User guide

Aqarly runs in the browser; there is nothing to download. Open aqarly.app and sign in.

The first time you sign in, you create your organization account and add its basic details. Every property, tenant, contract, and payment you add belongs to that account.

You can invite your team by email and set each member's permissions.

The sidebar has three groups:

• Properties: Properties, Tenants, Owners.
• Operations: Contracts, Payments, Expenses, Maintenance.
• Insights: Messages, Reports.

Settings is at the bottom of the sidebar.

Have your data in Excel? Do not retype it — see "Importing your data into Aqarly" at the end of this guide.

Quick search. Press Ctrl+K on any screen to search by name or number. The shortcuts shown inside the search window narrow the search to one kind of record.

Language and dates. Switch between Arabic and English from the language settings. Hijri and Gregorian dates appear wherever they are supported.

Saving. Some actions are saved when you confirm them, while forms that need review have a clear Save button.

The dashboard opens with what needs your attention now.

At the top, the "Needs your attention" section gathers the important cases, such as:

• Overdue payments
• Open and urgent maintenance requests
• Contracts ending soon
• Vacant units
• Unapplied balances
• Contracts still in draft

Press any case to go straight to the related list.

Below that are the organization's key figures, such as collections, net flow, and occupancy rate, along with cash flow, contracts ending soon, and the property map.

If nothing needs your attention, the dashboard says so clearly.

In Aqarly, a property is the real-estate asset you manage; it can have a single unit or several.

Create the property first, then add its units as needed.

Creating units quickly. When adding a multi-unit property, you can enter the number of floors and units per floor and Aqarly creates them for you. You can edit them later.

Linking a property to an owner. A property can be linked to an owner from the Owners list, so its collections and expenses appear on the owner's statement.

Unit status. A unit's status is set automatically from its contracts. A unit under an active contract shows as rented, and no overlapping contract can be created for the same period.

From the property record you can reach its units, contracts, expenses, maintenance, and documents.

An owner is the person or entity behind a property you manage.

The owner record gathers the properties linked to them, with their collections and expenses, to make reviewing their account easy.

These figures are calculated from the contracts, payments, receipts, and expenses recorded in Aqarly.

You can generate the owner's statement from Reports.

A tenant can be an individual or a company. The details required depend on the tenant type, such as a national ID or Iqama for an individual and a commercial registration for a company.

The tenant record gathers the contracts, installments, receipts, and balances linked to them.

If a tenant pays more than the amount due and the difference is not applied to an installment, it appears as an unapplied balance on their record.

If the tenant already exists, use the same record when creating a new contract instead of creating a duplicate tenant.

A contract links a tenant to a unit for a set period, with the rent amount and payment frequency.

Creating a contract. Choose the tenant and the unit, then set the contract period, rent, and payment frequency. Units already under active contracts are clearly marked so they are not chosen by mistake.

Draft and activation. A contract is saved as a draft first. Once activated, its installment schedule is created and the contract starts to appear in the financial follow-up.

Installments. Aqarly builds the installment schedule from the contract period, rent, and payment frequency. An installment can be edited as long as no payment is recorded against it, within the system's rules.

Importing from Ejar. From "New contract" choose the Ejar import, then pick one or several PDF files (up to 50). Aqarly reads them in your browser and shows each contract with its payment schedule as Ejar printed it; you choose the property and units where needed, then import the ready contracts in one go. A contract already here with the same Ejar number is not duplicated, and the whole import can be undone within 24 hours from Settings › Data.

The Ejar page. Aqarly is not connected to Ejar, but it keeps each contract's status there: registered with its number, awaiting registration, or not registered. The Ejar page under Contracts shows what needs you: leases not registered, the last day for a non-renewal notice (60 days before the end) and for a rent change request (90 days before the end), and Riyadh leases, where rent may not rise until 24 September 2030. Its alerts are set in Settings › Notifications.

Ending a contract. When a contract is ended, future installments stop as of the end date, and the contract's record and earlier payments are kept.

Payments has two main parts:

Installments shows what is due under the contracts, including upcoming and overdue installments.

Receipts shows the amounts already recorded as received, with the payment date and method.

Recording a payment. Choose the installment and press "Record payment", then enter the amount, date, payment method, and a reference if there is one. Aqarly then issues a receipt with a sequential number.

Applying payments. A receipt can be applied to one or more installments. If the amount paid is more than what is due, the difference stays as the tenant's unapplied balance until it is used.

Voiding a receipt. If a receipt was recorded by mistake, use "Void receipt". The voided receipt stays in the history, and a new receipt can then be recorded with the correct amount.

You can view and print a receipt, or use it when messaging the tenant.

An expense is an amount recorded against a property or unit, such as maintenance, services, or fees.

Link the expense to the right property, and to the unit if it concerns a specific one, then choose the category and payee.

If the tenant is to bear the expense, you can create a charge linked to it. A payment recorded against the charge is handled the same way as any other payment.

Use maintenance requests to record work needed on properties and units and follow it through to completion.

A request usually moves through Open, In progress, and Completed, and it can also be cancelled when needed.

On the maintenance board, drag a card to another column to change its status. On a phone, press and hold it first. Drop it on "Cancel" at the bottom of the board to cancel the request after confirming. Every move shows an "Undo" button, and the same moves are on the card's menu (right-click).

Important requests appear on the dashboard, including urgent ones and those past their scheduled date.

Once the work is complete, you can record its cost as an expense and charge it to the tenant if that applies.

Service contracts. Under Maintenance → Service contracts, you can add contracts with service providers such as lift maintenance, cleaning, security, pest control, and other services. A contract can be linked to a specific property or the whole organization, with its term, payment frequency, and automatic-renewal setting.

Type the amount as each payment or as the whole term's value, say whether a payment falls due at the start or the end of its period, and whether the provider adds VAT. As you type, the form works out how many payments there are, each payment, the term total, the monthly cost and the first and last payments, says so when the last payment is shorter than a full period, and shows the whole payment schedule.

On the contract's record, the Account tab shows what has fallen due, what was paid and what is still owed to the provider, with every payment of the schedule and where it stands: paid, part paid, overdue or upcoming.

When you record a payment on a service contract, Aqarly records it as an expense under the selected category and provider. Contracts approaching their end date also appear on the dashboard and in alerts based on your settings, so you can review renewal or send a non-renewal notice in time.

Service providers. Each provider is saved once under Maintenance → Service providers and picked from the list when you add a contract — or type a new name and it is added when the contract saves. Editing a provider from its record updates all of its contracts, and a provider cannot be deleted while a contract names it. Reports → Operations → Service contracts lists every contract as it stood on a given date, with what was due, paid and owed. The Service provider statement under Reports → Statements is a full statement of account: an opening balance, then every payment that fell due and every amount paid in the period, with the balance after each line, for all of the provider's contracts or one you pick. It opens from the provider's record and from a contract's actions menu as the Contract statement, and exports as PDF or Excel.

Aqarly can be connected to FileFlow to store documents for properties, units, contracts, tenants, maintenance requests, and service contracts.

Aqarly stays in charge of managing the rentals, while FileFlow stores and organizes the documents.

Connecting FileFlow. Open Settings and choose Connect FileFlow, then approve the connection and follow the steps until you return to Aqarly.

Choosing a filing location. Once connected, you can choose where each record's documents are stored from the Documents tab inside that record.

Adding documents. Drag files onto the Documents tab or press Add documents, then choose the divider and the date once for all of them. The documents appear on the tab and open inside Aqarly, while they are stored in FileFlow.

Changing the location. If you change a filing location, the new location applies to new documents, following the integration's current behavior.

Messages helps you prepare messages to tenants, owners, and contractors using ready-made or custom templates. You can review a message before opening it in WhatsApp; Aqarly never sends messages automatically.

Reminders. When you enable a reminder in Settings, Aqarly drafts it into the review queue automatically at the right time — before rent is due, on the due date, when it is overdue, or as a contract nears its end — and nothing is sent until you review it.

Reports gather the data you need to review or export, such as owner and tenant statements, collections, overdue amounts, and expenses.

Export options depend on the report.

Documents and reports can carry your organization's identity, which you set up in Settings.

Organization. Edit the organization name, contact details, document identity, and default financial settings. At the top, a preview of your documents' letterhead updates as you type, and every missing detail shows as a chip that takes you to its field.

Team and permissions. You can invite team members and set each member's role:

• Owner: the highest level of access, including subscription and ownership.
• Admin: runs day-to-day operations and team settings within the permissions available.
• Member: uses the permitted day-to-day functions without access to sensitive settings.

At the top you see the seats: taken, held by pending invitations, and free. At the bottom, a table of what each role can do, taken from the same rules Aqarly enforces.

Subscription. At the top: the subscription's status and the days left, with its term drawn as a line showing where today falls and what waits at the end — a renewal, an end, or a grace period to pay. Below it, auto-renewal and the next charge, then the users grouped by where each seat came from (in the plan, a paid add-on, or from KERN), then the last payment and the invoices. Managing the subscription and payments is up to the organization's owner; other members see the status and the seats only.

Alerts and reminders. In Settings → Notifications you choose what appears under the bell for everyone in the organization, and when: before an installment falls due, after it is late (after the organization's grace, then weekly), before a lease or a service contract ends, on the day a lease ends, and on a repair's day. Each alert draws its timing on a line with what in your data falls inside it right now, and shows an example of how it will read.

Reminders. In Settings → Reminders you choose when Aqarly prepares a message to a tenant: before an installment falls due, on the day, after it is late (after the grace, then weekly), and before a lease ends. Nothing is sent automatically: drafts go to the review queue in Messages, where you review them and send them yourself on WhatsApp. Each reminder previews your message as the tenant receives it, with a link to edit it.

Fields & categories. In Settings → Fields & categories you add information Aqarly doesn't keep: choose the record (properties, units, tenants, contracts, expenses, maintenance requests), add a text, number, date, dropdown or yes/no field, and order the fields the way the form should show them — the page draws the form as it changes. Here you also manage property and unit types: add your own, rename them, or hide any type from the lists.

Connected apps. In Settings → Connected apps you connect Aqarly to your FileFlow archive, a KERN app: press Connect and approve in FileFlow, then choose where each record files from its Documents tab. Once connected, the page shows the archive and who connected it, the FileFlow plan and storage, what Aqarly may do, and how many records have a place and how many documents were filed from them. Disconnecting deletes no file from FileFlow, and applies to everyone in the workspace.

Activity log. In Settings → Activity log you see who changed what, and when: the last 14 days drawn, then the log day by day. Each line starts with the record's name (the property, the tenant, the contract number) and opens it when pressed. Narrow the log by area (properties, contracts, money…), by person or by period; repeated changes are gathered into one line you can unfold. The log is read-only and every member of the workspace can see it.

Security. Under Settings › Security you manage your sign-in methods: email and password, and a Google account (link or unlink it as long as another method remains). You can also turn on two-step verification with an authenticator app on your phone (such as Google Authenticator), so a code from the app is required at every sign-in. Keep the recovery codes shown once when you turn it on; they are your way back into your account if you lose your phone. At the top, Protection shows how well your account is protected and the one step that would improve it, and Sessions shows the device you're on and how your earlier sessions ended.

Organization accounts. Under Settings › Organization accounts you see every organization you belong to: the one you're working in, with its members, properties and subscription, and the others, one click away without signing out. Invitations you've received appear here too, to accept or decline. Every account can own one organization; if you don't own one yet, you can create it here.

Data. In Settings → Data you see what the workspace holds (properties, units, tenants, contracts, payments…) and when the last full copy was exported, and by whom. Export a full copy downloads an .aqarly file with every record and setting; Restore a copy replaces the workspace's data with the file's, after you confirm. From here you also start an import from Excel or CSV, see every import, and can undo one within 24 hours. Your data is kept in Aqarly's cloud service and isn't deleted when a subscription ends, and every export and import shows in the activity log.

About Aqarly. In Settings → About Aqarly you open the user guide, email support at support@kern.sa or use the contact form, and copy the details for support (version, workspace name and date) to paste into your message. The agreements you accepted are here too, with each one's version and the date you accepted it, and Aqarly's version number, which copies when pressed.

Nothing has to be re-entered. The Excel file you already use — units, tenants, contracts and previous collections — is imported as it is.

Where from? Settings › Data › "Start an import", the "Import from a file" button on an empty properties, tenants or contracts list, or the dashboard on a first visit.

Which files are accepted? An Excel file (.xlsx), a CSV, or a direct paste from Excel or Google Sheets. Up to 10 MB and 20,000 rows. The file is read in your browser, only records ready for import are sent, and formulas in the file are not executed.

Matching columns. Aqarly identifies each column from its Arabic or English header — "tenant", "ID number", "contract start", "monthly rent", "collected"… — and shows the match for you to review and correct if needed. Leave any column you don't want to import on "Ignore". Values missing from the file, such as the property name or payment frequency, are entered once for all rows.

Any format works. Amounts in Arabic or Latin digits, with separators or the word "riyal". Dates Hijri or Gregorian, in any order. Mobile numbers however they were typed. Payment frequency as a word ("quarterly") or a number ("4").

Review rows before importing. Aqarly checks each row and identifies any value that needs review, with its row and column. Fix the cell in place or skip the row. A duplicate inside the file is imported once.

No duplicates. Existing records are linked instead of created again: a property by name, a tenant by ID or name, a contract by number or by unit, tenant and start date. Uploading the same file again creates nothing.

Previous collections. The "collected to date" column is what a contract collected before moving to Aqarly. It is marked against the contract's installments as previously settled — no receipt is issued, and it isn't included in this month's collections — and the tenant statement shows "Settled before migration". If you have the actual receipt history, upload it in the receipt history template and the receipts are recorded with Aqarly numbers in chronological order.

Import and undo. Data is imported using Aqarly's own rules: contract and receipt numbering, installments, and the activity log. Each part is either saved completely or not at all; if a row can't be imported, its number is shown and you choose to skip it and continue, or to stop the import. The entire import can be undone within 24 hours from Settings › Data.

Importing requires Admin or organization Owner permission, and is available with a subscription.