking a row opens the entry with all its debit and credit lines; if it comes from an electronic invoice, the invoice can be opened too.
• From the entry window, Edit entry opens it in the journal (double-entry) and Delete entry deletes it after confirmation. Once the entry is saved or deleted, you return to the same ledger with the same filters.

Account balances

This is the trial balance: for each account, the balance (D for debit, C for credit), followed by the Debit and Credit totals. Accounts are grouped by class, and each class ends with its subtotal in bold: Total assets, Total liabilities and equity, Total costs and Total income. Clicking an account opens its ledger.

The programme calculates the surplus or deficit for the period (income minus costs, as at the "Position at" date if one is given) and adds it wherever needed to balance:

• a deficit appears among assets and among income;
• a surplus appears among liabilities and equity and among costs.

Below the table, two checks verify that the accounts balance: assets + deficit = liabilities and equity + surplus and costs + surplus = income + deficit. If a check doesn't add up, the debits and credits of the entries don't match and the error needs finding. The surplus and deficit rows are shown on screen and in the PDF, but aren't entries: the result carries over into the following financial year when it's created (see 6.10).

Side-by-side financial position

Balance sheet (assets | liabilities and equity) and income statement (costs | income), with the two halves the same width. Each account sits on the side of its balance, and the period's surplus or deficit balances the totals. Clicking an account's code or description opens its ledger. All three tabs can be printed as a PDF.

4.2CBI bank statement (import)

Menu entry Accounting → CBI bank statement (import) — Loads the bank statement file.

The bank statement is imported in order to match payments to instalments. The format depends on the bank: usually a CSV file downloadable from online banking.

1. Download the transaction list from the bank's website, for the period you need.
2. Open Accounting → CBI bank statement (import) and upload the file.
3. Check the preview: date, amount and reference for every transaction.
4. Confirm the import.

4.3CBI bank statement: bank reconciliation

Menu entry Accounting → CBI bank statement (import) — Loads the bank statement file.

This is the step that turns bank transactions into recorded payments. It works like this: the programme reads the reference of every imported transaction and searches it for an instalment code.

1. Import the bank statement (see 4.2).
2. Open Accounting → CBI bank statement (import).
3. The programme analyses the references and suggests an outcome for each transaction.
4. Go through the list and confirm the correct matches.

The three outcomes

Codes in the old format

Codes in the form QC-2025-0142, used in earlier versions, are also recognised: older instalments keep matching with no action needed.

4.7Manual entry of invoices and expenses

Menu entry Accounting → Manual entry of invoices and expenses — One expense at a time, with withholding tax, line-by-line apportionment and instalments.

Expense entry is the guided form for anyone who doesn't want to think in double-entry terms: you state what was spent and on which item, and the programme writes the correct entry.

1. Open Accounting → Manual entry of invoices and expenses.
2. Enter the supplier, date, amount and document number.
3. Choose the expense item: this determines which share table the expense will be apportioned with.
4. If the expense belongs to a special-expenditure item, enter the chapter: it will stay separate from day-to-day management.
5. Save.

4.8Entering transactions (table)

Menu entry Accounting → Entering transactions (table) — The journal in table form: enter several expenses at once, paid straight away or still to pay, even from Excel.

When there are many transactions to enter — a month's expenses, the payments from a bank statement — the table screen is the way to go: it fills in like an Excel sheet, one row per transaction.

1. Open Accounting → Entering transactions (table).
2. Fill in the rows, or press Load from Excel and choose a file filled in on the template downloadable from the same screen (up to 200 rows).
3. Rows with a problem are highlighted with the reason: correct them.
4. Press Save all: if even one row is wrong, nothing is saved.

4.9Chart of accounts, journal (double-entry) and table entries

Menu entry Accounting → Chart of accounts — Accounts by class and group: add, rename, export and import.  ·  Accounting → Journal (double-entry) — Numbered entries that always balance, with ready-made templates.  ·  Accounting → Table entries — Several double-entry entries at once, one per row: debit account, credit account, amount.

Alongside the journal, the programme keeps general ledger accounting in double-entry form, on a numeric chart of accounts. It isn't extra work: the everyday functions — expenses, invoices, payments, instalments collected, withholding tax — write their own entry on their own, numbered and always balanced.

The chart of accounts

In Accounting → Chart of accounts every code is structured as Class.Group.Account (for example 1.01.03). There are four classes: 1 Assets, 2 Liabilities and equity, 3 Costs, 4 Income; each class contains up to 99 groups, and each group holds the accounts, or ledgers. Owner and supplier accounts have a sub-ledger per person. Accounts can be added and renamed, exported and imported; an account that already has entries isn't deleted but deactivated.

The New account button adds an account to an existing group: choose the group and the programme suggests the first free code. The list doesn't include the owner and supplier groups, which don't have one account each: they're managed under Registry and appear in their own sub-ledgers. The + button on a group's row stays available for special cases.

Every expense item has its own cost account

In Building budget/statement data the Cost account column links each expense item to a class-3 account. Expenses recorded against that item go to that account. If you don't set it, when the item is created the programme suggests the most fitting account from the item's name: for example "Administrator's fee" goes to 3.01.01, "Water" to 3.02.02, "Stairwell cleaning" to 3.03.01, "Insurance" to 3.05.01; items for special-expenditure management go to 3.09.01 Special works. Only what the programme doesn't recognise stays on 3.08.01 Other costs. The choice applies to later entries and doesn't change ones already made.

The starting chart of accounts covers a building's most common costs: administration expenses (fee, secretarial work, consultancy, tax obligations), utilities, cleaning, lift, grounds, caretaking, pest control and waste, fire safety, maintenance (building, systems, heating, plumbing), insurance, staff, taxes and a fund for miscellaneous and unforeseen expenses. In existing archives, missing accounts are added at the opening, and items not yet used in entries receive their account; ones that already have entries don't change.

Recording by hand

• Journal (double-entry) — entries with ready-made templates: supplier invoice, invoice paid straight away, supplier payment with withholding tax, expense with no invoice, payment from an owner, instalments issued, other income, transfer between cash, bank and post office account, or a free-form entry.
• Table entries — many entries at once, one per row: debit account, credit account, amount. If the supplier isn't in the archive yet, the Create supplier button opens a short form (company name or surname and first name, VAT number, tax code, contact details) without leaving the table: the programme checks for duplicates and the new supplier appears in the list straight away.
• Transfer from the journal — see 4.10.

The results are read in Trial balance and ledgers.

4.10Journal

Menu entry Accounting → Journal — Register of accounting transactions.

The journal is the register of the building's money movements and of its payables and receivables. Every transaction, as soon as it's saved, also writes its double-entry entry: there's no need to think in debits and credits to keep the general ledger in order (see 4.9).

1. Open Accounting → Journal and press New transaction.
2. Choose the type: Expense, Income or Transfer.
3. For expenses and income, enter the date, account (bank, cash, receivables or payables), description and amount. For an expense you can also choose the expense item (the field starts blank), so it appears in the statement, and, if needed, the special-expenditure item.
4. Save.

Transfers

A transfer moves an amount from one chart-of-accounts account to another: paying cash into the bank, a cash withdrawal, paying a supplier, collecting a receivable other than instalments. You enter the account to debit (Debit) and the one to credit (Credit) with the same amount.

• Normally it's simple: one account on debit and one on credit.
• With Complex entry you can enter several accounts on each side; the debit total must equal the credit total.
• The accounts must all be balance-sheet accounts (classes 1 and 2) or all income-statement accounts (classes 3 and 4): they don't mix.
• For supplier or owner accounts the programme asks who the row refers to.

The same transfer can also be recorded from the Dashboard: New transaction → Transfer.

Collecting instalment payments

With Record payment you choose the owner, see their open instalments and enter the account the money is going into: bank, post office account or cash. The payment is spread across the instalments and any surplus stays as a credit to the owner.

Correcting or cancelling a transaction

As long as the financial year is open, a wrong entry can be deleted, together with anything linked to it. If the financial year is no longer open the programme doesn't delete it: it offers a reversal, i.e. an equal and opposite entry linked to the original, and only records it once you confirm.

Editing a transaction leaves the previous, reversed one in the archive, for traceability; only for a mistake just made can you ask to delete it for good. Entries that come from an electronic invoice are deleted from Imported XML invoices, not from the journal.

4.11Individual (unit-specific) expenses

Menu entry Accounting → Individual expenses — Expenses charged exclusively to one unit or owner, outside the share-based apportionment.

An individual expense is charged to a single unit or owner — repairing the lock on their parking space, legal costs for debt recovery — and stays outside the share-based apportionment.

1. Open Accounting → Individual expenses.
2. Choose the unit (you can also search by the owner's name) and the category: both are required. The category, i.e. the expense item, determines the entry's cost account.
3. Enter the description, amount, date and, if there is one, the invoice with its supplier: paid straight away or to be paid later.
4. Record it. The expense is charged in full to the unit with its own instalment.

In the accounting entry the description shows the unit's code and the owner's name, for example CN1 - Smith John: in the ledger it's immediately clear who it was charged to.

5.1Payment requests

Menu entry Owner management → Payment requests — Sends payment requests to owners.

The payment notice is the document handed to the owner: it shows the amount, due date, reference and the instalment code, plus a barcode that makes paying at a counter easier.

1. Open Owner management → Payment requests.
2. Select the financial year and the instalments to issue.
3. Generate the notices as PDF: one per owner, or a single file to print.
4. Hand them out by hand or send them by email from the Communications screen.

Filters, summary view and printing the list

• The All owners filter narrows the list down to a single owner.
• The All instalments filter can also show Ordinary instalments only or the instalments of a single special-expenditure item.
• With Hide expense item the list becomes summarised: one row per owner and due date, with the items added together, and the payment slip only shows the instalment's code and number.
• Print prints the list exactly as shown, with the filters and view chosen, and a checked box in front of the selected rows.

The PDF payment slip always fits on a single page: if the letter text is long, the programme shrinks the font and line spacing a little rather than spilling onto a second page.

5.2SEPA direct debit

Menu entry Owner management → SEPA direct debit — SEPA direct debits on instalments.

For owners who have signed a direct-debit mandate, the programme generates the SDD file to upload to online banking.

1. Check that the mandates are recorded with an IBAN and a signing date.
2. Open Owner management → SEPA direct debit and choose the instalments to debit.
3. Enter the debit date, respecting the notice period required by the bank.
4. Generate the file and upload it to online banking.

Successful direct debits come back into the payments register like any other payment.

5.3Statement of account

Menu entry Owner management → Statement of account — Transactions on the building's current account.

This is a single owner's position: instalments due, payments received, balance. It can be printed as a PDF and handed to whoever asks for it, or attached to a reminder.

You reach it from the deadline tracker, the unit's record, or the payment position, depending on where you're working from.

At the bottom of the table the totals row adds up what's due, what's been paid, and the balance; the same row appears in the CSV file and the detailed PDF. Record payment opens the payment form for the owner: once the payment is recorded, you return to the same financial year's statement, already updated.

5.4Payments register and collection overview

Menu entry Owner management → Payments register — History of payments by unit.  ·  Owner management → Collection overview — Payment status by owner.

The register collects every payment made in the financial year, each one with a reference to the instalment it settles. It's the counterpart to the deadline tracker: that shows what's owed, this shows what's been paid.

The Collection overview opens with the Show only those with an outstanding balance box already ticked, so you immediately see who still has to pay; unticking it shows everyone. The total and the outstanding balance are shown in the same, clearly readable, typeface. You can also reach it from the Dashboard, via All in the "Instalments due" box.

6.1Statements and reports, cash/balance-sheet/income statement

Menu entry Oversight and reporting → Statements and reports — Statement printouts for the meeting.  ·  Oversight and reporting → Statement (cash/balance-sheet/income) — The three sections of the statement, compared.

The programme produces three statements, which answer different questions.

What they contain

• Income on the income statement: the instalments issued to owners during the financial year (on an accrual basis, even if not yet collected) plus other income, such as interest and refunds. The summary shows them on two rows plus the total.
• Balance sheet: assets (cash position, receivables from owners and third parties) and liabilities (payables to suppliers and third parties, owners' credit balances, payments to be allocated, funds). The difference is called Net book value. If it's negative the building owes more than it has, and the page flags it.
• Double-entry figures too: the statements add, to the transactions, the double-entry entries that don't come from a transaction or an instalment, i.e. ones made via the table, free-form, or by transfer. An invoice recorded via the table appears this way both as a cost and as a payable to the supplier. Clicking an item lists its entries with the label "Double-entry".

The opening balances declared on the Opening balances screen feed in as the starting cash position (bank, cash, receivables and payables to suppliers).

On the Statements screen you switch between reports with the Budget, Actual, Comparative and Individual buttons: the active one is solid green.

6.2Balance-sheet position

Menu entry Oversight and reporting → Balance-sheet position — The building's assets, liabilities and equity.

This brings together what isn't a current expense: funds set aside, the financial year's opening balances, security deposits. These are the items that carry over from one financial year to the next and need checking before closing.

6.3Building report

Menu entry Oversight and reporting → Building report — Summary report for the building.

The full summary of the financial year, meant for the file to be kept: registries, shares, expenses, apportionments, payments, payment status. A single PDF that contains everything needed to reconstruct the year.

6.4List of outstanding debts and selective printing

Menu entry Oversight and reporting → List of debts — Budget/actual comparison for a chapter, for payables owed to suppliers from earlier periods.  ·  Oversight and reporting → Selective printing — Combine the statements and apportionments you choose into a single printout.

Two tools in the Oversight and reporting menu help prepare documents for the meeting.

• List of debts compares the budget and actual spend of a chapter, to identify payables owed to suppliers from earlier periods.
• Selective printing combines the statements and apportionments you choose into a single printout, instead of printing them one at a time.

6.5Debt recovery: late-payment interest

Menu entry Oversight and reporting → Debt recovery — late-payment interest — Calculates interest on overdue amounts.

Interest can be calculated on overdue, unpaid amounts, according to the criterion resolved by the meeting or set out in the building regulations.

1. Open Oversight and reporting → Debt recovery — late-payment interest.
2. Set the criterion: rate and starting date.
3. The programme calculates the interest on every overdue instalment, in proportion to the days of delay.
4. The amounts can be charged to the owner or simply kept as a record.

6.6Debt recovery: arrears

Menu entry Oversight and reporting → Debt recovery — arrears — List of owners in arrears.

The list of owners who are behind, with the age of the debt and the reminders already sent. Age matters more than the amount: a €300 debt outstanding for two years is a different problem from a €3,000 one outstanding for a month.

From here you can print a defaulting owner's statement of account and start a reminder.

6.7Debt recovery: legal action

Menu entry Oversight and reporting → Debt recovery — legal action — Legal debt-recovery cases.

The case file: parties, lawyer, progress, legal costs incurred and amounts recovered.

Legal costs are linked to the building and, depending on the case, are either apportioned or charged to the defaulting owner. Keeping them in the programme stops them ending up on a separate sheet and disappearing from the statement.

6.8Debt recovery: reminders

Reminders follow a sequence of levels — first, second, formal notice — and every one sent is tracked with date and channel.

1. From the Arrears screen, choose the owners to remind.
2. Choose the level and the letter template.
3. Check the preview: amounts, due dates and period are already filled in.
4. Send by email or certified mail, or print for registered post.

The reminder's PDF (the Generate PDF for selected reminders button under Arrears) doesn't list individual instalments by expense item: it shows one row per due date with the total due, what's already been settled and what's still to pay, with the total outstanding at the bottom. The building's details at the top show the IBAN to pay into, the one entered on the building's record. At the bottom, after the closing remarks, is the administrator's signature if one has been uploaded (see 12.5).

The reminders log is also useful in court: it proves the owner was put on notice, and when.

6.9Year-end closing

Menu entry Oversight and reporting → Year-end closing — Closes the current accounting year.

Closing carries the balances over to the following financial year and locks entries on the one that's closed.

1. Open Oversight and reporting → Year-end closing.
2. Go through the checklist: expenses recorded, instalments issued, payments matched, statement approved, tax obligations met. The programme flags anything still outstanding.
3. Resolve the flagged items.
4. Confirm the closing.

The four steps of the procedure

The page guides closing through four steps, shown at the top.

Once the financial year is closed, the programme locks the archives, recalculates the special-expenditure accrual one last time, and, if the following financial year already exists, realigns its opening balances.

When closing starts and when it completes, the programme calculates the accrual for special expenditure: it covers the year's accrued cost with the fund and moves the cost due to later years into deferred costs, so closing starts from already-correct accounts.

Closing also sets the archive lock to the end of the financial year: from that point entries in the closed period can no longer be added, edited or deleted.

To open the following financial year, with the closing balances carried over as opening balances, see 6.10. Closing no longer automatically creates an empty financial year on its own: once closing is finished the programme offers to go to the Dashboard, where + Next financial year carries over opening balances, funds, deferred costs and special instalments (and checks the licence).

Undoing a closing and redoing it

A closing can be undone to correct the financial year and redone afterwards. What to do depends on how far it got.

1 · Closing started but not completed (the financial year is "Closing in progress"):

1. Open Year-end closing: at the top, next to "Manage financial years", Cancel closing appears.
2. Press the button and confirm: the financial year goes back to Open and the page restarts from step 1.

2 · Financial year already closed:

1. In Year-end closing press Manage financial years: the list of financial years opens, with year, period and status. (If every financial year is closed the page says so and opens the list on its own.)
2. On the closed financial year's row press Reopen.
3. Type the requested text, for example RIAPRI 2026, and confirm. The server double-checks the text: without the right one the financial year doesn't reopen.
4. The financial year goes back to Open and a message reminds you of the next steps.

If later financial years are already closed they need reopening first, starting with the most recent: the programme refuses to reopen one while a later one is still closed.

After reopening

Once the financial year is reopened, the archive lock goes back to the end of the previous financial year, and entries can be corrected or added (a forgotten invoice, a special-expenditure plan). It's then closed again with the same procedure: the programme recalculates the special-expenditure accrual, deferred costs included, and, if the following financial year already exists, realigns its opening balances to the new result and issues the instalments from special-expenditure plans falling in it. If you had corrected the following year's opening balances by hand, the programme doesn't touch them and tells you: in that case carry them over again from Opening balances.

6.10Creating the next or previous financial year

From the Dashboard's financial-year bar, you create the financial years next to the one in use.

1. Press + Next financial year (or − Previous financial year). The programme says which year it will create, or why it isn't possible.
2. Type the confirmation text requested, for example CREA2027, and confirm. The check also happens on the server: without the right text the financial year isn't created.
3. At the end a message summarises the balances carried over. After "next" you move on to working on the new financial year.

The final message

Once the financial year has been created, a window summarises what the programme has done:

• the opening balances carried over (bank, cash, receivables from owners, payables to suppliers) and the funds carried over with their balance;
• for special expenditure, "closed financial year's accrual recalculated for N" if the old financial year was still open;
• the list of special instalments issued in the new financial year, item by item, with the number of due dates and amount; if an item couldn't be issued (an unbalanced table, for example) the reason is shown, and it's issued from its own page.

What gets carried over

When creating the next financial year, the programme takes a snapshot of the previous one's closing balances — bank, cash, outstanding receivables from owners, payables to suppliers, funds set aside — and carries them over as opening balances. For those keeping double-entry books, the opening of the balance-sheet accounts is also recorded. The balances can be corrected from the Opening balances screen.

The closed financial year's result — the surplus or deficit shown in Account balances, for example as at 31/12/2026 — is transferred into equity, into the account 2.09.01 Surplus/deficit from previous years: on the credit side if it's a surplus, on the debit side if it's a deficit. In the opening entry the row is named "Surplus for financial year 2026" or "Deficit for financial year 2026". In later years, the account accumulates the result of each financial year.

For special expenditure the old financial year's accrual has already been calculated at closing: the deferred costs and any fund balance carry into the opening of the new financial year, and the due dates of already-started instalment plans that fall in the new financial year are issued on their own. The final message also summarises these operations.

The previous financial year is useful to set up a forgotten piece of history (for example 2025, when the first one is 2026): it's created without opening balances, which are entered by hand if needed.

6.11Opening balances

Menu entry Oversight and reporting → Opening balances — View, edit and enter the financial year's opening balances (balance sheet and income statement), for example to continue another administrator's management.

The Opening balances screen (Oversight and reporting menu) shows and lets you edit how the financial year opens. It's the feature to use when taking over from another administrator: you enter the handover balances.

1. Choose the financial year at the top right.
2. To pick up the previous year's closing, press Carry over from the previous financial year's closing: the rows load and you can correct them.
3. Otherwise add the rows by hand: for each one choose the account and enter the amount in Debit or Credit. For owner and supplier accounts, also enter the person.
4. Enter the source of the figures (for example the handover minutes) and press Save opening balances.

Balance sheet and income statement

The screen has two tables. Balance sheet: assets (class 1) and liabilities and equity (class 2). Income statement: costs (class 3) and income (class 4) already accrued at the start of management, useful only if taking over partway through the year. At the bottom the page shows the Debit and Credit totals and whether the balances balance: they can only be saved if Debit and Credit are equal. Alternatively the Balance the difference box sends the gap to the "Surplus/deficit from previous years" account.

The balances can only be changed while the financial year is open. "Remove all balances" clears the opening.

8.1Meetings: notice of meeting

Menu entry Meetings → Meetings — Call and manage building meetings.

1. Open Meetings → Meetings and create a new meeting.
2. Enter the date, time and place of the first and second calls.
3. Fill in the agenda, one item per row: the items become the matters to be voted on.
4. Generate the notice of meeting and send it by email, certified mail or post, respecting the notice-period requirements.

Proxies are recorded before or during the meeting, naming the owner giving the proxy and the delegate: they enter into the quorum calculation.

8.2Attendance sheet

Menu entry Meetings → Meetings — Call and manage building meetings.

The attendance sheet is printed before the meeting and filled in at the door. It shows, for each unit, the owner, the shares and space for a signature.

Recording attendance in the programme totals the shares present and represented on its own: that's what's needed for the quorum.

8.3Quorum and voting

Menu entry Meetings → Meetings — Call and manage building meetings.

The quorum is calculated on two figures together: the number of people attending and the shares they represent.

1. Record attendance and proxies.
2. The programme shows the owners and shares present, and whether the constitutive quorum is met.
3. For each agenda item, record the votes: in favour, against, abstentions.
4. The programme shows whether the deliberative quorum is met, item by item.

The Print attendance and quorum button, next to "Print minutes", generates a PDF with who was present in person, who was present by proxy (with the delegate's name), who was absent, any warnings about proxy limits, and the summary of the constitutive quorum and voting thresholds: a separate document from the minutes, useful to attach or keep on file even without printing the whole minutes.

What happens if an owner leaves the meeting?

The constitutive quorum is there to open the meeting validly: once it's met, the sitting stays legally valid even if someone leaves during the meeting. The programme still flags the situation to the administrator, because it's worth knowing all the same — especially if items are still to be voted on.

If, by marking an owner as absent (or tapping "Leave" in the meeting tool, see 8.4), those present fall below the threshold that had constituted the meeting, you'll see:

• an immediate warning, the moment the situation occurs;
• a permanent red banner at the top, visible on every tab of the meeting — including Minutes — for as long as the situation stays below quorum.

Example. A meeting opens with 18 out of 30 owners present (quorum met). Halfway through, 4 leave: 14 remain. If the threshold required for that call was, say, half the owners (15), the programme warns that attendance has fallen below quorum: the administrator can decide whether to carry on with the discussion anyway (the meeting stays validly constituted) or suspend the items still to be voted on, whose outcome would be weaker regardless.

Once voting is closed, the minutes are generated, showing the notice of meeting, attendance, proxies and the outcome of each item.

8.4The meeting tool

To hold the meeting in the room without bringing the management software, QuickMastro provides QuickMastro Quorum: a single HTML file that opens in the browser of a laptop, tablet or phone, with no installation and no internet connection needed. It's downloaded from the QuickMastro Dominius page or from the Meeting file window in the programme.

1. Prepare the file. In Meetings → Manage meeting press Meeting file, choose the call and, if you want, a password. A file downloads with owners, shares, agenda and a draft of the minutes.
2. Open the file in the tool and press Open the meeting and start the roll call. If you're resuming after an interruption use Resume the meeting or Open working file…; to start over, Start a new meeting.
3. Attendance and proxies. Mark people present, leaving, returning and changes of delegate: every change is logged with the time.
4. Voting. For each item the tool shows the constitutive quorum, the majority and the outcome; normally only the against and abstaining votes need to be entered. The thresholds are the legal ones and can be changed for a single item.
5. Minutes. The opening is already filled in, the discussion is written by you, and the resolution's wording is derived from the vote figures. Print the minutes opens the browser's print dialogue (or the PDF).
6. Closing. Save the result file (with a password, if you want) and, in the main programme, use Import the meeting: the programme recalculates the outcomes and carries over attendance, votes and minutes.

9.1Letter/email templates

Letter and email templates are ready-made texts, with fields filled in from the data: owner's name, unit, amount, due date, period. They're found under Communications → Letter/email templates and are the same ones you choose from when preparing a communication.

The template archive

The programme contains an archive of 159 templates in 13 categories: meetings, insurance and claims, statements and accounting, urgent communications, hygiene and pest control, service outages and faults, maintenance, instalments and payments, regulations and common parts, building services, safety and prevention, tax communications, registry and documentation. Each template has a priority (ordinary, important or urgent) and a recommended channel (all, email, SMS or certified mail).

On the left, the list: a search box for code, title or text, filters for priority and channel, and the Expand all and Collapse all buttons to open or close the categories. Clicking a template opens it on the right. The Letters with linked data category holds letters that fill themselves in from a meeting's or an instalment's data (notice of meeting, reminder, late-payment interest notice, minutes, request for documents).

Creating and editing templates

• + New template creates your own template: title, subject, text and channel.
• A template can be edited and saved as your own; variables are inserted with a click at the point where you're writing (see 9.2).
• The Add the standard English templates link adds the standard English-language set (EN-… codes), without touching the ones already present.

Choosing a template when writing

On the second step of a new communication, the Choose a template… button opens the same archive, with the same search: the chosen text is inserted into the communication, and the variables are left to be checked. The Manage templates button on the Communications page also opens the archive.

The text can also use the firm's images — the administrator's signature, a logo, a floor plan — with the variables {{img_firma_amministratore}} and {{img1}}, {{img2}}, {{img3}} (see 9.2). In the printed letter the image appears wherever you wrote the variable.

9.2Communications: email, certified mail, SMS and WhatsApp

Menu entry Communications — Sent items and communication status.

The Communications page gathers every message sent to owners. On the left, the folders — All sent items, Drafts, Sent, To confirm, By owner, With errors, Scheduled — and the channels (Email, Certified mail, SMS, WhatsApp); at the bottom, the Manage templates button. At the top, New message starts the three-step procedure.

1. Set up the mail-server parameters once and for all, in Settings: server, port, username and password. Credentials are saved encrypted. Examples with Aruba, Gmail and Aruba certified mail in 12.6.
2. 1. Recipients: choose who to write to and the channel (email, certified mail, SMS or WhatsApp).
3. 2. Content: choose a template or write from scratch; subject and text with variables and images.
4. 3. Preview and send: check the summary and the text, choose whether to send all together or in groups, then press Send communication.

Every send is tracked with date, channel and outcome. For certified mail, the receipt reference is kept, which is what gives the send legal standing.

SMS messages

SMS messages go out through an external service the firm subscribes to: Aruba SMS, Skebby, Twilio or MessageBird. It's configured under Settings → Send SMS with the service's credentials, which are saved encrypted; the Send test SMS button checks the configuration.

• The SMS channel uses the person's mobile number.
• If the service isn't active, the message stays to be sent, with the reason, and can be resent later.
• At the end the programme reports how many messages actually went out and how many stayed queued, failed, or had no number to send to.

Letters start from ready-made templates, which can be edited and saved as your own; the variable fields are filled in with the building's and the recipient's data.

Variables in the text

In the subject and the text, variables are written between double braces, for example {{nome_condomino}} or {{nome_condominio}}. Below the text you'll find all the ones available: a click inserts it at the point where you're writing. The green ones are filled in by the programme for each recipient; the purple ones (date, amount, place…) stay in the text and need completing by hand before sending.

Images in emails and letters

Four variables insert an image in place of the placeholder:

1. Upload the images under Settings → Firm (see 12.5).
2. Write the variable at the point in the text where the image should appear.
3. Send. In emails the image is embedded in the message: the recipient sees it straight away, with nothing to download. In letters it appears in the document.

Sending to many recipients without ending up in spam

An identical message sent to dozens of addresses can be mistaken for unwanted mail. With a few precautions, even a send to 50 owners lands in the inbox. The same guide is in the programme, in the last step of a new communication, in a section that opens with a click.

• One message per recipient. The programme doesn't send a single message with everyone blind-copied: it sends a separate one to each, with their own name.
• A recognisable sender. Send from an address on the firm's own domain, not a free mailbox, and ask whoever manages the domain or the mail to turn on SPF, DKIM and DMARC, which prove to the recipient that the message really does come from you. Keep the firm's details in the signature.
• A normal subject and text. No all capitals, exclamation marks or promotional-sounding words; the text needs to contain real words, not just an image. Few, light images.
• Test it first. Send the message to yourself, ideally to a Gmail or Outlook address, and check it doesn't land in "Spam".
• Clean addresses. Only write to those who've given their address for building communications, and correct ones flagged as wrong or missing: non-existent addresses damage the sender's reputation.
• Respect the mail provider's limits. Every provider has a maximum number of messages per hour and per day: check yours. If the server rejects messages, wait and use resend for the ones that failed, or use sending in groups, described below.
• Important documents. For notices of meeting and anything requiring proof of delivery, use certified mail or registered post; ordinary email is suited to routine notices.

Sending with WhatsApp, step by step

The programme doesn't send WhatsApp messages on its own: for every recipient it prepares the already-filled-in text and opens their chat; the message is sent when you press Send in WhatsApp. It's the approach that needs no subscriptions or approvals, and that doesn't put the firm's number at risk.

1. Setting up WhatsApp on the computer (once only)

1. Use the firm's phone, ideally with the WhatsApp Business app and the firm's number (not a personal one).
2. On the computer, open web.whatsapp.com (or install WhatsApp Desktop). A QR code appears.
3. On the phone, open WhatsApp → Settings → Linked devices → Link a device and scan the QR code. Leave the tab open while sending.

2. Entering the mobile number in the registry

Every recipient needs a mobile number on their person record. The forms 333 1234567, +39 333 1234567 and 0039 333 1234567 are accepted. Landline numbers don't have WhatsApp.

3. Choosing the channel and writing the text

Under Communications → New message choose the WhatsApp channel. On the last step, before sending, a guide appears that opens with a click. The text can contain variables ({{nome_condomino}}, {{nome_condominio}}…); images aren't sent in the text.

4. Opening the chats, one at a time

1. Press Send communication: the recipients end up "to send".
2. Open the communication (WhatsApp folder). Next to each recipient there's a green Open WhatsApp button; at the top, Open next WhatsApp moves to the first one still to send.
3. The recipient's chat opens with the text already written. The first time, the browser may ask which application to open the link with: choose WhatsApp Web (or WhatsApp Desktop) and allow pop-ups for the programme's address.
4. In WhatsApp press Send, then go back to the programme and move on to the next recipient.

Every chat opened is logged as Sent, with a note reminding you that the message is sent from the WhatsApp application: the programme can't know whether you actually sent it afterwards.

If something doesn't work

Sending in groups

On the last step of a new communication, the Send in groups field lets you choose All together, or groups of 5, 10 or 20 messages, with a pause of 1 to 30 minutes between one group and the next. The last choice made (group size and pause) is offered again for later sends, on the same computer.

1. The first group goes out straight away.
2. The others stay "to send" and the page sends them one at a time, at every pause; a box at the bottom shows how many are left and a countdown, with the Send the next group now and Stop buttons.
3. Keep the page open until they're finished. If you close it or press Stop, the remaining messages can be completed from the communication with Resend.

The communication shows as "Sent" only once the last group has gone out too.

Variables in English

When the interface is in English (Settings → Country and language) the variable buttons show the English names instead of the Italian ones, for example {{recipient_name}} instead of {{nome_condomino}}. The programme always understands both names: a text written one way or the other is filled in the same way.

9.3Documents

Menu entry Communications → Documents — The building's document archive.

The archive holds the building's documents: minutes, contracts, insurance policies, surveys, floor plans. Files are uploaded, classified, and stay linked to the building and, where relevant, to the work or meeting they relate to.

10.1Works

Menu entry Maintenance → Works — Planned and completed maintenance works.

A work item gathers everything relating to a job in one place: supplier, quote, expense recorded, documents, progress status.

1. Open Maintenance → Works and create a new one.
2. State whether it's ordinary or special: this determines how the expense will be treated in the statement.
3. Link the supplier and, once it arrives, the expense.
4. Update the status as the work goes on.

10.2Deadline tracker

Menu entry Maintenance → Deadline tracker — The financial year's accounting and administrative deadlines.

The deadline tracker brings together every instalment of the financial year with its due date, viewed by owner or by property unit.

It's there to answer two questions the administrator asks constantly: what's due now, and where does a particular owner stand. From here you can reach the individual's statement of account and record a payment.

10.3Insurance claims

Menu entry Maintenance → Insurance claims — Reports and status of insurance claims.

The claim's file: date, description of the damage, insurer, case number, survey, amount settled.

Keeping it in the programme matters most at meetings, when someone asks what happened to the water-infiltration case from two years ago.

11.1Imports

Menu entry Utilities → Imports — Every Excel/CSV upload in one place: people, units, suppliers, owners, transactions, invoices, bank statement.

Setting up a building doesn't require entering everything by hand. All the imports are gathered under Utilities → Imports, in the order it makes sense to do them; each entry also states what needs to be in the archive already.

1. Open the import and download the Excel template: it contains the sheet to fill in, with drop-down lists, and an instructions sheet with examples.
2. Fill in the sheet and save it as .xlsx or .csv.
3. Upload the file. Before saving, the programme runs a check that writes nothing and shows what would be imported and which rows need correcting, with the row number as it appears in Excel.
4. If the check comes back clean, press Confirm and import.

People and units: a preview first

Importing people and property units (Import CSV/XLSX button) doesn't start straight away: after choosing the file, a window appears asking "The file contains N properties (or people). Proceed with the import?", where N is the number of rows in the file, along with a preview of the rows. Ones that would be discarded are highlighted with the reason: missing stairwell or unit number, a code already in the archive or repeated in the file; for people, tax codes already in the archive are also flagged, and are only imported if you tick them. Cancel writes nothing.

Suppliers and owners: a role, not a new person

Importing suppliers and owners doesn't duplicate people: anyone already in the registry is recognised by their tax code or VAT number, and only the role is added to them. A supplier already present is ignored, so the import can be repeated without creating duplicates.

Importing owners is for the initial assignment: for each unit the shares must add up to 100, with the same rules as the unit's record. A unit that already has owners is rejected: to change them, use an ownership change.

11.2Checking accrual entries, resetting and deleting the archive

Menu entry Utilities → Checking accrual entries — Finds and lists entries dated outside the financial year's period, and corrects their date.  ·  Utilities → Resetting accounting archives — Clears the accounting data to start again from zero.  ·  Utilities → Deleting the archive — Permanently deletes every year or a single financial year, with password and typed confirmation.

Under Utilities there are two tools for maintaining the accounting archive.

• Checking accrual entries finds entries dated outside the financial year's period and lets you correct them, one at a time or in bulk.
• Resetting accounting archives deletes a financial year's accounting data to start again from zero. It's refused if it would touch locked periods, and if it's interrupted the programme rolls everything back and says at which step it stopped.

Delete archive

The Delete archive entry, reserved for the administrator, deletes permanently. At the top, a red box shows which building you're working on and what will be deleted. There are three choices:

You need the signed-in user's password and the word DELETE typed by hand, then a final confirmation showing the building's name. Once done, the programme leaves the building and reopens the Firm dashboard.

12.1Firm dashboard

Menu entry Firm → Firm dashboard — Overview of every building managed by the firm.

The Firm menu gathers what concerns the firm as a whole, not a single building. The Firm dashboard is the only screen that shows the data of every building together: each one's status, critical deadlines and arrears. From here you open the building to work on.

12.2Users and roles

Menu entry Firm → Users and roles — Firm users, roles and permissions per building.

Everyone who uses the programme has their own sign-in. Roles distinguish who can do what: the administrator has access to everything, a colleague can be limited to viewing only, or to certain areas.

1. Open Firm → Users and roles.
2. Create the user with name, email and an initial password.
3. Assign the role.
4. Give them the credentials and ask them to change the password on first sign-in.

12.3Permissions per building

Menu entry Firm → Users and roles — Firm users, roles and permissions per building.

Besides the role, a user can be restricted to certain buildings. This is useful in firms where each colleague manages their own portfolio: whoever opens the programme only sees the buildings assigned to them.

12.4Licence

Menu entry Firm → Licence — Licence type, limits and workstation activation.

Firm → Licence shows the licence type, the limits on buildings and workstations, and lets you enter the key and activate the workstation (see 1.4).

12.5Settings: firm details, signature and images

Menu entry Firm → Settings — Email, certified mail, SMS, firm details, currency, session duration and archive lock.

The Settings page is divided into sections, chosen from the menu on the left: Firm (details, signature and images), Country, language and currency, Communications (email, certified mail and SMS), Session and archives, Network and server. At the top of the menu, the Search setting… box finds a field by name and takes you to its section. A dot next to a section reminds you of unsaved changes; leaving the page with unsaved changes prompts the programme to ask for confirmation.

Under Settings → Firm you enter the firm's name, address, contact details, tax code and VAT number: these appear on the heading of documents and letters. Under Country, language and currency, the Entering amounts box sets how the period is interpreted when typing an amount (Save separator).

Administrator's signature

In the same box, the Administrator's signature field lets you upload the signature image.

1. Press Upload signature and choose a PNG or JPEG file (a transparent background works best). The image is resized and saved.
2. Check the preview. To remove it, use Remove.

The signature is printed at the foot of documents that require it: reminders, letters and communications, trial balance, side-by-side financial position, statement of account, ownership-transfer statement, and the statement and reports printouts.

Images for emails and letters

Below the signature, the Images for emails and letters section lets you upload three further images — a logo, a floor plan, a graphic notice — to insert into texts with the variables {{img1}}, {{img2}} and {{img3}}; the signature is inserted with {{img_firma_amministratore}} (see 9.2). For each one, use Upload image and, to remove it, Remove.

PNG or JPEG images are accepted, automatically reduced to a maximum size of 400 KB, and saved encrypted like the signature.

12.6Settings: email, certified mail and SMS

Menu entry Firm → Settings — Email, certified mail, SMS, firm details, currency, session duration and archive lock.

To send emails, certified mail and SMS to owners, the programme needs to know the firm's mailbox. It's set up once, under Firm → Settings → Communications, in the Email configuration (SMTP), Certified mailbox and SMS boxes. Credentials are saved encrypted. Below are examples for the most commonly used providers. The values come from the providers' own guides: it's worth checking them against your provider's support page before starting, since they can change over time.

What to enter: the fields in brief

Example 1 — Aruba, ordinary mail (mailbox on a domain)

1. Under Email configuration (SMTP) press the Aruba button: it fills in smtps.aruba.it, port 465 with SSL/TLS on, and also sets up the IMAP server imaps.aruba.it port 993.
2. Sender email: the mailbox's address, for example admin@smithmanagement.co.uk. Sender name: the firm's name.
3. Username: the full email address. Password: the mailbox's password (the one you use to log in to webmail).
4. Enter one of your own addresses under Test send email, turn on Enable email sending and press Save, then Send test email: a test message should arrive.

@aruba.it and @technet.it mailboxes use smtp.aruba.it and imap.aruba.it instead (ports 465 and 993). The programme doesn't fill these in automatically: choose Custom and enter them.

Example 2 — Gmail

Gmail no longer accepts the account's normal password in external programmes: a 16-character app password is needed.

1. In the Google account, turn on 2-step verification (Google Account → Security) and then create an App password (Security → 2-step verification → App passwords). Give it a name, for example "QuickMastro", and copy the 16 letters that appear.
2. In the programme, press Gmail: it fills in smtp.gmail.com, port 587 with SSL/TLS on (STARTTLS), and the IMAP server imap.gmail.com port 993. Port 465 works too, as an alternative.
3. Sender email and Username: your full Gmail address. Password: the 16-letter app password, with no spaces.
4. Test with Send test email.

Example 3 — Aruba certified mail

Certified mail is configured separately from ordinary mail, under the Certified mailbox tab: a message sent from the ordinary mailbox doesn't have the legal standing of certified mail.

1. Under Certified mailbox press Aruba certified mail: it fills in the outgoing server smtps.pec.aruba.it, port 465, and the incoming server imaps.pec.aruba.it, port 993.
2. Sender certified-mail address and Username: the full certified-mail address, for example smithmanagement@pec.it. Password: the certified mailbox's password.
3. The IMAP server is used to read delivery receipts, which prove the certified mail arrived: leave username and password blank if they're the same as for sending.
4. Turn on Enable certified-mail channel and save. In communications, the certified mail channel will use this mailbox, never the ordinary one.

If 2-step verification is on for the provider's account, a dedicated password for mail programmes may be needed.

Other providers

If something doesn't work

• "Authentication failed": wrong username or password. Check that the username is the full address and, for Gmail, that you're using the app password.
• Timeout or server unreachable: wrong host or port, or the firm's network is blocking the port; try the other port (465 or 587).
• The message sends but ends up in spam: see the anti-spam guide in the send step and in 8.2.
• Until mail is enabled, sends stay "to be sent": once it's set up they're completed with Resend.

SMS

SMS messages go out through an external service the firm subscribes to; it's configured under the SMS tab with the service's credentials (see 8.2). To send with WhatsApp no configuration is needed in the programme: the procedure is explained, with screenshots, in 8.2.

12.7Settings: session duration and archive lock

Menu entry Firm → Settings — Email, certified mail, SMS, firm details, currency, session duration and archive lock.

The archive lock stops entries from a period already checked or reported from being touched: up to the date set, transactions can't be added, edited or deleted, not even by moving their date.

1. Open Settings → Session and archives.
2. Enter the date up to which the archives are locked, and save.

The year-end closing sets the lock to the end of the closed financial year; if the financial year is reopened, the lock goes back to the end of the previous one. The journal warns when a date falls within the locked period.

12.8Settings: currency

Menu entry Firm → Settings — Email, certified mail, SMS, firm details, currency, session duration and archive lock.

Amounts are expressed in euros. Anyone working in another currency sets it under Settings → Country, language and currency, with name and symbol: the programme uses it instead of the euro in screen text and printouts, including the "Amounts in …" wording in the footer.

The currency can only be changed while the archives are empty: changing it afterwards would make amounts already recorded inconsistent.

12.9Buildings list

Menu entry Firm → Buildings list — Buildings managed: creation, archiving, export and import of archives.

The Buildings managed page lists the firm's buildings, with the accounting years present in each one's archive. From here you create a new building, edit its details, archive it, and — only once archived — delete it permanently by typing its name. The Test building button creates a building with made-up data to try out the programme (see 1.5).

With Export archive and Import archive you transfer a building with all its years: before importing, the programme analyses the file and shows which years it contains and the backup's date, then asks for confirmation.

12.10Backup and restore: Backup

Menu entry Firm → Backup and restore → Backup — Create backups, set up automatic backup and the backup folder.

A backup produces a consistent copy of the archives, meaning it's coherent even if someone is working at the moment it's taken. Under Firm → Backup and restore a small menu opens with two separate pages: Backup and Restore.

The Backup page

Under the title, on the left, are the buttons to run a backup:

• Back up the active building saves only the building you're working on;
• Choose buildings to back up… lets you select a few;
• Back up now (all) saves every archive;
• Export archive creates the backup and downloads it to the computer.

Below the buttons are the figures (backups available, last backup, space used), then two boxes side by side, and finally the list of backups, from which a copy can be downloaded, chosen for restore, or deleted.

Automatic backup

Every night the programme saves every archive on its own, checks them, and removes copies that are too old. You set the time, the days to keep (the last copy of each of the past few days is kept) and the extra weeks (the last copy of each of the past few weeks is also kept). Backups made by hand and ones created before a restore are never deleted. If you want, a second folder can be set for the copy (external disk, NAS, a cloud-synced folder). The box shows the outcome of the last attempt and when the next one will run; Run automatic backup now starts it immediately.

External backup copy

Next to automatic backup, the orange box reminds you where the archives and backups are kept, and lets you change the backup folder and choose whether to include meeting attachments. Keep the copy on different media from the working computer: a backup on the same disk doesn't protect against that disk failing.

Automatic backup before updates

When a programme update changes the archives' structure, the programme runs a backup on its own before proceeding. These copies are kept in dati\backup-migrazioni.

12.11Backup and restore: Restore

Menu entry Firm → Backup and restore → Restore — Returns the archives to the state of a backup file.

The Restore page returns the archives to the state saved in a backup file. It's kept separate from the Backup page so a backup and a restore can't get confused.

1. Open Firm → Backup and restore → Restore and drag the ZIP file into the box (or click to choose it).
2. The programme analyses the file and shows which archives it contains and from what date; choose the ones to restore. Nothing is replaced until you confirm.
3. Press Restore. A safety backup is made first of the archives that will be replaced.
4. The restore completes when the server restarts: until then, a warning appears at the top, Restore pending, with the buttons Restart the server now and Cancel the pending restore.

12.12Audit log

Menu entry Firm → Audit log — Log of operations performed and who performed them.

The log keeps track of sensitive operations: sign-ins, permission changes, reversals, deletions, licence changes. For each row you can see when, who, and what.

It can only be viewed by the administrator. It's there to answer the question "who changed this, and when", which comes up sooner or later.

13.1How it works: cloud, but at your place

"Cloud, but at your place" means having the comfort of an online service — working from anywhere, several people at once, nothing to install on every computer — without handing the building archive to an outside provider. A PC in your firm acts as the server; people use it from a browser, directly in the office and from home or on the road through a VPN, an encrypted connection that brings them "inside" the firm's network. It's the same programme and the same archive.

The fixed points

• The data stays at the firm. The archive lives on the server PC, with the nightly automatic backup and a copy on another disk.
• Several people at once. Each has their own user account and role (see 12.2); no Windows Server or remote-access licences needed.
• Outside the office, only through the VPN. The programme's port is never opened on the router towards the internet.
• The programme also works without the internet in the office: the network is only needed for email, certified mail, and for anyone working from outside.

Browser + VPN, or remote desktop?

Either way the VPN is mandatory: neither the programme (port 5001) nor remote desktop (port 3389) should ever be reachable directly from the internet.

The path, in brief

1. Set up the server PC and install the programme with access from the local network (13.2).
2. Have the other PCs in the firm try connecting (13.3).
3. Choose a VPN (13.4) and set it up with one of the examples: Tailscale, WireGuard or OpenVPN.
4. Check security and backups (13.11).

13.2The firm's server PC

No professional server is needed: a Windows 10 or 11 PC dedicated to this purpose is enough.

Requirements and preparation

• Connected to the router with a network cable (not Wi-Fi) and to a UPS (uninterruptible power supply).
• Always on: sleep mode turned off and Windows Update restarts scheduled outside working hours. To turn off sleep mode: Settings → System → Power, or from an administrator command prompt: powercfg /change standby-timeout-ac 0.
• Free space on the data disk; backups go on another disk.
• Don't use it for browsing or for programmes you don't trust: it holds the owners' data. Keep Windows and antivirus up to date.

Installation with access from the local network

1. Run the installer as administrator.
2. Leave the "Allow access from other PCs on the local network" box ticked: without it, the programme only answers from the server itself. In this mode the programme listens on every network interface ("Lan" mode).
3. Leave the port at 5001, unless it's already used by another programme.
4. The installer registers the programme as a Windows service ("QuickMastro Dominius"), which starts on its own when the PC boots, and creates the firewall rule for the chosen port on Private networks.
5. At the end, sign in with the administrator user and complete the initial setup: a new password and the first building.

An address that doesn't change

The other PCs will use the server's address. To stop it changing, on the router assign the server a fixed IP address (the setting is called "DHCP reservation" or "reserved IP"), or use the PC's name instead of the IP.

• To read the address: on the server, Start → type cmd → run ipconfig → "IPv4 Address" line, for example 192.168.1.20.
• The PC's name is shown under Settings → System → About.

"Private" network and firewall

• The server's network must be set to Private (Settings → Network & internet → network properties → Private): with a "Public" network the firewall blocks the other PCs.
• If the server has antivirus software with its own firewall, allow port 5001 (TCP) only for the firm's network.
• Don't create "port forwarding" rules on the router towards the server: from outside, access is only through the VPN.

Checking it responds

From the server, open the browser on http://localhost:5001. From another PC in the firm you can check the port with PowerShell:

Test-NetConnection 192.168.1.20 -Port 5001

If TcpTestSucceeded : True appears, the server is reachable. If the programme doesn't open, use QuickMastro Dominius Diagnostics from the server's Start menu: it checks the service and the port.

13.3The other PCs and workstations

Connecting a PC in the firm

1. Open the browser (Edge, Chrome or Firefox).
2. Type in the address bar: http://SERVER-ADDRESS:5001, for example http://192.168.1.20:5001 or http://PC-NAME:5001.
3. Sign in with your own user account: everyone needs a personal one (12.2).
4. Save the page as a favourite or create a shortcut on the desktop.

There's nothing to install on the other PCs. If the page doesn't open, check: the server is on, the "QuickMastro Dominius" service is running, the two PCs are on the same network, and the server's network is set to "Private".

How many workstations?

Workstations are the computers working together on the same archive; the number depends on the licence (1.4 and 12.4): START 1, BUSINESS 2, PREMIUM 3. The programme checks the activated workstations when the licence is activated.

Useful rules for several people

• A personal user account for everyone, with the right role; the administrator account isn't shared.
• After 5 wrong passwords, sign-in is locked for 15 minutes.
• Sensitive operations stay tracked in the activity log (12.12).
• Inside the firm the connection is over HTTP: don't use the programme over public Wi-Fi; outside the office, only through the VPN.

13.4Which VPN to choose

A VPN creates an encrypted tunnel between the computer of someone working outside and the firm's network. When it's active, the home PC behaves as if it were in the office and reaches the server at the same address. The most common options:

How to decide

• Want to be up and running today, without touching the router → Tailscale.
• Have a recent FRITZ!Box or a router with WireGuard → WireGuard.
• Have a Synology NAS or a router with an OpenVPN server → OpenVPN.
• Your provider doesn't give a public address (CGNAT)? Solutions needing open ports won't work: use Tailscale (13.8).

13.5Example 1: Tailscale (software VPN)

This is the simplest option: it needs no router changes and no public address. Every computer that's part of the network (a "tailnet") gets a private address, usually in the 100.x.y.z range, reachable only by the other computers on the same network. Free-plan terms and device-count limits should be checked on the provider's website.

Step 1 — On the server PC

1. Download and install the Tailscale client for Windows from the official site (tailscale.com).
2. Sign in with the firm's account (a business account, not one person's). The PC appears in the device list.
3. Set the client to start at boot and stay active even with no user signed in (the "Run unattended" option in the client's settings): nobody sits in front of a firm's server.
4. Note the server's Tailscale address (100.x.y.z) and its name on the network.

Step 2 — Allow the programme through the firewall

The rule created by the installer applies to "Private" networks; the VPN adapter may be classified differently. To be sure, add a rule that accepts port 5001 only from Tailscale addresses (from an administrator command prompt):

netsh advfirewall firewall add rule name="QuickMastro - Tailscale" dir=in action=allow protocol=TCP localport=5001 remoteip=100.64.0.0/10 profile=any

Step 3 — On the PC of whoever is working outside

1. Install Tailscale and sign in with the same account (or invite the person into the firm's network from the admin panel).
2. With Tailscale active, open the browser on http://100.x.y.z:5001 (the server's Tailscale address) or the server's name on the network.
3. Sign in to QuickMastro with your own user account.

Checks

• From the home PC: Test-NetConnection 100.x.y.z -Port 5001 should return True.
• If the Tailscale panel shows the server as "offline": the PC is off or asleep, or the service isn't running.
• PCs that stay in the office don't need Tailscale: they use the local-network address as always.

13.6Example 2: WireGuard (FRITZ!Box and routers)

WireGuard is a modern, fast VPN protocol, built into many recent routers. It works if the router can be reached from the internet with a public IP address (see 13.8).

Example with a FRITZ!Box

On FRITZ!Box routers running FRITZ!OS 7.50 or later (some cable models don't support it) this is set up from the interface, with no files to write. Menu item names can change with updates.

1. Open fritz.box → Internet → Freigaben (Sharing) → VPN (WireGuard) tab. If the tab is missing, check that the FRITZ!Box's firewall is on.
2. Press Verbindung hinzufügen (Add connection) and choose a connection for a single device (the person's PC).
3. Give it a name (for example "John-home") and confirm if the FRITZ!Box asks for it with a button on the device.
4. Download the .conf configuration file (or scan the QR code with a smartphone).
5. On the person's PC, install WireGuard for Windows (wireguard.com), press Add tunnel → Import tunnel(s) from file and choose the file; then Activate.
6. With the tunnel active, open the browser on the server's address on the firm's network, for example http://192.168.178.20:5001 (a FRITZ!Box's default network is 192.168.178.x).

For a public address that changes, the FRITZ!Box offers a reachable name (MyFRITZ account) that the configuration file uses instead of the IP. The connection won't work if your provider assigns a shared address (DS-Lite/CGNAT): in that case use Tailscale.

Example of manual configuration (router, Linux server, for technical users)

If the router or a small server at the firm lets you define the VPN by hand, the files take this form. Keys are generated with wg genkey | tee privata | wg pubkey > pubblica and are never shared (the private key stays on the device that created it).

Server side (wg0.conf):

[Interface]
Address = 10.8.0.1/24
ListenPort = 51820
PrivateKey = <SERVER_PRIVATE_KEY>

[Peer]
# user: John
PublicKey = <JOHN_PUBLIC_KEY>
AllowedIPs = 10.8.0.2/32

On the person's PC (imported into WireGuard for Windows):

[Interface]
PrivateKey = <JOHN_PRIVATE_KEY>
Address = 10.8.0.2/32

[Peer]
PublicKey = <SERVER_PUBLIC_KEY>
Endpoint = vpn.smithmanagement.example:51820
AllowedIPs = 192.168.1.0/24, 10.8.0.0/24
PersistentKeepalive = 25

• The PC's AllowedIPs lists the networks reachable through the tunnel: the firm's network (192.168.1.0/24) and the VPN's own. The rest of the internet traffic doesn't go through the VPN.
• On the router, only the UDP port 51820 is opened, towards the device acting as the WireGuard server.
• The WireGuard server must forward traffic to the firm's network (the router's or server's "routing"/"IP forwarding" option).

13.7Example 3: OpenVPN (router and Synology NAS)

OpenVPN is the most widely used system: many routers and NAS devices (for example Synology) include an "OpenVPN server". Each person receives a .ovpn profile file to import into the OpenVPN Connect or OpenVPN GUI programme on their own PC. The procedure needs a public address (or a DDNS name) and only the VPN's own port opened on the router.

Example with a Synology NAS

1. On the NAS, set a fixed IP address (on the router or the NAS), for example 192.168.1.30.
2. From Package Center install the VPN Server package, open OpenVPN and turn it on. Leave the port at 1194, protocol UDP.
3. Turn on "Allow clients to access the server's LAN" (name may vary), so whoever connects can also reach the firm's server PC.
4. Choose a network for the VPN different from the firm's (for example 10.9.0.0) and create a VPN user for each person, with permission to use OpenVPN.
5. Press Export configuration: you get an archive with the .ovpn file. Open it with a text editor and, on the remote line, replace the placeholder with your DDNS name or your public address (see 13.8).
6. On the router, forward UDP port 1194 to the NAS's address. This is the only port opened.
7. If the NAS's firewall is on, allow UDP 1194.
8. Hand the .ovpn file only to the person it's for, and have them import the profile into the OpenVPN programme on their PC.

The profile file (example)

client
dev tun
proto udp
remote vpn.smithmanagement.example 1194
resolv-retry infinite
nobind
persist-key
persist-tun
remote-cert-tls server
verb 3
<ca>
-----BEGIN CERTIFICATE-----
... the certificate authority's certificate, already present in the exported file ...
-----END CERTIFICATE-----
</ca>

In the exported file, the redirect-gateway line, if present, routes all internet traffic through the VPN; to work from home, a "split" connection is usually better: only the firm's network goes through the tunnel, with a single route 192.168.1.0 255.255.255.0 line instead of redirect-gateway.

An OpenVPN server on a router or small server (for technical users)

Where the server is set up by hand (pfSense, OPNsense, Linux), a typical server.conf looks like:

port 1194
proto udp
dev tun
ca ca.crt
cert server.crt
key server.key
dh none
topology subnet
server 10.9.0.0 255.255.255.0
push "route 192.168.1.0 255.255.255.0"
keepalive 10 120
data-ciphers AES-256-GCM:AES-128-GCM
tls-crypt ta.key
persist-key
persist-tun
verb 3

Certificates are created with Easy-RSA: ./easyrsa init-pki, ./easyrsa build-ca nopass, ./easyrsa build-server-full server nopass and, for each person, ./easyrsa build-client-full john. The push "route …" line tells clients which network to reach through the VPN. If someone leaves the firm, revoke their certificate (./easyrsa revoke john).

Checks

• With the VPN active, the home PC gets an address on the VPN network (for example 10.9.0.x); try Test-NetConnection 192.168.1.20 -Port 5001.
• If the VPN connects but the server doesn't respond: there's no route to the firm's network (the "LAN access" option, or a route line) or the server's Windows firewall is blocking VPN addresses. Add the rule as in 13.5 with remoteip=10.9.0.0/24.

13.8Public address, DDNS and network issues

The router's public address

Solutions with an open port (WireGuard, OpenVPN) need the router to be reachable from the internet. To check:

1. Look at the router's IP address on the "Internet" (WAN) side.
2. From a PC at the firm, search for "what is my IP" on the internet and compare the two addresses: if they match, you have a public address; if they're different, or if the router's starts with 100.64–100.127 or is "private", the provider uses CGNAT (a shared address) and ports can't be opened.

With CGNAT, or a "DS-Lite" line, you have three options: ask the provider for a public address (usually a paid extra), use Tailscale, or an outbound VPN to an external service. Tailscale is the simplest.

A changing address: the dynamic name (DDNS)

Many lines have a public address that changes from time to time. With a DDNS service you get a fixed name (for example smithmanagement.example.net) that follows the address: the VPN profile uses the name, not the IP. Common options: the service built into the router (MyFRITZ for FRITZ!Box), a Synology NAS's DDNS, or free services like DuckDNS or No-IP. The router or NAS updates the name on its own.

Conflict between the home network and the firm's

If the firm uses 192.168.1.x and the person's home network is also 192.168.1.x, the VPN doesn't know where to send the traffic and the server "doesn't respond". Solutions:

• change the firm's network to a less common range (for example 192.168.77.0/24 or 10.20.30.0/24): this is the permanent fix, but requires reconfiguring the router and server;
• or use Tailscale, which uses its own addresses and doesn't conflict.

Common problems

13.9Remote desktop for the administrator

Remote desktop (RDP) lets the administrator sit, from home, in front of the server PC. It needs Windows 10 or 11 Pro on the server (the Home edition can't be connected to), and only allows one connection at a time: if someone's using the PC in the office, they get disconnected. To work with several people at once, use browser + VPN instead.

1. On the server: Settings → System → Remote Desktop and turn on "Remote Desktop".
2. Authorise only the Windows users who need it, with a long password; leave network-level authentication turned on.
3. Note the address: the PC's name or its VPN address.
4. From home, turn on the VPN: without it the firm's PC can't be reached, and rightly so.
5. Open Remote Desktop Connection, enter the address, and sign in with the Windows username and password.
6. In the remote desktop, open the browser on http://localhost:5001 and sign in to QuickMastro. At the end, press Disconnect.

13.10Backup to NAS and external disk

The server PC is the single point where the data lives: the backup needs to end up on other media. A NAS (Synology or other) can't act as the programme's server, which runs on Windows, but it's ideal as a backup destination and, on models that support it, can also host the VPN server.

1. On the NAS create a shared folder (for example QuickMastroBackup) and a dedicated user with write permission only on that folder.
2. On the server PC check you can reach it: in File Explorer type \\NAS-NAME\QuickMastroBackup and enter the dedicated user's credentials.
3. In QuickMastro open Firm → Backup and restore → Backup, Automatic backup box, and in the "Second folder" field enter the network path. Use the network path, not a drive letter (drive letters aren't always available to the service).
4. Press Save settings and then Run automatic backup now: the box should show "Backup OK" and the file should also appear on the NAS.

Once a week, take a copy off-site (an external disk kept elsewhere, or the firm's cloud storage) and, every so often, try restoring it on another PC: a backup never tested isn't real protection. Details in 12.10 and 12.11.

13.11Security, final checks and common issues

Final checklist

Rules not to break

• Never open port 5001 (the programme) or 3389 (remote desktop) on the router towards the internet.
• Don't use the programme over public Wi-Fi without a VPN.
• Don't share the administrator user account or the VPN profile file.
• If a PC or phone with the VPN is lost, revoke its profile straight away.
• Make a backup before every update to the programme or the server's operating system.

Summary

And the real cloud?

The programme is already built to also run on a networked server ("Cloud" mode, behind an HTTPS reverse proxy): per-building data handling, encryption of sensitive fields, and browser access are those of an online service. Today, the best choice for a firm is to keep the data on-site; if the firm wants to move it in future, the same programme can be hosted elsewhere without changing software or retraining staff.

14.1The instalment code isn't recognised

The bank transaction ends up among those "to choose" or "to match by hand" even though the owner says they entered the code. There are four typical causes.

• The code was mangled in the reference: a zero instead of an O, a character missing. Search for the instalment by name and match it by hand.
• The instalment has already been paid: the programme only searches among instalments still open. Check the payments register.
• The amount doesn't match: if the owner pays two instalments with a single transfer, no single instalment matches. These need matching by hand.
• The bank truncated the reference: some formats shorten the text. In this case the code simply isn't in the imported file.

14.2How to fix a wrong match

If a payment was attributed to the wrong instalment, cancel the payment from the instalment's screen and re-match the transaction.

1. Open the payments register and find the payment.
2. Cancel the payment: the instalment goes back to open.
3. Return to bank reconciliation and match the transaction to the correct instalment.

The transfer's original reference stays saved with the payment: if you don't remember where that payment came from, that's where to look.

14.3Licence error

14.4The programme won't start

The icon opens the browser but the page doesn't load. In almost every case the Windows service isn't running.

1. Open Windows Services and look for QuickMastro Dominius.
2. If it's stopped, start it.
3. If it stops again straight away, open the programme's event log: the logs folder next to the executable, file qc-date.log. The last lines say why.
4. If another programme is using port 5001, change it by reinstalling, or free up the port.

14.5"The transaction date must be between…"

The message shows the financial year's period you're recording against. If you have several financial years open, check at the top of the Dashboard which one's selected: screens work on the chosen financial year, not the most recent one. Change it from the financial-year selector or from Buildings managed; the working date realigns on its own. If the transaction's date is right and the financial year isn't, it's the financial year that needs changing, not the date.

14.6Contacts and support

When you write to us, always include the request code shown in the error message: with that we can trace the exact event in the log.

14.7The accrual of a special expense doesn't calculate or comes out as zero

In the "This year's accrual" box, the costs come out as zero, or no entry was created at closing. There are four typical causes.

14.8I need to correct a financial year that's already closed

A forgotten invoice, a wrong amount: closing isn't final. You reopen it, correct it, and close it again.

1. Open Oversight and reporting → Year-end closing → Manage financial years and press Reopen on the financial year (if later ones are closed, reopen them first).
2. Type RIAPRI followed by the year, and confirm.
3. Correct or add entries: the archive lock has moved back.
4. Close it again with the usual procedure (steps 1 to 4). The special-expenditure accrual recalculates, and if the following financial year exists, its opening balances realign.

If you'd corrected the following year's opening balances by hand, the programme flags it and doesn't touch them: carry them over again from Opening balances.

14.9The new financial year has no opening balances or special-expenditure instalments

This happens if the financial year was created with an earlier version of the programme, which used to open an empty financial year on its own at the end of closing. Here's how to fix it:

1. Open Opening balances for the new financial year and press Carry over from the previous financial year's closing, then save.
2. Under Special-expenditure instalments, with the new financial year as the working one, press Issue this year's instalments for every item: the year's due dates are issued.
3. Check in the accrual box that the warning about opening deferred costs doesn't appear.

For future financial years this isn't needed: "+ Next financial year" from the Dashboard does everything in one go (see 6.10).