Most of the time it is seen that due to the increase amount of work load the accounting books of the company suffers. The accounting department is neglected. But the clear fact is that without maintaining of your accounting books, it is difficult to know the exact status of your business in the market. Whether it can afford a further expansion or needs more investment to work out present conditions. Property Management companies are most prone to such hassles. Property Managers often tend to neglect the accounting functions of the company or do not have time. This is where specialized property management accounting firms can help. Apart from the experience these firms have high tech technologies like accounting software which enables the work done faster and cheap. You need not worry about the record keeping, financial reports and profit and loss sheets once task is assigned to these outsourcing firms.
Good accounting experience, a robust working knowledge of a variety of real estate and non-real estate accounting packages, a systems oriented mindset, adeptness in latest technologies such as document management and work-flow management are some of the strengths of these property management accounting outsourcing firms.
Further given their offshore staffing base, their cost of servicing is much lower compared to onshore accountants.
Some of the key tasks in Property Management Accounting are as follows:
Tenant Accounting
Accounts Payable
Entry of accounts payables invoices
Handling overheads related bills such as utilities
Handling insurance expenses
Disbursements
Complete review of different payables batches-vendor wise, account wise and Entity
Accounts Receivable
Setting up of leases
Tracking security deposits of different tenants
Bill properties for management fees and other charges from operating entities
Cash-application
Receivables management
Month End Accounting Activities
Reconciliations
Book month end accruals
Review coding to general ledger accounts and make corrections
Prepare cash projections for the next month
Management Reporting
Below is the list of accounting and related software commonly used in real-estate industry
Yardi-Voyager, Genesis
MRI (by Intuit Real Estate Solutions)
QuickBooks and Quicken
The Property Manager
Timberline Property Management
Spectra Property Management
Avid Payable
Microsoft Excel (in VLookUp, Pivot)
Property Management Accounting outsourcing involves great care and needs to follow certain strategies and principles. The accounting knowledge, level of detail required in accounting, and compliance to statutory laws is much higher than standard accounting work. Additionally most firms report financials at property level, entity level and at investor level, thereby necessitating a multi-level, complicated accounting structure.
It is essential for you to make sure that outsourcing accounting firm which you are looking for is a reliable one and has good track record with previous clients. Therefore certain information regarding the background and reference check is essential to avoid any kind of dispute in the future. Money is a precious asset and you cannot just invest into any incompetent outsourcing firm. Property management accounting firms are great time and energy saver, if selected with acute diligence and great deal of consideration.
