Skip to main content

Intro to Zinsli

We are Zinsli​

Zinsli is the independent marketplace for rental deposit solutions. It is our goal to make all processes around the rental deposits quicker and less frustrating for everyone, while at the same time enabling the tenant to place their deposit into a product of their choice.

Traditionally, low to zero-interest savings accounts have been used to hold rental deposits. This often results in a loss of value for the tenants between depositing the collateral and withdrawing it, likely several years to decades later. Zinsli aims to provide the tenant with more interesting investment options, while still respecting the security requirements from the owner of the rental unit.

Even a quarter into the 21st century, most banks require PDFs with wet-ink signatures from tenant and managers in order to open and close a collateral account. This means the file needs to coordinated between several parties (don't forget multi-tenant situations) and often needs to be printed and scanned several times before it arrives at the financial institution. Then the financial institution often needs to decipher the various handwritings on the paper, before it can open the account. Zinsli aims to improve the efficiency of this process by completely digitalizing all processes and working with automated notifications and workflows, ensuring that all required parties are involved at the right time and complete their tasks succinctly.

System Stakeholders​

There are three main and one minor stakeholder involved in rental deposits.

The manager is the person or company which takes care of renting out the unit and interacts with the tenant. This may or may not be the same person or company which owns the unit. The manager's signature is required in order to release the deposit at the end of the tenancy.

The owner has only a minor role, as they only decide which products a tenant is allowed to choose for his deposits. Once this decision is made, the manager handles the rest of the process. (It is possible that the owner and the manager is the same person or organization).

The tenant is the person or business who is renting the unit, who opens the account with the product provider and who is responsible for paying the deposit. The rental deposit account is in the name of the main tenant.

The product provider, is the institution, often a bank or an insurance company, providing the products for the deposits. The tenant and the manager always enter into a contract with the product provider for their deposit, and never with Zinsli.

For a full list of the various terms, have a look at the glossary.

Process Overview​

Setup (one-time)​

  1. The product provider lists their product on the marketplace.
  2. The manager decides which products are allowed for the deposit.
Sequence diagram: Product Management

Operations (recurring)​

  1. The manager creates a collateral and invites tenant.
  2. The tenant accepts the invitation and picks one of the permitted products.
  3. The tenant completes the onboarding process with the product provider
  4. The product provider verifies the new onboarding request and, if approved, opens the account. The information for making the deposit is transmitted to Zinsli, which communicates it to the tenant.
  5. The tenant makes the payment of the deposit into the dedicated account.
  6. The deposit is locked and can only be unlocked and payed out with the explicit approval from the manager and the tenant.

Both, the manager and the tenant, are automatically informed about all steps in the process and status changes of the deposit.

Sequence diagram: Opening

Closing​

  1. Manager creates closing requests on Zinsli and indicates how much of the deposit they claims for damages. They also indicate the IBAN to which the claim should be paid.
  2. The closing request is sent to the tenant. The tenant reviews the request and indicates if they agree or not. If they do not agree, the request is sent to the manager to modify the claim. Process is repeated until agreement is found.
  3. The tenant indicates how they would like to pay the claim: from the rental deposit account which is managed over Zinsli or some other account and the IBAN to which the remainder of the deposit money should be paid out.
  4. If the payment is to be made from the rental deposit account, Zinsli sends the payment request to the product provider. The product provider completes the transactions and closes the account.
  5. If the payment is to be made from a different account, Zinsli informs the manager and waits until the manager confirms the received funds. Then the payout and closure request for the rental deposit account is transmitted to the product provider.
Sequence diagram: Closing

Ways to access Zinsli​

We provide a fully functional platform out of the box at https://app.zinsli.com. You can start using it right away, without any further work. However, if you wish to integrate the functions into an existing rental management platform, we provide you with a simple API.

For having a look around the platform, without having to make an account, please visit: https://demo.zinsli.com

For an integration into your platform, please check out the technical documentation for API location and access details.