Recurring Obligations
Manage standing financial commitments like rent, utilities, salaries, and subscriptions.
Recurring Obligations let you manage standing financial commitments that your business pays on a regular schedule — such as rent, utilities, salaries, insurance, and software subscriptions. By recording these obligations, Eleo can track upcoming payments, factor them into your cash flow forecast, and alert you when payments are due.
Obligation categories
Each obligation is assigned a category that describes the type of commitment:
- Rent
- Utilities
- Insurance
- Salary
- Loan Repayment
- Subscription
- Maintenance
- Taxes
- License
- Equipment
- Transport
- Security
- Cleaning
- Marketing
- Legal
- Other
Creating an obligation
- 1
Navigate to Obligations
Go to Finance → Planning → Recurring Obligations from the sidebar.
- 2
Click Add Obligation
Click the Add Obligation button to open the creation form.
- 3
Set title, category, and amount
Enter a descriptive title (e.g. “Office Rent — January”), select the category, and enter the recurring amount.
- 4
Choose frequency
Select how often the payment occurs:
- Weekly
- Biweekly (every two weeks)
- Monthly
- Quarterly
- Biannually (every six months)
- Annually
- 5
Set the anchor day
The anchor day is the day of the month (or week) when the payment is due. For example, if rent is due on the 1st of every month, set the anchor day to 1. For weekly obligations, this is the day of the week.
- 6
Link to a supplier (optional)
Optionally link the obligation to a supplier from your supplier directory. This helps track which supplier receives the payment and connects the obligation to your procurement records.
- 7
Save
Click Save to create the obligation. Eleo will begin generating individual occurrences based on the frequency and anchor day.
Frequency & anchor day
The anchor day determines exactly when each occurrence falls. For monthly obligations, it is the day of the month (e.g. the 1st or the 15th). For weekly obligations, it is the day of the week (e.g. Monday). If the anchor day does not exist in a given month (e.g. the 31st in February), the occurrence falls on the last day of that month.
Variable amounts
Some obligations have amounts that change each period — for example, utility bills that vary based on consumption. Toggle the variable amount option when creating the obligation. With variable amounts enabled, each occurrence starts with the base amount but can be updated to the actual amount when the bill arrives.
Occurrence tracking
Eleo automatically generates individual occurrences for each payment period. Each occurrence has a status:
- Upcoming — The payment date has not yet arrived.
- Due — The payment date has arrived and the payment is expected.
- Overdue — The payment date has passed and the occurrence has not been marked as paid.
- Paid — The payment has been made and recorded.
- Skipped — The occurrence was intentionally skipped (e.g. a holiday period).
- Cancelled — The occurrence was cancelled and will not be paid.
Pausing and completing obligations
You can pause an obligation to temporarily stop generating new occurrences — for example, during a contract renegotiation. When you resume the obligation, occurrences are generated from the current date onward.
When an obligation ends permanently (e.g. a lease expires or a subscription is cancelled), mark it as completed. Completed obligations are preserved for historical reporting but no longer generate new occurrences.
Lookahead
Eleo generates occurrences several periods ahead so you can see what payments are coming. The lookahead window depends on the frequency: monthly obligations generate three months ahead, quarterly obligations generate two quarters ahead, and annual obligations generate one year ahead.
Recurring obligations list showing upcoming and overdue payments
Occurrences are generated automatically — you just need to mark them as paid when the payment is made. This keeps your cash flow forecast accurate and your obligation records up to date.