The Challenge
A long-established showroom business was managing more than 50 individual retail spaces, each with its own tenant, payment schedule, and rental records.
The existing system relied entirely on Microsoft Excel, consisting of a master spreadsheet containing all tenants, over 50 linked spreadsheets for individual rental records, manual bank reconciliation, manual identification of overdue tenants, manual receipt generation, and manual reminder emails.
As the business grew, the administrative workload became increasingly time-consuming. Every reconciliation period required staff to manually compare bank transactions against dozens of spreadsheets, creating unnecessary overhead and increasing the risk of human error.
The Solution
I designed and developed a fully bespoke rent management platform tailored specifically to the client’s workflow.
Rather than replacing their existing banking process, the platform integrates seamlessly with it.
Automated Bank Reconciliation
Once each week or fortnight, the client simply imports their ANZ bank statement into the platform.
The system automatically:
- Imports every transaction.
- Cross-references payments against every tenant.
- Marks tenants who have paid.
- Instantly identifies overdue accounts.
- Eliminates manual spreadsheet reconciliation.
Automated Tenant Communication
After reconciliation, the system enables the client to communicate with tenants in just a few clicks. Features include:
- Automatic payment receipt generation for tenants who have paid.
- Overdue payment reminders for tenants with outstanding rent.
- Centralised tenant management.
- Complete payment history for every tenancy.
The Result
The new platform transformed a spreadsheet-driven workflow into a streamlined business system. What previously took hours of repetitive checking now takes only a few minutes.
Instead of managing dozens of interconnected spreadsheets, staff now operate from a single purpose-built application designed specifically for their business.
Benefits Delivered
- Significant reduction in administration time.
- Automated bank reconciliation.
- Reduced human error.
- Faster identification of overdue payments.
- Automated tenant communications.
- Digital record keeping.
- Scalable system capable of growing with the business.
Technology Stack
Backend
- Python 3.12
- Flask 3.x
- Gunicorn production server
- SQLite database
- Custom authentication system
Security
- Flask-WTF (forms & CSRF protection)
- Flask-Limiter (rate limiting)
- Flask-Talisman (security headers & HTTPS enforcement)
Frontend
- Server-rendered Flask application
- Responsive interface designed for efficient day-to-day administration