Property Management Financial Transparency

As commercial property managers we know providing absolute transparency in the handling of our client’s properties is critical to our success. One of the most effective ways of building trust in property management is to provide owners with a concise set of financial reports that owners can an easily understand and that provide a full snap shot of the financial health of the property.
 
While most property managers want to be transparent, accurately demonstrating this transparency is not so easy, especially when it comes to financial reporting. Yardi, Appfolio, Buildium, and MRI are just some of the many commercial property management software programs available to help property managers. Finding the right solution that works for the manager’s business and still useful to the client is not an easy task. We trialed many different property management software systems and even bought from vendors only to find out later that the reports were needlessly complex, didn’t provide the reports the client was looking for or the program learning curve was way too steep. We have become obsessed with property management reports from accuracy to formatting.
 
After investigating and at one time distributing dozens of different property reports to our clients, we now just send out three simple but incredibly informative reports: 1) check register showing all debits and credits including beginning and ending balances, 2) rent roll which includes amount billed, monies received, and any balance owed, and 3) an operating statement that shows income, expenses, and net profit. We give the landlord the option and access at anytime to drill down on revenue details so they can see actual deposit images and tenant checks. For expenses, drill down downs to the invoice level is standard.