Hostels and shortlets
Rent that lands in pieces, and buildings that cost you every week.
Tenants on different cycles, deposits and balances to keep straight, and maintenance spend across buildings that never stops.
Start freeIkeja Court Residences
Ikeja block, this month · Occupancy and spend
| Line | Amount |
|---|---|
| Rent collected14 of 18 units | ₦5,180,000 |
| Outstanding4 units · 2 overdue | ₦1,480,000 |
| Diesel and power4 payables | ₦742,000 |
| Repairs1 awaiting approval | ₦196,000 |
The problem
Where the cash gets stuck here.
Occupancy income looks simple from the outside and never is. Tenants start on different dates, pay for different lengths, renew late, and settle in instalments. Every one of those is a separate schedule to track.
Meanwhile the building itself is a standing expense. Diesel, water, security, repairs and cleaning arrive weekly regardless of whether anyone has paid rent. Running two or three properties multiplies the problem rather than adding to it.
01
Everybody on a different clock
One tenant is annual, one is a session, one is monthly. There is no single date to check, so checking happens late.
02
Deposits mixed in with rent
A deposit and a first payment arrive as one transfer, then have to be separated by memory when the tenant leaves.
03
Maintenance with no ceiling
Repairs are approved building by building and reviewed nowhere, so the total only appears at the end of the year.
04
Two buildings, one blurred picture
Costs and income for separate properties end up in the same pot, so a property running at a loss can hide behind one that is not.
On Billif
How the same work runs instead.
An invoice per tenancy, on its own cycle
Recurring invoices carry each tenant's own schedule. Reminders go out automatically, so chasing rent stops being a personal task.
Balances that stay visible
Part-payments record against the tenancy with a remaining balance and a due date, so a half-paid tenant is never mistaken for a paid one.
A project per building
Each property runs as its own project with its own budget, so diesel and repairs are attributable to the building that consumed them.
Approvals before repairs
A caretaker raises the spend, the policy decides who signs it off, and the payment leaves with a record attached.
What you'll use
The parts of Billif this leans on.
Invoicing
Branded invoices, recurring billing, credit notes and POs
- Branded invoices with online pay-links
- Recurring invoices
- Credit notes
Collections and settlement
A funding account, collections in, payouts out, settled to your bank
- A funding account for collections and payouts
- Payments collected against invoices
- Payouts and transfers to bank accounts
Projects and budgets
Set a budget per project and watch it burn down
- A budget per project
- Spend against budget, with remaining balance
- Budget usage as a percentage
Payables
Vendor bills tracked, approved and paid
- Forward a bill to your Billif mailbox and it is read automatically
- OCR and AI extraction turn the document into a payable
- Vendor bills tracked to a due date
Guides for hostels and shortlets
Your story could go here
We are collecting stories from hostels and shortlets businesses running on Billif. If that is you, we would like to hear how it changed the work.
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