Getting started with Pulse
A practical, step-by-step guide — no fluff. Follow the sections in order the first time; after setup, jump to whichever one you need.
Get your account
Pulse accounts aren't self-signup — a real person sets up your first branch so nothing is misconfigured on day one.
Submit your details
Go to the onboarding page and fill in your hostel name, your name, WhatsApp number, city, and how many branches you run. Tap Get Started Free.
We set you up
The Pulse team reaches out on WhatsApp, creates your account, and configures your first branch.
Log in
You'll receive login credentials. Sign in at /login — you'll land on your Dashboard.
Set up your hostel
Do this first. Everything else — room pricing, tenant forms, payments — reads its defaults from here.
Hostel Information
Enter your Hostel Name, Address, City, Area, Phone, WhatsApp, Email, and Total Capacity, then tap Save Hostel.
Package Pricing — the most important step
Set your price grid for each package tier (Space Only, Space + Breakfast & Dinner, Space + 3 Meals, Space + Meals + Cooler): Rent and Deposit for both standard and AC rooms.
Also set your AC Per Unit Rate, Default Security Deposit, and Required Notice Period (days) — the policy tenants are held to when they give notice. Tap Save Package Pricing.
Application Form Fields
Choose which fields appear on your public tenant application form: Email, CNIC, Type, Room Selection, Preferred Move-in Date, Emergency Contact, Message. Full Name and WhatsApp always show. Tap Save Form Fields.
Public Listing (optional)
On the Website page, turn on "Listed publicly" to get a shareable page at /find — add a cover photo, description, hostel type, and amenities. Your own web address, business name, logo and social links live on the same page.
Payment Recovery (optional)
Add your bank/JazzCash/EasyPaisa details and edit the WhatsApp reminder template — this powers the Remind button you'll use later in Payments.
Add your rooms
Go to Spaces. You need at least one room here before you can activate a tenant.
Tap Add Room
Enter Room Number, Floor, Type, Capacity, and up to 5 photos.
Flag AC / Cooler
Toggle AC Available or Cooler Available if the room has one — this decides whether meter-reading and AC billing fields show up later for tenants in this room.
Set status
Mark the room Available, Occupied, or Maintenance. Tap Add Room to save.
Add your tenants
Go to Tenants. Four tabs: Active, Waiting, Checked Out, Applications.
Bring tenants in two ways
Share the form: tap Share Application Form to send your public apply link over WhatsApp — people apply themselves and land in the Applications tab.
Add manually: tap Add Tenant to enter someone directly without them applying.
Approve an application
On the Applications tab, tap Approve. Choose Active Resident or Waiting List, pick a Room and Bed, set the Package Tier (rent/deposit auto-fill), Billing type, and Check-in Date, then tap Activate Tenant or Add to Waitlist.
When a tenant is leaving
On the Active tab, tap Give Notice and enter the intended checkout date — Pulse tells you instantly if it meets your Notice Period policy.
When move-out day comes, tap Check Out: record the AC meter reading, settle any outstanding balance, decide how much of the security deposit to return, then confirm. You can share the final receipt over WhatsApp immediately after.
Collect rent
Go to Payments. Once tenants are active, their monthly bills generate automatically — this screen is where you record what's actually been paid.
Chasing a payment
On an unpaid row, tap Remind to send your WhatsApp reminder template, or Pay to record what came in.
Recording a payment
Enter the Amount Received. Paying less than the full balance is fine — it's saved as a partial payment automatically, and the remaining balance carries forward.
AC billing
If any rooms have AC, an AC Billing tab appears. Enter each room's current meter reading and tap Apply — Pulse splits the usage charge across everyone in that room automatically, including anyone who joined mid-month.
Your team
Two different things live under two different screens — pick the one that matches what you actually need.
| Need | Go to | What it does |
|---|---|---|
| Pay your cooks, guards, cleaners | Staff | Track employees and generate/mark their monthly salaries as paid. No dashboard login involved. |
| Let a trusted person help run the dashboard | Managers | Create a limited login. Grant only what they need: Add Members, Collect Payments, and/or Add Expenses, scoped to specific branches. |
Daily operations
Use these as needed — no set order.
Food vs Kitchen
Food is your meal-planning calendar — what's being served each day. Kitchen is your grocery spending log — what you bought to cook it.
Expenses & Bills
Expenses logs general costs like repairs and cleaning. Bills tracks recurring utilities (electricity, water, internet, gas) with due dates and a Pay button.
Complaints & Announcements
Complaints logs maintenance issues and tracks them through Open → In Progress → Resolved. Announcements is your notice board for residents — pin anything important to the top.
Reports
Go to Reports any time to see the bigger picture: Overview, Revenue, Reconciliation, Occupancy, AC Analytics, Expenses, and Member Ledger (each tenant's running balance, including deposits returned at checkout). Every tab can be exported to PDF or Excel.