Rooms, Tenants and Monthly Bills for a Small Rental Property
A simple boarding house management app: track rooms, tenants and monthly rent bills, see who is overdue at a glance, and start free from your spreadsheet.
Short answer
To run a small boarding house or rental property without a messy spreadsheet, keep three linked tables: Rooms, Tenants and Rent Bills. Each month you add one bill per occupied room, and a Formula works out the days left and shows whether each bill is Paid, Due soon or Overdue. A saved view then lists only the bills that need you today, on your phone.
Why the rent spreadsheet breaks
Most owners start with one sheet: a row per room, with the tenant's name, phone, monthly rent and a column for each month where you type "paid" or the date. It works with six rooms. With twenty it gets wide, the months run off the screen, and nobody remembers if "15/10" means paid on the 15th or due on the 15th.
The bigger problem is that one row mixes three things: the room, the person living in it, and what happened with this month's money. When a tenant moves out, you either delete their history or leave a confusing row behind. When a caretaker collects cash, the owner finds out at night, if at all.
Split the three apart. A room stays a room. A tenant is a person with a phone number and a move-in date. A rent bill is one month for one room, and it is either paid or not.
What you'll set up
Rooms holds each room once: number, floor, type (Single Select, e.g. Standard or With bathroom), monthly rent as Currency, and a photo of the room.
Tenants holds each person: name, Phone (tap to call), ID photo as an Image or Document, move-in date, and a link to their room.
Rent Bills is one record per room per month. It links to the room and the tenant, and has the month, the amount, a due date, a Paid checkbox and a photo of the transfer receipt. A Formula gives "Days left" (due date minus today) and a Status that reads Paid, Overdue, Due soon or Not due.
Because each bill links to a tenant, the Tenants table can use a Rollup to count each person's bills, and a Formula can add up the ones still unpaid. Nothing is retyped.
Your monthly rent routine
Here is the whole month as a checklist. It takes a few minutes a week once the tables are set up.
- On the 1st: add this month's bills. An Admin adds one Rent Bill per occupied room with + Add Data, or on a paid plan asks the agent: "Add a November rent bill for every occupied room, due on each tenant's usual day." The agent shows the plan first, and you apply it. Bills are never created on their own.
- A few days before each due date: open the "Needs attention" view. It shows bills marked Due soon (3 days or less) and Overdue, so you know who to remind in person or by phone.
- On the due date: when a tenant pays, tick Paid and snap the receipt with the phone camera. If a caretaker collects, they can do this from their own phone, and you see it straight away.
- After the due date: anything not paid turns Overdue by itself, because the Formula compares the due date with today. Sort the view by Days left to see the oldest first.
- At the end of the month: check the chart of paid versus unpaid bills on your Dashboards page, and export to XLSX if your accountant wants a file.
Try it here. Drag Today forward through November and watch the status change. Tick Paid on a bill and it drops out of Needs attention.
| Room · Tenant | Due date | Days left | Status | Paid |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Room 101Rina Putri | Nov 1 | 0 | Paid | |
| Room 102Budi Santoso | Nov 3 | 2 | Due soon | |
| Room 103Dewi Lestari | Nov 7 | 6 | Not due | |
| Room 201Andi Wijaya | Nov 10 | 9 | Paid | |
| Room 202Sinta Maharani | Nov 15 | 14 | Not due | |
| Room 203Fajar Nugroho | Nov 25 | 24 | Not due |
Views for the questions you ask every month
A view is a saved filter, sort and group on a table. Save one called "Needs attention" (Paid is not checked and Days left is 3 or less), one called "This month" (due date in This month), and group the bills by the Paid checkbox to see both piles side by side. Add a pie chart of paid versus unpaid and pin it to the workspace's Dashboards page.
On the Rooms table, a Rollup can count the tenants linked to each room, so an empty room shows 0 and is easy to spot when someone asks if you have space.
Caretakers and family on their phones
A caretaker or a family member who helps can join as a Member, with no seat cost. On the phone they see each bill as a card with the room, the tenant and the status at the top, and they swipe between Rooms, Tenants and Bills.
The Owner or an Admin can make a short custom form for collecting rent: only the bill, the Paid checkbox and the receipt photo, with the photo required. To keep rent amounts safe, set Rooms to Restricted and give helpers Viewer access, so they can read the rent but not change it. Members can filter a view for the moment, but only the Owner and Admins can save views.
Questions people ask
Is there a free app for a small boarding house?
Yes. The Free plan costs Rp0 / $0 and includes up to 2,000 records, 3 workspaces and 3 Members, with linked tables, Formula, the mobile app and Excel export. Twenty rooms with a bill every month is about 240 bills a year, well under the limit. The agent isn't on Free. Starter is Rp79,000 or $5 a month (plus tax) for 20,000 records and 10 Members, and every new account can claim one free month of Starter.
Does the app create next month's bills or send reminders for me?
No. An Admin adds each month's bills, or on a paid plan the agent adds them when you ask. Ambisius doesn't send reminders to tenants. What it does is show you, every day, which bills are due soon or overdue, so you know exactly who to talk to.
Can my caretaker see who has paid without changing the rent?
Yes. Invite them as a Member, set the Rooms table to Restricted and give them Viewer access. They can mark bills as paid and add receipt photos, but they can't edit room prices. Members have no seat cost.
Start from the Boarding House template: Rooms, Tenants and Rent Payments, already linked and ready for your own rooms.
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