Yes, and the point of integration is not that a lock opens with a phone, but that the lock is managed in the same system as the lease and bills. HaoFuture App brings leases, bills, locks, electricity meters, water meters and parcel lockers into one app.
Can Smart Locks Integrate with Rental Management? How Hardware-Software Integration Works and How to Choose
Yes, and the point of integration is not “the lock can be opened with a phone”, but that the lock, the lease and the bills are managed in one system: from the tenant signing and moving in to moving out, door access, electricity charges and bills are all handled in the same system. 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 this one app, and door locks, electricity meters, water meters and parcel lockers can all be connected.
If you are looking for a smart lock rental management app, below are six points to look at in hardware and software integration, along with where the usual approach commonly falls short, followed by a comparison table.
Why locks and rental management belong together
The situation for many landlords is this: the lock uses one vendor's app, leases sit in Excel or another rental software, and rent is reconciled over a messaging app. With three separate sets of data in three places, the day a tenant changes you have to do all of these at once:
- Go into the lock app to delete the old tenant's passcode and add the new tenant's
- Go into the rental software to update the lease and bills
- Go to the electricity meter to deal with the remaining balance
Miss any one and you have a gap: an old passcode not deleted, electricity not settled, bills that do not match. The value of integration is putting these tasks under the same “room”.
HaoFuture App's approach is that devices are bound to the “rental unit ID” (出租編號, the room unit). That rental unit ID is linked at the same time to the lease, the tenant, the bills and the devices, and the landlord sees everything in one app.
Criterion 1: Are passcodes and unlock methods fine-grained enough?
Why it matters: A rental has many different people opening the door: long-term tenants, short-term viewers, repair technicians, agents showing the property. One permanent passcode for everyone is high risk.
Where the usual approach falls short: You can only set one fixed passcode, or you have to remember to change it yourself.
How HaoFuture App does it: In the app, the landlord can add five types of access credential: custom passcode, random passcode, face recognition, fingerprint and magnetic access card.
- Every credential can have a name, an effective time and an expiry time, or can be set to “permanent”
- Random passcodes come in two types, “one-time” and “time-limited”, suited to viewings, repairs and temporary visitors
- Face recognition can be set up by taking a front-facing photo or uploading a photo
- The landlord can unlock the door remotely within the app, and can also unlock by Bluetooth
In other words, tenants get long-term credentials, technicians get time-limited passcodes and viewers get one-time passcodes, and each stops working at its set expiry time, so there is no need to chase after deleting them later.
Criterion 2: Can tenant permissions be controlled room by room?
Why it matters: The same property has different tenants, and the landlord needs to decide “which ways this tenant may use to open the door”.
Where the usual approach falls short: Permissions are set for the whole lock together, and cannot be adjusted by room or lease.
How HaoFuture App does it: The landlord can set “tenant access permissions” for each rental unit ID, with the options remote unlock, QR code, passcode setting and Bluetooth unlock; tick them and save. Tenants will see an “Open Lock” button on the contract page and property page of the app, and can use Bluetooth or remote unlock as the landlord has authorised.
Criterion 3: Is there a record you can check?
Why it matters: When something goes wrong you need to be able to trace who changed permissions and when; and when a long-term tenant has not come or gone for a while, the landlord also wants to know.
How HaoFuture App does it:
- Every permission change leaves a “permission change log” showing before and after
- Locks have an “operation log” to check, and manual upload of records is also supported
- You can turn on “no-unlock-record notification”, set a number of days, and the system sends a notification if there are no unlock records beyond that number of days
Criterion 4: Can the lock's detailed settings be done in the app?
In HaoFuture App you can directly set auto-lock (with a delay in seconds), lock sounds (prompt tone on or off, and volume), deadbolt support, lock time calibration, and lock firmware “Check for Updates”. These are things that would otherwise need someone on site, and the landlord handles them in the app, which saves particular effort for people who manage many properties. The device list also shows device type, device name and battery level, so low batteries can be dealt with early.
Criterion 5: Can it extend to electricity meters, water meters and parcel lockers?
Why it matters: Electricity and water charges are what rentals most often argue about. If, after integrating the lock, you still have to read meters and work out the split yourself, the integration is only half done.
Where the usual approach falls short: The electricity meter is a separate system, and readings must be taken and bills created by hand.
How HaoFuture App does it:
Smart electricity meters
- In “Electricity Usage” in the app, tenants see remaining units, remaining balance, and electricity charges for yesterday, today, last month and this month, and can top up directly
- On the landlord side you can top up, manually deduct credit, check the transaction records, and set a low-balance reminder
- The meter has three modes, force off, force on and prepaid, and switching on and off can be scheduled
- Rates can be set separately for summer and non-summer
- When several rooms share one meter, you can set which rooms share it; after you choose a period and calculate, the system lists the amount for each room and creates each room's bill in one go
- Properties without a smart meter can also create a manual reading record: take a photo of the meter, and the system offers “Auto-recognise reading”, with a reminder to confirm manually when the recognition rate is low
- At move-out or contract change, the balance can be reset to zero to hand over
Smart water meters and smart parcel lockers: These can likewise be connected to HaoFuture App's management flow, kept in the same place as the lease and property. Parcel lockers have their own product page; see the smart parcel locker product information.
Criterion 6: Are landlords, tenants and repair vendors in the same app?
One point about lock integration that is easily overlooked: what about when a repair technician needs to get in? In HaoFuture App, the tenant's repair request, the landlord's approval, and the repair vendor's application and job acceptance all happen within the same app. The landlord can issue a time-limited or one-time passcode to the repair person, which stops working at its set expiry time; repair photos are kept as before, during and after, and costs can be converted into bills according to the cost split.
Rent is in the same place too: when tenants pay rent by credit card or virtual bank account, the system can automatically match and post the payment, and only cash or standard bank transfers need the landlord's manual confirmation. To see how rent collection and reconciliation fit together, see How Can Landlords Automate Rent Collection and Reconciliation?
Comparison: separate tools, or one app
| Item | Separate lock app plus rental software (the usual approach) | HaoFuture App |
|---|---|---|
| Lease and lock | Lease in one place, lock in another; changing tenants means changing both | Lock bound to the rental unit ID and managed with the lease, tenant and bills in one place |
| Access credentials | Mostly fixed passcodes; temporary visitors' passcodes must be remembered and deleted | Custom passcode, random passcode (one-time or time-limited), face recognition, fingerprint, magnetic access card, with effective and expiry times |
| Tenant permissions | Set for the whole lock together | Remote unlock, QR code, passcode setting and Bluetooth unlock set per room, with a change log |
| Unlock records | Viewed in the lock vendor's app, disconnected from the lease | Operation log in the same app as the lease, with a no-unlock-record notification available |
| Electricity charges | Meter reading, split calculation and billing handled separately | Tenants top up and view usage in the app; shared meters calculate the split and create each room's bill in one go |
| Rent collection | Reconciled separately | Rent paid by credit card or virtual bank account is automatically matched and posted; cash and standard bank transfers confirmed manually |
| Repair technician access | Landlord sends the passcode privately | Repairs, vendor applications and cost splits in the same app; the landlord can also issue a time-limited passcode to the technician |
| Roles | Usually only the landlord uses it | Landlord, tenant and repair vendor all in the same app |
The view of a veteran rental property manager
Mr. Chi, a veteran rental property manager, said:
“After managing properties for a long time, you find that what really takes time is not installing locks, it is the day a tenant changes.”
“The passcode has to be changed, the electricity settled and the bills cleared. With those three things in three places, it is easy to miss one. If all of it can be handled in one place, our colleagues do not have to keep switching between several systems.”
“For a company that manages a lot of properties, this is especially noticeable.”
FAQ
Can smart locks integrate with a rental management app?
Yes. HaoFuture App puts leases, bills, smart locks, electricity meters, water meters and parcel lockers in one app, and the lock is bound to the rental unit ID and managed together with the lease, tenant and bills.
Can a landlord issue passcodes remotely to tenants or repair technicians?
Yes. In the app the landlord can add custom passcodes or random passcodes; random passcodes come in one-time and time-limited types, each can have an effective and expiry time set, and can also be set to permanent.
What should be done with the lock after a tenant moves out?
The landlord can delete that tenant's passcode, fingerprint, face recognition or magnetic access card in the app, and adjust the tenant access permissions; every permission change leaves a change log.
Can electricity charges be handled in the same app too?
Yes. Smart electricity meters support top-ups, rate settings and low-balance reminders, and shared meters can calculate the split and create each room's bill; properties without a smart meter can also create manual reading records.
Is it suitable for an individual landlord? How is it charged?
Yes. With HaoFuture App the first 20 properties are free forever, so individual landlords can start for free.
Get started
Want to manage locks, electricity meters and leases in one app? The first 20 properties are free forever. Download HaoFuture App now and start setting up your properties: <https://inno-future.com/download/>