How arrears automation saves you time and money

So arrears, something no Property Manager or Principal is too happy about. We completely understand.

That’s why we have incorporated the power of automation to completely turn around the arrears management process in our property management software. 

Why would I automate my arrears management process?

The real questions here may very well be, why would you not? Let’s try to cover as many reasons as possible and maybe we can help debunk a few myths.

1. I like to have manual visibility over who my tenants are in arrears
2. I like to customise my communications
3. Not all tenants want texts or emails
4. Some tenants I know pay a day late, but they do always pay, so I don’t want to send them anything
5. The amount in arrears can be incorrect in messages and my tenants can get cranky
6. My tenant has paid and they get an arrears reminder which makes them, well, also cranky
7. I am a tad nervous/anxious/worried about pressing the ON button

Ok, so they yep the above are some legitimate reasons to not want to use automation. BUT, what if we told you that ALL of the above points are managed in our Arrears Workflow? We thought about these scenarios and built in options for you to set up your workflow to completely suit you, without any of the above. Hooray!

Let’s reverse the above points and here are some of the solutions we provide in our Arrears Workflow. 

1. I like to have manual visibility over who my tenants are in arrears

You sure can. Automation and manually visibility to keep track of your arrears lists can work in tandem. You don’t have to sacrifice your process for automation to be turned on. You can set the time of day your reminders start. Eg, if you want to look over in the morning, you can set your reminders to go out in the afternoon. 

2. I like to customise my communications

No problems. You can easily customise your emails and sms message templates. Speak in your own brand voice and include the stuff you want to, such as pulling in ‘fields’ so it shows the days or amount in arrears, or exclude them. It’s up to you. We have a default template but it’s easy-peasy to customise.

3. Not all tenants want texts or emails

That’s totally fine. We have a few options here, such as maybe they only prefer email communications, or maybe they like a text, or maybe they need both! You can select the way you want your arrears notices, invoices and reminders to be sent. 

4. Some tenants I know pay a day late, but they do always pay, so I don’t want to send them anything

That’s great you have the trust built with your tenants. Nice going! If that’s the case, you can turn off automations for these specific tenants by simply going to their contact card and switching off! Boom! The rest of the tenants you choose can still receive their notices & reminders, but you can rest assured the others are untouched. This is actually our Pause Reminders feature. 

5. The amount in arrears can be incorrect in messages and my tenants can get cranky

There are a few ways to ensure it’s showing correctly, apart from choosing days and times that work with most bank deposit processes. We have two ways that rent calculations are done. This is Rent Arrears via Daily Calculation or Rent Arrears by Full Rent Period Calculation. We even show you the maths behind these two ways in our system, accessible to you, to help fully understand the numbers it crunches. You have the choice to select which way you prefer. 

6. My tenant has paid and they get an arrears reminder which makes them, well, also cranky

There are usually some reasons for this and we have a few tricks to ensure you can avoid sending reminders to tenants who did pay. First one, the day selected for reminders. If your tenants pay on a Friday afternoon, but the bank only processes it Monday morning, sending a reminder on the Saturday is probably not the best idea. We give you the choice of days to send on PLUS the time of day. An example of how this can be super valuable is, say you chose to send reminders later on a given day, it can allow banks to process payments in the morning, and gives the automation a chance to register that incoming payment, flick off, and not send any automations to those tenants. Boom. Little tricks inside our automations to ensure it’s doing a nice little job.

7. I am a tad nervous/anxious/worried about pressing the ON button

Don’t be - we got you. Not only is our automation set up very easy, nicely labelled and user friendly to see what rules you are setting up, we have a wonderful support team who can definitely help you with any questions. 

How arrears automation can reduce your risk

On a slightly more serious note, automating the arrears process can also reduce legal costs. With a manual process, disputes can take longer to resolve, as information must be manually gathered and reviewed. Yawn, but also very important! In our automated Arrears Workflow, information is easily accessible and can quickly be viewed. We take it even further, and allow you to export the entire timeline of events, done, dusted, all there and ready in a few clicks. That my friend, saves you a lot of time, money, potential errors and helps you mitigate risk for insurance purposes.

Automating your arrears process can:

• Save your agency money
• save your agency time
• improve communication flow
• Reduce errors and manual data entry
• Improve financial reporting
• Reduce legal costs
• Improve cash flow and more

With the increasing use of technology in the property management industry, a fully automated arrears process is becoming increasingly necessary for property managers to stay competitive and efficient. Not task reminders, the whole shebang. 

Our Arrears Workflow was built with these focuses in mind. And that is just ONE of our EIGHT automated workflows, cool right!

If you want to know more about this workflow or any others in Console Cloud, we would love to show you. Take a moment and Book A Demo with our team and see what the power of automation can do in your property management agency.