Yesterday, Chancellor Jeremy Hunt presented his second Autumn Statement, but with a very different tone to the gloomy announcements made this time last year. The Chancellor announced initiatives with a massive focus on pushing growth in the economy. The main question you’ll all no doubt have is… “how does it affect me?”, let’s take a look…
Are you using the best software for your property rental business?
15 April 2020
Gavin Hooker
Cloud Accounting, Accounting & Compliance, Property Investors & Developers
Working in the property rental market can be a minefield what with all the various regulations that need to be followed and the endless stream of paperwork!
If you keep manual records or even try to keep track of your properties on Excel, you know what a burden this can be.
There is a legal requirement to keep some property related documents for six years. It is also advisable to keep the completion statement and related documentation on the purchase of a property until you sell the property. Having hard copies of documents is great but over many years you will quickly build up a huge filing cabinet of documents. When you need that completion statement, unless you’re super organised, it can take hours to search for that one key piece of paper!
From now onwards when you come to sell residential property, other than your own home, you will need to submit a land return and pay any capital gains tax arising on the sale within 30 days. It is therefore vitally important that all documents relevant to your property are readily accessible – not just completion statements but invoices of major works and improvements carried out to the property during your ownership.
Radical changes to tax payment date for residential property disposals
When it comes to completing your rental accounts wouldn’t it be great if you didn’t have to sort out all the paperwork for your accountant and simply say it is all there online for your accountant to access. So much time saved!!!!
So why not look at an online system with the ability to scan and attach documents saving you not just time but also office space.
Other generic benefits of using an online accounting solution are:
- You can get an app on your phone or tablet so your accounts figures can be accessed from anywhere, anytime ensuring flexibility in the maintenance of your financial records.
- Bank feeds allow for bank transactions to be uploaded without manual input.
- Automation of transaction processing such as purchase invoice scanning.
- Ability to easily provide shared access to specific financial data and share management information.
- Facility to track individual property income and expenditure.
- Maintaining up-to-date financial figures allowing for more valuable management information output.
Whilst the above lists some of benefits of using an online accounting system, the opportunities do not stop there! You could integrate other systems to open up further benefits including property management, reporting and forecasting, and project management and budgeting solutions. There is also the opportunity to link non-financial systems, such as email marketing – the possibilities are endless!
Online property management solutions
If you have a large property portfolio which you manage yourself wouldn’t it be great if you had a system which could provide alerts for key dates and deadlines (e.g. potential rent reviews, insurance renewals, gas safety certificate renewals), or even provide a portal for your tenants to upload details of potential issues or their contract information. These systems can be opened up to whoever needs access to them.
From simple systems to automate the accounts for your single rental property to a complex property management solution for your portfolio of rental properties, we have the knowledge and expertise to provide a solution for your property rental business. Please contact Jan Friend, or Darren Hughes for more information.
The content in this blog is correct as at 15/04/2020. See terms and conditions.
