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In Depth Review: Buildium Software for Property Managers

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Buildium is a feature-rich property management software designed specifically for the needs of the property manager.

From property accounting to landlord portals and rental services, Buildium is the ultimate tool for any property management business.

This software has so many features that it can be a little overwhelming at first.

Not sure where to start exploring Buildium and its advanced features?

We’ve taken an in-depth look at Buildium’s features and functionality so you don’t have to.

Here’s everything you need to know about Buildium’s property management software.

Buildium Rental Management & Accounting Features 

Buildium’s accounting software leverages the ease of other cloud-based accounting programs like QuickBooks and customizes those tools to meet the specific needs of property managers.

This comprehensive accounting software can manage budgets, vendor payments, coordinate your rental calendars with tenants, and ensure efficient tracking of all your business transactions.

With Buildium’s integrated accounting software, you can be sure that your property and business expenses are properly recorded and analyzed, ensuring the financial health of your company.

Property Accounting

Because Buildium’s accounting software is specifically designed for property managers, you’ll never have to worry about incomplete or inaccurate accounting again.

With its cloud-based accounting software, property managers can record and view every transaction made in their business. This includes payments, disbursements, deposits, and refunds.

You can create complete transaction notes directly in the software to track problematic payments, habitually late tenants, and unpaid or missed fees.

Buildium’s accounting software ensures that no transaction goes unnoticed and that all invoices are paid on time.

In addition to traditional property management accounting, Buildium also allows tenants to pay their share of maintenance fees using a general distribution feature. This way, you’ll never have to claim individual payments again.

Buildium’s accounting software also ensures that your accounts payable are in perfect shape. With its built-in calculator features, Buildium shows property managers all outstanding amounts owed to their company and vendors.

You can easily create work orders and invoices directly within the Buildium platform for a seamless online payment process. The system even allows you to set up automatic payments for recurring items or monthly invoices, saving you time and potentially money.

One of Buildium’s best features is the ability to automatically reconcile bank accounts in real time. This ensures that every check and deposit is recorded to ensure accuracy and improve the efficiency of your property management accounting. There’s no need for manual data entry.

With a full suite of reporting and financial tracking, Buildium’s property management accounting software can generate a variety of useful and comprehensive reports. This essential feature ensures you can consistently monitor the financial health of your property management operations to identify any risk factors, unpaid invoices, or receipts, and address inefficiencies.

All reconciliation reports created with Buildium comply with auditing standards. Some of the reports that can be easily created with Buildium accounting software include:

Company Financials 

Managing the financial health and growth of your property management business is easier with Buildium’s shadow accounting platform.

This simple accounting approach to property management allows you to control every dollar you spend and earn through automated tracking and collections.

With Buildium’s online payments platform, you can easily manage rental income, security deposits, and other tenant payments without having to go to the bank.

Buildium’s online payments service even allows property managers to split accounts and automate recurring payments. This is especially useful for property managers who have salespeople working at the managed properties and in their home office.

Its integrated data system allows property managers to add their company’s financial information and transactions to the system using simple forms created exclusively by Buildium. It is a unique accounting software on the market and is specifically designed for property management companies.

In addition to recording financial transactions in real time, property managers can also automate recurring monthly expenses, such as office rent, insurance, or legal fees, using these custom forms.

Online Payments with Buildium Tenant Portal

With Buildium’s automated invoicing and payment processing system, property managers can reduce payment processing time by up to 70% through an online payment portal.

This means you’ll receive your money more quickly and efficiently.

Tenants or residents can authorize a bank account or credit card through Buildium’s resident website and set up a recurring payment schedule. This ensures timely payments and fewer headaches for you and your tenant.

With this payment processing software, you’ll never have to worry about managing your finances due to insufficient funds or bank delays.

Payments are automatically deposited into your bank account.

In addition to collecting rent and other payments on time, you can pay your business invoices through the Buildium platform in the most efficient way possible.

Payments will be recorded automatically.

With Buildium’s fully integrated general accounting software, you won’t have to worry about recording transactions or verifying bill payments.

Retail Cash Payments

Buildium offers PayNearMe, a premium service for its tenants, allowing residents to make cash rent payments at over 20,000 trusted locations across the United States.

This easy-to-use system is perfect for property managers managing large apartment complexes or low-income housing.

With PayNearMe, residents can pay their rent in cash without a bank account, credit card, or photo or government-issued ID.

To use PayNearMe services, all you need is a printed pay stub or a mobile payment code provided by you, the property manager.

Once they receive this code, residents can visit a participating PayNearMe branch, show their unique payment code, and make their monthly rent or other bill payments in cash.

This affordable option is perfect for all types of residents and helps ensure you receive your rent payments on time.

Payments made through PayNearMe are deposited into your business bank account within 5 business days, with no risk of chargebacks.

After each PayNearMe payment, Buildium’s accounting software is automatically updated, so you don’t have to worry about tracking your payments.

PayNearMe helps eliminate the risk of fraud, theft, and other payment disputes. You can rest easy knowing that PayNearMe payments are guaranteed.

1099 e-Filing

One of Buildium’s most underrated features is its ability to generate electronic 1099 reports in minutes.

Simplify your tax season by filing your 1099 forms electronically through Buildium. This will save you time and the headaches associated with filing your own reports.

This simple electronic reporting system ensures accuracy by recording all payments from landlords and sellers directly into your Buildium account. This eliminates cumbersome reporting to manage your tax returns during tax season.

Property managers can easily create tax forms online, complete them, and mail them on the day they are due electronically. It’s impossible!

With Buildium’s electronic reporting service, you can also jump-start tax season. Buildium launches its electronic reporting tool one month before the official IRS tax deadline.

This additional time allows property managers to verify tax identification numbers, review recipients with missing tax information, and ensure all files are properly organized before official filing.

After submitting your application through Buildium’s e-file service, Buildium will send digital copies of your 1099 forms to your recipients, in addition to a hard copy for your office filing.

The digital copies are completely free, and you can track their delivery to ensure all recipients receive their digital copy and meet key deadlines.

Buildium Tenant Portal & Business Operations

Buildium’s Tenant Portal and Business Operations
A key benefit of Buildium’s business operations software is the flexibility it offers to meet your specific property management needs.

There’s no longer a need to try to manage everything with generic accounting and CRM software.

Buildium’s software is designed with the property manager in mind. It integrates easily with your existing operations and business processes.

Here are our thoughts on some of Buildium’s key business features and services.

Resident Center

With the Buildium Resident Hub, property managers can streamline their daily business operations and create a centralized place for their residents to interact with each other and with you.

This simple and efficient resident portal is perfect for communicating with residents, collecting rent, and managing service requests. The platform also adds a touch of professionalism to your relationships with residents and vendors, helping you become a better property manager.

One of the most useful features for property managers with Resident Hub is the ability to collect rent or fees online, directly from the Buildium app. Property managers can view a resident’s payment history and even allow them to register a bank account or credit card to process recurring monthly payments. Resident Hub is accessible from a computer or mobile app.

Residents will love the Buildium tenant portal for its functionality and accessibility for the community. Property managers can share important notifications and updates with residents quickly and efficiently via the bulletin board, individual or group emails, and text messages.

Additionally, the Resident Center offers a community message board so residents and residents’ associations can easily meet, discuss issues, and share news. This is a great way to connect residents with each other and create a sense of community on your property.

Owner portal

Similar to a resident center, an owner portal allows owners to view the overall financial picture of their building and investments.

This accessible portal provides financial data and reports directly from property managers. It helps reduce the number of emails sent to owners on a regular basis.

Buildium’s owner portal allows property managers to share real-time financial reports, including income statements, accounts payable and receivable, and certain transactions made on behalf of the property.

Owners can access comprehensive financial reports, such as balance sheets, from any device through the portal. Other important documents available through the portal include receipts, lease agreements, and many other important documents.

Buildium’s owner portal is the perfect way for owners to manage and track their real estate investments.

Owners can send funds to their property managers and view a complete history of their transactions, helping them track the financial health of their investments.

Property managers can easily share important notifications and updates directly within the Buildium platform using the hundreds of email and postal mail templates available. Property managers can even send important documents via traditional postal mail with the EZMail option, which automatically prints and mails paper documents for as little as $0.80 per mailing.

Document Storage

Regardless of the size of the property you manage, the amount of important documents can be overwhelming and costly.

With Buildium’s cloud-based document storage feature, you can easily sort and file every lease, insurance policy, and important document directly within the digital platform.

The platform allows unlimited document uploads so you can maintain accurate historical and current records. These documents can be accessed from anywhere through the Buildium desktop or mobile app and can be shared with residents and owners.

Some of the important documents stored in Buildium’s digital filing system include:

Maintenance Request Tracking

In addition to collecting rent, the Buildium Resident Center Portal also allows residents to submit and track their maintenance requests.

This smart maintenance management tool allows residents, owners, or staff to submit maintenance requests and work orders, with the ability to attach photos or videos directly from their phones.

Once the job is assigned, residents can track the status of their maintenance request directly in the Resident Center platform without having to contact the property manager directly.

Buildium’s maintenance management software also allows property managers to track vendor progress and manage efficiency.

By tracking the performance of all vendors, you can rest assured knowing they are continually being evaluated. The most efficient vendors receive the most service requests.

You can even schedule recurring maintenance tasks that need to be performed regularly, such as mowing the lawn or shoveling snow.

In addition to managing workflow and tracking service requests, Buildium’s maintenance request tracking software allows property managers to manage their expenses with fully integrated payroll and accounting features.

Vendor invoices and expenses are accurately recorded in Buildium’s property accounting software. They are also paid within the system, so you never have to worry about complicated data entry or missed invoice payments.

Renters Insurance

In partnership with MSI, the Buildium platform offers renters insurance that protects both you as a property manager and your residents.

Thanks to this unique self-service feature, your residents have access to renters insurance fully integrated with the Buildium software, easy to use and purchase, protecting everyone against accidents and liability.

By utilizing renters insurance, powered by MSI through the Buildium platform, property managers can require resident liability insurance. You can track this insurance to ensure your residents stay up-to-date.

This specially designed renters insurance offers up to $100,000 in liability coverage, allowing residents to choose between $10,000, $15,000, or $30,000 in personal property damage coverage, depending on their specific needs.

These policies also protect residents against guest medical expenses and emergency living expenses. Resident plans start at $12.00 per month.

Analytics and Insights

With all its services, features, and capabilities, Buildium property management software shows property managers valuable insights into their business and offers actionable recommendations to save money and improve efficiency.

This real-time performance and personalized insights help you set and achieve your goals, regardless of your business size.

As a property management software, Buildium offers valuable benchmarking data so property managers can compare their data against industry standards and similarly sized companies.

This is the perfect way to better understand your competitive situation and create opportunities to reach your business’s full potential.

Buildium Property Management Software: Tenant Management Tools

Buildium Property Management Software. Tenant Management Tools
If you’re looking for the right property management software, you’ll want one with extensive leasing capabilities.

With Buildium’s comprehensive suite of tenant management tools, property managers can focus their time on finding the right tenants and increasing their leasing opportunities.

From syndicated rental listings and online rental applications to tenant screening tools and an e-leasing program, Buildium’s tenant management software helps you efficiently manage your rentals and overall business operations.

Rental Listings

With Buildium’s rental listing management tool, property managers can upload their listings to their website and integrate them with the web’s top rental sites, such as Apartments.com, Zillow Rental Network, Facebook Marketplace, and many others.

The ability to integrate your listings allows property managers to expose them to millions of potential tenants nationwide without having to list each site separately.

The Rental Listing tool even allows property managers to customize their listings based on available rental units. These specialized descriptions include important information for potential tenants, such as the number of bedrooms, building type, amenities, monthly rent, and more.

With the ability to include photos and videos, your listings will be ready and waiting for you when you are.

Rental Applications

In addition to publishing rental listings, property managers can create personalized rental applications to help them find the best potential tenants.

With Buildium’s “Custom Rental Application Form,” property managers can use a pre-designed standard application or customize it with their own questions and required information.

These online rental applications are easily accessible to potential tenants through their Buildium marketing website. It allows applicants to pay the appropriate fees directly in their online application.

Tenant Screening

 

The Buildium platform easily categorizes and manages each rental application so you can quickly and thoroughly evaluate and review applicants using personalized checklists and comprehensive tenant screening.

With Buildium’s comprehensive screening feature, property managers can access comprehensive background checks on potential tenants, including credit history, criminal history, and previous evictions. This assessment tool helps you effectively evaluate applicants before they are inspected, so you don’t waste valuable time reviewing applications that don’t meet your criteria.

eLease

 

As many property managers know, the traditional leasing process often involves a mountain of paperwork.

With Buildium eLease, everything related to the tenant experience is online, so you never have to worry about losing important documents. From the initial tenant application to the lease agreement (and subsequent leases), Buildium eLease’s submission system is second to none.

Property managers can collect legally binding electronic signatures thanks to Buildium’s partnership with Adobe Document Cloud. Forget about tenants; they can sign their digital e-lease agreement from their computer, tablet, or even their phone.

All e-lease agreements can be easily tracked with just the tenant’s name, phone number, or apartment address.

Property managers can even save time with Buildium’s pre-designed lease templates. Use one of these helpful templates or create and reuse an online template that meets your specific needs.

These templates use auto-fill fields so you can easily change lease details, such as tenant names and rent amounts.

Buildium Pricing: How Much Does Buildium Cost?

Buildium’s property management software offers three pricing tiers based on your business size, needs, and accounting requirements. All levels of the platform include essential services such as:

Basic service starts at $50 per month, Growth service starts at $160, and Premium service (with all the features listed above) starts at $460. To learn more about Buildium and its tiered pricing plans, visit www.buildium.com/pricing.

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