There are rules and guidelines that must be followed/enforced while also ensuring that homeowners are abiding by the bylaws or policies of the organisation. Furthermore, there's the matter of upkeep on the property, making repairs or additions to the common areas, handling member dues, and participating in board meetings. Interfacing with homeowners to run the organisation efficiently is one of the key roles of a community manager but it isn't the only one. A lot of administration, budgeting, and handling of funds needs to occur throughout. To better accomplish this, the use of automation or software tools can be a significant help. Here are five business tools to help you with improving your property management.

1. Accounting Software

When considering the use of software to help streamline running a community, using software to handle accounting is probably the number one priority. Collecting dues, providing receipts, and complete transparency over the process are all something to think about. It's also crucial to be able to budget effectively and easily while having clean access to any pertinent financial reports. So the question is should you use accounting software or property management software? There are pros and cons to each one. The counting software can be inexpensive and multifaceted. It can have plenty of features, easy to use, and get the job done in most circumstances. On the other hand, it doesn't have many features beyond the basics. So, if you need to look back at previous data, find extensive reports, and get a comprehensive overview of all your properties you may need to go a little bigger. Accounting software is ideal for managing a few properties, but property management software might be better for managing a lot of properties. Property management software is usually pretty inexpensive per unit and can have a lot of the same features as accounting software, plus some additional benefits that make it so much easier to stay on top of the HOA's finances. The decision is ultimately up to the community manager, but it's best to weigh the options before making a final call.

2. Reserve Fund Administration

In an HOA, the reserve fund serves an integral function. In finance, the reserve fund is a predetermined amount of a liquid asset that's supposed to be available to handle future costs or expenses that may occur. In an HOA, this serves a vital function: to be available to use for repairs, maintenance, and emergency. So, administering the reserve fund is extremely important. Distinct from the operating fund, reserve funds are more of a backup plan. T best practice for reserve funds is to keep expenses written on a separate ledger and keep them in separate bank accounts from the operating fund. A reserve fund should have enough in it to handle future repairs and to be able to cover unexpected expenses. Lack of a decent reserve fund can result in homeowner issues, lack of capital, and big problems down the line. That's why it's so important to use whatever tools you have at your disposal to Monitor and maintain your reserve fund. Accounting software can help, along with some automation in tracking deposits, withdrawals, and expenses involving the fund. Automation is great for this sort of thing because it can help you spot issues early and take swift action.

3. Banking, Budgeting, And Payments

Getting some accounting software can help with this aspect of running the HOA, but you still need to oversee each of these factors. The best way to do that might be by getting some powerful property management accounting software instead of messing with multiple programs. This type of thing offers a comprehensive solution for banking, budgeting, payments, and more. How so? The property management software can handle electronic banking, take payments, help you budget in real-time, allow for payment plans, and even do batch processing. All of these work in tandem with one another to create a comprehensive payment solution that will benefit the entire organisation.

4. Vendor Management Portal

Part of any community manager's job is vendor management. Vendor management is simply a way to manage suppliers and vendors within an organisation. When applied to a homeowners association, the principles are the same but the practice might be a little bit different. When it's time to select the vendor, there should be a comprehensive vetting process to determine if there's going to be any third party risk from using that vendor. Third-party risk can lead to property, personal, reputational, or financial damage. The last thing you want is to hire somebody to build an addition to the common area and find out they're skimming on supplies and materials, or that they do shoddy work. So assessing the reputation and finding vendors that are going to be able to do the job for a reasonable cost is in the community manager's job description. Using some kind of vendor management software or utility is going to go a long way to helping assess those vendors and build a base of reputable vendors that the HOA can use as needed. There are dedicated vendor management portals specifically for this purpose, but some property management/tracking software also has it as built-in functionality. If it does, that may be your better bet for a one size fits all solution to vendor management challenges. Because maintenance and repairs are a part of the job, it's important to have quality tools to help.

5. Financial Reporting

Financial reports are also incredibly important for understanding where your money is going. If you want quick access to all of your reports that you can bring up during board meetings or with communications through members, then using a software repository is going to help. The property management software suites often have this function built in so you can find exactly what you want. No more coming through spreadsheets or random files. Everything is accessible and easy, a convenient location so that you can print it out on-demand or access it quickly to make the important decisions you need to make throughout your management career.