Retail property management software and other must-have tools for your business

If you’re in property management, you are likely aware of how important organization and optimization, are. Cutting down costs and streamlining administrative tasks are must-do things if you wish to stay profitable down the road. For your staff and fellow team members, its essential to have the right tools available in order to maximize efficiency. Let’s take a look at those tools which are definitely must-have if you wish to keep your business running in an orderly and profitable fashion. We’re going to overview digital tools like retail property management software in this article.

Cloud-based data storage service

In today’s day and age, you’re much better off keeping data backed up in the cloud. Yes, it’s not 100% secure to have everything stored in one place thus, you should have a backup ready at all times. During a transition, when you’re moving office, upgrading current hardware or just redoing certain things, your old data, stored in physical containers (HDD’s, SSD’s, and mainly in-house) could be damaged, lost or accidentally wiped out.

If you upload everything to the cloud, you eliminate that risk because accidental deletions aren’t too risky. Why? Well, mainly because deleted files can be restored for up to 30 or 60 days even. For a flat subscription or one lifetime fee, your business can enjoy much more security in terms of data management. Google Drive, OneDrive from Microsoft, and Dropbox seem to be the leading providers in this area. But keep in mind that if you’re using different software on-premises, than an online cloud (e.g. Microsoft Dynamics Business Central as an ERP) then, non-Microsoft cloud servers might be more difficult to deal with in terms of compatibility. It’s just more convenient to choose OneDrive in that case, and the same Suite applications in other situations.

Accounting software

When your business has to do so many billing and invoicing tasks periodically, it’s a no-brainer to look for platforms that help streamline and simplify these duties. Retail businesses have a wide array of accounting software tools which can be implemented to use. However, for cost-saving purposes, a lot of companies choose to do it in-house, using Excel. This is a poor decision because Excel is quite limited in terms of its technical capabilities and optimization of data exchange within your organization. Even if you keep everything neat and tidy, you still would have to operate tens if not hundreds of different templates for direct billing to the clients, and doing proper bookkeeping.

Dedicated accounting software or modules within retail property management are very useful in this case. Instead of being stuck manipulating and keeping in check with various Excel or similar sheets, you could be able to control everything from one data centre or one app.

Dedicated email servers

If you want to run a respectable business in property management, you can’t use regular @gmail.com or @hotmail.com e-mail addresses. Why? For some reason, people and clients are more hesitant to trust their business and enquire even, with companies that don’t have a dedicated email server. Besides, a dedicated email will allow you to grow and expand on-demand, adding in new employees or new branches of emails for further business needs (e.g. accounting, marketing, legal, etc.).

In addition, using dedicated email servers can also help out by simplifying your marketing needs – making it easier to send cold emails, newsletters or automate billing and invoicing. This also requires integration with dedicated software for maximum efficiency, but Gmail, Yahoo Mail and Hotmail are mostly aimed at private users. They aren’t suited for modern-day business needs the way a dedicated service is. Contact with clients, send out marketing information, integrate scheduling and do a lot more in the same amount of time thanks to your own email address.

Retail property management software – all in one

If you think that there’s a better way to do a lot of day to day rather than buying and/or licensing numerous different solutions, you’re 100% right! Thanks to retail property management software, you can do almost everything from A to Z and meet the needs of your business.

For example, modern management software for properties can and will automatically store data for you. Some solutions are even based on the cloud which means that you needn’t worry about backing up contracts, bills and reports. It’s automatically done for you.

Furthermore, retail property management programs can be integrated with a lot of different business tools for maximum convenience. But it’s mostly an all-in-one solution by itself. You can classify this tool as a project management, accounting, billing & invoicing, maintenance management, contract and tenant management tool, compacted into one application. What’s more, Microsoft Dynamics NAV-based software (now called Microsoft Dynamics Business Central) can be more user-friendly and easier to implement than competitors. Why? Because it has that same familiar vibe as other Microsoft Suite apps that everyone in the business world is familiar with – Word, Excel, Outlook, etc. Finally, you can automate a lot of tasks that usually demand a heap of time from your staff. Things like billing, sending out invoices, renewing tasks, scheduling maintenance, calculating and generating reports are done with a few clicks within the application. Instead of having to do a lot of manual work which isn’t adding any value to your company, you can allocate precious human resources to other areas or reduce costs, related to it. So, to put it plainly, software for property management can be a whole-engulfing solution for your business that almost entirely eliminates the need for other software.

Finally, you can automate a lot of tasks that usually demand a heap of time from your staff. Things like billing, sending out invoices, renewing tasks, scheduling maintenance, calculating and generating reports are done with a few clicks within the application. Instead of having to do a lot of manual work which isn’t adding any value to your company, you can allocate precious human resources to other areas or reduce costs, related to it. So, to put it plainly, software for property management can be a whole-engulfing solution for your business that almost entirely eliminates the need for other software.