Nowadays, payment processes, maintenance management, and service provision are the core needs of the real estate and hospitality industries. Property Management Software covers those needs: the more the presented sectors centralize their activities within the property asset, the more they will be able to boost performance, control schedules, and measure the progress, which will have a positive impact on the client/tenant experience. This article is going to focus on the property management software features and how they benefit the real estate and hospitality industries.
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Property management software (PMS) can streamline the managerial activities of the rental assets and hospitality services based on automated rent collection, maintenance management, handling orders & services, etc.
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Reduced workload and improved client/tenant satisfaction are the core PMS benefits for the real estate and hospitality industries.
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Among the 10 characteristics of PMS, a few worth considering are automatic rent collection and tax management, as they can schedule payment dates and provide clients with online pay-off options, while tax management makes the property management comply with local and national regulations.
Benefits of Property Management Software (PMS)
To begin with, it is important to clarify what the property management software means. PMS is a digital solution that allows the hospitality industry to run its accommodations and for the real estate industry to operate its rental activities. The identified type of software matters as the automatization of services reduces the overall workload and enhances customer service. Let’s find out how, specifically, PMS benefits the hospitality and real estate markets.
Hospitality Market
As a centralized computer system, property management software is applied to organize and schedule daily activities within the lodging establishments. You might be interested in real estate data API and how, particularly, it pertains to software development. Just check the linked article.
Reservation Management
PMS helps hotel managers organize and manage reservations of the rooms and conference halls to prevent double-booking. Additionally, PMS reservation management can be applied to hotel employees, who can organize their schedules by setting their shifts.
Handling Orders & Services
The module of order & service enables creating and managing different types of hotel-related services, like laundry, cleaning, concierge assistance, etc. PMS can include modules for creating and tracking orders and automated billing.
When the client places an order, the hotel employees receive a notification, and the relevant staff can perform the task. Then, the workers report on the order completion. The personalized system of handling orders and services enables the consideration of the guests’ needs and reduces the expectancy time due to the automated assignment of tasks between hotel employees.
Guest Booking Module
Guest booking enables hotel management employees to keep and categorize the details of their guests. These can include name, number, address, and personal preferences about the rooms or another request. PMS helps hotels check clients’ payment history, considering the elements of due renewal and cancellations. Besides, a guest booking module can help hotels track the clients’ payment history, control the in-time extension of reservations, and proceed with cancellations, favorably affecting revenue preservation and ROI optimization.
Real Estate Industry
The real estate industry can benefit from implementing PMS to operate commercial and private properties. Task automation and the integration of alternative methods of handling daily tasks represent the key PMS opportunities. Here, you can read about real estate app development, its advantages and features.
Automated Maintenance Management
Property maintenance management of PMS implies optimization of the workflow based on automated maintenance scheduling and tracking repairs. The PMS opportunities include updates on the real-time status of the repairs and maintenance work. Additionally, this software promotes task assignments to maintenance professionals. These opportunities increase customer satisfaction levels as they prevent delays in the service provision.
Cloud-Based Property Management
Cloud-based property management is one of the major trends in the contemporary real estate industry. This option minimizes the dependency of real estate managers on physical offices, promoting their live communication and interaction with maintenance vendors and landlords. Cloud-based property management allows real estate agents/landlords to run property anytime. Additionally, this alternative solution enhances the security of data through encryption.
Optimized Communication with Vendors
The identified benefit implies the integration of the vendor communication software with project management platforms. PMS creates a centralized system of vendor contracts, enabling payment tracking, generating invoices, and conducting performance evaluations.
We discussed the benefits PMS provides the hospitality and real estate markets with. Now, let’s analyze the property management software features list that can provide property/hotel managers with exclusive managerial experience.
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Property Management Software Features
A property management system is a convenient digital practice for handling operations relevant to the real estate industry. Regardless of the versatility of characteristics, we are going to discuss the following features to look for in property management software. For this purpose, we categorized them into two groups: accounting and financial features and marketing characteristics.
Accounting & Financial PMS Features
Accounting and financial property management software features help real estate managers track, evaluate, and manage financial aspects of property activities.
1. Automatic Rent Collection
Automatic rent collection means the integration of payment systems into property management. These can include checking and updating payment statuses, implementing recurring bills, and reminders of late payments.
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Implementing Online Payment Options
Property management software can assist clients in paying for rent and services through payment channels like credit or debit cards, bank transfers, e-wallets, etc.
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Scheduling Payments
A real estate manager can set a date for rent collection. The tenant can select a date on which they will pay their rent that will align with the predefined due schedule.
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Streamlining Late Payments
Streamlining late payments means imposing fees on tenants who do not pay on the rent payment due date. The software automatically calculates the sum and assigns it to the individual. Additionally, this feature enables PMS to inform tenants about the upcoming payment date.
2. Tax Management
The property management app can automate the calculation and collection of taxes per payment procedures procedure.
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Tracking of Tax Deduction
With the help of tax deduction tracking, the project management system can check deductible expenses, such as utility bills, and analyze opportunities to save on taxes.
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Customizing Tax Tracking
A property manager can set tax rules based on the real estate tape and location, so that it complies with the national tax laws.
3. Customizable Charts and Dashboards
Customizable charts and dashboards represent tools that provide real-time insights on key property performance metrics. These can include operations, finances, and maintenance management.
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Personalized Views
The stakeholders can customize their dashboard by adding or removing information they want to display.
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Visual Elements
Property management software can integrate visual elements like pie charts and graphs to structure data and make it easy to understand.
4. Invoicing and Billing
PMS can create invoices that include rent collection, fees for late payments, and other charges.
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Automated Invoice Generation
The feature means that PMS creates invoices automatically based on the predefined scheduling time. The document will include recurring charges for rent, utilities, and additional services, such as parking fees.
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Itemized Billing
Itemized billing implies a separate categorization of payments. The property management app creates an invoice that separates rent payments from late fees and maintenance services. This categorization of bills brings transparency to the clients as they know what they have to pay for.
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Reporting and Analytics
The project management system can inform the manager of the current cash flow and revenue performance to optimize further financial planning.
5. Budgeting & Forecasting
Budgeting and forecasting help the manager to plan, analyze, and predict the property’s financial performance. PMS analyzes income status and evaluates potential financial outcomes.
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Automated Forecasting
The project management application implements the what-if model to anticipate the potential financial outcomes of real estate under versatile economic conditions, like low occupancy. PMS assesses the presented probabilities using the property’s historical data and evaluating current market conditions.
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Managing Cash Flows
Property management software can analyze cash flow to offer strategies for budget allocation. The app analyzes financial input and output to offer strategies of financial planning, especially in the period of shortfalls.
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Multi-Property Support
Property management application creates a unified portfolio of budgets and forecasts of multiple properties. This feature helps property managers analyze the strengths of the included real estate assets to use them for the properties that lack performance.
6. Leasing and Contracting Financial Tracks
The identified feature in PMS promotes correct tracking and assessing tenant-relevant leasing and service contract activities, assisting the property managers in staying efficient in operations. Let’s find out how it works.
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Tracking Lease Payments
PMS keeps automated payment schedules,which checks due dates of lease payment to provide clients with timely billing. The discussed software supports customized or flexible payment terms, like monthly, annual, or quarterly payments.
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Managing Contracts
Similar to managing maintenance, contract management implies tracking the execution of service-relevant financial obligations, including cleaning, repairing, etc.
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Lease-Relevant Renewal Financials
PMS helps property managers trace the lease expiration dates and create financial terms for renewals. This feature means that the software does not create new lease agreements but tracks income to create a renewed lease.
Hence, financial and accounting features matter for the property management software as they enable private landlords and property managers to trace cash flows, renew leases, ensure maintenance management to mainly keep and optimize revenue generation and improve customer satisfaction.
Marketing PMS Features
Marketing features in PMS put into perspective increase clients’ and tenants’ experience and satisfaction by optimizing and automating hospitality or real estate marketing efforts. We’re going to draw attention to four of the following PMS marketing characteristics.
7. Channel Management
Channel management is a PMS feature that enables hotels to analyze their sales channels. These include booking sites, third-party travel agencies, etc.
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PMS enables hotels to analyze sales, develop business strategies, and implement personalized recommendations to increase revenue.
8. Property Listing Management
The marketing feature of the property listing management indicates the landlord's possibility to expose their property on multiple real-estate websites and platforms, like Zillow.
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Automated Listing
Automated listing means the exposure of property details on online platforms.
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Customized Templates
Customized templates help real estate managers create visually appealing listings that will include videos and photos about the property.
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9. Social Media Integration
The interconnectedness between the property management system and social management campaigns can help the property manager boost the social media campaign and increase customer engagement in the hospitality and real estate industries.
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Social Media Sharing
The property manager integrates the property management software into the hotel’s and real estate account, which enables them to list the asset directly via social media channels.
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Analytics & Reporting
PMS helps property managers analyze KPIs such as impressions, clicks, and engagement rates about posts and overall marketing campaigns to analyze public reactions and detect their strengths and weaknesses.
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Advertisements
PMS can help run paid ads on Instagram and Facebook to keep the visibility of the property asset and stimulate customer engagement.
10. Tenant Retention
The tenant retention feature in PMS assists property managers in enhancing clients’ retention, reducing turnover, and promoting steady cash flows. Let’s clarify how this feature is represented:
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Loyalty Programs
PMS can include discounts for clients to enhance their motivation to renew their lease.
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Event Notifications
Event notification implies that the property manager can use PMS to notify the tenants of the property updates and advertise community events.
Therefore, marketing, accounting, and finance management features help PMS bring versatility in planning and advertising advantages to real estate managers and private landlords, such as keeping track of service regulatory compliance and promoting stable cash flows.
Choosing Agilie as Your Reliable Partner
When it comes to building property management software from scratch, the major points that come to mind are the overall expenses and ways to mitigate them. More and more business representatives tend to hire outsourcing teams based on product tech requirements and receive decent cost-saving results.
Agilie is a European IT outsourcing organization that, for over 14+ years, crafted result-oriented from scratch and optimized applications and websites. Our domains of expertise include fintech, payment solutions, blockchain systems, and mobile applications. Our digital solutions reinforce business functionalities of the real estate, healthcare, logistics, and other industries that keep implementing digital software to reinforce their operations.
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Conclusion
We discussed the best features of project management software. Characteristics like invoicing/billing, maintenance management, etc., can be applied to both real estate and hospitality sectors. PMS optimizes the overall process of property management by generating efficient strategies for handling clients’ requests, maintaining tenant engagement, and promoting steady cash flow. 
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