Property Management Setup

This page will guide you through the initial input buildings, units, parking spaces, and tenant information, as well as opening balances. When finished you will be ready to move on to the Monthly Tasks.
On this page:

Table of contents

• Step 1 - Close Summary Screen
• Step 2 - Add Buildings
• Step 3 - Set up Owners
• Step 4 - Add Units
• Step 5 - Add Parking Spots
• Step 6 - Move tenants into units
• Step 7 - Opening Balances

Step 1 - Close Summary Screen

When you log into Rent Magic, you will see the Summary/Upcoming Tasks screen. See Summary screen for details regarding the Summary screen. Push Close in the bottom right to close this screen.
You should now see the Main Menu.

Step 2 - Add Buildings

What is a building?
A building is a logical grouping of units. There are two ways buildings and units can be set up:

• Each building is a separate municipal address in which units are located. In this scenario, each separate mailing address would get its own building. This is ideal when you manage larger buildings.
• If you are managing many smaller buildings (typically 6 units or less) or houses, you may want to group many physical addresses under one building. In this case, the address for each unit will be overriden when setting up the unit.

Tip: When working on a specific building, select it from the drop-down box at the top left corner of the screen before continuing. By doing this, the building will be automatically selected in future steps.
From the Main Menu select Building Menu, then see Add a New Building.

Step 3 - Set up Owners

After all buildings are created, you can start to assign them to owners. See the Owners? screen for more information on creating owners and assigning buildings to them.

Step 4 - Add Units

A unit is a physical space for which you would have a lease. You can have multiple occupants per unit, like husband and wife, or roommates for student housing. If you are renting out individual rooms in an apartment on a separate lease, each room should be its own unit.

• To add a new unit see Add a Unit.
• Repeat this step until all units for this building have been entered.

Step 5 - Add Parking Spots

Parking spots can be either indoor or outdoor, and can be assigned to tenants. Parking charges can be based on the parking spots, or overriden per tenant.

• To add new parking spots see Add a new parking spot.
• Repeat this step until all parking spots for this building have been entered.

Step 6 - Move tenants into units

Once all of the physical aspects of the buildings are set up, you are ready to move people in. See Move in a Tenant to move tenants into their units.
Important: During this setup, always select "Move in Now" in the Move In Tenant Screen.

• Repeat this step until all tenants for the building have been entered.

Step 7 - Opening Balances

Very often, tenants have a balance — either they are in arrears or have a credit. To ensure that their account is in order, you need to input their balance. See Opening Balances for information on creating opening balances for tenants.
Congratulations! You have now completed your initial setup. You may now proceed to Monthly Tasks.

---