Property management operations
Running a portfolio rather than a property: organisations, portfolios, properties and units, the unit lifecycle, a team with real permissions, and the difference between the asset you manage and the listing you advertise.
Property managers and owners with more than a couple of units, and anyone setting up a workspace that other people will use.
Before you start
- You can create an account, choose a role and publish a listing — Getting started as a landlord covers this.
- You know what the verification tiers claim and why bronze is the public floor.
By the end you can
- Set up an organisation, portfolios, properties, buildings and units.
- Move a unit through its lifecycle using only the transitions the system allows.
- Invite teammates on roles that grant exactly the access they need.
- Understand the owner relationship, and what part of it cannot yet be configured in the interface.
- Keep the management record and the marketplace listing in step.
Lesson 1 of 6
Set up your organisation
Objective. A workspace that can hold portfolios, properties, units, a team and a ledger.
An organisation is the container for everything else. Portfolios, properties, units, the chart of accounts, tax settings and team membership all hang off it, and every ledger posting carries the organisation it belongs to.
You can rename it later. You cannot easily move properties between organisations, so put everything you manage as one business into one organisation.
- 1Open /dashboard/manage.
- 2If you have no organisation yet, the page shows “Set up your organisation”. If you already belong to one, use the switcher in the header instead.
- 3Enter the “Organisation name”, for example Adjei Family Properties.
- 4Choose the “Type”: “Company / management firm”, or “Personal (just my own properties)”.
- 5Press “Create organisation”.
You did it right if. The management console loads with four cards across the top — Properties, Units, Occupancy and Monthly rent roll — and your organisation name appears in the header and in the sidebar footer.
Watch out. The left rail shows only the modules your role can reach, and empty groups are dropped entirely. If Accounting, Finance or Procurement are missing, that is a permission result rather than a bug — check your role on the Team page.
about 5 minutes
Lesson 2 of 6
Portfolios, properties and units
Objective. A structured portfolio, with each building broken into the units you actually let.
A portfolio is a grouping — an estate, a city, a client. A property is the asset. A unit is the thing a tenancy attaches to, and it is what occupancy, rent roll and maintenance are all measured against.
Every property is created with one primary unit, called Main unit, and an ownership record. For a single-family house that is all you need. For a block, add the rest.
- 1On the management overview, open “New portfolio”, give it a “Name” and an optional “Description”, and press “Add portfolio”.
- 2Open the portfolio and press “+ Add property”.
- 3Fill in “Property title”, “Portfolio”, “Type”, “Region”, “City / town”, “Area / neighbourhood” and, if you have it, “Ghana Post GPS”. Set bedrooms and bathrooms and tick Furnished if it applies.
- 4Press “Create property”. You land on the property page.
- 5For a multi-block estate, use the “Buildings / blocks” card: enter a “Block name” and the number of “Floors”, then press “Add”.
- 6Open “Add units”. For one unit, fill in “Label”, optionally pick a “Building”, set Beds, Baths and Rent, and press “Add unit”.
- 7For a whole block, use the right-hand form: set “Label prefix”, “How many”, “Start number”, “Beds each” and “Baths each”, then press “Create units”. The maximum in one go is fifty.
You did it right if. The property page shows the correct Units count, the units appear in the table with their market rent, and the portfolio page totals reflect them.
Watch out. Do not leave a block as a single Main unit and record the tenancies against it. Occupancy, rent roll and maintenance costs are all attributed per unit, so a six-flat building held as one unit reports as either fully let or fully empty, and no maintenance spend can be traced to the flat it was spent on.
about 12 minutes
Lesson 3 of 6
Run the unit lifecycle
Objective. Units whose status tells the truth, moved only through transitions the system permits.
A unit has twelve statuses and the moves between them are constrained. You cannot jump a unit straight from vacant to occupied; it has to travel through being marketed, viewed and reserved. The menu only offers you legal next steps, so if a status you want is missing, the current status does not allow it.
Two exceptions apply everywhere: any live unit can be parked as unavailable or retired as archived, and an archived unit can only be restored to vacant.
- 1Open the property page and find the Units table.
- 2Use the control in the Change column on the row you want to move.
- 3For a new unit, take it from Draft to Preparing while it is being made ready.
- 4Move it to Available when you start marketing it.
- 5Move it through Viewing and Application pending as interest arrives, then Reserved when you hold it for an approved applicant.
- 6Move it to Occupied when the tenancy starts.
- 7When the tenant gives notice, move it to Notice given, then Turnover once they leave, then back to Preparing or Available.
- 8Use Unavailable for a unit off the market for repairs, and Archived for one retired from the portfolio.
You did it right if. The status pill on the unit row changes colour and label, and the Occupancy figure on the management overview moves accordingly.
Watch out. Occupancy counts Occupied and Notice given as let, and nothing else. A unit left on Reserved after the tenant has moved in will quietly understate your occupancy and your rent roll on every dashboard that reads them.
about 8 minutes
Lesson 4 of 6
Invite your team and set roles
Objective. Colleagues with exactly the access their job needs, and no more.
There are seven roles. Owner and Manager can do everything including managing the team. Leasing officer covers properties and leasing. Accountant covers the books. Maintenance manager and maintenance staff cover work. Viewer is read-only.
Every active member can read organisation records; the roles differ on what they can write. Permissions are enforced by row-level security in the database, so a role restriction is real rather than a hidden menu item.
- 1Open “Team” under Setup in the left rail.
- 2In the “Invite a teammate” card, enter their “Email address”.
- 3Choose their “Role” from the select. Owner is not offered here.
- 4Press “Add”. They get access as soon as they sign in with that email.
- 5To change someone later, use the role select on their row in the Members table and press “Save”.
- 6To remove someone, press “Remove” on their row.
You did it right if. The new member appears in the Members table with status invited, and the “Pending invites” figure at the top of the page has gone up.
Watch out. The last active owner cannot be changed or removed — their row shows “Sole owner” instead of the controls. Appoint a second owner before you try to hand the workspace over, or you will lock yourself into the role you are trying to leave.
about 8 minutes
Lesson 5 of 6
Manage on behalf of an owner
Objective. A clear view of what the owner relationship gives you today, and what it does not.
Every property carries an ownership record: who owns it, what share, whether it is managed for them, and at what management fee. That record is what drives owner statements — the management fee accrues from it, and the owner portal reads from it.
There is a real gap here, and it is better to know about it than to discover it. Properties are created self-owned with the managed flag off, and no screen in the interface sets that flag or the fee percentage. Until one exists, a managed arrangement has to be recorded in the database directly.
- 1Open the property page and read the “Ownership” card. It shows Owner, Share and Arrangement, and the management fee when one is set.
- 2Check the Ownership tile at the top of the page: it reads Managed or Self-owned.
- 3If it reads Self-owned but you manage it for someone, ask whoever administers your Domicium database to set the managed flag and the fee percentage on the ownership record. There is no form for this.
- 4Once it is set, open /dashboard/manage/accounting and follow the property link under “Property books”.
- 5Read the “Owner statement” card, which now shows a “Management fee” line at the percentage recorded.
- 6Ask the owner to open /dashboard/owner to see their own position.
You did it right if. The property page shows Arrangement as “Managed for owner” with a management fee percentage, and the owner statement includes a management fee line.
Watch out. Do not tell an owner their statements are ready until you have confirmed the managed flag is set. With it off, the management fee is calculated as zero and their statement will show the full net as owed to them — a figure you will then have to walk back.
about 9 minutes
Lesson 6 of 6
Keep the asset record and the listing in step
Objective. An understanding of why a property in your console is not automatically a listing on the marketplace.
There are two records and they are created separately. A property added in the management console is the asset you operate: units, maintenance, ledger, tenancies. A listing created from the landlord dashboard is the advertisement the public sees.
Adding a property does not advertise it, and creating a listing does not add units, maintenance or a ledger position. The Add property page says so in its own hint, and it is worth taking literally.
- 1Add the asset first: /dashboard/manage/property/new, so units, maintenance and accounting have something to attach to.
- 2Set the unit you intend to let to Available.
- 3Advertise it second: /dashboard/landlord/new-listing, and complete the listing form.
- 4Check the listing reaches review, and that the property carries at least bronze verification so it can go public.
- 5After a tenancy starts, move the unit to Occupied in the console. The listing does not do this for you.
You did it right if. The unit shows Occupied in the management console, and the listing no longer appears in public search as available.
Watch out. There is no edit-listing screen and no delete control in the landlord area. If a listing is wrong or the unit is let, the only lever you have is admin review — so get the listing right before you submit it, and keep the console record as the source of truth for occupancy.
about 7 minutes