Does it know who paid?
Yes. M-Pesa and bank payments are matched to a house and a tenant from the payment reference, so money lands on a door instead of in a list. What cannot be matched is held and shown as waiting, never silently dropped.
Frequently asked questions
What Bilup does, how money reaches the right house, and how to get started.
What it does
What goes on the monthly bill?
Rent, water read off the meter from the reading the tenant started on, garbage, and any joining fee: one invoice per door, per month, that you can send as a sheet, a message or a file.
Who is actually behind?
Every tenant carries a risk grade with the reason printed next to it, computed one way and the same on the list and on the record.
What is waiting on me right now?
Arrivals to authorise, tenants vacating, houses changing hands. The approvals desk is a queue you clear from your phone, and every figure on it opens into the record behind it.
Does the tenant see the same numbers?
Yes. The tenant has their own sign-in showing their balance and their statement.
Can I manage more than one property?
Yes. One landlord account holds every block you own or manage, and each keeps its own houses, tenants and month.
What happens when a tenant moves out?
Vacating goes through the approvals desk rather than being deleted by hand, and the house is freed for the next tenant.
Can a tenant move to another house?
Yes. Moving a tenant between houses is one of the approvals a landlord signs off, so the change is recorded rather than retyped.
About Bilup
What is Bilup?
Bilup is rental property management software for the Kenyan market. It reconciles M-Pesa and bank payments against tenancies, bills rent, water and garbage monthly, grades tenant risk, and runs the approvals a landlord signs off, on the web and as an Android app.
Who is it for?
Landlords and agents managing residential units in Kenya, the office staff who run collection day to day, and the tenants in those houses. Each gets their own sign-in and sees the part of the ledger that concerns them.
Is there a mobile app?
There are three: Bilup for landlords, Bilup Admin for the office, and Bilup Tenant for tenants. Bilup Tenant is on Google Play. Everything the apps do is also on bilup.co.ke, with the same credentials.
What does it cost?
Pricing depends on the number of units under management. Get in touch through the office for a quote for your blocks.
Can tenants see each other?
No. Each sign-in reaches only the part of the ledger that concerns it: a tenant sees their own house, a landlord sees their own blocks.
Is Bilup built for Kenya?
Yes, specifically. M-Pesa and bank reconciliation, rent billed the way it is billed here, and data handled under the Data Protection Act, 2019.
Money
Does Bilup work with M-Pesa?
Yes. Paybill and M-Pesa payments are matched to a specific house using the payment reference, which also carries the month. Bank transfers are reconciled the same way from the statement, and cash taken at the office is entered against the house it came from.
What happens to a payment that does not match anything?
It is held as waiting and appears in the office queue to be placed against a tenancy by hand. It is never netted off against another tenant.
Can a landlord confirm money actually reached them?
Yes. Every payment can be confirmed or disputed by the landlord, and a dispute requires a reason. The confirm queue shows everything still unanswered, from every month, oldest first.
How is water billed?
From meter readings. A tenant moving in records a start meter, so they are never billed for water used before they arrived. The rate per unit is set per property.
Can I collect through a paybill or a till?
Either, or a bank account. You say which when the property is opened.
Does it handle cash?
Yes. Cash taken at the office is entered against the house it came from, so it reaches the same ledger as an M-Pesa or bank payment.
Do tenants get an invoice?
One per house, per month, covering rent, water, garbage and any joining fee. It can go out as a sheet, a message or a file, and the tenant can open their balance and statement at any time.
How is garbage billed?
As a line on the same monthly invoice as rent and water.
Getting started
How do I sign in as a landlord?
Go to bilup.co.ke/landlord and sign in with your username and password, or open the Bilup app on your phone. Both use the same credentials.
How do I sign in as a tenant?
Go to bilup.co.ke/tenant, or install Bilup Tenant from Google Play. Register with the reference printed on your invoice, then sign in with a code sent to your registered phone.
How do I add a property?
Sign in as a landlord and register it: your details and the property’s, then print and sign a short letter of acknowledgement. The office approves it, you enter how rent should be collected, and the property goes live.
What happens to my data?
It is held to manage the property, it is not sold, and it is handled under the Data Protection Act, 2019. You and your tenants may ask what is held and ask for it to be corrected. See the privacy policy for the detail.
Does a tenant need to install the app?
No. Bilup Tenant is on Google Play, but everything it does is also at bilup.co.ke in a browser, with the same sign-in.
Does a landlord need to install anything?
No. The landlord dashboard runs in any browser at bilup.co.ke/landlord. The Android app is the same account if you would rather have it on your phone.
Ready to start?Sign up →
How a payment finds its door
- 1A tenant pays to the paybill or the bank, using the reference on their invoice.
- 2Bilup reads the reference and resolves it to one apartment, one house, one tenancy.
- 3The payment posts to that month’s invoice and the balance moves the same minute.
- 4Anything the reference cannot resolve is queued as waiting, for the office to place by hand.
- 5The landlord’s dashboard, the tenant’s portal and the office console all read that one ledger.
Already with us? Sign in