Property Management Software and Ejar Contracts: Office Guide

A property office looks simple until the number of units grows: a contract documented on Ejar, a payment received by transfer, a late one nobody chases, a maintenance request that arrived on WhatsApp, and an owner asking for his statement. Good property management software handles that whole cycle in one place, but it does not replace the Ejar platform, and Ejar does not replace it.

This guide covers what an office needs from software, what Ejar does and what stays with you, and what to ask a vendor before you buy.

What does a property management office need from software?

Seven jobs cover the property cycle from contract to owner: a register of buildings and units, tenants and leases, the payment schedule and collection, receipts, maintenance requests, owner statements, and occupancy and renewal reports. Start with the job that loses you the most money or time.

How does the Ejar platform relate to your office software?

Ejar is the official network for documenting rental contracts, overseen by the Ministry of Municipalities and Housing and the Real Estate General Authority (REGA). It establishes the contract between landlord and tenant. Your office software runs what happens after the contract: collection, follow-up, maintenance and owner accounts. They are different jobs that complement each other.

Ask every vendor a direct question: does your system connect to Ejar automatically, or do I type in the contract number? Our own answer at Manzomia is clear: we have no automatic Ejar integration at present. Contracts are documented on the platform as the regulations require, and the contract number is recorded in the office's own records. Be wary of any offer that suggests otherwise without proving it.

What are the steps to document a residential lease on Ejar?

These steps come from the official service pages, and the interface may change, so check the Ejar residential contract service page and REGA's guide before you apply them.

1. The licensed broker registers the contract in his account, entering the lease term, property and unit details, the parties and the financial data.
2. He accepts the terms and previews the contract before sending it.
3. The service fee is paid before sending, and whoever pays needs enough balance in their wallet.
4. Landlord and tenant approve electronically through Absher or the Sakani app; a legal representative can approve on their behalf.
5. The contract is documented and receives a number, which you record in your office system.

The core documents are a valid ID, the property ownership document and a mobile number registered on Absher for the landlord, and a valid ID and Absher-registered mobile for the tenant. The documentation fee is tied to the contract's years, not its instalments; the platform places it on the landlord, though the broker or landlord may pay it. We have not quoted an amount, because figures differ between the platform's pages and other official sources. Check the current fee on the official site before you tell a client.

A paper contract is not a documented contract in itself. Ejar lets either party register a rental incident if the other refuses to document, which is a different service from documenting a contract.

How do you set up collection so no payment is missed?

Good collection is a short chain: a scheduled payment, a reminder before it is due, a receipt when it is paid, and clear follow-up when it is late. The problem in most offices is not lack of effort but that every link lives in a different notebook.

• A payment schedule per lease, built from the term, rent and number of instalments, and editable when parties agree otherwise.
• A daily arrears list sorted by days late, not a manual search through files.
• Part payments: is the amount paid recorded, with the balance still due?
• The security deposit is recorded as a separate item from rent, because it is neither the owner's income nor the office's.
• A contact log showing when the tenant was reminded and by whom.

What should an owner statement contain?

An owner does not want a complicated report. He wants answers to three questions: what came in, what went out, and what will I receive? So a monthly statement shows rent collected per unit, expenses such as maintenance, the office's fee, the net amount transferred and any arrears outstanding. If one owner holds several units, it shows each unit separately.

REGA has announced that it put two draft regulations, on property management and on facilities management, out for public consultation. They are drafts, so check their status on REGA's site before you rely on them. The practical principle stands either way: keep owners' money clearly recorded and never mixed with the office's own accounts.

How do you handle VAT on rent?

ZATCA distinguishes the two types: residential rent is exempt from VAT, while renting commercial property is taxable at 15%, according to its guideline on the VAT exemption of real estate supplies. If your portfolio holds both, VAT has to be set at unit level so that it appears only on commercial invoices.

Ask your accountant about special cases, such as an office managing mixed units or charging fees that are themselves taxable. E-invoicing has its own deadline: you can read the details of Wave 25 and its 1 February 2027 date in our guide to e-invoicing Phase 2. Fatoora integration in Manzomia remains "coming soon", and we explain its status before any subscription.

How do you track maintenance, occupancy and renewals?

Every maintenance request needs four things: the unit, the status, the cost and who bears it, whether owner, tenant or office. If requests stay in WhatsApp you will not know after a month how much you have spent on a unit. Ask for a record that ties each cost to its unit so it appears on the owner statement.

Renewals have a regulatory side too. Ejar's renewal service page says the automatic renewal fee is deducted from the landlord's wallet 60 days before the contract expires. So your office needs a warning that comes earlier than that, so you can speak to the owner and prepare the balance. The most useful report here is a list of leases ending within three months, alongside vacant units.

Which mistakes are most common in property offices?

• Treating a paper contract, or its photo on WhatsApp, as a substitute for documenting on Ejar.
• Keeping the contract number in a separate Excel sheet that does not link to payments.
• Mixing the security deposit with rent on the owner statement.
• Leaving maintenance requests with no cost recorded, so they never reach the statement.
• Finding out a lease has ended after it ended, not months before.
• Believing an offer that implies an automatic Ejar link without seeing it proved in a trial.

Most of these show up in the first week of a real trial, which is why we insist on testing with your own numbers before you buy.

How do you test property management software before you buy?

1. Give the vendor one owner from your portfolio, with his real units, three months of payments and two maintenance requests.
2. Ask for that owner's statement and compare it with yours.
3. Ask for an arrears list, and what happens on a part payment.
4. Ask about Ejar plainly: automatic link, or manual entry of the contract number?
5. Ask about VAT: how are residential and commercial units told apart?
6. Ask about data: who sees it, where it is stored and how it leaves if you do. Our data hosting guide helps.
7. Work out the full cost: subscription, setup, data import and training.

If your office is expanding into other activities, our comparison of ready-made and custom systems in the ERP guide for SMEs will help.

How do you get started with Manzomia?

If you want to see how your office looks in an Arabic system built for the sector, book a free demo of Manzomia. Tell us how many buildings and units you manage and how you collect, and we will answer your questions using your office's numbers. You can see what we are working on in the property management offices page.

Manzomia is a foreign-owned, MISA-licensed company in Riyadh. Our founder has more than 9 years building web and mobile products, and apps he launched have reached over 50 million users. Book your free demo or send us a message.