Nowadays, there are many ways to manage your income properties. The manual method (paper), accounting software, Microsoft Office, real estate software, etc. Many use Excel to manage their property’s accounting and other property management tasks, which is a step in the right direction since they use technology to their advantage.
On the other hand, if you compare this method to some others, there are certain things that it cannot do. In fact, it is not very practical when you compare it to real estate management software with integrated accounting like Proprio Expert or Proprio Expert Web.
Here are 3 property management tasks that you cannot do with Excel, which can slow you down and take your time away from more important tasks, which are the ones that add value, such as shopping for deals:
1- Managing and Printing Leases:
Think about all the times you had to fill out a lease or had to look for a lease for information about your tenants. In retrospect, not being able to store leases or to print them directly from your real estate software is a huge waste of time and energy. Searching for a lease or filling one out can take up to 30 minutes when you have to deal with a paper version, but an electronic version can be found or filled out within 5 minutes.
2- Producing and Printing Financial and Descriptive Reports:
Having hundreds of reports can be very useful (fact sheets, financial statements, deposit slips, lists of parking spaces, list of vacant units, etc.). Still, to have results similar to the ones in Excel, you need to enter your data manually, which can take hours and has a greater risk of error. When you use software to generate these reports, not only is it faster and easier, but you can also choose what is included in the reports and export them to Excel, Word, or PDF.
3- Creating and Sending Letters and Notices:
Sending letters and notices is one of the most important tasks of a property manager, and it is not always easy. Thus, having software that allows you to automatically fill out adapted templates and send them via email directly from the platform is great. In the end, these automated tasks will save you time, energy, and money, so you can reinvest that in completing more valuable tasks. You could also enjoy your additional free time!
A property manager should find ways to be more efficient, whether it is by delegating certain tasks, hiring professionals to complete specific tasks, or turning to software that allows them to have better results in less time. This is the case when they go from using manual methods like Excel to using an income property management software like Proprio Expert or Proprio Expert Web.
It is a wise investment that gives you an edge in a highly competitive field where every detail counts.
