Quickstart

This walkthrough takes you from first sign-in to a fully billed, paid and posted lease. It is the shortest path that touches every core concept — property, tenancy, billing, receipting and accounting.

1. Sign in

1. Open the app

   Go to app.nyumbazetu.com (or your organisation's white-label address).

2. Enter your credentials

   Sign in with your work email and password. Operator accounts are created by an administrator — there is no self-service sign-up.

3. Confirm your branch

   The top of the sidebar shows the branch you are working in. Almost every list, total and report on the platform is scoped to it. Switch branch before you start work, not halfway through.

2. Set up the property

1. Create a block

   Admin → Blocks → Add. A block is the building or estate. Give it a name, address and the branch it belongs to.

2. Add units

   Admin → Units → Add. Each unit is a billable place: number/name, block, unit type, size, occupancy type, and (optionally) an owner. See Units.

3. Check the chart of accounts and service types

   Finance → Accounting → Chart of Accounts. Every billable thing (rent, water, service charge, deposit, late fee) is a service type mapped to an income account. Billing cannot post correctly until this mapping exists. See Chart of accounts.

3. Onboard the resident and lease

1. Create the resident

   Residents → Add. Capture name, phone, email and ID. The phone number is what SMS reminders and payment matching use, so get it right. See Residents.

2. Create the lease

   Leases → Add. Choose the unit and the resident, set start/end dates, rent, billing day, and the deposit. See Managing leases.

3. Add recurring charges

   On the lease, add the charges that repeat every cycle — rent, service charge, garbage, parking. These are what the recurring-invoice run bills. See Recurring invoices.

4. Record the deposit

   Capture the security deposit so it is tracked separately from rent and can be refunded or offset at exit. See Security deposits.

4. Bill and collect

1. Generate the invoice

   Either run the recurring-invoice cycle, or create a one-off invoice from Finance → Receivables → Invoices → Add. Tax is applied exclusive of the line amount across the platform. See Invoices.

2. Send it

   Use the invoice's send action to deliver by email and/or SMS. Delivery status is tracked in Communications.

3. Receive the payment

   Finance → Receivables → Payments (or Receive Pay) to capture an M-Pesa, bank or cash receipt. See Receiving payments.

4. Allocate it

   Finance → Receivables → Allocations. Allocation is what turns received cash into a settled invoice. Preview first, then execute — every run is logged and reversible. See Allocations.

5. Confirm the accounting

1. Check the ledger

   Finance → Accounting → Statements → Trial Balance. The invoice should appear as income and receivable; the payment as bank/cash and a reduction of receivable.

2. Drill down

   From any statement line you can drill into the journal lines that produced it, and from there to the source invoice or payment. See Financial statements.

3. Close the period

   At month end, close the accounting period so postings can no longer change history. See Accounting periods.

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