One thing that any modern landlord should have in their ?landlord's tool box? now is good and reliable property management software. Also known as landlord software our solution has been developed through years of experience as landlords ourselves. Because of this experience we recognize the importance of tracking maintenance expenses and have made it a prominent feature of our software.
On the maintenance and repair screen of our landlord software you will by able to choose whether each of your properties is fully furnished or unfurnished. If you have indicated that a property is fully furnished on the property details screen then you will be able to select it if you wish to claim the ten percent wear and tear allowance on your income tax.
If you have indicated part or unfurnished then the property software will not give you that option. It will however display a message that lets you know you have recorded the property as not furnished in case you need to adjust that or have made an error.
This program also helps you to keep track of all the major and minor repairs you do to all your properties, by allowing you to record all the key information of such transactions such as date, cost type and whether the repair was internal or external.
There is also a sub section that allows you to keep an eye on which fixtures and fittings you have had to replace or repair over the length of a tenancy. This is key as clearly these will be part of the property whether it is furnished or not.
Crucially this section also allows you to record whether the cost was a capital cost or not (if it added to the value of the house, such as in the case of an extension.) This will have tax ramifications in terms of capital gains.
There is no doubt that people under estimate the work load involved in efficiently keeping records for a property portfolio but we are confident that this property management software will help to reduce that work load for you and effectively free up a lot of your time.
After many disappointing experiences with this kind of software, that promised the world but actually fell well short of my expectations, I decided that best way to get some property management software that did everything I needed it to do was to design it myself.
I was fairly sure that with my previous employment as a software designer and now as an active landlord that I had a good clear idea of what elements were needed to make the software fully functional, comprehensive and easy to use.
Just to make sure though I surveyed many landlords who I had got to know and they confirmed for me the things they needed in a software of this type, I then designed the product around these needs. That is why I can say with no hesitation that this property management software is the answer to all your record keeping needs and is designed by landlords for landlords.
An example of the functional aspects of the landlord software is the detail you can record about the purchase of the property. This section allows you to record all of the vital things when buying the property. The cost, the date it was purchased and the number of owners. Some of your properties you may own individually some may be a joint purchase with a business partner or a spouse. It is important that a record is kept of such things.
Now, where some software might stop there my property software allows you to also build up a list of every single cost that was associated with the purchase of the property. Things like solicitors costs, surveyors costs etc. This is so important because you clearly need these details to offset against any future capital gains tax you may incur.
The best thing about the way this property management software deals with these details and an example of what sets it above its competitors is the fact that you can then check the report titled ?Property Profit Analyser? report to quickly check the total capital gains you have made across your whole portfolio. Quick, easy and practical.
I am happy to say that our property management software is the only solution that is officially recommended by the Residential Landlords Association (RLA). This is because I designed it with the practical and realistic needs of landlords just like myself in mind.