What accountancy software do landlords use?

I use RentMaster - http://www.rentmaster.co.nz. It's a New Zealand based product but it works just as well here in the UK. You set up your properties, property owners (if you manage other peoples) tenants and tenancies. The software allows you to post rent and operating costs across multiple bank accounts. It monitors rent due and alerts you to overdubs. You can use it to log maintenance issues and manage works orders. Finally the reporting capability is massive, with loads of different reports and options. Despite costing from £60, the support is personal and almost immediate. Can't recommend it highly enough.

Reply to the comment left by "Ollie Cornes" at "09/11/2013 - 13:31":

Hi Ollie

I'm currently using the free Property Hawk software for my landlord management, but finding it to be very limited, and my bookkeeper is using Sage Line 50, so in effect we are having to run two systems, plus some extra spreadsheets as well. This is for a portfolio of about 35 properties, but some are HMOs so there are about 60 occupancies (but there are also some service charge accounts as well).

I've just looked at the Sage Landlord Manager software, but this would cost about £4k plus £95 pcm for a cloud server.

I'm very interested in the Xero software, but the property management add on (Pocket Rent) is another substantial monthly cost. Can you advise me whether the property management add on is really required, do you use it, is it any good, is it value for money? What are the limitations or negative points about this software (Xero, with the Pocket Rent add on)?

Thanks

I had a Xero accountant come and show me the Xero accounting software, and both myself and my bookkeepers were very impressed, however, the accountants themselves were somewhat expensive (over twice the price of my current accountants), and they also could not really advise me about the Pocket Rent property management add on.

The Xero accountancy software looks great and I'm very tempted to sign up for this, but I'm concerned that it may not give me the property management information I need, in a format that is suitable, e.g. up to date rent statements.

Does anyone have experience of the Pocket Rent software (Xero add on)?, or can you recommend any other property management software (not just accountancy software). I have about 35 properties, over 60 current tenancies/licences, and some former tenants who are paying off arrears by installments (so are still "live" rent accounts). I currently use the free Property Hawk software, but find this is quite limited and cumbersome for the number of tenancies I have.

Robert, any decent accountant should be able to deal with accounts in Xero. You don't need a specifically "Xero accountant" though the Xero web site lists UK accountants who claim more experience with it. Do be sure to check there's integration between Xero and your bank - automated transaction import is a big time saver.

In terms of rent statements, it's just an account statement for the tenant's customer account and any accounts package will let you do that. I can sign into Xero, select a date range, and produce a PDF statement listing all the invoices and payments, for emailing or printing. It's dead easy to email it to the tenant within Xero. This needs doing manually, sadly there's no way to automate it monthly for all accounts in arrears (which would be my ideal).

I've just also enabled the auto-email feature for invoices, so when a tenant's invoice is raised (automatically) on a monthly basis, a copy is emailed to them. Like many landlords I've seen situations where tenants forget their rent due date, and occasionally where a tenant forgets to pay entirely as the pay day silently flew by, and emailed invoices is a useful reminder.

Another aspect about Xero I like is the add-ons from third-parties. I've not started using any yet, but I'm looking at SMSMyDebtors which would allow tenants in arrears to be reminded by text message.

I use Salesforce.com CRM for the property-specific stuff, but I don't recommend it as it's expensive and cumbersome. I'm a software engineer by training so it works well for me. In there I put details of tenancies, gas certs, EPCs, stop cock location, purchase dates, mortgage summary, inspection dates etc. I do think tracking all of this is important, whether using a Xero add-on, a spreadsheet or something like Property Hawk.

I previously used Sage and frankly it's a sack of crap compared to Xero.

Also, Xero lets you categorise customers by groups so I have a group "Tenants", and another "Ex Tenants", so it's easy to locate current and past tenants in arrears. Those in arrears also show up on the Aged Receivables report which is easy to access.

When I used Sage I only relied on annual figures. Now I use Xero I have accurate and reliable figures monthly so I can run a YTD P&L to look at my likely tax liability, monitor repair & maintenance budgets and so on. For me a decent accounts system isn't just about the yearly filings, but about making the figures accessible and useful in running the business.

Hi Ollie

Thank you for the very useful advice, I will discuss this with my bookkeepers, and hopefully get the ball rolling with changing my software.

So far spreadsheet and tally had provided the best results. Work in Tally for as it is introduced only for accounting.

Reply to the comment left by "Ollie Cornes" at "18/04/2014 - 16:29":

Hi Ollie

My bank, NatWest, don't seem to know what "Bank Feeds" are, and my Business Manager was no more helpful and just said they don't do them, but bank feeds are one of the major selling points of the Xero software. Any idea whether NatWest do bank feeds, perhaps by a different name, and how I go about getting through to someone who can set this up?

Thank you.

Robert, talk to Xero, they will confirm if your bank account will work with their service. Xero have UK offices and support staff. Banks are clueless about these things.

Xero for me. I'm new to it, but so far, I can only say I don't intend changing. Much better than spreadsheets as to extract the info, you need to be able to play with the software. Xero just simply shows everything you need.