Whether you are an investor, a property owner, or a tenant; one of the things that may have crossed your mind are the duties of a commercial Cape Coral property management company. What do they really do anyway or what should they be doing? If you are a property owner or are in the process of investing in a commercial property, the answer to the aforementioned question is essentially this – whatever it is you want them to do. Although this is generally speaking and may not be as simple as it sounds, it nevertheless provides the bottom line that is actually as convenient as it sounds. The pursuit of the right Cape Coral property management company will lead you to varying kinds of services that these different companies do but in general these are the basic accounting services that a reputable property management company should be doing for you:
1. General Reporting – includes monthly accounting reports comprising a balance sheet, income & expense statement, general ledger, rent-roll, rent ledger, expense ledger and a copy of the bank statement. There are many more reports you may want or need depending on the property and ownership type.
2. Narrative Report – is a narrative monthly summary of exceptions in the budget, income and expenses or any unusual activity on your property.
3. Collections – involve collecting rents and other money owed. This task is generally an accounting function, until the point where there is a problem. Find a company that has clearly defined the systems and processes of responsibilities when it comes to collections. Three of the things that should be clearly defined is: Who will do what in the collection process? What will be done? When will it be done?
4. Payments – Now that the money has already been collected, property managers should have clearly defined system in paying bills: Who, What and When this will occur. For the sake of further clarity, you may want to describe for the accounting staff the payment details of your expenses, disbursements, tax reserves, insurance and capital improvements.
5. Lease Processing – Although this task is a team effort including managers of the Cape Coral property management firm and its accounting staff with each having a specific function, defined pattern and program routing. However, one person can be assigned to input the lease into the computer, a task that is seemingly simple but very important in the whole process because any missed item or incorrect information that he or she inputs will result to serious damage in the end.
