Property Genie News July 28th, 2010
In each newsletter, we are going to provide additional insight and focus on specific and unique features of the Property Genie software. In this issue, our feature focus is QuickBooks.
It is evident as we speak with property managers around the United States that many companies are currently using or began their companies using QuickBooks Small Business Accounting software. QuickBooks is a great choice for small businesses because of its user friendly structure and design implementing advanced accounting features for a fair price. The ability for small businesses such as property management companies to get up and running in a considerably short amount of time makes QuickBooks a great choice. At startup, many companies don’t realize that the sole use of QuickBooks, as good as it is, may not be the most efficient way to run their business. Property management transactions, for example, are unique and span multiple levels requiring numerous entries in order to maintain accurate accounting. The solution is to use a third party solution with QuickBooks to handle the transaction data entries. This is where a software product such as Property Genie comes into play. In order to perform this process correctly, Property Genie must first accurately represent and perform all of the required processes of property management. The next step is for the software to gather those transactions together and accurately write each transaction to the QuickBooks software. Once this has been accomplished the Property Genie must be able to produce accurate reports and tracking of all transactions to ensure accurate end of the month balancing especially with state regulated accounts such as Security Deposit Escrow (or Trust) accounts.
The Property Genie software was designed by property managers. As such, our programming team worked directly with the property managers to ensure that absolutely every aspect of property management was covered. On top of all of the accounting details that QuickBooks would require, the team implemented document creation and management, daily tasks and activities of each and every employee, year-end reporting and 1099 creation, and much more. Essentially, we wanted to be certain that anything and everything a property manager would need to do, they could do from within the Property Genie Software.
Next our software team needed to program an interface that allowed all of the accounting transactions required in property management to be transferred easily, accurately, and quickly to the QuickBooks software. The programming team wanted to make this process as smooth and clean as possible, but most importantly the team wanted to make sure that our NED2 (Never Enter Data Twice) philosophy of development was followed. In order to accomplish this, the Property Genie program was designed to write an interface that allowed every piece of required data was transferred. This means that once owners, tenants, vendors, charges, rents, etc. were entered into the Property Genie software each of them had to be transferred to QuickBooks, not just the transactions for each of these parties but the actual names, details, and correlations to the parties as well. This process is designed to be smooth and clean transferring all transactions with the click of a button as shown in the image below.
This screenshot represents 3 new leases that were entered into the Property Genie software. Once the leases were entered, the software automatically calculated the management fee, security deposit, prorated rent, and all accounting details. With the click of a button, the software is now ready to write every detail of the transaction process to QuickBooks including property information, owner information, tenant information, fees to the management company, security deposits all individually and uniquely written to QuickBooks in their own applicable accounts. Essentially, the software took 30 different entries that would have to be entered individually in QuickBooks and minimized the process to 3 entries in Property Genie.
The final requirement of Property Genie or any third party software for that matter is to be able to accurately report what has been written in QuickBooks to ensure end of the month balancing. Now balancing is a required task of any company, but this is especially important for Property Managers who use Escrow or Trust accounts that are typically monitored by state regulatory agencies. Property Genie provides a full array of reports and processes that make general and Trust balancing a simple and easy to perform end of the month task.
In the end, our goal is to take the monotonous tasks that in the past would take considerable time, effort, and energy out of a property manager’s schedule and make them easy and quick. This is what the Property Genie QuickBooks integrated software provides.
Property Manager's Corner
Article by Gail Moncla -- Rental Home Management Services, Orlando, Florida
How much do you know about the new law that went into effect July 1st, 2010?
On June 25th, 2010 the Orlando Sentinel published an article by Mary Shanklin. The title of this article is:
"If landlord is deadbeat, HOA can go after renters"
Without reading the article the title seems to infer landlords are "deadbeats" and you have to "go after" residents. I don't fault the newspaper or the author; it is just a sign of our economic times.
Having been a professional residential property manager for almost twenty five years I must comment on the title of this article. It has been my experience that the vast majority of investment property owners pay all costs of ownership timely and residents also pay their costs timely.
The actual article does a good job relaying the fact that our legislature has passed a new law. It explains that the new law is intended to help associations collect delinquent fees that are hurting their ability to maintain their budget responsibilities. As a result of this new law, if the owner of an investment property within an association is delinquent on their association fees the association can direct the resident to pay rent directly to the association rather than the landlord. The article further explains the association may have a difficult time determining how much of the property owner's default the resident should pay and also recognizes that there are many gray areas in this law that will necessarily require a decision from our court system.
My concern is that the resident has a contractual lease agreement with the landlord which this new law seems to totally disregard. The contractual lease agreement may not be with the actual owner of the property but rather with an agent of the property owner. That agent (company) relies on the income generated from the management of that property to keep its staff employed. Therefore, with good intentions on the part of the legislature, negative consequences may occur.
Without going into too many details I will let you know that we (Rental Home Management Services, Inc.) request that the residents in properties that we manage located within associations let us know if they receive any notification from the association. We then, as a professional company, contact the association or their law firm, and make arrangement to satisfy the negative whether it is a violation of some sort or delinquent association fees.
This keeps the lease contract terms in place, all parties are communicated with (property owner and resident) along with the association. We explain to the property owner this obligation must be paid in full or the association will terminate the residents' use of the amenities and perhaps collect the rent without sending any proceeds to the property owner. Frequently the association is very willing to allow monthly payments until all fees are current. Also, in many cases the payment is reasonable enough that the property owner still receives some funds each month.
Voila! Problem solved! Isn't that better than intimidating a "deadbeat" or "going after" a renter?
As we continue through these economic times I am hopeful that we do not put labels on people who find themselves in dire situations no matter what the cause and look for solutions that work for everyone. In my experience the association does not want the property (through foreclose action) they just want the delinquent fees paid. The residents just want to live in the property continuing to fulfill their obligation under the lease they agreed to at move in.
We just want to continue our quality management services for both the owner of the investment property and the resident.
Of course, I must recommend that you consult with an attorney to determine if you believe you can take this action with confidence and limited liability.
Gail Moncla, CPM, MPM
Broker-Rental Home Management Services, Inc.
Email: Gail@RentHomeFL.com
I welcome your comments and questions in regard to this article.