How commercial property management software reduces manual work and saves time

A commercial property manager's week is supposed to be spent on clients, properties and lease performance, not reconciling spreadsheets by hand, compiling owner statements line by line, or chasing invoice approval across three email threads. 

Unfortunately, for a lot of agencies in Australia and New Zealand, it's the opposite: the admin eats the week, and the actual property management happens in whatever time is left over. 

Commercial property management software solutions exist specifically to fix this problem, but it’s easy to be so caught up in the day-to-day that you feel like you can’t stop to research and implement a solution.

This is a false economy because all that manual work wastes people’s time and can lead to errors, costs that have to be written off and, in a worst-case scenario, disputes that cost extra money. 

Numerous areas of the commercial property spectrum are reportedly set to benefit from investor attention in the near future. For growing agencies, this means it’s time to set the foundations for a more streamlined business. 

This guide walks through exactly which workflows purpose-built software for commercial property management makes easier.

How do commercial property management software solutions help streamline operations?

Commercial property management software streamlines operations by automating recurring financial and administrative work. This includes outgoings invoicing, bank reconciliation, rent review date tracking, owner statement generation and maintenance work order processing. Instead of a manager rebuilding these from scratch every cycle, the system runs them on a schedule and the manager reviews the output rather than having to put it all together.

That shift reduces manual work for four areas of the job in particular:

• Financial processing – reconciliation, invoicing, and receipting run against live ledger data instead of a manually updated spreadsheet
• Reporting – owner statements and portfolio summaries pull from the same data the accounting side already holds, rather than being compiled separately
• Lease management – critical dates (rent reviews, option periods, lease expiry) sit in a diary the system tracks automatically
• Maintenance coordination – work orders, quotes and contractor communication are logged and tracked in one place instead of scattered across emails and phone calls

Rex Cirrus8 is one example of software for commercial property managers that connects these four areas, so a change in one (a new lease, a completed work order) doesn't require updating three other systems by hand.

The difference between running a 40-property commercial portfolio on spreadsheets versus purpose-built software can usually add up to hours per week. 

The less time you spend on data entry and cross-checking information, the more time you have to focus on client services and growing your portfolio. With a high percentage of facilities managers in high income countries reportedly forecast to retire over the next few years, the more you can do with fewer people, the better. 

How does commercial property management software reduce manual work for property managers?

Commercial property management software automates the tasks a manager would otherwise track, calculate and action manually, running them on a schedule or trigger so the manager reviews the result instead of producing it.

Six manual tasks commercial property management software replaces with automated workflows:

1. End-of-month bank reconciliation, from a full manual line-by-line match to a review of pre-matched transactions
2. Outgoings invoicing, calculated and generated from budget data instead of built from scratch each cycle
3. Rent review and lease expiry tracking, flagged automatically on a critical date diary instead of relying on memory or a spreadsheet
4. Owner statement generation, pulled from live transaction data instead of manually compiled from multiple sources
5. Maintenance work order logging, tracked from request through to completion in one system instead of across email and phone
6. Trust account reporting, generated directly from the ledger instead of assembled manually for each compliance check

These tasks are the administrative scaffolding that, when done manually, eat into time that’s better spent on tenant relationships, lease negotiation and winning new business.

Not sure if you need a software solution? Make a note of the time you spend each week on manual data-related tasks. If you could cut that time in half, what else could you be achieving?

The other thing to think about is reporting. If your software includes a secure portal for tenants, owners and suppliers, you’ll save even more time. 

What workflows can be automated with commercial property management software?

Workflows fall into two categories that behave differently in practice. 

Automated workflows run without a person starting them. Examples include a reconciliation running overnight or a critical date alert firing on schedule. 

Structured workflows are ones the system routes to the right person for a decision. For example, a maintenance request that needs manager sign-off, an outgoings variance that needs a second set of eyes before it goes to the owner. 

Both reduce risk and workload, but neither removes the manager from the process completely.

Property managers are still important: Automation removes the manual steps but decision-making is still a requirement. 

Even with automation, a structured maintenance approval still needs a manager's judgement call. It just doesn't need three phone calls and a spreadsheet update to get there.

What tasks can commercial property managers automate to save time each week?

For a manager running a mid-size commercial portfolio, somewhere in the 30 to 50 property range, the weekly time impact of automating the right tasks is significant. 

Reconciliation and receipting that used to take a full day can drop to an hour of review. Owner statements that took an afternoon to compile per owner become a same-day turnaround.

Time-saving automations for commercial property managers: what to prioritise:

• Reconciliation and receipting; usually the single biggest recurring time cost on a mid-size portfolio
• Owner statement generation, particularly for portfolios reporting to multiple owners on different cycles
• Critical date monitoring for rent reviews and expiring leases
• Outgoings invoicing, especially across portfolios with varied lease structures and apportionment methods
• Maintenance work order tracking, to cut down the time lost chasing contractors and tenants for updates

The portfolio size at which manual management starts to break down is lower than most agencies expect. The right software investment at 20 properties prevents the breakdown that typically hits at 35 to 40. 

Waiting until your portfolio is already under strain makes the transition to purpose-designed software harder, because the backlog has to be cleaned up at the same time the new system is being adopted.

Where do the time savings of commercial property management software actually go?

Commercial property management software solutions remove the manual work that creates compliance risk and quietly caps how far an agency can grow its rent roll before admin becomes unmanageable. 

Choose a cloud-based solution that is designed by property professionals, for property professionals, and use it to streamline tasks, provide 'at-a-glance' updates and receive notifications about upcoming critical dates. This will all contribute to time saved and resources you can allocate to other tasks. 

A final tip: Look for a service with a dedicated Onboarding Manager who will work closely with you to ensure a smooth transition and effective change management. 

Rex Cirrus8 is built to automate the workflows that consume a commercial property manager's week. Book a demo to see the time savings in practice.