Towards the Future

As your business grows over the next ten to twenty years, you will want to use all the conveniences that technology can provide to help you run it. This article will indicate some features that property management software will soon be able to provide, that you will increasingly find useful in managing your properties. By David Levy, MBA

Think back twenty years: only the most cutting-edge offices had computers. Now they are an essential tool in every business. Over the next few years, secure computer-to-computer communication as used by banks will become commonplace--and this will translate to further simplifications to running your business, if you have the right Property Management Software System (PMSS).

A good PMSS can already vastly simplify your work, no matter how few units you manage, as we explained in earlier articles (archived at here). When you add to your properties, day to day activities become more complicated (more forms, orders etc.) and a PMSS becomes essential.

Eventually, as your holdings grow, you'll need accounting software. If your PMSS has accounting as an integrated feature, entering rent payments will be just as easy after enabling accounting as before, but now your data will be saved in the General Ledger as well as the tenant history.

Some Internet-based features to expect soon:

• Supers will enter rent payments, work orders, or other tasks through an Internet connection to your office. The super would have permission only to those functions granted by the manager. No further deposit information would need to be inputted, and you could print up deposit slips at your office.
• With just the click of a button, you will be able to perform credit checks of prospective tenants, or set up automatic withdrawal of tenants' rents from their bank accounts.
• With an Internet-enabled Palm Pilot or Blackberry, you'll always know what is happening in your buildings. You'll be able enter work orders and other items as you walk around the building, just as if you'd typed them in from your office. Maintenance managers will have complete information about work orders and appliances sent directly to their Blackberry.
• Tenants will securely check their balances and LMR credits, even, if you desire, enter work orders, all on-line. Notices, such as work orders for the building or for an individual unit, could be automatically emailed to the relevant tenants.

No PMSS currently provides all these features, but you are certain to want them in the coming years. Be sure to look for software systems under active development, that will provide all these features when you need them.
David Levy, MBA, is the VP Operations of Rent Magic Software, a Toronto-based software company that develops cost-effective property management solutions that are powerful, yet easy to use. Their website is http://www.rentmagic.ca.