What is Property Management Software and what are its major functions?
Housing is a basic need of all human beings, whether it is owned or rented. As per a 2020 report by Dubai Statistics Center, Dubai alone currently has over 690, 498 units of residential units (apartments & villas). It is estimated that to meet the housing demands in 2040, the emirate might need another 550,000 residential units.
When it comes to commercial properties, office units in Dubai alone make up nearly 9 million sq. m of GLA (Gross Leasable Area) in 2021. It should be remembered that the data of the commercial spaces dedicated to retail, industrial, logistics, and hospitality is still not included.
When you look deeper, there is so much data associated with each property unit. With each unit there comes details like unit size & specifications, available date, letting rate, facilities like parking, VAT information, etc. You further need information about each tenant, process rent billing, and handle collections to name a few. For each building, you need building information, handle maintenance, manage assets, and do owner reporting.
Imagine the multitude of data property managers handle every day. Normal spreadsheets cannot help even the small-scale property owners to manage their properties.Thus we have property management software. The property management software for landlords, brokers makes property management more efficient and more profitable.
What is Property Management Software?
Property management software is an application that helps property managers achieve the goals of the property owner by automating routine tasks and generating insightful management reports. Property management software is used for leasing, sub-leasing, sales, brokerage, and maintenance management of properties.
A good property management software for landlords, brokers will help to store a humungous amount of data in one place, handle complex cash flows, quickly respond to customer requests, and communicate to the management and internal teams. Most importantly, it will help you to stay organized.
Four major functional areas of property management software solution
Contract Management
Real estate is where two parties come together and agree on certain terms, whether it is leasing or selling. They create a contract that acts as the foundation of all transactions thereafter. Contract management hence is a very crucial part of property management software also called real estate software. The benefits of this feature are multifold. Firstly, property management software acts as a central and safe depository of several important documents required for the property deal. No document will be left scattered on this laptop or that phone or that cupboard. They all will be systematically organized and can be easily retrieved.
Secondly, contracts will be quickly created. Contract creation is a time-taking task, especially when each contract is different. With a property management software solution, all you need to do is fill certain fields. The software will give you the drafted contract. Any deviation from the company’s/ state policies will be immediately alerted to the authorities concerned, hence compliance is ensured. A property management solution also brings transparency to the agreements.After a contract is negotiated, agreed upon, and signed a property management software solution keeps track of the active contracts. The property managers are timely alerted about expiring contracts. They also get reports of created but not signed/active. Such reports and alerts enable property managers to take timely actions. Contract renewal & termination processes are also automated using the software. These not only save time but also save a lot of money through timely actions.
Tenant Management
Tenants/Buyers are the ones who make a contract possible. Hence, you need to manage the tenants profitably. To do so, firstly you need to know the tenants well. Property management software saves all the information about each tenant in one place. It tracks all transactions (not just rent collections) with a tenant. This availability of complete information helps property managers to easily take correct decisions.
Secondly, a property management software solution will make formal communications with tenants more organized. Let it be rent default alerts or reminders or common notices, the software automates all of them. Hence, the tenants are timely informed with little human intervention. Additionally, the tenant management apps or portals, which are components of a property management solution enable the tenants to make online payments, register complaints and track maintenance requests.
Maintenance Management
Customer onboarding in the real estate business is indeed a difficult job. But more difficult is retaining them. Proper maintenance not only satisfies your tenants but also increases the performance of assets and thereby profitability.
Property management software for landlords, brokers, and property managers helps to execute property maintenance effectively. Giving timely alerts for preventive maintenance is a major benefit in this regard.
Using a property management app tenants can raise maintenance requests. The property manager then creates a work order and assigns it to a worker/a team. Both the tenant and the management can then track the progress of the work done.
Additionally, property management software integrated with inventory management will assist you with procuring and tracking the inventory required for maintenance.
Look at the different aspects of property maintenance easily handled by property management software solution. Managing all of these manually is never an option for a profitable real estate business.
Finance & PDC Management
Accounting is the heart of all businesses. However, accounting in property management is seen to be more complex given the number of transactions, expenses, income, and maintenance management.
To reduce the complexity, the accounting module of property management software has a detailed chart of accounts. This way all income and expenses are properly tracked. For owners with multiple properties, the software will generate property-wise financial reports. This will enable organizations to evaluate the performance of each property.
Most rental businesses run with PDCs. Property management software solution for landlords, brokers help in automating PDC management and bank reconciliation. Apart from saving a lot of time, this also improves the profitability of the business. Additionally, accounting for commercial & residential spaces follow different rules. Along with automating the complicated calculations it also helps businesses to ensure compliance.
Which is the best property management software?
Like all other industries, there are several options available in property management too. But which exactly is the best property management software?
Here is a list of features found in good property management software for landlords, brokers, and all property managers.
- Scalability – the software should be able to handle your growing business.
- Integration with accounting & inventory module – as their role in property management is very crucial.
- Tax compliance – because tax rules change from emirate to emirate/state to state. Furthermore, different types of properties have different tax regulations. Hence go for the best property management software with VAT accounting.
- Property management app – to manage, tenants, maintenance management, and online rent collections.
- Booking/reservations – to ease the sales process, and better internal and external communication.
- Notifications and alerts – to make rent collections prompt, execute maintenance activities on time, and properly communicate with the tenants.
- Reporting – to evaluate the performance of each property and give insights to the management.
- Availability on the cloud – Businesses are increasingly moving towards cloud. Hence look for a cloud-based property management software.
PACT – Best property management software in UAE with VAT accounting
If you are managing a UAE-based real estate business whether you are an owner, manager, agent or broker, there is a 99% chance that you have heard about PACT Property Management software. Given its simplicity and ease of use, it is considered the best property management software in Dubai with VAT accounting. The striking factor is that along with simplicity PACT offers many advanced features too. For example, creating multi-year/multi-unit contracts especially beneficial to commercial properties is a cakewalk with PACT. It also has detailed property, unit, and tenant masters allowing businesses to store each and every piece of information about their real estate portfolio and tenants. There are options to upload pictures too. The tenant management app makes tenant communication & maintenance management more effective. On the reporting side, the software gives vacancy reports and contract expiry reports by default. More reports can be customized to fit your business goals.
PACT also provides both on-premise and cloud-based property management software. Above all, the software comes with a VAT accounting & inventory module as well. If you further want integrations, PACT enables easy 3rd party integrations also.
Now, listing all features doesn’t seem like a great idea. If you have a property management business in UAE, see PACT’s Real estate software in real through a free demo. No matter how big or small your business is, we can help you with our customized solutions.
Talk to our team of experts – Book a complimentary consultation call today!
