Kiogora Rent & Utility Tracker: Managing Property Expenses
Background
Managing rent and utility payments in Kenya often relies on spreadsheets, WhatsApp receipts, and scattered M-Pesa transaction histories. I wanted a centralized tool where tenants could log payments and landlords could track what's been received.
What It Does
The Kiogora Rent & Utility Tracker provides a clean interface for:
- Logging rent payments with dates, amounts, and payment methods
- Tracking utilities — electricity, water, internet, and garbage collection
- Monthly summaries — see your total expenses at a glance
- Payment history — a chronological record of all transactions
Architecture
The app follows a straightforward CRUD pattern. The backend handles data persistence and user authentication, while the frontend provides an intuitive dashboard for data entry and visualization.
Key Design Decisions
Simplicity First
I intentionally kept the feature set minimal. Many similar apps try to do too much — budgeting, reminders, forecasting. This tool does one thing well: track what you've paid and when.
Mobile-Responsive
Since most Kenyan users access the web via mobile, the interface was designed mobile-first. All inputs are large enough for touch, and the layout stacks cleanly on small screens.
Challenges
The main challenge was designing a data model flexible enough to handle different utility types (some are fixed monthly, others are usage-based) while keeping the UI simple. I settled on a "category + amount + date" triplet that covers all cases without overcomplicating the form.
Future Plans
I'm planning to add M-Pesa statement parsing — upload your M-Pesa statement and the app auto-categorizes rent and utility payments. This would eliminate manual data entry entirely.