Adding a Tenant and Assigning Them to a Unit
The two real ways to get a tenant into Makeja Homes: creating a tenant record directly from the Tenants page, and assigning a tenant straight onto a vacant unit with a lease sent for e-signing. Covers portal access, personal information, the signed-lease vs e-signing choice, and the tenant profile that results either way.
What you'll learn
- The difference between "Manage on their behalf" and "Invite to tenant portal"
- What information you need on hand to add a tenant
- The difference between an existing signed lease and sending a lease for e-signing
- How to assign a tenant directly from a vacant unit's card instead of the Tenants page
- What the tenant actually receives by email when a lease is sent for e-signing
- What a finished tenant profile looks like, and the tabs inside it
Step by step
Start a new tenant record
From Tenants in the sidebar, click Add Tenant. The first decision is Portal Access: Manage on their behalf means the tenant exists as a record only, with staff handling rent, maintenance, and billing on their behalf, while their email, phone, and ID are still captured for KYC. Invite to tenant portal gives the tenant real login credentials so they can pay, view bills, and raise maintenance requests themselves. Pick based on whether this specific tenant will actually use the tenant portal day to day.
Fill in Personal Information
First Name, Last Name, Email, and Phone Number are required, along with ID Type (National ID, Passport, and similar) and the ID or Passport Number itself. Chrome's own saved-info autofill can speed this up if you've entered similar details before, but always double check the ID number, since it's used for KYC and must be accurate.
Decide how the lease is handled
Does this tenant already have a signed lease? Yes — existing signed lease means they signed offline already, so you capture the lease details directly in the form and the unit becomes occupied immediately with no e-signature step. No — send lease for e-signing instead emails a lease contract to the tenant, who must sign it digitally before the unit is marked occupied; the unit stays reserved for them in the meantime.
Set Property, Unit, and lease terms
Select the Property and then the specific Unit from dropdowns. Financial Information auto-populates from the unit's own rent and deposit once a unit is selected, though you can adjust it per-tenant if needed, and there's a Free Occupant toggle for family, staff housing, or goodwill occupants, which waives rent and deposit so no bills are generated. Set Lease Start Date and Lease End Date, then submit to create the tenant.
Assign a tenant directly from a vacant unit
There's a second way to get a tenant into a unit, and it's often faster: open a property's Units grid and click Assign on any vacant unit's card. This jumps straight into the same Tenant Information and Lease Details form, already scoped to that specific unit, so you skip the separate property/unit selection step entirely.
What happens when a lease is sent for e-signing
Choosing No — send lease for e-signing shows a clear note before you submit: "A lease contract will be emailed to the tenant. They must sign it digitally before the unit becomes occupied." Clicking Assign & Send for Signing fires that email immediately. The tenant receives a link to a branded Lease Agreement page showing their name, the property and unit, monthly rent, the lease period, and the security deposit, with the full terms and conditions below it and a signature step before the lease is considered active.
The finished tenant profile
Once a tenant exists, their profile page shows Monthly Rent, Outstanding balance, Paid All-Time, and Tenant Since at the top, with an "All bills settled" indicator when nothing is owed. Below that sit six tabs: Overview, Financials, Utilities, Maintenance, Lease & Deposit, and Activity Log, each holding everything related to that tenant in one place rather than scattered across the system.
Tips
- Choose "Manage on their behalf" for tenants who will never log in themselves, and reserve "Invite to tenant portal" for tenants you actually want self-serving their own payments and maintenance requests, since that choice is what determines whether login credentials get created at all.
- Assigning a tenant straight from a vacant unit's Assign button is faster than starting from the Tenants page whenever you already know which unit they're moving into.
- If you send a lease for e-signing, the unit stays reserved but not occupied until the tenant actually signs — check back on the unit's status if a tenant seems slow to complete the process.
Key terms
A tenant portal-access setting where the tenant exists as a record only — staff handle their rent, maintenance, and billing, and the tenant has no login of their own.
A tenant portal-access setting that creates real login credentials, letting the tenant pay bills, view their balance, and raise maintenance requests themselves.
A toggle for tenants who shouldn't be billed — typically family, staff housing, or goodwill occupants. Waives rent and deposit so no bills are generated for that tenant.
A digital lease sent by email that the tenant must sign online before their unit is marked occupied. The unit stays reserved for them until they complete the signature.
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