How Haymills doubled their managed properties with PayProp without increasing headcount

What began as a summer admin job quickly turned into a life-long passion, first leading him to build his own business, then join a franchise network, and eventually return to running a fully independent agency again – Haymills. Over the years, Hari has seen and tried just about every approach to client accounting. Looking back, he says it’s never been easier or more reliable than with PayProp.

The slow and stressful manual days

Before PayProp, managing client money was a daily struggle. Staff came in early to manually mark down incoming payments using spreadsheets. But without consistent and reliable reference numbers, tracking who had paid became a guessing game. And if a payment arrived without enough detail, the team had no choice but to spend hours on the phone chasing confirmation.

Paying landlords and contractors was just as slow. Every payment had to be processed and reconciled manually, one by one. With hundreds of payments to process every month, the workload was heavy and left plenty of room for mistakes – including the rare but costly error of sending money to the wrong client account.

Even after reconciling, the work wasn’t over. The easiest way the team knew to get the landlord statements and tenant receipts out to their customers was by post, which involved hundreds of stamps and envelopes a month plus physical copies for their records. It took hours of effort every day, plus days of waiting for payments to clear.

On the surface, everything looked under control. But behind the scenes, Hari knew the stress and inefficiency couldn’t continue.

The breakthrough – PayProp

Everything changed when Hari discovered PayProp.

Suddenly, the mountain of manual work shrank to a fraction of what it had been. What used to take multiple staff members hours can now be done by Hari and a single assistant, even once Haymills grew past 600 managed properties.

The difference lies in automation. With PayProp, once your payment rules are set, the platform largely runs itself. Invoices, arrears reminders and other client communications go out automatically at pre-arranged times. Tenants receive e-mails or texts with the exact, automatically calculated amount due, with a link to the PayProp-powered Tenant portal for easy payment and an itemised PDF. Those invoices run until the tenancy is ended, without Hari having to lift a finger.

But the most valuable transformation for Hari was in reconciliation.

PayProp solved his headaches around missing reference numbers with smart reconciliation, automatically matching payments to the correct tenant. Incoming funds are ring-fenced within a dedicated client account environment, and further separated by property, purpose and recipient. That means no risk of marking the wrong tenant as paid, no paying out the wrong funds to the wrong landlord, and complete transparency across the board.

Where he once needed a team of staff working hours each day on rent payment admin, Hari now spends just 10 minutes on PayProp a few times every day, checking and reconciling around 15 payments each time.

Commission, fees and contractor payments are automatically deducted and bulk-approved (or easily amended) by Hari for payment, and 99% of Haymills’ landlords are paid on the same day rent comes in – or at worst, the following day.

“Client accounting with PayProp is not time-consuming at all. I can do an entire batch of reconciliations in the five minutes it takes to boil the water for tea.” Hari Patel

Everyone wins with automation

The improvements to Haymills’ rent payment processing were felt immediately.

Landlords now enjoy faster and more predictable cash flow, complete visibility into payments and peace of mind that funds are safe and accurately allocated. Tenants also benefit from clear, timely communication and a smooth rent collection process.

“When the rent comes in, everyone's paid accordingly. Deductions are made, contractors are happy, landlords are happy, we're happy. It's great.” Hari Patel

That reliability has become a competitive advantage. During times of rising interest rates – like in 2023 when landlords were under pressure to meet their own financial commitments – Haymills’ ability to use PayProp to deliver rent payments quickly helped the agency stand out. Hari says many landlords switched to Haymills for that very reason.

“If landlords didn’t get their portion of the rent on time, it put them at risk of missing mortgage payments, utility bills, and other expenses. They heard they could count on us, and that brought new landlords our way.” Hari Patel

In addition to faster rent collection, Haymills uses the time PayProp saves them to drum up new business, strengthen client relationships and build the agency’s reputation. Since joining PayProp in 2018, Haymills has grown from 300 to over 600 properties, all without adding any extra staff.

Hari laughs when he recalls that fellow agents simply don’t believe him when he tells them he manages his entire client accounting workload with a team of two.  

But for him, the results speak for themselves.

“I’ve been in the property industry for a long time. I know how inefficient manual systems can be. PayProp has completely taken that burden away.” Hari Patel