Fees report versus invoice – what's the difference?

Many Landonline customers have asked why their fees report and invoice often differ.

To help answer this question, we take a look at how they work.

The Fees Report is generated from within Landonline via the searches screen. It can be generated by a user, firm, date range, client reference or ID, and provides an indication of the fees. The Fees Report covers both electronic and manual lodgement transactions and includes details of fees incurred against an account holder regardless of whether payment for a transaction (e.g. dealing, survey) has been made or is being charged to the lodging user or account holder.

The Fees Report displays a fees status for each fee item as listed below:

Draft Draft fee item (this currently only applies to dealings).
Final The fee item has been sent to be billed (on an invoice) or is in the process of being sent to billing.
Cancelled - withdrawn The fee item has been cancelled as the dealing has been withdrawn. These items will not display on the invoice.

The Fees Report is designed to tell you what fees you will be charged (i.e. having a final status) or have incurred to date (i.e. having a draft status). It is only intended to be an indication of fees as at the time requested, and includes the date the fee was recorded for a transaction or incurred as a result of a search.

Electronic transactions are calculated automatically. Manual lodgement transaction fees, however, are estimated within Landonline and require examination by a Property Rights Analyst to confirm the final fee. The estimated fee will appear with a draft status and is subject to change until the latter process is completed. At this stage the status is changed to final.

'Final' fees are then transferred to an invoice to be billed. This process is given an invoice date reflecting the invoice period the transaction is being applied to.

Invoices are generated on a fortnightly basis. The invoice date is used to generate the information that will apply for a given invoicing period. Therefore if the fee does not have an invoice date that falls within the invoice period being processed, the fee will not appear on the invoice.

The invoice is the document that reflects the actual charges from LINZ.