Kalash Platform — Product & Feature Catalogue

What the product is

A premium, owned student-housing platform — not an "app"

A full system with several connected surfaces: a public booking site, a resident mobile app, a parent portal, an on-ground staff app, and a multi-role operations console. It covers the entire journey end-to-end and gives every team — Sales, Operations, Finance, caretakers, management — one source of truth. Single-tenant for Kalash now, multi-tenant-ready for the productise-later ambition. The durable edge is the three things off-the-shelf tools can't touch: premium reliable UX, deposit & billing transparency, and parent visibility.

Who it's for

Eight distinct audiences, each with a surface built for their job — not one dashboard bolted onto a tenant app.

Audience	Surface they use	Their core job
Prospective student / parent	Public booking website	Discover → enquire → book a bed
Resident (student)	Resident mobile app	Pay, eat, complain, gate-pass, community
Parent / guarantor	Parent portal / app	Visibility, payments, peace of mind
Sales / Leasing team	Sales (CRM) console	Convert enquiries → signed bookings
Operations / Warden	Operations web console	Occupancy, move-ins, mess, complaints
Finance team	Finance console	Rent, dues, deposits, GST, reports
Caretaker / security / maintenance	Staff mobile app	Gate-pass, tickets, attendance, inventory
Owner / Management	Management dashboard	Occupancy %, revenue, performance

The lifecycle it covers

Discover→ Enquire→ Tour→ Book (deposit online)→ Onboard / KYC→ Move-in→ Live→ Renew / Move-out→ Re-lease

On the staff side, the same spine drives: fill beds · collect money · run the mess · fix things · keep students safe · see the numbers.

A–N

Full feature catalogue

The complete menu — fifteen modules. Includes category table-stakes (which we must match) and the premium gaps no Indian tool fills. Refined after an independent expert review — new and rescoped items are tagged below.

Refined in this version. An unbiased review added the items the category quietly gets wrong — India compliance and lead speed — and right-sized two that were over-promised for a first launch.

NEW added after review PHASE 2 deliberately deferred RESCOPED simplified for v1

Acquisition & Booking

Sales team · public site

SEO-optimised discovery website — properties, photos, amenities, college proximity, room types & pricing
Live bed availability shown publicly
Lead CRM — pipeline, owner assignment, follow-up reminders
Instant lead response — alert sales the second a lead lands, one-tap call/WhatsApp back, response-time tracked NEW
Multi-channel capture — Instagram, Google, listing portals, walk-ins, referrals into one inbox
Site-visit / video-tour scheduling
Deposit-gated online booking — pick a bed, pay token, bed locked
Waitlists, referral program, broker/channel-partner tracking
Lead-source & conversion analytics

Onboarding & Move-in

Student · operations

Digital application & document collection
KYC — Aadhaar & ID collection, verified via DigiLocker / licensed KYC partner
Police verification — auto-fills & tracks Maharashtra Form C per student NEW
Digital rent agreement with e-sign
Parent / guarantor capture + e-sign
Pre-arrival checklist & welcome kit
Room condition report with photos at check-in
Inventory handover

Occupancy & Bed Management

Operations

Bed-level inventory — every bed an individual unit
Visual floor-plan: occupied / vacant / under-notice / blocked
Flexible unit modelling — 4/3/2-share, singles, flats, with/without kitchen, attached/common bath
Blocking, transfers & shifting (bed / room / property)
Multi-property roll-up view
Notice & lease-expiry tracking with re-lease nudges
Occupancy heatmap & vacancy forecasting

Rent, Payments & Finance

Finance

Automated monthly rent & bill generation
Pro-rata billing for mid-month joiners & leavers NEW
Online collection — UPI, cards, net-banking (gateway)
Cash collection logging with digital receipt & audit trail
Auto-reconciliation (cash vs digital)
Reminders (app / WhatsApp / SMS), late-fee automation
Smart GST engine — auto-decides exempt vs 12% per student & issues compliant invoices NEW
Per-student ledger; electricity sub-metering & split billing
Expense tracking; autopay; refunds

Move-out, Deposits & Settlements

Student · Finance · signature area

In-app move-out request — pick date, see notice-period rules & any penalty, auto-triggers settlement NEW
Transparent deposit ledger — student & parent see balance anytime
Itemised, photo-backed deductions (move-in vs move-out)
Pre-agreed deduction schedule — no surprise charges
Fast, tracked refund workflow with visible status
Auto-generated move-out settlement statement

Resident Living

Student app

One-tap rent payment + history & receipts
Complaint raising with photo + live status
Mess menu, meal opt-in/out, feedback
Gate-pass / out-pass + visitor pre-registration
Digital ID / access credential
Notices, amenity booking (gym / study / laundry)
Parcel alerts — notified when a delivery arrives, PIN pickup NEW
Community feed & events; smart roommate matching (preference filters + staff assist) RESCOPED
SOS / emergency contact; document locker

Mess / Food

Student · kitchen · ops

Daily / weekly menu publishing
Meal opt-in/out & attendance (cut waste)
Per-meal feedback & rating — kitchen accountable to data
Menu voting / preferences; guest & special meals
Kitchen dashboard (headcount, feedback score)
~~Vendor & grocery inventory~~ — vendor runs own supply CUT v1

Maintenance & Complaints

Student · staff

Ticket creation with photos (student or staff)
Auto-routing & assignment to right staff
SLA tracking & escalation — no dropped tickets
Status visible to student end-to-end
Preventive maintenance schedules
Inventory & asset register

Security, Access & Attendance

Staff · security

Attendance (QR / app)
Gate-pass / out-pass approval flow
Visitor management + logs
Parcel desk — staff log delivery, auto-notify resident NEW
Entry/exit logs (surfaced to parents); guard instant-call & incident log
Biometric / face-recognition / smart-lock PHASE 2

Parent Portal

Parent / guarantor · signature

Separate parent login
Child's rent status, ledger, receipts; pay directly
Deposit balance & deductions visibility
Safety visibility — gate in/out, "safe check-in"
Mess opt-outs / leave notifications
Direct line to management; guarantor documents

Communication & Community

Everyone

Announcements — all / by floor / by property
WhatsApp + SMS + push + in-app messaging
Events calendar & RSVPs; community feed
Polls / surveys / feedback drives
Digital notice board

Staff & Operations

Ops · admin

Role-based access — distinct dashboards per Sales / Ops / Finance / Caretaker / Security / Management
Staff task lists & checklists with photo proof
Turn-season / make-ready board for move-out/in waves
Caretaker mobile app for on-ground tasks
Full audit trail; vendor & contractor management

Analytics & Reporting

Management

Occupancy %, vacancy, under-notice
Revenue, collections, dues, arrears
Lead → booking conversion funnel & channel ROI
Deposit liability & refund status
Maintenance SLA, complaint trends, mess feedback
Per-property P&L; exports (Excel / PDF / Tally / Zoho)

Platform Foundations

Under the hood

Single-tenant now, multi-tenant-ready architecture
White-label Kalash branding across surfaces
iOS + Android + Web
Secure auth, data ownership, backups
Notifications engine (WhatsApp/SMS/email/push)
Gateway + GST + accounting integrations incl. Tally XML

Compliance & Trust

Finance · ops · signature · NEW

DPDP Act 2023 — per-purpose consent, parental consent for under-18s, data-deletion on move-out NEW
Maharashtra Form C police submission tracking
GST compliance — correct SAC codes, invoice numbering, GSTR-1 ready
Full audit trail of who accessed what
Consent-based messaging (WhatsApp opt-in, SMS fallback)

★ Signature features highlighted below NEW added after expert review PHASE 2 deferred to keep v1 focused CUT / RESCOPED simplified for launch

★ Signature features

The eleven things off-the-shelf can't do

No Indian PG/hostel tool has these. They are what make the platform premium instead of generic — and they map directly onto the category's biggest, most-complained-about gaps and onto Kalash's own pain.

Transparent deposit & billing engine

Itemised, photo-backed, real-time, visible to student and parent. Kills the #1 complaint in the entire category — deposit disputes.

Parent portal

Visibility, payments, safety. Parents pay and decide in India — yet zero commercial tools serve them today.

Deposit-gated online booking

Pick a bed, pay a token, bed locked. Documented >100% conversion lift vs enquiry-only — the biggest acquisition upgrade available.

Visual floor-plan bed selection

Choose your exact bed like an airline seat. Premium feel; ends the "bad-room surprise."

True bed-level leasing

Every bed an individual contract — independent move-in/out and billing across 1,000 students.

Smart roommate matching

Preference-based pairing (study hours, food, habits) with staff assist — cuts early move-outs, the top revenue killer in shared housing.

Unified acquisition + operations

One record from first enquiry → signed → living → renewed. Off-the-shelf tools do one half or the other, never joined.

Cash-to-digital hybrid finance

Handles Kalash's cash-first reality with audit trails while moving to gateway, with optional GST.

Turn-season make-ready board

Purpose-built for the academic-year move-out/move-in stampede that breaks spreadsheets.

A genuinely premium, reliable app

The thing every competitor fails at — even funded ones sit at 3.4★. Exactly why Kalash dropped its last vendor.

Compliance built in, not bolted on

DPDP consent, GST automation and Maharashtra Form C handled by the system. No Indian PMS does this — it removes real legal liability for the operator.