Rent collection for a landlord with a block or two
Bill every let unit on the same day, take the rent by M-Pesa from the bill itself, and keep one list of who is behind - instead of a WhatsApp message typed per tenant and a notebook that disagrees with the bank.
How it runs
24 → 3
units billed in one run; only 3 need a follow-up call
- Every unit billed on the 1st, and one list of who has not paid.
- 24 → 3 — units billed in one run; only 3 need a follow-up call
- Same customers, same ledger, one follow-up trail
Who this is for
If you run Residential lettings and bill the same customers again and again, this page is for you.
- Property Management
- Residential lettings
A landlord with twenty-four doors is running a real business on a phone. Rent is a message typed out one tenant at a time around the 1st, payment is an M-Pesa notification that may or may not say who sent it, and the record of who is behind lives in a notebook, a WhatsApp thread and somebody's memory at the same time. It works until it doesn't - and it stops working exactly when the block is full and the money is worth chasing.
Where the month goes wrong
- Rent messages are typed by hand, so a busy week means a whole floor goes unbilled
- A tenant pays from a relative's number and nobody can tell whose rent it was
- Part payments are remembered rather than recorded, so two people disagree about the balance
- The deposit is spent as if it were rent, and move-out becomes an argument
- Nobody can say which tenants are two months behind without reading the notebook
The portfolio, written down once
Add each property, then its units - studios, apartments, houses, shops, offices, warehouses or parking, each with its own market rent, service charge and deposit. A unit is either let or it is not, and the system knows which, because a unit becomes occupied by activating a tenancy rather than by someone remembering to change it.
The tenancy is where the terms live: the rent, the deposit, the notice period, the billing day and any charge that rides alongside the rent. Change the rent and there is a record of when and why.
One run bills the whole block
On your billing day a rent run calculates every live tenancy, stops at reviewed so anything odd surfaces before a tenant sees it, and posts an invoice to each one. A tenant who moved in on the 12th is prorated automatically. Nobody types a message, and a retried run cannot double-bill a unit.
Worked example. A landlord with 24 units raises 24 bills on the 1st in one action. Most tenants approve the M-Pesa prompt within the week. The three who do not are on an arrears list aged 30, 60 and 90 days, so the follow-up is three calls rather than a scroll through a year of messages.
They pay from the bill, and it reconciles itself
Each bill carries a pay link. The tenant enters their number, approves the M-Pesa STK push, and the payment lands against that unit's balance with a receipt raised automatically - even when it is a part payment, and even when a relative sends it. Rent paid into your paybill or bank instead is reconciled from an uploaded statement, matched by the reference the tenant quoted, with a payment covering more than one month clearing the oldest balance first.
The deposit stays a deposit
The deposit is held against the tenancy rather than mixed into rent. At move-out an inspection records the condition item by item, charges what it needs to against the deposit, and releases the rest - so the deduction is a record both sides can read instead of a conversation neither remembers the same way.
Arrears, late fees and notices
Balances age themselves at 30, 60 and 90 days per unit. A late fee is charged once when it falls due, not every time a job runs. Reminders go out by SMS, WhatsApp or email to whoever is behind. When it gets to that, serve a vacate, breach or termination notice against the tenancy and track whether it was acknowledged.
What you'll need
- A list of your properties and units, with the rent and deposit for each
- Your tenants' names and phone numbers
- Your M-Pesa paybill or till, if you already have one - keep the number you use today
What you’ll need
Billing is a paid product, priced on what you bill - so a small scheme pays like a small scheme and nothing is capped as you grow. Start with a 14-day trial of the whole thing, no card required, and we will quote you before it ends.
How pricing worksWhat this doesn’t do
Property Management is billing and collection. It does not cover:
- listings, viewings and tenant applications
- tenant screening or credit referencing
- property sales, valuation or title records
- procurement, stock or asset registers
- staff rotas and site security logs
If you need any of these, tell us before you sign up — we’d rather say so now than in month two.
The parts of Zana doing the work here
Run this on Zana
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