Why housing societies need an expense ledger
At AGM, owners ask "where did the maintenance go?" and the treasurer opens three WhatsApp chats, a folder of PDF bills, and an Excel tab last updated in February. A simple society expense ledger gives the committee one categorized list of outgoings — the spending side to pair with maintenance billing on the collection side.
Pain point 1: Bills scattered across chat
Security invoices in email, housekeeping in WhatsApp, lift repairs on paper — no single register.
Fix: Record each expense in Admin → Accounting with category, amount, vendor, and date.
Pain point 2: No category breakdown at scrutiny
"How much did we spend on utilities vs repairs?" requires manual pivot tables.
Fix: Built-in categories (housekeeping, security, utilities, repairs, salaries, admin, events, capex, vendor, statutory, other) filter in one view.
Pain point 3: Defaulter list separate from billing
Treasurer exports billing, copies to another sheet, argues over who paid.
Fix: Defaulters rolls up outstanding invoices from Plinth maintenance billing automatically.
Pain point 4: Over-buying CA software too early
Full accounting suites are overkill when the committee only needs spend visibility and dues recovery.
Fix: Plinth's thin ledger sits beside billing on the same roster — not a Tally replacement.