Recurring Obligations
Most workshop expenses are predictable. Rent is due on the first of the month. Salaries hit the account on the fifteenth. Insurance premiums renew quarterly. Franchise fees arrive like clockwork. These are not surprises — they are scheduled financial events, and BayWise Payments treats them as first-class objects rather than entries you remember to key in each time they come around.
A recurring obligation is a rule that describes a repeating financial event: what it is, how much, who it involves, and when it next falls due. Once created, BayWise surfaces the obligation at the right time, in the right place, and lets you record the actual transaction with a single click.
What a recurring rule contains
Each recurring obligation is defined by a set of properties:
| Property | Purpose |
|---|---|
| Description | Free-text label — “Monthly rent”, “Sakura Insurance premium Q3” |
| Direction | Inflow (money coming in) or Outflow (money going out) |
| Category | The business category this falls under (see below) |
| Frequency | How often the event repeats |
| Fixed amount | The expected amount for each occurrence |
| Contact | The payee (for outflows) or payer (for inflows) |
| Next due date | The date the next occurrence falls on |
| Alert days before | How many days before the due date BayWise should surface the obligation |
| Auto-create transaction | Whether to automatically generate a draft transaction when the due date arrives |
The rule is a template, not a transaction. It generates visibility and, optionally, pre-filled transactions — but the actual recording of money movement is always a deliberate action.
Where recurring obligations surface
Recurring obligations appear in two places, depending on timing.
The Pay tab. When a recurring obligation’s next due date falls within the alert window, it appears as a synthetic accounts-payable (AP) or accounts-receivable (AR) row in the Pay tab’s queue. Overdue obligations — where the due date has passed without a recorded transaction — are highlighted with a visual indicator so they are not missed during daily cashier operations.
At Tanaka Auto Service in Osaka, the workshop manager sees the monthly equipment lease payment appear in the Pay tab five days before it is due. It sits alongside customer invoices and supplier bills, integrated into the same workflow rather than tracked in a separate spreadsheet.
The Business Tab recurring section. Obligations due within the next seven days appear in the dedicated recurring section of the Business Tab. This gives the accounts team a forward-looking view of what is coming, separate from the entity-driven transaction flow.
Overdue obligations remain visible and highlighted until the corresponding transaction is recorded. They do not disappear or auto-dismiss — if the payment was not made, the system assumes it still needs attention.
Recording a recurring transaction
When a recurring obligation is due, the recording flow is designed for speed. From the recurring section or the Pay tab, a single click opens the financial modal with the amount, contact, category, and direction pre-filled from the rule. The cashier reviews, adjusts if needed, and confirms.
After the transaction is recorded, BayWise advances the rule’s next due date forward by the appropriate frequency interval. A monthly obligation due on June 1st moves to July 1st. A quarterly obligation due on April 15th moves to July 15th. The rule is now dormant until the new due date enters the alert window.
This cycle continues indefinitely until the rule is deactivated or deleted.
Categories
Recurring obligations use a focused set of categories that reflect the most common repeating expenses and income streams in workshop operations:
| Category | Typical use |
|---|---|
| Rent | Workshop premises, yard space, satellite locations |
| Salaries | Technician wages, admin staff, management payroll |
| Utilities | Electricity, water, gas, waste disposal |
| Insurance | Vehicle, liability, property, workers’ compensation premiums |
| Subscriptions | Software, diagnostic tool licenses, trade memberships |
| Vendor Bill | Standing orders with parts suppliers |
| Spare Parts | Recurring consumable orders (oil, filters, fluids) |
| Services | Outsourced services on retainer (IT support, cleaning) |
| Franchise Fee | Franchise royalties, brand fees, marketing levies |
| Tax | GST/VAT instalments, payroll tax, council rates |
| Other | Anything not covered above |
At Santos Body Works in Sao Paulo, the finance team uses Franchise Fee for their monthly brand royalty, Insurance for their quarterly workers’ compensation premium, and Subscriptions for their paint-mixing software license. Each is a separate recurring rule with its own frequency and due date.
Frequency options
Four frequency intervals are available:
| Frequency | Advance interval |
|---|---|
| Weekly | +7 days |
| Monthly | +1 calendar month |
| Quarterly | +3 calendar months |
| Annual | +1 calendar year |
Monthly advancement preserves the day-of-month. An obligation due on the 15th will always fall on the 15th of the following month. If the target month has fewer days (e.g., February), the date clips to the last day of that month.
Amount types in V1
The current release supports fixed amount recurring obligations only. Each occurrence is expected to be the same amount, as defined in the rule. This covers the vast majority of workshop recurring expenses — rent, insurance premiums, franchise fees, and fixed-salary payroll are all fixed-amount events.
Variable and computed amount types (such as utility bills that change each month, or royalties calculated as a percentage of revenue) are visible in the interface as future options but cannot be created in V1. These will be available in a future release.
Permissions
Managing recurring obligation rules — creating, editing, deactivating, and deleting them — requires one of the following roles:
- Account Owner
- Org Admin
- Location Manager
Technicians and other staff roles can view recurring obligations that are surfaced in the Pay tab and Business Tab, but they cannot modify the underlying rules. This ensures that the definitions of recurring financial commitments are controlled by people with the appropriate level of financial responsibility.
At Muller Werkstatt in Berlin, the workshop owner sets up the recurring rules during initial configuration. The location manager can adjust amounts when a lease is renegotiated. The service advisors see the obligations when they are due but cannot change the rules themselves.
Related pages
- Entities & Transactions — how recorded transactions relate to the entities they are attached to
- Cashflow & Calendar — how recurring obligations feed into the cashflow projection
- Categories & Event Map — the category system that recurring obligations draw from
- The CFO Dashboard — where upcoming outflows from recurring rules appear in the forward signals panel