Property management

A property management firm lets and looks after properties for their owners: it collects the rent, holds the deposits, keeps the buildings in repair and pays each landlord what is theirs, less its fee. Kila treats it as a professional firm, where each property is a project and its landlord is the client.

What is special

At Jirani Property Managers, the demo property manager, the Practice section of the menu has the Property desk, Properties, Deadlines, My day, Time and Practice reports.

• Properties are the firm’s projects: the page is Landlords and properties, and each property has a Units and rent tab with its rent roll and the landlord’s statement: Add a property and its units.
• Tenancies join a tenant to a unit: the rent bills each month on the tenant’s account through recurring billing, and the deposit is held until the tenancy ends: Let a unit to a tenant.
• The Property desk shows this month’s rent by unit, the maintenance requests and the landlord statements: Follow up rent and arrears.
• Maintenance requests come from the caretakers’ phones, and their cost comes off the landlord’s next payout: Handle a maintenance request.
• Each landlord is paid from their statement: rent collected, less the management fee and the property’s expenses: Pay the landlord.

How Kila sets it up

The main screen is Clients and projects.

Rules it follows:

None. Kila's standard rules apply.

Its words:

Most businesses	Property management
customer	client
sale	invoice
receipt	invoice
staff	team member

On the projects screens, a project is a property and a client is a landlord: Landlords and properties, New property.

Its set-up steps

1. Business details and KRA PIN
2. Services and rates
3. Team members and rates
4. Clients
5. First property (for its landlord)
6. Units and rents
7. First tenancy

Its home page

Each card shows only where the firm uses what it counts, and to the people whose role may see it. At Jirani Property Managers, the owner’s home page has the Property desk and Rent roll: units, rent and arrears, and no returns, registry or court dates.

• My day
• Billing this month
• Lock-up and realisation
• Deadlines
• Property desk
• Unbilled time and expenses
• Invoices due and overdue; cash received
• Withholding certificates to collect
• Rent roll: units, rent and arrears
• Over budget
• Fees billed by fee earner this month
• Team utilisation
• Retainers billing this month
• Payments waiting for confirmation
• Approvals and reviews waiting
• Licences, permits and returns due

Roles it starts with

• Property manager: Runs the properties: units, tenancies, rent and deposits, maintenance, landlord statements and payouts.
• Caretaker: Reports and closes maintenance requests on the properties from a phone. Sees units and requests, never rents or money.

Where to go next

• Professional services: everything a professional firm needs.
• Property manager and Caretaker: the firm’s roles.