Accounting for rent, deposits, late fees and services to tenants that require payments require a lot of diligence and need perfect record keeping. In the day-to-day hustle and bustle of a property manager and operator, managing and tracking quotations sent, seeking approvals for quotes, creating invoices and tagging receipts are an arduous task.
On one end, while invoicing and bookkeeping is a big challenge, ensuring that customers make timely payments is another hurdle. Many real estate businesses have a ballooning ‘Receivables’ section on their Balance Sheet which poses a formidable challenge to operators who want to run a profitable/sustainable business.
Products at Monk Tech Labs like TheHouseMonk, TheOfficeMonk, TheMallMonk helps solve the aforementioned problems by providing an end-to-end accounts receivable (A/R) solution.
Why do we have this feature built into our product?
There is more to why this feature is a part of our suite of products than the high level reasons we mentioned above. We identify 3 core reasons behind this feature:
- Absence of payment reminder to tenants with no structured way to make and process payments: The last thing that tenants think about is their dues. The lack of reminders, the absence of an easy way to make payments, and the unavailability of automating the invoicing to collection cycle breaks the backbone of revenue operations for any real estate operator.
- Delayed collections from tenants leaves operators in need of more working capital: The lack of equilibrium between the payables and the receivables, mandates the requirement of excessive working capital for operators to meet their expenses.
- Increased Manpower costs due to offline processes: Currently, the accounts team is made to follow-up for reconciliation of accounts and the support team is behind tenants to make payments leading to additional manpower cost.
How we are changing this traditional process of accounting?
We have taken steps to ensure that all of the problems as stated above are addressed and are resolved in the following manner:
- Automated Invoicing: The ability to convert quotations created to invoices and receipts, property managers and operators just need to put in a one time effort of recording revenue.
Example: John a property manager at MTL Property Management is requested by a tenant to provide Cleaning as a service. Since this is an additional fee to be paid over and above the rent, the operator could follow the steps as per below using our system:John raises a quotation to send to the tenant informing them about the cleaning fee.
On Approval from the tenant the operator creates an invoice for the same amount as per the quotation raised.
Once the service has been delivered and the payment has been done, John can record a receipt.
- Record payments through payment gateways and automatically reconcile them: Payments can easily be made using our interface due to our numerous and active payment gateway integrations. All payments made through the gateway can then be recorded on our system avoiding the hassle for one operator to reconcile these payments separately.
- Bulk Creating of invoices to reduce manual input of information: This feature is unique to our system and allows operators and property managers to create individual or consolidated (rent + all other paid services provided) invoices that need to be raised in a month with just one click.
- Send reminders to tenants: This feature is present on our system to ensure that tenants do not miss a payment that needs to be made.
- Keep track of all your PDC’s: Keep track of the post dated cheques that need to be encashed on time.
In conclusion, managing accounts receivable (A/R) is a critical aspect that needs to be considered by an operator and property manager. Partnering with Monk Tech Labs can make this process more efficient and effective. While there are various challenges real estate businesses face when it comes to managing A/R, effective solutions from the right software can help overcome majority of these challenges.
The suite of tools that Monk Tech Labs offers helps streamline A/R processes, from invoice creation and distribution to payment collection and reconciliation. An operator can empower their businesses to improve cash flow, reduce delinquencies, and ultimately enhance your property management business. Are you willing to be that operator?
