Self-storage software FAQ
Straight answers for operators comparing self-storage management software: what Storage Facility Creator costs, how long setup takes, how payments, collections, texting and e-signed leases work, and what it does not do yet. For the full list of what is included, see Features and Pricing.
Getting started
Who the software is for, how long setup takes and how the trial works.
What kind of facility is Storage Facility Creator built for?
Independent self-storage operators: single-site, family-run, drive-up, mini storage and climate-controlled facilities, and owners with several sites who want every facility in one login. It handles your own unit sizes and types, one tenant renting several units on one account, tenant vehicle records on the tenant page, and a sample vehicle/RV agreement you can start from. It is not built for large enterprise portfolios that need a dozen modules.
How long does it take to set up?
Usually an afternoon. The facility wizard sets billing rules in a few minutes, units are created by typing a number range, your tenant list comes in through a CSV import with automatic column matching, and a six-step onboarding checklist in Settings walks you from first facility to taking rent by card. Sign up yourself; there is no sales call.
How does the free trial work?
Sign up in the app and your 30-day trial starts once your account is approved. No card is needed to start, and there is no sales call. The trial covers one facility. When you subscribe, your first month is free on top of the trial, so your first charge comes when that free month ends. You can book a demo if you want a walkthrough, but you do not have to.
Can I run it from my phone, or from another state?
Yes. It is a cloud web app that runs in any current browser on a phone, tablet or laptop, with nothing to install. One login runs all your facilities, with an All Facilities view and one tenant list you can search across them.
Where is Storage Facility Creator available?
Storage Facility Creator is built for facilities in the United States: pricing is in US dollars, card payments run through Stripe, and texting goes out from a US toll-free number. If your facility is outside the US, email support@storagefacilitycreator.com before you sign up.
Pricing
One published price, no contract, no per-user or per-unit fees.
What does Storage Facility Creator cost?
$75 per facility, per month, with unlimited users and all core features: billing, autopay, collections, texting and email, e-signed leases, the tenant portal and reporting. No per-seat pricing, no modules, no onboarding fee, month to month. The only add-on is a public website with online rentals at $25 per facility per month, cancel any time. You start with a 30-day trial plus your first month free; the trial begins once your account is approved.
Is it priced per facility, per user or per unit?
Per facility. $75 per facility, per month, with unlimited users and no per-unit fees, so two facilities are $150 a month and three are $225. There is no onboarding fee and setup is included. The only add-on is the public facility website with online rentals at $25 per facility per month. See the Pricing page for the full breakdown.
Is there a contract, and how many users can I have?
No contract: month to month, cancel from inside the app and keep access to the end of the billing period. Users are unlimited per facility, with Owner, Manager, Employee and Viewer roles, emailed-code two-factor sign-in, and a per-facility audit trail of who did what. Support is by email at support@storagefacilitycreator.com and the Report a Bug button inside the app.
Payments and autopay
Your own Stripe account per facility, so card payments pay out straight to you.
How does it handle payments and autopay?
Each facility connects its own Stripe account, so card payments pay out straight to you. Cards are kept on file by Stripe; we never see or store full card numbers or CVV. Autopay collects each tenant's balance once a month, retries most declined cards a few days later, and switches off for a dead or expired card. Cash and checks are recorded with a receipt.
Can I take a card payment at the counter or over the phone?
Yes. Charge the card a tenant has on file for a phone or counter payment, or take a new card in the app with no separate terminal. Cash and checks are recorded in seconds with a printed receipt, and every payment shows up in the payment history by tenant, date, method and status.
Can tenants pay without logging in?
Yes. Create a secure pay-by-link for any tenant, copy it into a text or email, and they pay by card without an account. Tenants who want to see their balance and history use the tenant portal, which is included with every facility.
Collections
See who is behind, post the late fee if you choose to, and overlock in bulk.
Does it help with delinquent accounts?
Yes. A past-due list shows who is behind, by how many days and what they owe, with a late badge on the tenant list. Late fees can post automatically after your grace period if you switch them on, autopay retries a declined card a few days later, and one action overlocks every unit that owes a balance, with a printable list of overlocked units showing tenant, phone and amount owed. Overdue and overlocked tenants see the notice in their portal with a Pay now button, and you can send a ready-made past-due text or email from the tenant record or Messaging.
Do late fees post automatically?
Only if you turn them on. Each facility sets its own grace period and a flat or percentage late fee. Automatic late fees are an opt-in switch per facility, default off, and never post more than once a month. With the switch off, the app still marks who is late so you can post the fee by hand.
Does it run lien notices and auctions?
Not yet. Storage Facility Creator tracks how many days each tenant is past due and records when they become lien-eligible, but it does not generate lien letters, mail notices, schedule auctions or run them. You keep your current lien process for that step.
Messaging
Opt-in texting and email from the app, with STOP and HELP handled for you.
Can it send text and email rent reminders?
Yes. Turn text reminders on and tenants who opted in get a rent reminder text on the lead time you choose, during your business hours. You can also text or email any tenant from their record or the Messaging hub, send a ready-made past-due or payment reminder, message many tenants at once and see which sends failed and why, and answer replies as two-way text conversations inside the app.
How is SMS consent handled?
Texting requires express opt-in. Consent is recorded when you add a tenant, in bulk for existing tenants and on every online rental. STOP, START and HELP are handled automatically, opt-outs are visible in the app, and a tenant who consents again can be restored with an audit trail. Message frequency varies and message and data rates may apply.
Is there a limit on texts and emails, and do I get my own number?
Each paid facility includes up to 5,000 emails a month (500 during the trial). Texts go out on a verified toll-free number shared across facilities, within a monthly fair-use allowance. Dedicated or local texting numbers are not offered today.
Leases and e-sign
Your own lease, signed at the counter and filed on the tenant record.
Does it support electronic signatures?
Yes, and e-sign is built in rather than a third-party add-on. Walk-ins sign your own lease on the office tablet, online renters e-sign the standard rental terms during their online move-in, and neither needs an account. The signed PDF is stored on the tenant record, and tenants who sign in person are emailed a link to their copy. Each agreement keeps the signer's name, email and signing time. The E-Sign Disclosure page explains what tenants agree to.
Can I use my own lease?
Yes. Upload your lease PDF, tap where the tenant signs, initials, dates and writes the unit number, and reuse it for each new tenant at that facility. If you do not have one yet, sample storage, vehicle/RV and addendum agreements are included. You confirm you have the rights to any form you upload, so association or attorney-drafted leases are fine.
Online rentals and tenant portal
Paying online is included. Renting online is the one add-on.
Does it include a website where tenants can rent and pay online?
Paying online is included: every facility gets a tenant portal where tenants see their balance, pay by card, save a card and turn on autopay, plus pay-by-links you can text or email. Renting online is the one add-on: for $25 per facility per month you get a hosted facility website and rental page where renters pick a unit, sign and pay, and the move-in appears in your dashboard with a gate code issued.
What can tenants do in the portal?
Tenants sign in with their email and an access code, and can recover a lost code themselves. They see their balance and payment history, pay by card, save a card and switch autopay on, and keep their phone, emergency contacts and vehicles current. When online rentals are on, they can rent another unit from the portal. Invite one tenant or a selection of tenants by email.
What happens when someone rents a unit online?
The renter browses available units by type on your hosted rental page or published map, and is screened against your Do Not Rent list before a unit is held. A timed hold keeps the unit while they sign the agreement, give SMS consent and pay a prorated first month through Stripe Checkout into your own account. The move-in lands in your dashboard as a tenant, a signed agreement PDF, a ledger entry and a gate code to enter in your gate controller. If a renter pays but the unit can no longer be rented to them, the payment is refunded automatically and you are told.
Reporting
The numbers you check every morning, kept current without a report run.
What reports are included?
The dashboard shows active tenants, occupied and vacant units, scheduled monthly rent, the share on autopay and who is past due, for one facility or all of them, with counts worked out fresh each time you open it. A payments report covers the last 30 days, 90 days, year to date or a custom range. Occupancy by unit type flags a size that is full enough to carry a higher rate, invoice and transaction tabs total paid, pending and overdue, and each tenant has an autopay activity log and a 12-month paid-or-late history.
Can I export my numbers for my accountant?
Yes. The payments report exports to CSV for any date range. Statements, invoices and receipts print on your own letterhead, and month-end statements for every tenant who owes come out as one PDF for mailing.
Security
Roles enforced on the database, two-factor sign-in and an audit trail that cannot be edited.
Is my data secure?
The app runs on Google Cloud with encrypted connections. Sign-in uses a verified email address and password, and you can turn on two-factor sign-in by emailed code. Owner, Manager, Employee and Viewer roles are enforced both in the app and on our servers, and payments, move-ins, move-outs, Do Not Rent changes and team changes are written to a per-facility audit log that cannot be edited. Card numbers are kept by Stripe and never touch the software. The Security page has the full picture.
Who on my team can see what?
You give each staff member an Owner, Manager, Employee or Viewer role per facility. Viewers read, employees do day-to-day work, managers can overlock and run move-outs, and only owners handle billing and Stripe. Users are unlimited, key actions are logged with who did them and when, and removing someone takes one screen.
What third-party providers does it use?
Stripe for payments, Twilio for texting, SendGrid for email, Google Cloud for hosting and data, and Intuit for QuickBooks Online, used only for a facility that asks us to turn it on. The full list, with what each provider receives, is on the Subprocessors page.
Can I request a DPA?
Yes. DPA information and request instructions are on the DPA page.
Integrations
Gate codes without hardware, Stripe for cards, and QuickBooks on request.
Will it work with my gate?
Storage Facility Creator keeps a gate code on file for every tenant, limited to the days, hours or dates you choose, generated automatically at move-in and switched off at move-out. It does not connect to gate hardware, so you still enter codes in your gate controller.
Does it integrate with QuickBooks?
QuickBooks Online is available on request, so ask us; it is not switched on by default. The monthly payments report exports to CSV for your accountant. Stripe, Twilio and SendGrid are built in; there is no public API today. See the Integrations page for details.
Migration and support
Bring your tenants over from a spreadsheet or your old system, and reach us by email.
Can we migrate from our current software or from spreadsheets?
Yes. Import your tenant list from a CSV (a sample file is included), with duplicate detection and column matching. Then enter each tenant's past rent and payments with their real dates so balances start out right, and mark tenants paid through a month in bulk so late status and reminders start from the right date.
Do you help with setup?
Setup is built to be done yourself in an afternoon: a six-step onboarding checklist in Settings walks you from first facility to taking rent by card, the CSV import wizard comes with a sample file, and dashboard tips show where everything lives. If you get stuck, email us what you are moving from and we will walk you through the steps. See the Migration page for a plan.
How do I reach support?
Email support@storagefacilitycreator.com, or use the Report a Bug button inside the app, which sends the problem straight to us. Support is included in the subscription at no extra cost. There is no phone support line.
SMS messaging and consent
If a tenant provides a phone number and opts in, they may receive account-related SMS messages such as payment reminders and important updates. Message frequency varies. Message and data rates may apply. Reply STOP to opt out at any time. Reply HELP for help. Consent is not a condition of purchase.
Review full details in SMS Terms and Privacy Policy.
Did not find your question?
Start a free trial and see for yourself, book a demo, or email support@storagefacilitycreator.com and we will answer it.
No onboarding fee. $75 per facility, per month. Built for self-storage operators.