Real estate development can be a complex business, and an effective accounting system is crucial to streamlining financial processes and providing vital insight for strategic decision-making. But with so many software choices on the market, choosing a suitable solution may prove challenging – which is why this article covers top features to look for when selecting real estate development accounting software solutions to assist your firm in selecting one that fits.
Structured Task Management
A reliable project management tool is an integral element of any real estate development accounting software solution. A robust solution with customizable checklists and stage-gate workflows that adhere to your company’s best practices can create approval systems, automation rules and reminders aimed at cutting rework, delays or missed deadlines while providing consistency across projects and teams. Furthermore, such platforms should offer real-time visibility of crucial metrics such as project percent complete rate or status updates on each task completed within its timelines.
Enhance Cost Tracking A top real estate development accounting tool should offer advanced cost tracking features to ensure the accuracy of your costs. A powerful real estate development accounting platform should differentiate between fixed and variable expenses, offering breakdowns by project, client, employee or vendor for monitoring budget adherence as well as actual expenditures to make sure that projects remain on target and avoid surprises during construction. Furthermore, such tracking systems should also support detailed tracking of materials to avoid unexpected expenses during building processes.
Integrated Time Tracking
A quality real estate development accounting software should include integrated time tracking capabilities that automatically transfer project-related time entries from your time tracking solution into your billing system, helping generate reports to analyze performance and identify areas for improvement. In addition, such solutions should calculate overtime pay, late payment fees, and any additional expenses for every employee automatically.
Customizable Estimates
A robust real estate development accounting solution should enable developers to easily generate and manage custom estimates, using pre-made templates for easier communication with clients and accountants, with added granular details that enable more accurate analysis by accountants and other users. In addition, time tracking should allow managers to monitor team member productivity more easily.
Property Management
Reliable real estate development accounting software should offer features to allow multiple properties for different investors to be managed efficiently. Features like online lease payments, maintenance request management and tenant administration help firms efficiently oversee large rental portfolios. AppFolio provides this advanced functionality for multifamily properties.
Landlord Studio offers award-winning accounting with property management features designed specifically to support landlords and real estate investors. From document storage to rent collection, all under a single platform. Furthermore, its tax reporting feature instantly generates Schedule E and P&L reports for compliance with IRS regulations.