Estates, gated communities, and serviced apartments often buy water and power in bulk and recover it from tenants through submeters. It’s the same job a water utility does - the only thing that changes is the unit on the meter. Zana’s billing engine doesn’t assume water anywhere; it prices whatever the register counts, so the same flow covers water and electricity side by side. Most managers stitch this together in spreadsheets today, and keep utility recovery separate from the monthly service charge.
The recovery headache
- Submeter readings for water and power are tracked by hand, per unit, every month
- Splitting a bulk bill fairly across units is fiddly and argued over
- Utility recovery and service charge are billed separately, so tenants get two asks
- Tenants want one clear bill and an easy way to pay
Model each unit once
Every apartment or house is an account with its submeter, grouped into zones and routes that map to your blocks, floors, or phases. A unit can carry more than one meter - so water and electricity submeters sit on the same account - and a meter change records the closing and opening registers cleanly.
Read water and electricity the same way
Capture the current reading per submeter with the phone field app (camera-assisted, with the reader confirming the number), bulk-import a block from CSV, or key a whole route into a grid. Zana computes consumption from the previous reading and flags the outliers - a reading lower than last month, consumption more than 3× the unit’s average, or a meter rollover - as pending verification before they ever reach a bill. Because the engine is unit-agnostic, the exact same checks protect a kWh reading and a cubic-metre reading.
Apply your recovery rate, line by line
Set tiered bands, a standing charge, and levies to match how you recover bulk cost, and Zana bills each unit’s consumption as itemised lines - each block at its own rate. For a fixed service charge, use a flat (unmetered) tariff or a recurring invoice - no meter needed. Either way the tenant deals with one workspace and one set of pay links.
Worked example. An apartment block recovers electricity at KES 30/kWh with a KES 150 standing charge, and water at KES 120/unit. Unit 4B uses 85 kWh and 6 units of water: 85×30 + 150 = KES 2,700 for power, 6×120 = KES 720 for water. Zana posts both, and the tenant pays the lot by one M-Pesa STK push.
Run it like a utility, collect like one
A billing run prices every unit, surfaces exceptions (missing reading, no meter, no tariff) for review, and only then posts - with two guards that make double-billing a month impossible. Tenants pay by M-Pesa STK push, oldest balance first, and you get arrears ageing by block, a collection rate, and a list of units overdue past your threshold. A deposit taken at move-in is held and offset against any arrears when the tenant leaves and the account closes. Run the utility consumption cycle and the fixed service charge from the same place, and the owner gets a summary of every cycle by email.
What you’ll need
Utility billing is on Pro (KES 2,500/month, up to 250 units) and Business (KES 6,000/month, up to 1,000 units); larger portfolios move to Enterprise. Set up your blocks, add the submeters, and run consumption billing and service charge from one workspace.