6 reasons why you need cloud property management software

Property Management

6 reasons why you need cloud property management software

Do you still use spreadsheets to manage your properties?

Is your property management software slowing you down?

Are your servers crashing time and time again?

If you answered yes to any of the above questions, it’s a surefire sign that you need to upgrade to cloud property management software.

Thousands of real estate agencies across Australia are already reaping the benefits. Here are six reasons why you need cloud property management software:

1. Cloud property management software allows you to work from anywhere

As a property manager, you’re constantly on the go. From meeting clients to conducting inspections to organising maintenance, your software needs to be accessible from anywhere to reduce your downtime and help you find the information that you need, when you need it.

With cloud property management software, your data is stored virtually in a secure network of servers which can be accessed as long as you have an internet connection. This allows you to log in from anywhere in the world, at any time. You’re no longer restricted to a single computer, server, location or time zone, which means you could be organising maintenance from home, sending messages on the fly or running end of month in Bali.

Additionally, greater accessibility means easier collaboration. You could be on-site conducting an inspection using the software’s mobile app and your team member could be in the office preparing the inspection report for the same property. Not only does this increase efficiency but it also keeps everyone in the loop.

2. You can automate repetitive tasks with cloud property management software

There are a number of repetitive and time-consuming property management tasks that you can automate with cloud property management software. These include:

Reconciliation

Traditionally, to reconcile your accounts you would have to download a file from your bank and manually enter every single transaction into your software or spreadsheet. This could take hours every week, depending on how often you do it and how many properties you manage.

Cloud property management software automates much of this process for you. Simply import your bank file and it will automatically match it to different parts of your portfolio. All you have to do is approve the matched transactions with a single click or modify the allocation as needed.

Moreover, if your cloud property management software has bank feeds, your trust account transactions are automatically imported directly from your bank overnight, saving you even more time!

Data backups and software updates

If you’re using server-based property management software, you’re probably spending a few hours every month backing up your data and updating your software. With cloud property management software, this is all done automatically. So you can say goodbye to downtime and IT expenses associated with backing up your data and updating your software. That’s hours of lost productivity that you’re regaining every month!

Processing and paying bills

Sick of having to manually enter and pay supplier and utility bills one by one?

Some cloud property management software systems make processing and paying bills a breeze. For example, PropertyMe’s Bill Scanning feature does the data entry for you. Simply scan bills with barcodes or QR codes and the system will allocate the bill against the appropriate supplier and property with the dollar amount. You can also pay one or multiple bills in one action and set a priority on which bills get paid first.

Planning inspections

When you’re planning your inspection day, you often have to manually identify which properties are due for inspection then calculate the distance and travel time between properties to figure out the most efficient route. Thereafter, you have to manually identify the relevant tenants and draft up inspection notices. To save you time, some cloud property management software systems can automate this process.

PropertyMe’s Inspection Planning feature allows you to filter by due date to see which properties are due for inspection. You can then select the properties you want to inspect and the system will automatically calculate the best route for you, complete with drive times and distances between properties. Drag and drop to customise your inspection itinerary and once you’re done, the system will automatically generate inspection notices to the relevant tenants.

Communications

With cloud property management software, you can save time by automating your communications. You can set up message templates and triggers based on specific actions and tasks to ensure efficiency and brand consistency.

For example, once you’ve disbursed your owners and suppliers, personalised messages are automatically generated with attached statements. You can set these to fire off automatically or have them ready for preview in your outbox before sending them off.

3. Some cloud property management software helps you stay compliant

Compliance is tricky as a property manager. There are many moving parts – you have to comply with legislation, keep track of compliance tasks for your owners and ensure any financial activity and communication is tracked and logged for audit purposes.

If you’re using server-based property management software or spreadsheets, you’re probably manually tracking compliance tasks and keying in large volumes of data every month. This often leads to tasks being missed or small data entry errors that snowball into bigger ones that require lots of time and money to rectify come audit time.

Conversely, there are many ways cloud property management software can help you mitigate these risks and stay compliant. Not only does your software release automatic updates to help you comply with legislative reforms, but trust accounting workflows can help you eliminate manual data entry and maintain a squeaky clean digital paper trail.

What’s more, some systems even have time-stamped activity logging to increase transparency and compliance reminders to help you keep track of smoke alarm and pool compliance as well as more general tasks such as knowing when your owner’s landlord insurance is expiring.

4. You can reduce add-ons with cloud property management software

If you’re using server-based property management software, you’re probably using a number of add-on programs to conduct inspections, track maintenance, send messages and manage listings. That’s multiple subscriptions that you’re paying for every single month, on top of what you’re already paying for your server-based property management software.

Not to mention, your team has to remember multiple logins and constantly switch from program to program to perform day-to-day property management tasks. Meanwhile, you have to keep track of various subscription billing cycles and ensure your team is following security best practices to prevent unauthorised access to your portfolio.

With cloud property management software, you can reduce add-ons with everything you need to manage your properties. Look for a system that has comprehensive trust accounting, built-in inspections and maintenance, inbound and outbound messages, multiple layers of security and the flexibility to integrate with other programs. This way, you can save hundreds (or thousands) of dollars every month while increasing your efficiency.

5. You can streamline your communications with cloud property management software

Communication is one of the cornerstones of property management. Every day, you’re following up leads, organising maintenance, chasing up rent arrears and so on and so forth. Sometimes, it feels like a never ending cycle of calls, SMS, letters and emails that stream in from a multitude of different directions. On top of that, you have internal noise from your team members…

That’s where cloud property management software comes in! It can help you streamline your communications by bringing most of these channels together into one platform. Send and receive personalised emails and SMS straight back into your portfolio, trigger automated messages based on specific tasks and actions, check the message status to see when messages are delivered or opened and reduce internal noise using @mentions.

Additionally, you can reduce the volume of inbound calls with owner and tenant access. Owners and tenants are able to log in 24/7 from anywhere in the world and view their property and financial information. Not only does this self-service technology increase transparency and empower your clients, but it also adds value to your service and helps you provide a superior customer experience.

6. Cloud property management software can help you scale your business

If you’re using server-based software, your growth is often capped as your storage is limited. In order to scale your business, you need to maintain and upgrade your servers which is costly and inefficient as your entire team needs to be logged out of the system.

Conversely, with cloud property management software, storage is virtual and uncapped. This gives you the flexibility to upgrade or downsize your storage or subscription as needed. It’s much more cost efficient as you’re only paying for what you need.

In addition, cloud property management software comes with a lot of automation that can simplify your workload and increase your efficiency. This way, you can focus on nurturing relationships and growing your rent roll instead.

All in all…

Here are six reasons why you need cloud property management software:

1. It allows you to work from anywhere

2. You can automate repetitive tasks

3. It helps you stay compliant

4. You can reduce add-ons

5. You can streamline your communications

6. It helps you scale your business

Thanks for reading this blog on why you need cloud property management software! Book your free demo today to see why thousands of property managers have switched.

You might also be interested in How this Property Manager Saves Her Business $3,437 Every Month and How PropertyMe Can Simplify Your Workload.

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