Industry Focus: Property
How accounting software can help with high tenant turnover and uncertainty
@arthurproptech
Patrick Caulfield ACA, Financial Director, Arthur After graduating from Durham University with a Masters in Economics, Patrick joined EY (London) where he became a chartered accountant. He then spent 3 years in M&A and investment banking with Citi Group and an early stage VC. Patrick now works at Arthur where he manages everything finance and investor related, from fundraising to shaping and rolling out Arthur Online’s ambitious growth plans.
Find out how accounting software, and consequently your services, can help property managers with periods of high tenant turnover and uncertainty, which you can use to win property manager clients...
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any property managers are still using outdated methods to manage their accounting and bookkeeping for their portfolio. These legacy systems and spreadsheets are inefficient and extremely timeconsuming, not to mention they increase the risk of errors. The issues with these processes are made very apparent in periods of high tenant turnover and uncertainty. The COVID-19 pandemic is one of these times for the majority of landlords and property managers. Meaning those who were using these archaic bookkeeping methods are at an immediate disadvantage to their competitors and have quickly fallen behind. Accounting software tools, such as Xero, are extremely useful for property managers at the best of times, but they really show their advantages in times like these. How it helps During a period of such uncertainty, property owners and managers have found themselves overwhelmed by a high tenant 118 / Issue 25
turnover, causing many to change the way they carry out the bookkeeping within their business. Cloud-accounting software has been key to helping property managers cope with these unprecedented circumstances. High tenant turnover leads to ambiguity, but accounting software can provide clarity. Through accounting software, property managers are able to precisely deal with and track rental invoices and registered deposit charges without confusion. The systems allow for underpayments and overpayments which have demonstrated to be extremely useful in a time like this where tenants may be unable to pay their rents in full. The reconciliation page within the software enables property managers to be able to match all their invoices with transactions from their live bank feed. This feature grants the property manager the ability to correctly pay off all invoices that come into their accounts easily and efficiently. With all financial information in one place, managing finances is
much more efficient. By simplifying processes, property managers can save valuable time, which can be used to focus on retaining their tenants. Periods of high tenant turnover are extremely stressful for property managers and their time can be stretched extremely thin. Coupled with using outdated accounting processes, this can result in a high number of errors occurring. Using a single platform that all stakeholders can access reduces the chance of errors by taking away the need for separate records that need to be linked, compared and reconciled. The financial clarity that accounting software provides, allows you to communicate clearly with your tenants any upcoming rent or other payments so there are no surprises for either party. As a result, tenant satisfaction will increase and in turn reduce tenant turnover. Integrations with property management software Another great advantage of accounting software is that it can be integrated with many property
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