# Property Management Software Use Cases by Portfolio Type

> Property management software use cases for private landlords, managing agents, commercial owners, associations and rebilling providers. See each setup.

- Source: https://real-estate-management.webservices-engineering.de/use-cases
- Language: English (en). Deutsch (de): https://real-estate-management.webservices-engineering.de/de/use-cases · Magyar (hu): https://real-estate-management.webservices-engineering.de/hu/use-cases · Română (ro): https://real-estate-management.webservices-engineering.de/ro/use-cases
- Site: Real Estate Management — The back office for real estate portfolios (Webservices Engineering GmbH)
- Index for machines: https://real-estate-management.webservices-engineering.de/llms.txt
- Every page of this website is also available as Markdown: append `.md` to its URL.

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## Property management software use cases, by portfolio type

The same system runs a family portfolio of eleven flats and a managing agent with forty buildings. What differs is which modules are switched on and who is allowed to see what.

- One record structure: property group, property, housing unit, room or common space
- Modules are priced separately at a flat published monthly rate, so you run only what you use
- Multiple legal entities per account, so contracts stay with the company that signed them
- Interface available in English, German and Romanian

- [Find your profile](https://real-estate-management.webservices-engineering.de/use-cases#profiles)
- [Compare plans and modules](https://real-estate-management.webservices-engineering.de/pricing)

## Five profiles we build for

Each page below describes the same software from one point of view: what gets recorded, which modules are usually switched on, and what the configuration spares you. Start with the one that sounds like your week.

- **Private and family landlords** — One to fifty units held personally or through a family company. The spreadsheet still works until the year you have to produce an ancillary cost statement and cannot reconstruct last year's meter readings. [What this module does](https://real-estate-management.webservices-engineering.de/use-cases/private-landlords)
- **Property management companies** — Third-party managers administering buildings they do not own. Several landlord companies, several owners to report to, and a standing need to show how every figure on a client-facing document was derived. [What this module does](https://real-estate-management.webservices-engineering.de/use-cases/property-management-companies)
- **Commercial and mixed-use** — Business spaces, storage spaces and flats in one building, each with its own contract terms, price intervals and allocation basis. Sub-metering usually matters more here than anywhere else. [What this module does](https://real-estate-management.webservices-engineering.de/use-cases/commercial-and-mixed-use)
- **Housing and owners' associations** — Shared courtyards, staircases, roofs and heating plant, paid collectively and reallocated to members. The work is the allocation key, the documentation and the annual reconciliation. [What this module does](https://real-estate-management.webservices-engineering.de/use-cases/housing-associations)
- **Utility billing providers** — Organisations whose product is the rebilling itself. Supplier invoices in, consumption sites and sub-meters in the middle, per-client rebilling sheets and issued invoices out. [What this module does](https://real-estate-management.webservices-engineering.de/use-cases/utility-billing-providers)

## The core is identical for every profile

Every configuration starts in the same place: portfolio management. A property group holds properties, a property holds housing units, a housing unit holds rooms and common spaces. Areas roll up automatically from rooms to units to properties to groups, so a floor area you correct once is correct everywhere it is used later.

Each entity carries its land registry, cadastral and topographical details, its documents, its attachments and its tags. That record is what everything else refers to. An allocation key that divides a heating bill by square metre is reading the same area figure that appears on the contract and in the revenue report.

Nothing above the core is compulsory. Rentals and contracts, utility rebilling, facility management, accounting integration and business analyses are separate modules with published monthly prices. A profile is simply a decision about which of them you switch on.

## Which modules each profile usually runs

This is the configuration we see most often per profile, not a restriction. Any module can be added to any account, and the core portfolio module is always included.

| Profile | Rentals & Contracts | Utility Billing | Accounting & Invoicing | Investment & Business Analyses |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| Private and family landlords | Usually | Often, for the annual statement | Rarely | Sometimes |
| Property management companies | Always | Usually | Often | Sometimes |
| Commercial and mixed-use | Always | Usually, with sub-meters | Often | Usually |
| Housing and owners' associations | Sometimes | Always | Sometimes | Rarely |
| Utility billing providers | Sometimes | Always | Usually | Rarely |

> Facility management is available to every profile as a technical asset register with service partners and price lists. It has no ticketing system and no mobile app.

## What each module costs

A profile is a selection from this list. Every module works on the same portfolio record underneath, so switching one on later never means entering anything twice.

- **Rentals & Contracts** (€25/month) — Rental contracts, bailment agreements, tenants and deadline reminders. [What this module does](https://real-estate-management.webservices-engineering.de/solutions/rental-contracts)
- **Utility Billing & Cost Reallocation** (€25/month) — Meters, supplier invoices, allocation keys and rebilling invoices. [What this module does](https://real-estate-management.webservices-engineering.de/solutions/utility-rebilling)
- **Accounting & Invoicing Integration** (€25/month) — Issue documents on your invoicing platform and post them to the ledger. [What this module does](https://real-estate-management.webservices-engineering.de/solutions/finance-and-accounting)
- **Investment & Business Analyses** (€25/month) — Revenue timelines, consumption analysis and investment calculations. [What this module does](https://real-estate-management.webservices-engineering.de/solutions/reporting-and-analytics)
- **Facility Management** (On request) — Technical asset register, asset connections and service partners. [What this module does](https://real-estate-management.webservices-engineering.de/solutions/facility-management)

All prices are net and exclude VAT.

> Modules are switched on independently and can be added to any account at any time. Plan allowances, and the per-item rates that apply beyond them, are set out on the pricing page.

## What every configuration includes

These are platform capabilities. They apply whichever modules you run and whichever profile you match.

- **Workspace ID sign-in** — signing in takes a Workspace ID, an email address and a password. Credentials are valid only inside their own workspace, so two customers can use the same email domain without collision
- **Roles and read-only access** — admin, supervisor, read-only and a support role. Read-only is the usual answer for an owner, an accountant or an auditor who needs the numbers but must not change them
- **Account branding on documents** — logo, colour scheme and font sizes are set per account and applied to generated PDFs. White labelling is available on a Private Cloud deployment
- **Per-account SMTP** — outgoing mail can be sent through your own server, so reminders and statements reach tenants from the landlord's domain rather than from a platform address
- **Three interface languages** — English, German and Romanian. Useful when the accountant, the caretaker and the owner do not share a working language
- **Documents and audit comments** — documents and assets attach to any entity, with S3-backed storage. Records carry audit comments, so a decision taken two years ago is still legible today

## How a configuration is actually set up

The order matters. Each step depends on the one before it, which is why an inventory that is entered carelessly costs you twice at rebilling time.

1. **Build the inventory** — Groups, properties, units, rooms and common spaces, with areas, cadastral details and documents. This is the step that decides how good every later figure is.
2. **Attach people and contracts** — Clients, rental contracts, bailment agreements and price entries. Contracts are assigned to the legal entity that signed them, which keeps reporting per company clean.
3. **Register meters and suppliers** — Consumption sites, supply contracts, price schedules, meters and sub-meters. Opening readings go in once; after that, readings are entered building by building.
4. **Define allocation keys** — Per square metre, per person, per unit, per consumption share or a custom expression evaluated by the formula engine. Written down once, applied to every period afterwards.
5. **Connect invoicing and accounting** — An invoicing platform for issuing documents, including numbering schemes and VAT on payment, and an accounting connector over GraphQL with client certificate authentication.

## If none of the five describes you

We would rather say this on the hub page than after a demo. This is a back office for administering buildings. It is not a CRM, not a listings portal and not a marketing tool. There is no lettings pipeline, no viewings calendar and no prospect scoring.

It also has no tenant self-service portal and no mobile application. Meter readings are entered on batch screens designed for a laptop carried through a building, not on a phone in a boiler room.

If your problem is finding tenants, another product fits better. If your problem is that you have found them, signed them, and now owe forty people a defensible ancillary cost statement, this is the right category — and one of the five profiles above will be close enough.

- [Browse by capability instead](https://real-estate-management.webservices-engineering.de/solutions)

## Pick the profile that matches your portfolio

Each page states plainly what the configuration does, what it costs and where its limits are. If you are between two, read both — the overlap is large.

- [Talk to the team](https://real-estate-management.webservices-engineering.de/contact)
- [See plans, modules and overage rates](https://real-estate-management.webservices-engineering.de/pricing)

## Choosing between the profiles

### Which use case applies if I both own and manage buildings for others?

Read the property management companies page first. Owning and managing is a superset of managing: you need multiple legal entities, role-based access and client-facing documents either way. Buildings you own personally sit in the same workspace under their own legal entity, so revenue reports can be grouped by property group, by legal entity, or by both.

### Do I have to buy all modules?

No. Portfolio management is the core and is always included. Rentals and contracts, utility billing and cost reallocation, accounting and invoicing integration, and investment and business analyses are each priced separately and are switched on independently. Most accounts start with the core plus one module and add the second after their first billing period.

### Can several landlord companies share one account?

Yes. An account can hold multiple legal entities, and every contract is assigned to the entity that signed it. Revenue timelines can then be grouped by legal entity, by property group, or by both at once. Data isolation between separate customers is handled at a different level, by the Workspace ID used to sign in.

### How many units can one account hold?

The Standard plan and the Extended plan each publish their own allowance of properties, housing units, and rooms or common spaces. Beyond Extended, additional properties, units, spaces and storage are charged at published per-item monthly rates rather than by forcing a plan change. The current allowances and rates are on the pricing page.

### Is there a use case for a portfolio of three flats?

Sometimes, but be honest with yourself first. If three tenancies, three meters and one heating bill fit comfortably in a spreadsheet you already trust, keep the spreadsheet. The private landlords page sets out the specific moments — a first ancillary cost statement, a missed notice deadline, a sub-metered building — where a system starts to pay for itself.

## Start from the profile, not from the feature list

Choosing by profile takes ten minutes and tells you what the system would cost you per month. Choosing by feature list takes an afternoon and usually ends in the same place.

- [Read the private landlords use case](https://real-estate-management.webservices-engineering.de/use-cases/private-landlords)
- [Read the property managers use case](https://real-estate-management.webservices-engineering.de/use-cases/property-management-companies)