12 Vital Questions to ask about Association Management Software
Congratulations on owning a company in a hot business sector — HOA and community association management services.
The proliferation of single family and townhouse developments, along with built to rent neighborhoods, means plenty of tasks for managers of HOA/Community associations — tasks which can be better executed with good software.
Of course, HOA and community association management is competitive with new service startups jumping into the fray each month. In fact, established property management firms near you are venturing into the HOA space. Mixed portfolios aren’t a big challenge anymore.
Cloud-based SaaS platforms open up a wide range of service capabilities. But which services/strengths should you be focusing on?
Choosing the Right Technology Platform
The right HOA Community management technology is what assures boards that your firm has the “right stuff” to care for their communities and members.
Good technology speaks volumes about your approach to managing and efficiency. Managing is all about making good decisions and it’s your ability to discover the right questions that puts you on the path to excellence.
Which is the Best HOA Community Association Software?
Which is the right technology platform to help you deliver outstanding community service features, optimal revenue management, streamlined maintenance and work processes, and improve member communications? Before you can answer that, you’ll need to ask more questions!
An HOA community association management software platform such as ManageCasa helps automate record-keeping and member payments, achieve transparency and promote collaboration and member participation, manage vendors, manage the community schedule and your staff workloads, as well as to optimize day-to-day maintenance operations to make the most of your operating budget.
ManageCasa gives your association a manageable structure, streamlined efficiency and vastly improved communications capabilities.
Improve How You Manage
Since software technology is the foundation for HOA and community management, as it is for property management companies, you’ll want to choose your HOA Community software wisely.
And as always, having the experience, insight and good judgement to discover the best questions to ask before subscribing to a solution helps produce great business decisions.
Choosing general service, lower quality solutions may seem practical, but at some point you must migrate to real HOA and Community association software with potential to do more. Without a professional level solution to complete your tasks, manage budgets and serve residents and your board responsively, your confidence in your company just can’t get to where it needs to be.
Confidence is important. Your software powers your business.
The ManageCasa HOA solution gives you that confidence via easy to use, smart-automated features to help you efficiently charge and collect owner dues online, track incidents and violations, manage community amenities, review architectural applications, manage board member approvals, share documents, and communicate with everyone.
Keep all of your tasks organized and transparent using a modern, SaaS cloud-based platform for community associations.
Asking these 12 core questions leads to more informed decisions about your association management services platform commitments:
- What do you need specifically in your management software? Will you be able to manage mixed portfolios of properties and clients? Does it provide actionable insight into operations performance (association reporting), reliable accounting data, accounts receivable and payable reporting, homeowner communications responsiveness, and real time insight into your budget finances, and violation and maintenance ticket status? Do you like real time reporting?
- Isn’t general association software good enough? General (AMS) software is built as a multi-industry association tool for small organizations. Does it contain vital services such as violation tracking, real estate accounting functions, online payment capability, and maintenance tickets? Or is a true residential focused community association specialized software cause you less grief and get more done?
- Will your staff like the software? Is the software dashboard and apps comfortable, ease to understand, use and bring confidence to all users? Will it empower their workday?
- Will the software provide all the data and administrative services needed? Is it’s search function first class? Does it include smart automation features to help you efficiently charge and collect owner dues, track violations, review architectural applications, manage board member approvals, share documents, and communicate with everyone?
- Which features are vital and how do we prioritize them? ManageCasa can help you understand costs vs revenue and about expenses for different aspects of your daily operations. Use your ManageCasa reports to understand which services must command the most time and effort.
- How much of your accounting and transactions can you automate? Does your HOA software provide an accounting module for automatically charging owners and residents for their assessment dues, collect payments online and then reconcile them with your bank account? Will it generate real-time financial reports like Budget vs Actuals, Balance Sheet or P&L and share them with your board or owners through the portals? Can you create a budget to forecast income and expenses for your community? How about viewing charts and reports to compare your budget against actual results? Can you sync your budget with your customized Chart of Accounts?
- How will it optimize HOA violation tracking and resolution and make fine payments easy online? Can members respond and make payment conveniently online via diverse payment service providers including credit cards, bank debit accounts and others near them?
- Do you need industry specific accounting or is general off the shelf software sufficient? Many of the costs/expenses are particular to the real estate industry. Double entry accounting is essential to attribute costs to the specific owner accounts especially if you have a mixed property/association portfolio. Is accounting quality a top priority?
- What level of user support does the provider offer? A service should have ready and knowledgeable support reps available through regular business hours, and helpful help files easily accessible online. It’s more the willingness to provide such service that is key.
- Is free association software really a good idea? Developers of free software must generate revenue somehow to service the product and their time. SaaS cloud-based software is a bargain yet development is still costly. From data security, to software bugs, to flexibility of the product, a subscription based software solution is going to give you business value for many years ahead.
- What will be the ongoing costs of a professional quality solution which we can grow with? Property management software prices vary, however the cost might range from $50 a month for small portfolios and limited users to tens of thousands for huge HOA accounts. A full service platform integrates all the features you need to run your community association effectively and you’ll need to compare pricing.
- How will my association board feel about the software my company uses? Will the software be able to provide vital accounting/budget management reports, review architectural changes, can it carry out/automate work? How professional is the solution? Would it pass their own rigorous quality checks? Does it provide regular, insight reports, that add value to their roles?
The really important questions you have yet to discover, and more intricate than discussed above. By taking a demo and then discussing your specific needs with our sales team, the best questions will come up.
It’s a learning process to discover the right HOA community association platform for you.
ManageCasa is here to guide you to the right solution. Speak to our sales team now and enjoy the benefits of a modern, SaaS based, cloud powered community association solution. Your board will approve of your professionalism.
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