A Better Rent-To-Own System PART 1

The shed rent-to-own world runs on numbers, but too many operators are forced to manage on guesses because the data shows up late, scattered, or trapped in legacy systems. We sit down with Duane and Leann Burkholder of Burkholder Management alongside Kyle Summers and Craig Felker to share the “why now” behind a new cloud-based RTO software platform called OWNLY and the partnership forming around it. If you’ve ever felt the pain of slow reports, duplicate entry, or having accounting and operations tell two different stories, this conversation will hit home. 

We get specific about what modern rent-to-own software should do for shed dealers, manufacturers, and RTO operators: real-time reporting you can actually build yourself, portfolio performance metrics that go deeper than averages, and clearer answers about term behavior and early payoffs. Duane explains how accounting integration changes the game, turning messy bucket transfers into mapped, trackable activity so you can see discounts, payoff decisions, and performance with accountability. Craig and Kyle connect those ideas to what leadership teams need most: speed, clarity, and control. 

Then we bring it down to the ground level, where the work happens: asset-level P&Ls that tie hauling, commissions, and revenue to a single building, plus tools for project management, collections workflows, and a branded customer portal for payments, autopay, contracts, and online payoff. We also talk about instant payment visibility for repo drivers in the field, so teams don’t lose time to phone calls and “where’s the payment?” confusion. This is Part 1 of a two-part series, and it sets up what could be a major shift in shed industry operations. 

Come back Friday for Part 2, share this with one RTO operator who’s tired of spreadsheet chaos, and leave a review if you want more deep dives like this. What’s the one report you wish your RTO system could show you today?

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This episodes Sponsors:
Studio Sponsor: Shed Pro

PlayMor Playsets
J Money LLC
Cardinal Leasing
IFAB

Transcript

INTRO 0:00

Hello and welcome back to the Shed Geek Podcast. Here's a message from our studio sponsor. Let's be real. Running a shed business today isn't just about building great sheds. The industry is changing fast. We're all feeling the squeeze, competing for fewer buyers, while expectations keep climbing. And yet I hear from many of you that you are still juggling spreadsheets, clunky software, or disconnected systems. You're spending more time managing chaos than actually growing your business. That's why I want to talk to you about our studio sponsor, ShedPro. If you're not already using them, I really think you should check them out. ShedPro combines your 3D configurator, point of sale, RTO contracts, inventory, deliveries, and dealer tools all in one platform. They even integrate cleanly into our Shed Geek marketing solutions. From website leads, to final delivery, you can quote, contract, collect payment, and schedule delivery in one clean workflow. No more double entries, no more back and forth chaos. Quoting is faster, orders are cleaner. And instead of chasing down paperwork, you're actually running your business. And if you mention Shed Geek, you'll get 25% off all setup fees. Check it out at shedpro.co/ShedGeek. Thank you, ShedPro, for being our studio sponsor and honestly for building something that helps the industry.

Welcome Back And Quick Ways To Connect

Meet Duane And Leann Burkholder

Shannon 1:36

Okay, welcome back to another episode of the Shed Geek Podcast here in uh downtown Paducah, the old Coke building. Padunkadunk. Sprocket. Sprocket. Sprockett sounds fun. Uh before we get rolling, a few ways to stay plugged in with us over at Shed Geek. Uh give me a call at 618-309-3648. Email me at info@ shedgeek.com or check out our website at shedgeek.com, fill out a lead form, buy something, criticize us, whatever it is that's on your mind. Criticize us. Give us more lead form. I feel like I feel like it goes without saying, you know? Like just do it. Uh the Facebook pages, check us out. Shed Sales Professional. Uh hot item of the day. I don't know. Comedy, because that's what this episode's going to be. Maybe a little seriousness and uh definitely educational with some fun stuff. Who do we have on the Shed Geek podcast today? I mean, there's a lot of people, but you guys can't see them, so we're going to introduce you to them. Let's start.

Craig Felker 2:33

Goodness. Uh well, can let me just look at these amazing people across here, Leeann and Duane Burkholder. You know them. Uh I know them. We know them. You maybe you don't know them, but hopefully you'll know them after this. We all know them.

Duane Burkholder 2:46

We don't we've never heard of them.

Craig Felker 2:48

Duane doesn't know who he is. Uh somebody. Yeah. And dear friends of both Kyle Summers and I, I'm Craig Felker, Kyle Summers in the room. I don't want to introduce everybody, but Leann and Duane Burkholder, Burkholder, Burkholder Management, Ownly software. You guys introduce yourselves because I mean these are legends here.

Shannon 3:09

Tell us, tell us, Duane, who are you?

Duane Burkholder 3:11

Well, I thought I thought Craig was going to do the thing where he introduces uh everybody in the room again, because this has gotten rather interesting and hilarious at times. Uh but yes, Duane Burkholder, um, been in the shed industry for oh my built sheds when I was 20 some years old, way back before like at the turn of the 2000s.

Shannon 3:34

Going back a little ways.

Craig Felker 3:34

That was his Y2K plan. He's like when the world ends, I want to be able to make sheds. That's right.

Duane Burkholder 3:40

Well, it was stacking cans in a shed in my back. No, I'm just kidding. I was not stacking cans in my backyard. Um, but uh been in the rent zone industry since 2007. Somebody recently told me that's 19 years. I don't know how that became a thing. Um, but yeah, my dear wife and business partner, um, Leanne, I'll let you introduce yourself.

Leann Burkholder 4:02

Yep. I'm Leann and happy to be here today. We've been working here in this space for quite a little while. And most importantly, I think really found our footing in the shed industry and started growing significantly in 2017. And we've really done a lot of management. That's kind of been our sweet spot for a lot of different years. And we're really excited about partnering with um Kyle and with Craig because they bring a lot of things that um we lack, and we're excited about that.

Duane Burkholder 4:34

Things like humor.

Shannon 4:38

Well, I don't know, you got a laugh out of us. I mean, you know.

Craig Felker 4:42

I mean, you have to have some humor to decide that Kyle and Craig are two people you should partner with. That's true.

Kyle Summers 4:47

I was thinking it was the other way around. That's true. Well, not that the other way, but yeah.

Craig Felker 4:52

Leanne, also uh board member NSRA, uh, has been on the event committee for a few years. Uh obviously, uh Kyle Summers, the event champion this year for the National Shed Rental Association conference.

Kyle Summers 5:04

Let's go.

Craig Felker 5:05

That's some breaking news. A lot of people don't know that. He's back again.

Kyle Summers 5:09

Um's back. Yeah, I know.

Finding Your People In The Industry

Craig Felker 5:12

That's what I wanted to do it, but you did it. Um I I'm back on the event committee, and we've had the pleasure to kind of partner and work, you know, walk hand in hand with Leanne and watch her um hold things down the way she does in such a graceful but like gets things done kind of way. Um the emotional intelligence is off the charts. So um and you know, when I came back into the industry a couple years ago, one of my first uh dinners back in the industry, Kyle and I met, uh Leann and Duane, and uh I remember leaving that thinking uh because no secret, I'm the energy guy, I'm whatever, you know, a bit of the goofball. Um the wild guy. The wild guy. Huge goofball. Okay, we let's stop there. It hurts. You know, it hurts. Um because words build worlds or they tear them down. Um goodly. Be sure to fill out the contact form at yeah, larger complaints with those.

Kyle Summers 6:20

That's info in f okay.

Craig Felker 6:25

But you know, at times I have felt a little bit um and and I'll listen, I'm all about people standing out. I want people to be themselves. You know that we've talked a lot about culture. And I think at the end of the day, when people are able to be their true self, they will stand out. And so if we can give people the courage to be themselves, you know, that's what we want. But at the same time, I do believe that there's this enemy coming to lie to us that we're alone. And I left this dinner with these uh these lovely people who were very cultured and loved food and just loved new experiences. And I remember telling Kyle, I'm like, who are these people? Like, they're in the shed industry. Like I it just kind of blew my mind. And I told Leann and Duane in a text message, probably fall is Thanksgiving. Uh, there was a moment of gratitude. I just messaged them and just said something to the effect. I don't remember, it was probably better than this is gonna sound because I'm off the dome right now. But um I just thanked them because it helped me not feel like I was uh just some alone kind of uh wild card in this industry. And I'll say this this industry has been incredibly gracious uh to me for the time before I left and did banking, and then this last few years it's welcomed me back in all the ways. Um obviously this guy to my right has been a huge part of that um in really the last 10 years, off and on in this industry. Um so I don't mean that in any way negative because this industry has been really, really good to me, and I'm grateful for it. But uh Leann and Duane were just kindred spirits from that first dinner, and I've been really grateful to be connected, which is big some big news we can talk about in a little bit after Kyle talks a little bit, because really here's some big news.

Shannon 8:11

Kyle Summers back on the first time, and and uh you didn't even rehearse a woo or nothing. I didn't, I didn't want to hurt anyone's ears.

Kyle Summers 8:22

Oh gosh. I remember getting yelled at a lot when I would do it. Woo!

Shannon 8:26

That's the inside jokes. The inside jokes like are amazing. Um yeah, we did get an email that you were you were too loud on the woo. The woo is too loud. Um, so but no, welcome. Honestly, welcome back. And it's this sounds exciting. You know, I've had a chance to meet with you guys before, uh a little bit here and there, and just love what you do. Everything, echo everything Craig said. Uh, just a, you know, uh amazing people in the industry, everything we've heard about you, your business, and and and all that you do. And I'm curious, like, what is that business? Um are we jumping in right off the case?

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Craig Felker 11:47

Kyle, want it you want to start it?

A New Partnership And Big News

Kyle Summers 11:49

I do not. So listen, I was telling everyone, like, you know, I I've been on this podcast several times, but this is the first time I've ever been on a podcast where I'm being interviewed and it's weird and I don't like it.

Shannon 12:03

So it is different.

Kyle Summers 12:04

I would like to be back on the other side, and I'll just tell the jokes every now and then, and I will let everyone else take it from here.

Craig Felker 12:10

Well, I will say this um Kyle and I are, you know, I guess by the time this debuts, maybe people know, maybe people don't know, but this is kind of a moment, and we are both uh excited about this new season. Um you know, a lot of people know uh I was chief brand officer, Kyle, uh chief sales growth officer, and uh that's what we've done in this industry. We've had the privilege of doing that um for the last few years, two years for me, four years for Kyle uh with JMAG. And this is a new season for us. Um literally joining forces, becoming partners, true partners, and uh a little bit of co-ownership and just getting to uh step in and uh uh help two friends that have uh that we both deeply uh uh care for, respect, and have uh the utmost respect because we've seen them kill it on the management side. Absolutely kill it. Um and then also for the last year, um we've watched Duane um start to build something that we feel like this industry is desperately needed. Um a second option, a competitor. Um and I know that there's some other companies out there, you know, trying to do the same thing. Um uh shout out listen, shout out to RTO Pro. When I got into this industry, I remember thinking, golly, that thing looks like it's not even 1999, Google, it's 1996. Like it, you know, it's it but RTL Pro for years has just worked. That's right. Like, shout out to RTO Pro, right?

Shannon 13:51

Yeah.

Craig Felker 13:52

Um and no one, I mean, I uh for 10 years, I've been in I came in the industry in 2015, and people are like, somebody should do something about that. I think everybody was just like the Spider-Man me. They're like you, you know, you yeah. And um, it excited us. Uh I am so excited, and and only we'll talk about that. I'm sure Duane will get real nerdy on us, it's gonna be great. Uh but he has been building something uh with Leanne that this industry it's gonna change the industry. It's gonna change the industry um because the ability to get the data that you need quick, we call it RPM, real performance metrics. That sounds like an engine. This is a good engine, y'all. We're gonna talk about that engine only. Um we're so excited, and that's coming this summer. It's been building, it's close, it's coming this summer. And uh kind of get a chance to partner with um two dear friends and uh build something that we're pretty uh dang excited about.

Kyle Summers 14:54

Yeah, there's um these two people, Duane and Leann, are um really, really dear friends and uh grown close to them over the past couple years. Uh we've done uh we've we've we've tried to find ways in the past to partner together, work together in some form or fashion. It never really panned out, never worked out. Um coming from you know the chief sales side at um JMAG, you know, nothing but love for that season of my life. It's been it was wonderful. It um it propelled me to be able to do this. Um and so I'm I feel very blessed um for that time in my life, but I am extremely excited about what's about to happen. And um like Duane, I think you should I think you should tell why Ownly. Like why did you why did you do it?

Duane Burkholder 15:51

Well, okay, before we get into that, since I feel rather buttered up over here, I'm gonna turn around and see if I can butter the other way. Um because I do want to go back and color in a little bit of the picture that Craig talked about are kind of the first time we really got to know each other because sitting in that restaurant in Charlotte was one of the coolest moments, I feel like, in a long time. Where so I was doing some sales management for a company here in North Carolina, and uh we were using Kyle um and some of the Facebook marketing stuff that that he's been doing. And I just I just off the cuff said, Hey, they were coming in to the for the shed haulers fast here in North Carolina from back a couple years ago. And I said, Hey, we should just get dinner together and just kind of hang out. And it was it was a total just a business hangout time. Kyle and I really never really connected at a really deep level. And then Kyle shows up with Craig and Leanne and I show up, and we just had the coolest night ever. It was a total faith conversation, it was just backstory on who we were and our faith journey, and I mean, it was just it was an amazing night, which really started a relationship um of just becoming really close friends. And I don't know, it's uh Craig likes to say we're cultured and we're this and we're that the next thing, and I don't know, we just try to be authentic people, and it's fun to connect with other authentic people.

Craig Felker 17:26

And um yeah, I mean that's it doesn't hurt Duane's a sound guy too, as a former band guy.

Duane Burkholder 17:33

I mean, we like music nerd. Yeah, total music nerd. To the point to the point where there's a couple conversations that Craig and I are geeking out over in-air monitors, and Kyle's just rolling his eyes. Like, can you guys shut up now? Like, what in the world are we talking about?

Kyle Summers 17:48

That happens a lot.

Duane Burkholder 17:49

Yeah.

Cord 17:50

You know, Leann had mentioned, and I think this probably works well for the buttering up, as you said there, uh, Duane. Leann had mentioned uh Craig and Kyle being able to bring something that you don't feel like Burkholder has had up to this point. And I feel like you're we're kind of dancing around exactly what that is. I mean, you know, I think obviously these guys are energy guys, execution guys, but maybe that's a good place to start. Like, how does this, you know, force them right here? Yeah, what do we bring? Yeah, tell us. Yeah, I mean, these guys, but like, how do these strengths um, how do their strengths really complement what you guys are already doing? Because I presume that's the story that like Craig is going to be tasked with telling here over the next few months, years, decades, you know, however long.

Duane Burkholder 18:40

So, I want to take you back to probably right around the beginning of 2025. Um recently we had our quarterly address as a team, and this this really cool moment hit me where I um I wrote some things on a whiteboard and sitting in our office, and Leanne and I are we are like we're not people who know me think I could actually be a good salesperson. I'm a terrible salesperson. And I we don't we don't really do sales for ourselves. We've never done sales, we've always just kind of followed whatever opportunities kind of came our way and whatever you know showed up on the door, and we just execute. We you know we do it well, and you know, word of mouth has spread over time, but it's like we've never really actively tried to quote build our business. It's we just kind of do the next thing. And due to some things changing inside of our business, I really felt like we have to do something about this. Like it's we've plateaued in in business, you don't really ever plateau it. You're either growing or you're or you're shrinking. And so, I began really praying heavily about a salesperson for our company. Um wrote some things on a whiteboard in our office where everybody could see it, and one of the things that I wrote on there was praying for a salesperson for our company. Privately, I wrote down some notes um that I was specifically praying for. And one of those notes that I wrote down is I said, I'm specifically praying for a salesperson, and I named two people. One of them was Kyle, and beside his name, I said, Seems impossible. Here he is.

Leann Burkholder 20:31

And I think the other thing that you did in that on that board at that same time is you told the team you want to bring a product to market and you have no idea what it is, but you want a product. And if you have a product, you need a salesperson to sell that product. Um, and we have both of those now. So, that's it's a cool moment for us of vision and seeing that come to fruit.

Duane Burkholder 20:52

Yeah. So, for the last for throughout 2025, it's I feel like it's been this this whole growing experience of really putting some things down on paper, the of like needing God to move and line some things up and just seeing that come together. And somehow, we ended up with this an additional person, still not sure how he got here. Um, I don't know if he was like, but anyway.

Cord 21:18

He wasn't on the board, is what you're saying.

Kyle Summers 21:20

I was gonna make a terrible joke and say he wrote down two names. One of them was Kyle, the other one was not Craig.

Cord 21:28

I didn't want to point it out in the middle of the soliloquy or the monologue there, but as a matter of fact, it said anybody but Craig.

Shannon 21:36

Uh but Kyle and anybody else. Just literally anybody else.

Craig Felker 21:40

I was I was telling myself that he didn't think he's like, it's not possible with Kyle. I can't even write Craig's name down. It's not possible. Yeah, right, right. But I don't think that was it.

Cord 21:49

In a different universe. Yeah, right, exactly.

Craig Felker 21:51

It's like I don't think I don't think we're even ready for that.

Shannon 21:54

I would say Duane, like out outside of the fact that, you know, that. That came together the way that it did. You really put a product out there that it sounds like is very needed. You know, uh Craig's talked about, you know, there's some others out there in the industry that done it, but I've heard, and like, look, no offense to, you know, uh Ron. I'm not even sure if he still owns RTO Pro or whatever. But, you know, like seems it served, you know, the industry for a long time. Uh, but you know, I've heard it explained as like an Excel spreadsheet on steroids, right? And like, but an Excel spreadsheet that works.

Duane Burkholder 22:28

Yeah.

Shannon 22:28

To your point. And like everybody's like, what's the alternatives? You know, where's a cloud-based software? When are we getting into some different opportunities? And uh or say more. It's just it's just really, it's just really necessary. I mean, there's the rent-to-own space is huge, like in the shed industry, and to be able to organize those contracts among other things that I'm sure the software does. So, uh outside of outside of what you guys have been doing on the management side, like what will only look like? Um Duane, we talked a little bit four or five months ago. So, I felt like I got a little sneak peek. Thank you for that. But I'd love for you guys to share whatever you want to so that uh the industry's aware of what problems it's solving.

Craig Felker 23:12

Oh can I let me go? Can I go, Duane, or do you want me to go?

Duane Burkholder 23:15

Yeah, go for it. No, go for it.

Speedy Reporting With Data Ownership

Craig Felker 23:16

Because you can clean up. Here's what excited me. It's fast. Why is it fast? Well, this wasn't built. Um it's in the clouds, by the way. Your data has it, it's in its own incident. What does that mean? It means a lot of things are one big giant database that you get filtered out. Your data's not safe. Maybe it's probably safe. Probably safe, right? But it it's hopefully safe. Um but it's slow because it's a big database. This is your database, your incidents. To the point, this is crazy, to the point of you don't even have to we don't even have to see it. It's safe. Like you can, like literally, we we don't have to see it. Right? It because of that, you're in control. Because of that, it's literally in the cloud. Because of that, it's fast, real fast. Also, the foundation isn't sand. This foundation was built. Duane found this, has used it, it was built and currently works for banks. When it was built, $150 million investment to build this foundation. $1.2 trillion worth of bond management is actively happening in this software. I came from banking, I know that. In banking, things move slow, but they move right because the one thing you can't get wrong and mess up is what? Absolutely not. Also, it's the most highly regulated industry in the world. You have a foundation built on something that can't mess up. That is as solid a rock as you can get that was built for regulation. And it's fast. And you have your own data. So fast that one of the big problems that many people have is they don't know how to find the data. Well, this is the kind of thing that in two minutes you can build pretty much any report you want to discover anything granularly. All the way down to like how is this deal, how is this portfolio performing with this particular dealer in this area? It's all granular, you can do it. You can do it yourself, although we will have people that will help you do it because some people just want other people to do things for them. It really is uh simple on both sides. And uh we want to make it easy. We want customer service people to not have to spend forever calculating an APL. We want to give it to them quickly. We want customers to have uh the ability to do that. We want customers to have the ability to be able to set up with their own auto pay. I could keep going. But it literally is real performance. I call it RPM real performance metrics, it's real storytelling. Real-time storytelling. That's what we're talking about. The ability to make decisions on data that you control that moves quickly, so you can move quickly. And in this industry, how many times do people not know truly where their portfolio is performing, where their money is going. Like there's some stuff, I can only talk about some of the stuff we're doing, we do some nerd wallet kind of stuff, the compound calculator stuff where you change this, and like we want to get to the point where we can say, if you do this by this, this is this is how you can expect your portfolio to perform. Duane, I'm sorry, buddy, I got excited, I got passionate there, but this is why I'm on this, this is why I'm here.

Cord 26:53

Yeah, right?

Craig Felker 26:54

It's not because I don't think this is gonna be amazing. I can tell you that much. Because I had Kyle and I were in a great situation, but um and we are here because we believe Duane and Leann are special. We believe they have something special. They've invited us to that party, and I think it's gonna be a great party. Um we get to we get to be true uh part owners and partners and get to build this. Um we also have a third thing Kyle and I are doing that kind of runs parallel to all of this. Uh Wild Belief Co. We'll talk about that later. Um but this is really game-changing stuff. And it's coming. Yeah, it's actually coming. And Duane, I'm sorry. Yeah, bring it in. Go for it.

Cord 27:37

Bring it home for us, Duane, because I mean Craig is describing this product, I mean, beautifully, honestly. We know he does that. Great words, great delivery. But bring this thing home for us because where does that speed land in the day-to-day uh of the customer? Like, where is this making a difference on the ground? Like get into get into that, what that process is and how it improves. Because Craig kind of set you up earlier on in the podcast and said Duane will dive in deep, he will get geeky, he will get into the weeds. Put him on the timer. But like that's what that's what the listener, that's what the listener wants to know is that's great, that's beautiful. Where does this land in my business?

Leann Burkholder 28:23

And before he does, I want to jump in and just say that one of the reasons Duane's sitting here doing this is because he has um this passion for there has to be a better way to do things. It's kind of how he approaches almost everything in life of like, okay, that's great. We could do it better.

Craig Felker 28:41

And he and we can do it simpler. And you guys need the software. We need the software for the people that we're managing now. Like Go Dwayne, I'm sorry. Yeah, yeah.

Accounting Integration And Portfolio Metrics

Duane Burkholder 28:51

No. Uh I was a little scared you're gonna set the bar too high, and I have to actually meet up to that. So, let me just take you back for a second and talk about the underlying platform and where uh kind of how I got involved with this. So, um was working with some Amish manufacturers here in North Carolina, Ohio, and Indiana, and they had uh I kind of inherited this relationship with this particular platform, and over about the last five years, have been involved heavily involved in building out an entire ERP, end-to-end inventory management, order entry, point of sale, built our own 3D visualizer. We didn't integrate with somebody, we built our own. And it's a complete end-to-end, and kind of the bridge too far, which I thought they were going too far with, was this idea that they were gonna integrate accrual accounting into the platform? And I was like, this is nuts, this is crazy. There are way better softwares out there that have done accounting for decades. Why would we go try to build accrual accounting? When we got done with that, is when the kind of like the light bulb went on when I was inside of a uh an income statement, inside of a GL account, looking at a revenue account, and I'm like, okay, where's this transaction coming from? And scroll down to the bottom of the page, hit the source record, and end up on the transaction that actually generated that. And I'm that's when the lights went on. I was like, wait a minute, we need this for rent to own. The amounts of time that rent-to-own companies spend moving information out of RTO Pro or whatever management platform that they're using over into a QuickBooks or a Peach Tree or some kind of accounting platform, there are whole teams for this inside of large-size rent-to-owned companies. And I'm like, there's like being able to have direct integration to an accounting platform inside of your management software is like, well, if we have both sides of the data, if you have both the management side and you have the accounting side and you can build reporting that bridges those two gaps, we could do some really cool stuff. I'm a data nerd. I love going and finding stuff. I love going and figuring out stuff. I love, you know, digging down and figuring out trends inside the data. If I can do that both on the management side and the financial side, this is cool. And so that really kind of started the process to say, okay, what would it look like to build rent-to-owned software on this platform? Did a high-level design in May, and it kind of sat for a little bit because I was frankly kind of scared to launch them. It's a big financial commitment to build something of this size. Um, but the great part is we're working on top of a platform that was designed to build custom software. So it's like we're not starting from scratch. We're not building our own database, we're not trying to figure out exactly how the UI is going to work. There's so much stuff that's already answered, and we can go build the tools that actually matter. So we can build at a speed and a cost that I feel like is unrivaled and end up in a place that just brings tremendous tool set to the industry. And the part that really kind of geeks me out is we built migration to bring data across. And once I had the migrated data and I was started to be able to run reporting against stuff I've always wanted to know. Things like, okay, based on terms of your rent-to-one contracts, what is my payoff uh point? What are my average payoff points on per term per company? Break it down. Give me the overall across all the companies that are currently in my portfolio, but also give it to me by term by company. Well, that's very interesting, especially when you

Craig Felker 32:44

You mean it's not all 21 months, not all 22 months, Duane?

Duane Burkholder 32:47

It is not. I hate to break it to some people. Your average portfolio is not just 22 months.

Craig Felker 32:54

Yeah.

Duane Burkholder 32:54

I mean you need to start looking at stuff by term because your 60-month contracts have a very interesting twist to them. Yeah, they do.

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Cord 36:17

That's right. But Shannon and I, Shannon and I have had this conversation ongoing for a while, which is it really seems like there is a gap between the accounting side, the margin side, the actual numbers side of RTO and the management side. Like I continue to say, is not is the how is the logistics side of this, whether that those logistics are just office logistics that are follow-ups and you know letters and you're trying to like goad people in the right direction, or whether those logistics are physical logistics, right? They're actually trucks and trailers and guys on the ground and where's that shed and all those things. How are people running these companies with like a such a long window of understanding between where these numbers are today and what decisions can we make in management today? Like this has been on my mind for so long. I don't know if we knew that we were walking into a podcast where this is actually like the it the end point here.

Craig Felker 37:23

Are you looking for the uh you're looking for the only answer to find out at a granular level? Come on, this is off the dome, y'all. Get ready. You're looking for the only answer to get down at a granular level what an individual asset margin potentially is.

Cord 37:41

Yeah.

Craig Felker 37:42

Duane.

Duane Burkholder 37:43

So, it's day to day. It's not theoretical. So every asset, like let's go into like the actual mechanics of repossessions when you have hauling tied to that asset, you have commissions that are tied to that asset, you have all of these expenses that are usually just considered expenses inside of the PL that are not necessarily tied to any specific asset. We can do that now. We can literally tie off to the individual asset all your all your hauling invoices, all of your commission invoices, it and be able to be able to say, okay, not just the hauling, but we can also identify the revenue that's exists against that asset. So you can literally do many PLs based on the asset level inside of the software.

Leann Burkholder 38:32

So and if we're doing that, why would we stop there? Why wouldn't we incorporate a project management system directly into it as well? So we went ahead and did that too, because you know, you need to tag certain people to handle certain things. And if you can do that in the system and that shows up on that individual's dashboard first thing in the morning and they know what they need to do next, well, now you just solved another problem. So, I guess it's a three for one.

Cord 38:58

I'm sorry, I'm not trying to hog the mic here, Shannon. But this is these are the things that we've been saying, not only on the podcast, but around the office. And of good plugs you can't say only anymore, it's trademarks. But outside of very large manufacturers with um lot good lots of resources who carry their own RTO. I it would be hard for me to imagine that anybody else is even getting to this. And maybe they're not either. I mean, I hate to you know speculate because I don't know. We've heard, you know, varying accounts of kind of what the level of management is and what the granularity is on a day-to-day. Sounds like this is effectively a day-to-day basis that you can actually like run these, you know, real-time reports and everything else. Gosh, it's hard to see with a tool like that on the market. I'm like really pitching right now. You guys are gonna have to uh advertise on the Shed Geek podcast. Um but it's hard, it's hard to imagine uh Friday title sponsorship. It's hard to imagine, it's hard to imagine, really. It's gonna be hard to compete if you're not using a tool like this. I mean, it just is. It's you might say own your success. Good tag.

Duane Burkholder 40:23

Yeah. So here's the nerdy side of this. So, every management or every company, rent-to-one company, like we're a management company, so I always kind of refer to this to every company inside the platform. So we have multiple companies inside the platform, each one of them has their own accounting company with its own individual chart of accounts. Every company gets what's called an accounting impact record. An accounting impact maps every single thing that happens in relation to the management side, from the asset to the contract to the customer side, maps it through to the rep to the accounting side. So, revenue gets mapped, buildings get mapped, your fees get mapped according to how you like so like CRAs get mapped to your own uh uh holding account, your security deposits, all of that gets mapped. So you enter a contract in, and that evening, when overnight, when accounting impact runs, because it doesn't, it's not it's not real time, because you don't want real time impact to your accounting side, there is a there is a delay time frame in there.

Cord 41:20

Sure.

Duane Burkholder 41:21

That night, accounting impact runs, and it takes all of that information from the management side and pushes it over into the accounting side. If you go back the next day and have to make a change to your management side, the accounting impact figures out the delta between those two transactions and writes the um journal entries. Lost my lost my train of thought. So, it's what's really exciting to me in having conversations with rent-town companies who either on a weekly basis or a several-day basis, they're bringing across big buckets of revenue, they're bringing across big buckets of buildings into their accounting side, there's no granularity to it.

Cord 42:06

Yep.

Duane Burkholder 42:07

And so being able to be done at the like per payment level inside of your in inside of your income, you suddenly have a granular control to be able to do things like here's a prime example is when you close an account with an EPO, and let's say, for example, you decide to give that customer some kind of break to get the transaction done that day, and that then tracks out as a dis uh as a customer discount into your accounting side, and suddenly you can track that back to who actually did that transaction. You can track these kinds of metrics now inside of your accounting and say, hey, we're always seem to be giving a lot of discounts when it comes to stuff like this. There's no way to do that currently in the industry.

Leann Burkholder 42:51

You're like, and that's where go ahead. Sorry.

Craig Felker 42:54

I was gonna say, Pam, what are you giving all these discounts out for?

Cord 42:59

Some training, you know what I mean? Well, and it sounds like you can probably go back and run uh an analysis of those of those things as well and compare because sometimes you know, yes, those are discounts, but sometimes cash is good, right? Sometimes cash is good for whatever your that's what it's I think I'm trekking with you here, right, Duane? Sometimes getting the cash if you're if you're allowing a customer to buy out a discount, sometimes cash is good. Yeah. If your company is in a place where you need it, but you need to understand what all those what all those accounts, to your point, what all those journal entries are in real time to make good management decisions.

Duane Burkholder 43:38

Yeah, I mean, it to your point, you have a customer you've been working with for months, they've been a pass due customer, you've worked and worked and worked, and finally they get it in striking distance of doing their EPO. Like, look, if you make this EPO amount right here, like we'll just we'll be done with this, and you're a happy person. And I'm a happy person because your account is no longer on our collections list. And so, but then you kind of want to track that. What did you actually give away?

Cord 44:03

Yep.

Duane Burkholder 44:04

And you know, what does that look like month to month? What does that look like year to year? And be able to be able to do performance analysis on that from the financial side, not just from the performance side or from the management side, but from the financial side. It's in it's just it gives you another level to tell the story of what's happening inside of your business.

Autopay Scheduling Portal And Hauler App

Craig Felker 44:26

You also are like, okay, practically, give us some how's this going to make things easier? Okay. Let's say you're on a loss prevention side and you've got somebody that's twelve hundred dollars behind. They're trying to make payments, but they can't make a twelve hundred dollar payment to get caught up, but they're trying to make payments, right? And they're like, okay, let's agree to $250 for the next three weeks on Friday. But then I get I'm expecting tax return, so now I'll just be, you know, so I can do $500 on this day, and then I want to do auto pay after that. Well Leanne Duane, Leanne was really I I remember being on the call and hearing her talk about I want this to work like a Google Cow. Right? You can set up all those instances. So I mean I hate it for post-it note stockholders in the shed industry. But like, but literally you can set boom, this, boom, this, this, this, here's the fifth instance, boom, it's done. It runs. Right?

Leann Burkholder 45:22

Now once that has run, then it can go straight to auto pay. All good.

Craig Felker 45:27

One, one, and one stop, you work out that agreement, you don't have to call back. You don't have to, you know, if obviously if something, you know, listen, just because you have them on auto pay doesn't mean that the card's gonna decline. It could decline. Yeah.

Cord 45:40

Yeah, of course.

Craig Felker 45:40

But we would know. But that because we're running a report on that, by the way. Because it's easy. Um But that you see do you see the point? We've all been a part of like well, I gotta call Tina back on Thursday. So, Miss Tina, here I am. It takes six calls to get her, but I get Ms. Tina. Okay, are you ready to make that?

Kyle Summers 45:59

Let me it it's or we gotta put their name in a calendar to remind you to run their credit card on that day at that time. Correct. And in this way, it you set it and you forget it.

Craig Felker 46:11

Talk about the portal, Kyle. You got excited about the portal. And not the college basketball portal. I am excited about Kentucky basketball. That's it.

Kyle Summers 46:18

We're not going there. Okay, no. Keep going. The customer portal. Yeah, so the really cool thing about you know the customer side is um you can set up um, you know, when a when the customer wants to go online and make a payment, um, when they do it now, it goes to uh I think it it's called Webpay. I can't remember what it is, RTO Webpay maybe. Um and it looks like RTO Webpay. It just looks like you would think it would. So, um we have a way where you can literally put your logo on it. It's branding your colors, it's all these different things. So, when the customer goes to make their payment, it looks like it's you, not a different company, that they're going to make their payment to. So it's um it's really simple to do as well.

Craig Felker 47:04

What do they see on that portal?

Kyle Summers 47:05

They see their contracts. Uh if they have multiple contracts, they see all of those. Uh, they see how much and historical contracts. And so if they've paid off a building, the historical ones in there, it's grayed out, but they can see that it's on there. Um, they can see who they bought the building from, uh, they can see their contract that's in there. So, like instead of customer calling saying, I can you send me my contract, they can log into their portal and they can pull it up themselves. Um, they can sign up for autopay, they can make a payment. Um if they're behind, they can make payments to catch up. Uh there's a lot of things that they it's Duane.

Craig Felker 47:43

Is there anything else?

Leann Burkholder 47:45

They can even pay off online if they'd like to.

Craig Felker 47:47

Yeah, they can pay off online. It's right there, y'all. I can tell you this.

Duane Burkholder 47:52

And the big thing to really understand because we are cloud-based software, because we are not a like it's not a server-based, you know, sitting in my closet over here. Um it's 100% connected. The customer makes that payment instantaneously, it's on their account. I can see it, the customer can see it, everybody can see it. So, what why is that really, really important? Well, I'm a repo driver out there, and the customer says, look, I'll bring this thing current right now. Well, you can take that payment as a driver inside of the hauler app.

Cord 48:27

Oh, that's huge.

Duane Burkholder 48:28

And instantaneously, everybody in management can see it. There's no there's no question. There's no question of where's the we where's the payment? It's like we don't have to go sync our payments in, it's instantaneously there.

Kyle Summers 48:40

And so it's and you don't have to the driver doesn't have to call because you can set up notes inside of the hauler app that tells them the minimum amount due they have to pay $500 for you not to pick up this building.

Cord 48:51

You don't want to break in that conversation, right? Anybody who's anybody who has ever been in that sort of role, and I've never been in it in sheds, but I sold outdoor power equipment before this, right? And so I've been in that situation, and you don't want to break the conversation. And when you have to walk away and make a call and come back, there's already been separate conversations happening now, and something that was decided on 15 or 30 seconds ago is gone.

Kyle Summers 49:19

And lots of times they got to call Susan at the RTO company, and Susan's already left for the day. Oh, that's I was just about to say it's that they're they don't have to call. It's in the it's in there. It says for you not to pick up this building, the customer has to pay five hundred dollars, a thousand, whatever it is. If the customer does that, they can make the payment, they can be on their way.

Craig Felker 49:37

They can literally do it in the app. I mean, listen to all the haulers, the shot callers, the ballers, listen. Oh jeez, this is your after hours. Listen. Those haulers with the hydraulics. Come on. Um it makes it easy. You know, like communication in every industry is the issue. In every industry. Yeah. Like, how do we get better communicating? Right? We again, this is about owning across the board and putting you in control.

Industry Impact And Part Two Teaser

Cord 50:08

Incredible.

Shannon 50:09

So well, fantastic communication makes a makes a fellow want to start a podcast, you know? I mean, just like hearing uh hearing all this come together. I'm looking at this 30,000-foot view and I'm thinking like, well, I mean the needs that get the needs that are there in the shed industry get accomplished by the leaders who are out front trying to do it for their own company, and they end up saying, hey, I've got something I can sell to everybody else most of the time. If you look around at almost every company in the industry, you know, I mean, they started carrying so many doors, they thought, well, we can sell doors to our competitor, you know, like, you know, like we started creating these solutions till ultimately uh uh the value proposition for the solution that we created is bigger than the value proposition we brought to the dance, right? Like we're we now have this cool opportunity to actually change the industry. And when you have a, oh, I don't know, 50% penetration RTO of everything that's being sold in America, and there's not multiple established softwares. I'm sorry, I'm not trying to create some competition for you guys, uh, but there's a few out there, right? You know, and but who's the leader in that? And the obvious answer up until recently has been RTO pro for the longest time. Yep.

Craig Felker 51:24

It pretty much is the answer. I mean, there are other there are others, but yeah, they're trying to do you know, they're trying to come this is a year where I think that conversation gets bigger.

Shannon 51:33

Yeah.

Craig Felker 51:33

For for everybody. You know, and and listen, there are other people trying to do this, um, which is great for the industry because guess what? Everybody will just be better.

PART 1 OF 2 51:43

You're listening to part one of a two-part series. Please tune in on Friday to listen to part two.

OUTRO 51:49

Thanks again, Shed Pro, for being the Shed Geeks studio sponsor. If you need any more information about ShedPro or about Shed Geek, just reach out. You can reach us by email at info@ Shedgeek.com. Or just go to our website, www.shedgeek.com, and submit a form with your information, and we'll be in contact right away. Thank you again for listening, as always, to today's episode of the Shed Geek Podcast. Thank you and have a blessed day.