In this guide 6 sections
Define a payment plan for every unit, tag each instalment with a construction stage, and raise the demand only when the site engineer certifies that stage. Receipts post against the instalment. Keep every plan change as a dated revision, and let sales and brokers read one shared ledger while only finance and the project head can edit it.
Start with one payment plan per unit
Trouble starts in the sales office. A plan is agreed over a call, noted in a booking form and retyped into a spreadsheet by someone in finance, so two versions of the same schedule exist. Which one is right? Nobody knows.
Give every unit its own plan record carrying the booking amount, the list of instalments, the stage each one belongs to and the due rule. Price and plan stay separate. Then a discount never rewrites the schedule.
Templates help. Build a handful of standard plans, such as construction linked, time linked and possession linked, and let sales pick one, adjust the dates and lock the plan at signing.
- Unit number, tower and carpet area
- Booking amount and date received
- Instalment list with stage tag and due rule
- Agreed discounts held apart from the schedule
- Plan version and who approved it
Link each instalment to a construction milestone
A milestone can be photographed. Excavation complete, raft slab cast, third floor slab, brickwork, plastering, flooring and handover are written once per tower, in order, and each is given a code.
Tag every instalment with a code. When the slab on floor eight is cast, every unit with an open instalment on that stage or below becomes eligible and nobody counts floors by hand.
Stages differ by tower. Tower A may stand a floor ahead of Tower B, and one shared stage list for the whole project will raise a demand on the wrong buyer.
Raise the demand only when the stage is certified
An engineer certifies each stage. Without that sign-off a demand letter is a claim you cannot defend when the buyer, or the lending bank behind the buyer, asks to see the certificate.
Certification is a system step. The engineer uploads the stage photographs and the certificate, the project head approves, and only then does the demand note generate with the certification date stored on the stage.
Finance sees a clean queue of demands ready to send, and also sees demands blocked by a missing certificate, which helps when cash is tight and billing looks late. The queue explains itself.
- Stage code and tower
- Certifying engineer and date
- Photographs and certificate file
- Demand note number and sent date
- Bank or loan officer copied, if the buyer has a home loan
Keep receipts, overdue buyers and plan changes in one ledger
Every receipt should hit one specific instalment. A cheque, a bank transfer and a loan disbursement from the buyer’s lender are different instruments, but each closes or part closes a demand. Part payments keep the balance visible.
Overdue buyers fall out of the data. Sort by days past due, by tower and by sales executive, and reminders go out from the same screen while the follow-up note stays on the buyer’s record.
Plan changes are where ledgers break. A buyer upgrades to a higher floor, swaps units or resells to someone else, and the old plan must never be overwritten. Close the old plan, open a revision, carry forward what was paid, record the reason, plus a fresh buyer record and a transfer fee line for a resale.
Let sales and brokers read it without editing it
Sales executives field the calls. A buyer asks what is due next month and the answer should take ten seconds, so give them a read view of the plan, paid amount and next demand.
Brokers need less. Show them referred units, booking status and commission eligibility once a stated instalment is received, and keep amounts owed by other buyers out of view.
Pick one tower, list its milestones in order and map every open instalment to a code, and if that takes longer than an afternoon, fix the plan data first.
Milestone payment plan worksheet
The worksheet fits on one page. Part one lists a tower’s construction stages in order, each with a code and a certifying role, and part two grids units against instalments. Cells hold code, amount, due rule. Part three logs plan revisions with date, old plan, new plan, reason and approver, one line for every change made after signing.
Open a blank worksheet to printQuestions owners ask
Should the demand go out automatically when the stage is reached?
No. Reaching the stage on site and certifying it are different events, so let the system queue the demand when the certificate is approved, then finance reviews and sends.
How do we handle a buyer who pays early?
Record the receipt against the next open instalment and mark it as advance, so the instalment stays tied to its stage and is not demanded again at certification.
Can a ready CRM do this?
Many handle bookings and follow-ups well. Stage-linked demands, certificates and plan revisions usually need either strong configuration or a custom build around your project structure, so test one tower’s milestones in a trial first.
What happens on a resale?
Close the original buyer’s plan. Move the paid balance to a new record for the incoming buyer, and add the transfer fee as its own line and keep the old plan as history.