A New, Unified Era of Utility Management in Rent Manager

Utility management is one of the most complex operational responsibilities for property teams—whether you’re managing manufactured housing communities, multifamily properties, commercial spaces, or mixed portfolios. Between unpredictable consumption patterns, unreadable meters, turnover-related gaps, and the ongoing expectation to improve accuracy and reduce waste, teams need better tools, better oversight, and more automation to succeed.

Over the past several months, Rent Manager has released a suite of utility management enhancements (across our July, September, and December updates). Together, these features introduce a more modern, integrated approach to utility operations—one that strengthens billing accuracy, increases transparency, and simplifies daily workflows.

Below is a closer look at what’s new, and how these tools help operators manage utilities with greater consistency and confidence.

Identify Abnormal Usage Early with Consumption Alerts and Range Reporting

Unusual consumption is often the earliest indicator of leaks, faulty meters, or simple data-entry mistakes. With the introduction of customizable Consumption Groups, teams can now set customized usage thresholds and get automatic alerts for readings that fall outside expected norms.

This new layer of visibility helps managers catch anomalies before they become costly issues. When readings appear too high or too low, technicians can be prompted to submit a photo of the meter or add notes that explain what they saw on-site. A dedicated range-based consumption report brings all exceptions together, making it easy to review outliers and confirm the underlying data. The result is fewer surprises and more confidence at billing time.

Advanced Home Inventory Tracking

Effective utility management depends on having accurate, up-to-date information about every site—who owns the home, who occupies it, and whether the site should be billed. Rent Manager’s Advanced Home Inventory Tracking feature provides that clarity by delivering a system-generated, real-time breakdown of each lot in a manufactured housing portfolio.

Advanced Home Inventory Tracking combines asset presence, homeowner status, occupancy, rent-free indicators, and undeveloped or unrentable flags into one trusted classification that updates automatically as conditions change.

This accuracy is critical in utility workflows. When ownership changes, homes are sold, or sites transition between occupied and vacant, Site Classification ensures utility responsibility aligns correctly—supporting cleaner billing, more reliable reporting, and easier reconciliation. Accountants and operations teams can confidently group sites for reporting, verify which locations should generate utility revenue, and maintain audit-ready records without piecing together data from multiple sources.

Handle Meter Swaps without Interrupting Billing

Whether you’re upgrading to smart meters, replacing faulty equipment, or preparing for a new resident, meter swaps are an unavoidable part of property operations. The challenge has always been maintaining accurate records mid-cycle, especially when usage needs to be captured from both the outgoing and incoming meters.

Rent Manager’s new Meter Swap tool simplifies this process dramatically. With just a few clicks, managers can change meters and automatically record the usage before and after the swap, eliminating the need to manually reconcile two sets of readings. Swaps can also be tied directly to service issues, creating a clear line between maintenance and billing. This not only protects the integrity of your utility data but also prevents the billing errors that often occur during mid-cycle changes and simplifies payment for the resident by ensuring they only receive one bill for the period.

Produce Consistent, Audit-Friendly Utility Estimates

Unreadable or inaccessible meters have traditionally forced teams to make educated guesses, often using different approximation methods from one situation to the next. Rent Manager now offers standardized utility estimating tools that remove the uncertainty from this process.

• Administrators can define preferred estimation methods for the entire portfolio, ensuring every estimate follows the same rules regardless of who is performing the work.
• Users receive alerts when multiple estimates begin stacking up without a verifiable reading, helping teams identify meters that may require attention.
• Automatic safeguards validate negative readings and prompt confirmation when rollovers occur.

Together, these updates create a far more reliable and auditable estimating process.

Capture Accurate Readings Anytime with Off-Cycle Meter Reads

There are many moments when teams need an immediate reading—move-ins, move-outs, mid-cycle concerns, or meter swaps. Waiting for a scheduled reading route often slows down billing workflows and may produce inaccurate charges.

The new Off-Cycle Meter Readings tool enables property staff to request a reading instantly. As soon as the request is submitted, maintenance teams receive a notification in the rmAppSuite Pro mobile app with instructions to capture the data. Users can specify the purpose of the read, ensuring cleaner reporting and more granular tracking. This tool keeps turnover fast, billing accurate, and everyone aligned.

Coming Soon: Ratio Utility Billing System (RUBS)

For properties that do not have submeters, RUBS remains an essential cost-recovery strategy. Rent Manager’s upcoming RUBS functionality will allow charges to be divided among residents based on occupancy, square footage, bedroom or bathroom count, or other community-specific formulas. Once released, it will integrate seamlessly into Rent Manager’s billing workflows, giving operators another important option for managing shared utility expenses.

A Complete, Integrated Utility Management Ecosystem

These enhancements do more than streamline individual tasks—they lay the foundation for a fully connected utility management system that supports portfolios of all types and sizes. With greater visibility, automated safeguards, standardized processes, and real-time data, managers can expect:

• Greater billing accuracy
• Lower operational overhead
• Fewer disputes and surprises
• Faster turnover
• Cleaner, more confident reporting

Utility management is evolving. With these new features, Rent Manager gives operators the tools to evolve with it—reducing complexity and building a dependable, scalable utility workflow from end to end.