The initial setup is designed as a workflow. You start by adding an owner, and the system guides you through the rest of the process:

Owner > Property > Bank Account > Property Late Fees > Units > Tenants

Start by going to Owners > Add Owner. An owner can be an individual investor or a legal entity. Every property must be linked to an owner.

A property can be a multifamily building, a single family home, a self storage facility, or a commercial building. A property is the smallest entity that a financial report can be generated for.

A bank account in Breeze corresponds to a real bank account that you use for your business. Multiple properties may share a single bank account (if that is how you run your business), and one property may also use multiple bank accounts (for example, if you keep deposits in a separate account from operating cash).

You can set up late fees at the property level. At the tenant level, you can modify them as needed.

If you are setting up a multi-unit property, enter your units manually or by importing them from a spreadsheet.

Add the current tenants at the property. You can do this manually or by importing them from a spreadsheet.

The following steps are not part of the workflow, so we provide menu paths as needed.

If tenants have recurring charges in addition to rent (for example, a fee for parking), set them up on the tenant record.

Menu path: Tenants > (select a tenant). Scroll down to Scheduled Charges.

Make sure the property has a valid phone number and email address. Add at least one photo and one amenity. Then use the RentCafe tab to complete the marketing setup.

Set up vendor records for all the businesses you need to pay. Owners do not require separate vendor records, but if you are going to collect management fees, you need to set up your business as a vendor.

Menu path: Vendors > Add New.

Certain tasks can be set up to run automatically: posting recurring charges, posting late fees, and closing the accounting month.

Choose a 'go live' month (the first month when you enter rent charges and receipts in Breeze). Charges and receipts for security deposits and receipts should be posted back into a past period so they don’t appear on your current month’s reports.

Add tenants before you publish to RentCafe! This will save you time. If you publish the property while all the units appear vacant in Breeze, the units will appear to be available to prospects. You will need to republish the property again (after you add tenants) to update the unit availability.