Is it possible to find a reliable software program to help you manage your rural properties?

The answer is yes..........

Keeping track of rent reviews, issue demands, insurance, inspections, work schedules and remembering important dates and deadlines requires a landlord to be highly organised whilst allocating adequate time to manage his properties.

Property management software is available to help manage private, commercial or agricultural rentals including properties, land, and sporting facilities etc.

5 features of a good property software program and ways you can utilise it to help you:

1)Individual Property Records: You can view information on each individual property; details such as insurance, mortgage, local authorities, notes, dates, deadlines and more can benefit any landlord. Easily access individual property income and expenses at your own convenience. If you wish to take a look at a tenancy agreement for a particular property, simply select the chosen property and view the attached documents to view the tenancy agreement. Alternatively, you may wish to check an inventory list for a property to quickly rectify a dispute or even look at images of the property that are linked to it. Being able to easily view and access such information can save you time and help to keep you organised.

2)Demands and Invoices: Calculate rent that is due and generate demands automatically through the program to save you time working out what tenants owe you what money. View the payment history and any outstanding rent that is owed by your tenants for each property. Manage all your rent demands with the ability to schedule projected or future rent demands. The ability to incorporate one off or recurring rent abatements, reimbursements or service charges to the tenant can easily be done without the need to manually go through paper documents and work out what money is due. Re-print demands and invoices for clarification to an individual, manage regular and irregular rental periods, include non-rental items on demands and produce separate invoices all at your own convenience.

3)Diary: Stay organised, diary of events within the program mean you never need forget a gas or electrical inspection again. View a list of work schedules to monitor when repairs to properties are due, when they are completed and at what cost. Review when reimbursements or rent abatements are due or if you wanted to find out when a tenancy is due to be terminated. Easily create work plans to give to your maintenance staff or even create repeat work plans or tasks.

4)Reports: View detailed reports generated from the data entered in the program to help you make management decisions. View reports such as 'the rental income report' 'reimbursement' 'abatements' etc. Alternatively create your own reports to interrogate the business at your own convenience. Data can be stored, filtered and displayed for use in management and reporting. Keep all your documents and property records in one easily accessible central place.

5)Multiuser and Controlled Access: Users of the software can be assigned to individual landlords, when filtering data they will only see the data relating to their landlords. Alternatively you can allow multiple users to access the same data set.

If you are starting to look at alternative ways of managing your properties, perhaps because your current approach is taking up too much of your time or you want better records, then you will probably be looking at, what information can I record and will I be able to use it?

Switching to or purchasing a new property manager software program can be daunting but if you choose a software provider that offers good quality training and support then you will find the switch a much easier process. It can help to know that there will be someone at the end of the phone if you need help during the course of the year.

Farmplan offer Property Manager software that is suitable for many types and sizes of businesses whether you are one landlord with a few properties or multiple landlords and estates with many different types of rentals. If you have Farmplan Business Manager you can transfer rent demands and invoices into it. The link is two way, which means ledger information can be transferred back into Property Manager to give a detailed income and expenditure report for property/tenancy ledgers.