A Comparison of the best Commercial Property Management Software’s

  • December 21, 2016
  • admin@ohi

Commercial property management requirements are different from residential properties whether it is office space, retail or industrial. Good commercial software should be able to create detailed financial projections and budgets, to auto calculate rent increases, to create recurring charges, to calculate expense recoveries and common area management (CAM) charges and to perform reconciliations.

Common features of Commercial Property Management Software

Property Type

Software should enable user to manage individual units or floor spaces of any size as per business requirements.

Accounting

Accounting for commercial real estate firms is more complicated (though less transaction intensive) than residential firms due to complicated nature of real estate leases, accounting for expense recoveries , intricate CAM reconciliation, detailed financial reporting, frequent use of escrows and need for advanced budgeting tools.

Lease Management    

Lease Management is an integral part of any commercial property management software.  The software should be able to handle the different leasing rates and rates across the complete lifecycle of  the lease.  Leasing module should be able to handle staggered lease terms with differential leasing rates and CAM recoveries, rent reviews, and options such as first refusal rights for the tenants.

Maintenance Portal

Maintenance Portal refers to section that enables the manager to handle tenant maintenance requests, track maintenance tasks,  set-up schedules and alerts regarding upcoming due maintenance. A good software should provide options to renters to submit maintenance requests directly to their property management company at their convenience. Property managers get notifications of maintenance requests on mobile and can take action promptly.

Owner Portal

Owner Portal classifies the features property owners will be able to access and complete online. Providing owners with the ability to access property inspection reports, financial statements, personalized statements, and avoid annoying lost password calls with a secure password recovery system reduces the need for owners to reach out to property managers directly.

Reporting

Every software is capable in generating reports like rent roll, unit status, and delinquency reports but the best commercial management software provides detailed and custom reporting at unit, property, entity or investor level.  The software should also allow for memorized reports across different user types such as investors, management , accounting etc. The software which is able to provide a comprehensive suite of reports including investment grade rating, lease maturities & rental rate growth, vacancy rate, gross initial yield by property can be considered.  Dashboards are a significant add-on as they are simpler and can visually represent complicated information.

Common Area Maintenance (CAM)

CAM  accounting is one of the most complicated aspect of commercial real estate accounting. Software with inbuilt functionality of CAM billing and reconciliation is a big asset. A good software must provide you to track, bill and reconcile the shared common area expenses and income for your commercial properties.  It should also be able to handle different types of expense recoveries across different leases /across different periods of the same lease.  This include popular CAM allocation basis  such as a per sq ft allocation, flat fee allocation,  proportionate share or a custom defined one. Yardi & Appfolio have added CAM feature in their software’s with utility rebilling & charge codes functionality.

Comparison Sheet

Yardi Voyager Yardi Genesis MRI Commercial Management Appfolio Property Manager
Property Type
Commercial Real Estate cross tick tick tick
Retail tick tick cross cross
Construction tick tick cross cross
Energy tick tick cross cross
Multi-Unit tick cross cross cross
Property Portfolio Size
Large (1000 units and up) tick cross cross tick
Mid-Size (251-999 units) tick tick tick tick
Small (1-250 units) cross tick tick tick
Accounting
Accepts Online Payment tick tick tick tick
Accrual Accounting tick tick tick tick
Bank Account Integration tick cross tick tick
Bank Statement Upload tick cross tick tick
Complex Expense Recoveries (CAM) tick tick cross tick
Custom Add Offline Items tick tick tick tick
Financial Statements per Property tick tick tick tick
Online Payments from Residents tick tick tick tick
Online Statements tick cross tick tick
Owner ACH tick tick tick tick
Payables tick tick cross tick
Post Rent & Late Fees tick tick cross tick
Print Checks tick tick cross tick
Profit & Loss Reports tick tick tick tick
Retail Percentage Rent Calculations tick cross cross cross
Quickbooks Sync tick cross cross cross
Receivables tick tick cross tick
Setup Auto Pay tick cross cross tick
Statement Archives tick tick cross tick
Track Mortgage Amortization tick cross cross cross
Management Features
Automatic Property Mapping tick cross tick tick
Customizable Reports tick tick tick tick
Easy Data Migration tick tick cross tick
Events Calendar tick cross tick tick
Maintenance Overview tick tick tick tick
Message Boards tick cross tick tick
Move in/Move Out Workflow tick tick cross tick
Paperless Work Orders tick tick cross tick
Proactive System Notifications tick tick tick tick
Recurring Work Orders tick cross cross tick
Rent Comparison Tool cross cross cross tick
Smart Search tick tick cross tick
Streamlined Work Orders tick tick cross tick
Tabbed Categories tick cross cross tick
Upload Documents tick tick cross tick
Tenant Portal
Online Lease Agreements tick cross cross tick
Online Leasing tick cross cross tick
Online Rental Applications tick cross tick tick
Owner Portal
Email Owner Statements tick tick tick tick
Performance Metrics tick tick cross tick
Surveys tick tick cross tick
Vacancy Dashboards tick tick cross tick
Marketing
Automatic Postings to Web tick cross tick cross
Guest Cards tick tick cross tick
Lead Source Tracking tick tick tick tick
Lease Option Management tick cross cross cross
Marketing Statistics tick tick tick tick
Real Time Vacancy Statistics tick tick tick tick
Support Inquiries tick tick tick tick
Website Templates tick cross tick tick
Data Management
Automatic Data Backup tick tick tick tick
Export to CSV tick tick tick cross
Export to Excel tick tick tick tick
Export to Web tick tick tick tick
Export to PDF tick tick cross tick
File Storage tick tick tick tick
Sync with MS Word tick tick cross cross
Sync with Outlook tick cross cross cross
Operating Environment
Web-Based (Online) tick tick tick tick
Windows cross cross cross cross
Mobile Application tick tick cross tick

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