A rental management system should be judged by how a whole management company operates: team permissions, separate accounts for multiple landlords, and an owner-level overview. This article sets out six criteria for property managers and shows how HaoFuture App handles each one.
How to Choose a Rental Management System: 6 Criteria Property Management Companies Should Check
A rental property management (包租代管) system should be judged not by any single feature, but by how a management company actually operates: whether several colleagues can collaborate under separate permissions, whether accounts stay separate when you manage for multiple landlords, and whether the owner can see the overall picture. HaoFuture App (好未來APP) is a system that combines rental management with smart devices in one app. Landlords, tenants and repair vendors all collaborate in the same app, and everyone from individual landlords to rental management companies uses the same system.
This article, written from the perspective of property managers and business owners, sets out six criteria to ask about when comparing systems. For each one it explains why it matters, where some systems commonly fall short (described by type only), and how HaoFuture App handles it. If you want the full list of features landlords use day to day, continue with How to Choose Rental Management Software?
Management companies and individual landlords need different things
An individual landlord managing a few units can get by with one account. A management company is a different situation: staff come and go, there is more than one landlord to look after, and the owner needs to know how operations are doing overall. So when choosing a system, what matters is how it manages the organisation, not how long its feature list is.
Criterion 1: Can it work at the organisation level, with work divided among several people?
Why it matters: In a management company, sales, assistants and finance each have their own scope. If everyone shares one account, handing over data when someone leaves becomes very difficult.
Where some systems fall short: A common setup is a single account, or just two tiers (administrator and ordinary member), with no way to say that a particular colleague is responsible only for certain properties.
How HaoFuture App handles it:
- Create an “organisation” with the company name and logo, so several people can manage properties, tenants and accounts together.
- After adding a manager, set their role permissions; when someone leaves, their account can be deactivated, and login records can be reviewed.
- Use “Add edit permission for this property” on a property to let specific members manage only specific properties.
Criterion 2: When you manage for multiple landlords, how is the landlord roster handled?
Why it matters: The essence of rental management is managing on behalf of landlords, so who owns each property and who is responsible for it must be on record.
Where some systems fall short: They are designed around a single landlord, with no landlord roster, so you have to keep a separate cross-reference table outside the system.
How HaoFuture App handles it:
- The organisation has a “Landlord List”: add a landlord by name plus company tax ID or national ID number, bind the landlord to your organisation, and the system generates a copyable link that you simply send to the landlord.
- The organisation can also maintain its own vendor roster (vendor name, phone number, notes) and pick from it directly when arranging repairs.
「Mr. Chi, a veteran rental property manager, says: “A management company's biggest fear is having data tied to one particular colleague. When the roster, the properties and the permissions all sit at the company level, the accounts stay even after the person leaves.”」
Criterion 3: Can accounts for multiple landlords be kept separate, and can rent collection need less manual work?
Why it matters: A rental manager collects rent from tenants while also paying rent to the master landlord, and handles amounts collected and paid on others' behalf. When these accounts are mixed together, month-end reconciliation is hard; and matching dozens or even hundreds of rent transfers one by one is a heavy workload.
Where some systems fall short: They have only one ledger, for collecting from tenants; rent paid to the master landlord has to be recorded separately in a spreadsheet, and collection can only be marked “received” by hand.
How HaoFuture App handles it:
- Besides tenant bills, there is a “property bill” category that can record master landlord rent, master landlord deposits, and amounts collected or paid on behalf of others, and can be set as recurring (periodic) bills. Status is either pending or completed, with a log of status changes.
- Lease bill items cover management fees, service fees, tenant brokerage fees, landlord brokerage fees, late fees, refunded rent and refunded deposits, among others, and both types of brokerage fee can be entered at renewal as well.
- When tenants pay rent by credit card or virtual bank account, the system automatically matches and posts the payment, with no need to check entries one by one; cash or standard bank transfers into the landlord's account are confirmed manually by the landlord.
- The organisation has a “Payment Records” entry point for viewing collection status in one place.
Payment channels and reconciliation details are covered in a separate article: How Can Landlords Automate Rent Collection and Reconciliation?
Criterion 4: Can the owner see the overall picture?
Why it matters: What an owner needs to decide is “what to deal with first right now”, not to dig through records one by one.
Where some systems fall short: Reports are just income lists, with no overall dashboard and no hints to support decisions.
How HaoFuture App handles it:
- The organisation has a “War Room”, an operations dashboard drawing on operating statistics and a property overview, together with “AI Smart Suggestions”.
- Financial reports go down to a profit and loss statement for each property, so at month-end you can see the income and expenses of a single property.
- There is also an AI customer service assistant that can answer common questions from landlords and tenants.
Criterion 5: Can the team keep signing and repairs in one place?
Why it matters: Signing and repairs are what a management team does every day, and every additional outside tool means another set of data to hand over.
Where some systems fall short: Some systems go no further than contract templates or simple repair notifications; vendors are not in the system, so follow-up still relies on phone calls and messages.
How HaoFuture App handles it: E-signing covers the landlord, the tenant and the guarantor, and existing paper contracts can also be filed. Repairs are handled within the same app by the tenant, the landlord and the repair vendor, and when the cost split is set to the tenant, it is automatically converted into a payment bill. The steps for both are explained one by one in How to Choose Rental Management Software?
「Ms. Lee, a veteran rental property manager, says: “What matters in a repair is who goes, how much it costs and who pays. When I can see all of that on one ticket, I can give the landlord a proper account.”」
Criterion 6: Should devices be managed together too?
Why it matters: Once you have more properties, changing tenants, letting vendors in and handling electricity charges all mean someone going on site; remote device management saves those trips.
Where some systems fall short: Devices live in a separate app, apart from leases and bills.
How HaoFuture App handles it: Door locks and electricity meters are bound to the rental unit ID and managed in the same place as leases and bills; water meters and parcel lockers can also be connected. For details on locks and electricity meters, see Can Smart Locks Integrate with Rental Management?
At a glance: 6 criteria for management companies
| Criterion | What general rental management software commonly does | HaoFuture App |
|---|---|---|
| Organisation and permissions | Commonly a single account, or just administrator and member | Organisation, role permissions and property permissions; members can be limited to specific properties; login records |
| Landlord roster | Built around a single landlord; the roster is kept elsewhere | Landlord list that can be bound to the organisation, with a generated link; custom vendor roster |
| Multi-landlord accounts and collection | Records only collections from tenants; collection marked by hand | Property bills (master landlord rent, deposit, collected and paid on behalf of others) plus brokerage fees, management fees and other items; rent paid by credit card and virtual bank account is automatically matched and posted; cash and bank transfers are confirmed manually |
| Operations overview | Income list | War Room, AI Smart Suggestions, profit and loss statement per property |
| Signing and repairs | Some systems stop at templates and notifications, with vendors outside the system | E-signing including guarantors; tenant, landlord and repair vendor in the same app |
| Devices | Devices use a separate app | Locks and electricity meters bound to the rental unit ID and managed with leases and bills; water meters and parcel lockers can also be connected |
Recommended approach before you adopt
- Start with one landlord or one area's properties, and set up the organisation and landlord list.
- Set a role for each colleague and assign the properties they are responsible for.
- Run one month of bills through the system, then decide whether to expand.
「Ms. Lee, a veteran rental property manager, says: “Trial one area for a month, going through bills, collection and repairs once each, and the team will naturally know how to divide the work.”」
HaoFuture App is intended for developers, rental property management companies, real estate agency networks such as housing brokerage groups, individual agencies and individual landlords.
FAQ
Q1: What rental management systems are there in Taiwan?
The market includes rental management software, systems built in-house by agencies, and management apps bundled with device makers, among other types. When comparing, we suggest checking each of the six criteria in this article, to see whether organisation permissions, landlord roster, multi-landlord accounts, operations overview, signing and repairs, and devices are all in one system.
Q2: Does a rental management system need to support multiple landlords?
Yes. HaoFuture App has a “Landlord List”, where you can create records for multiple landlords and bind them to the organisation; rent paid to master landlords and amounts collected or paid on others' behalf are recorded separately as “property bills”.
Q3: What happens to the data if a colleague leaves?
The data sits under the organisation, not under an individual. A manager can deactivate that colleague's account and assign property edit permissions to other members.
Q4: Can the owner see overall operations?
Yes. The War Room in HaoFuture App provides an operations overview and AI Smart Suggestions, and financial reports go down to a profit and loss statement per property.
Q5: Do repair vendors need to install a separate app?
No. Repair vendors have their own login and registration entry in HaoFuture App, and handle repairs in the same app as landlords and tenants.
Q6: How much does HaoFuture App cost?
The first 20 properties are free forever, so you can try it on real properties first.
Start with 20 properties
With HaoFuture App, “the first 20 properties are free forever”. Set up an organisation, add one landlord's properties, run it for a month, then decide whether to expand.
Download HaoFuture App now: https://inno-future.com/download/
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