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Outsourcing Bank Reconciliation – When & How Often Should You Do It?

Bank Reconciliations are an integral process for any organization to prevent and find fraud. However, accounting teams, property owners, employers, and managers often disregard this.

Businesses, especially those in a critical growth phase have owners wearing too many hats. During this period, administrative tasks wear in-house staff thin. Thus, management often de-prioritizes duties such as bank reconciliation.

Outsourcing Bank Reconciliation - When & How Often Should You Do It?

But who could blame them? This task gets repetitive, is time-consuming, and isn’t dollar productive.

So, you could get businesses that do bank reconciliation whenever with the assumption that that’s enough to keep the books in order. Unfortunately, as you all already know, this can have costly repercussions down the line.

Luckily, there’s a simple solution for this issue – Outsourcing! Industries such as Property Management, Real Estate, Accounting, and more are already outsourcing tasks such as Bank Reconciliation.

As a result, studies show an increase in productivity, massive savings on operational costs, and managers having more time to focus on streamlining and growing the business.

That said, here’s a quick rundown on when you should schedule bank reconciliation.

How Often Should Your Business Reconcile Bank Statements?

The number of times you should reconcile your bank statements depends on how you run the business. But, as a rule of thumb, the main thing you need to consider is that it has to be consistent.

Bank Reconciliation could be done monthly, daily, or even longer than a month depending on if an account has low activity. Here’s an in-depth guide you can follow:

Monthly Bank Reconciliations

All businesses should do monthly bank reconciliations.
Banks send monthly statements at the end of each month that can be used for bookkeeping. Online month-to-date statements can be used to perform a bank reconciliation at any time.

Seasonal businesses or those with time-sensitive client deliverables may shift their reconciliation to a less busy time of the month. Gathering bank reconciliation information ahead of time or using software to generate information is a smart way to avoid wasting too much time at once.

Daily Bank Reconciliations

High-volume and fraud-prone businesses should do more bank reconciliations. Daily bank reconciliations are more appropriate in these cases to ensure cash flows properly.

Additionally, reconciliations allow businesses to identify unauthorized ACH debits and block them before the money is transferred, mitigating fraud loss. This non-standard approach can be helped by online bank statements.

Daily bank reconciliations can be challenging due to the high volume of in-transit deposits and withdrawals in most business accounts, but they are important for a company’s financial health.

Low Activity Accounts

Low-volume accounts that don’t need to be reconciled monthly should be closed, and recurring deposits or debits should be transferred to more active accounts. Account consolidation simplifies bank reconciliation.

Why Should You Prioritize Bank Reconciliation?

Fraud, unauthorized withdrawals, and bank errors are all possible outcomes for companies that don’t perform regular bank reconciliations. These problems, if unaddressed, can lead to cash flow leaks that impede operations and growth in a company.

A business that doesn’t conduct regular bank reconciliations is more likely to have checks bounce and electronic payments rejected. Supplier and partner relationships can be damaged if payments are not made on time, resulting in higher fees and stricter payment terms.

The legal protections that apply to consumer accounts do not apply to business accounts, which means that simple mistakes like bank errors can be fixed, but fraud is typically not covered by banks. As a result, companies are on the hook for discovering and preventing fraudulent activity.

Routine account balance checks and investigations into any transactions that don’t match up are necessary for this kind of policing. Thankfully, businesses can hire property management virtual assistants to help keep bank reconciliation consistent.

Benefits Of Outsourcing Bank Reconciliation

The primary goal of reconciliation is to determine if the discrepancy is the result of an error rather than a miscalculation in the time. Using our high-tech tools, the bank reconciliation process will become more accurate.

Small business owners can rely on our bank reconciliation services as an extension of their own accounting departments. You can save up to 40% to 50% by outsourcing all of your bank reconciliations to us. Having only one client at a time helps each professional develop the specific knowledge needed for that client.

Here are the benefits of Outsourcing Bank Reconciliation Services:

  • Improves the efficiency with which financial records are kept
  • It is easy to spot a discrepancy between the amount of cash and the bank passbook.
  • Staff in the accounting department will be able to focus on more pressing matters.
  • The biggest winners are corporations with a large number of accounts.
  • Confidence is reduced by reducing the amount of paperwork.

If you’re ready to start your outsourcing journey, Global Strategic can help with your business needs and give you the Strategic Advantage needed to edge out the competition. Talk to us today and more about how offshore outsourcing to the Philippines can help your business and future business growth.

Why Outsource Bills And Invoices? – Benefits Of Outsourcing

Billing and invoices may be a small part of your overall business process – however, the time (and expense) to finish these things stack up fast! That’s why property managers outsource bills and invoices to free up time and save money.

Before we get into why you need to outsource these operations, let’s take a look at a brief description of what bills and invoices are. If you’re trying to collect money from your customers, you’ll use an invoice. Meanwhile, if you’re trying to pay your suppliers, you’ll most likely use a bill. Both documents convey the same information about how much money you owe for the sale of goods or services.

Why Outsource Bills And Invoices? - Benefits Of Outsourcing

What is an invoice:

  • Payment for services rendered is requested through the use of an invoice.
  • Before payment is received, an invoice is sent out as a request for payment by a specific date.
  • An invoice serves as a record of the goods or services that have been sold to the business for accounting purposes.

What is a bill?

  • It is necessary to send a bill before receiving payment.
  • A bill serves as a reminder to the customer to make any pending payments thereon. These serve as a reminder of the goods and services of a business.
  • An invoice you receive as a customer from a supplier is recorded in your books as an obligation to pay.

Benefits of Outsourcing Billing & Invoicing

A wide range of businesses uses external billing services. The fact is, not only would you require help in terms of resources, but also in terms of compliance.

Your company runs the risk of stagnation if you rely solely on in-house teams. Plus, you can confidently take on your competitors if you have multiple billing services in place.

With that said, here is how your business can benefit from outsourcing billing and invoicing:

Decrease Workload of In-House Staff

Accounts payable departments are often overworked. This is common during periods of rapid business growth when invoice volume increases. As a result, this boosts sales but strains your AP staff. This is especially true for paper-based processes, data entry, approvals, and PO-heavy processes. Every additional invoice slows AP productivity.

Increase Productivity

Duplicate payments cost businesses a lot of money. In one report, 0.1% to 0.5% of paid invoices are duplicates. Without controls, duplicate payments can cost businesses hundreds, thousands, or even millions of dollars.

Missed or late payments cost your staff time to recover erroneous spending, reducing time for other AP functions.

Reduce Operational Costs of Invoice Processing

Manual invoice processing can cost $30. Inefficient workflow, uncooperative vendors, or back-and-forth communications between departments to verify invoices can add up quickly.

But outsourcing can reduce operational costs by up to 70%. Furthermore, you don’t have to worry about overhead from hiring new staff to keep up with your business’s growing demand.

Access To New Resources

When you partner with an outsourcing service provider such as Global Strategic, your business can equip itself with systems and technology that help you handle discrepancies, manage vendors, and gain administrative support as needed.

Since you’ll pay this vendor to manage your AP, they’ll provide reporting and other administrative services. Managed AP services can provide reporting on invoice cost and payment time, as well as analysis, month- and year-end close, reconciliation, and document management.

Streamline Billing and Invoicing Process

Naturally, outsourcing invoice processing simplifies invoice approval. Additionally, hiring property management virtual assistants (PMVA) provides accurate, complete invoices. This eliminates missing data and invoice errors.

Now, error-filled invoices are rare. Thus, the finance team members won’t have to correct invoice processing errors.

Types Of Bills and Invoices You Can Outsource

There are a wide variety of invoices that companies can make for their customers. That said, the type of invoice that you select will be determined by your industry, the manner in which you charge customers for your services, and the frequency with which you anticipate being paid.

Here are the types of invoices you can outsource:

Standard Invoice

A company will typically issue a standard invoice, which will then be delivered to the customer. This is the most common type of invoice that is produced by small businesses, and the format is versatile enough to accommodate the majority of business types as well as billing procedures. The following information pertaining to the transaction is typically included on standard invoices:

  • The name of the company as well as its contact information
  • Name and other identifying information about the customer
  • An invoice number
  • The amount of money that is owed to the company by the customer in exchange for the company’s services.

Credit Invoice

A business that needs to offer a discount or a refund to a customer, or that needs to correct an error that was made on a previous invoice, will issue what is known as a credit invoice.

This type of invoice is also known as a credit memo. When you receive a credit, your invoice will always have a sum that is negative.

Commercial Invoice

A company that sells its wares to customers located in other countries must create a commercial invoice for each transaction. When goods are sold across international borders, the customs duties associated with the transaction must be determined using the information contained on the commercial invoice.

The following items of information are typically included on a commercial invoice:

  • Shipment quantity
  • Weight / Volume
  • A detailed account of the merchandise
  • The total price
  • The format of the packaging

Final Invoice

After the completion of a project, the client is presented with a final invoice that contains a request for payment. The final invoice is typically much more detailed than either the pro forma or interim invoices, and it includes the following items as a matter of course:

  • A detailed inventory of all the services that were rendered.
  • Cost of the project in its entirety Invoice number Due date for the invoice
  • Methods of payment that are acceptable

Past Due Invoice

A company will send an overdue invoice to a customer if the customer has not yet provided payment by the date that was specified on the final invoice. As soon as a client misses a payment deadline, you should immediately send them an invoice for the amount that is past due.

Invoices that are past due include all of the service and payment information that is listed on the final invoice, as well as any late fees or interest charges that may have been incurred.

Timesheet Invoice

A timesheet is a type of invoice that is used whenever a company or an employee is billing a client based on the number of hours worked and the rate of pay that is typically used. Contract employees who are paid on an hourly basis by their employer are required to keep timesheets.

Expense Report

An expense report is a form of an invoice that an employee is required to submit to their employer in order to be reimbursed for costs that are directly related to their work.

For instance, if you send an employee to a lunch meeting with a client, that employee has the ability to create an expense report in order to bill your company for the cost of the lunch, parking, and gas that they paid for themselves in advance.

What Industries Can Outsource Bills and Invoices?

As mentioned earlier, all industries use billing and invoicing. As such, you can find this outsourced in industries such as Property Management, Accounting, and more!

When you outsource your billing needs to a team that is well-equipped, the process will be both quicker and more efficient than when it is done in-house.

This is because the team will have access to all of the necessary tools. If the amount of time it takes for payments to cycle is reduced, you can anticipate receiving the money owed to you from your customers more quickly.

This will have a positive impact on your cash flow while also increasing your liquidity and preventing debts from accruing at the same time.

Should My Business Outsource Bills and Invoices?

Invoice and billing can be outsourced for a variety of reasons. However, as a rule of thumb, the number of employees in an organization is the most important factor. Additionally, another factor is based on the size of the company’s sales, its assets, and profitability.

The processing of invoices is one of the most important aspects of running a small business. Any small business that relies on fast cash flow is doomed if they don’t do this properly. The higher the inward and outward remittances, the greater the Return on Investment will be with limited capital.

A small business owner has to deal with a wide range of operational factors that directly impact business growth, but they don’t have time to follow up on invoice receipt and payment. Invoice processing outsourcing is the best option for small businesses because of this.

If you’re ready to start your outsourcing journey, Global Strategic can help with your business needs and give you the Strategic Advantage needed to edge out the competition. Talk to us today and learn more about how offshore outsourcing to the Philippines can help your business and future business growth.

Outsourcing Property Listing Management – Global Strategic

Property Managers are starting to outsource property listing management to virtual assistants – but, does outsourcing really work?

The short answer – Yes! Property Listing Management is just one of the many tasks you can outsource. Plus, you get the added benefit of saving on operational costs and the ability to streamline your business.

Outsourcing Property Listing Management - Global Strategic

So how can you make remote property listing management work?

Generally, you’d want somebody who knows the area, knows about property types, and how to manage a database. At a glance, this may seem like a lot of tasks that you’d want to be done in-house.

Naturally, hiring offshore means that you’d have to do tons of screening to find the perfect VA. Then, you’d need to make sure that person already knows the ins and outs of property management.

Luckily, the likelihood of that is actually pretty high, but the downside is hiring freelancers with years of experience with tasks like property listing management can cost a pretty penny not to mention, that there is no guarantee that you will find someone trustworthy, competent, and committed.

For this reason, property managers partner with outsourcing companies from countries like the Philippines. Thus, you don’t have to worry about screening dozens of freelancers. Instead, you’d get access to professionally trained and experienced Property Management Virtual Assistants (PMVA) to help with tasks like property listing.

How Does A PMVA Process Property Listings?

In addition to property inspection, property management virtual assistants (PMVA) offer other services. A PMVA is responsible for compiling a list of properties for sale in a specific area.

When it comes to property valuation, a virtual assistant will look at nearby properties to see how much the client’s property is worth on a daily basis.

One of Global Strategic’s Professional virtual assistants for real estate, Michielle Marcelo, says that the following steps are typically taken in this situation:

  • Finding out where a property is located and what it has to offer (building type, size, etc).
  • Create an overview of the local property market in a specific location.
  • Identifying the property’s current condition
  • Comparing your property to those that have recently sold nearby
  • Take a look at the current listings for similar properties.
  • Foreclosure properties in the area are being counted and reported.

Furthermore, industry-standard Property Management Software like AppFolio, PropertyMeld, Rent Manager, Propertyware, and Showmojo is used as a virtual assistants for property management.

Benefits Of Outsourcing Listing Management

Back-office tasks and projects that aren’t related to your core business should be outsourced. It frees up your time so you can devote it to activities that generate revenue.

You save money on hiring, training, and infrastructure costs because you have access to a skilled and scalable workforce that can grow with your business. You’ll learn about the benefits of outsourcing property listings management in this article.

That said, here are the benefits you get from outsourcing listing management:

Accurate listing

The dynamic nature of property listings necessitates constant updates. There is a need for resources and expertise to gather dynamic data on changing valuations, appraisals, mortgages, lending rates, and demographics. It is critical to verify and validate a property’s listing before it is published. It takes a lot of time and effort to verify expired listings’ data.

Web scraping, crawlers, rules, and bots are just some of the technology-enabled data gathering solutions that can be obtained through outsourcing. Crawl schedules that pull data in real-time from all over the world are called crawls. Real estate pricing data is easily accessible through price scraping, an efficient way to compare prices. Data that has been validated and verified ensures accurate and real-time information on the property listings websites.

Quick transactions

It takes a lot of time and effort to perform back-office tasks such as processing real estate documents such as mortgage loans, agreements, leases, deeds, and title transfers.

Traditional document management has been shown to consume 20% of total operating costs, according to research. Automated and improved processes lead to faster and more accurate property listings, which in turn lead to faster and more accurate property transactions.

Efficient data capture

Back-office tasks like processing real estate documents like mortgage loans, agreements, leases, deeds, and title transfers take a lot of time and effort.

According to research, traditional document management accounts for 20% of total operating costs. This leads to faster and better property listings, which in turn leads to better property sales and more accurate transactions.

Effective virtual viewing

The real estate industry will never be the same again thanks to virtual reality. Surveyed by the National Association of Realtors, 44 percent of clients use the internet to find properties.

Customers are now able to see and feel the property by simply swiping their fingers. Using videos to generate leads is the most effective method. Statistics show that videos on social media get 1200 times more shares than images and texts, and they also help drive 157 times more organic traffic than images and texts.

Customers can get a sense of a property through 3D walkthroughs without ever leaving their homes. Real estate agents can generate more leads by using virtual staging, guided visits, 360-degree videos, and other techniques that are easier to outsource.

Efficient marketing automation

Listings necessitate publicity. Realtors can’t devote the time, energy, and resources necessary to hone these skills because this is a completely different area of expertise.

Using marketing automation, you can increase the visibility of your listings with the help of social media and marketing specialists.

In addition to email campaigns, marketing automation includes lead identification and segmentation; automated offers; enhanced customer engagement on social media; and much more. You can save time and money by automating your real estate marketing efforts.

Conclusion – Should My Business Start Outsourcing Property Listing Management?

Today, a realtor’s responsibilities extend far beyond the simple act of purchasing and selling a home. Multi-faceted work includes database management, prospecting, data gathering, data capture, cleansing and enriching data, creating video campaigns, social media marketing, and much more.

In a way, they’re all intertwined. Investing in human capital, infrastructure, and cutting-edge technology may not be a good idea. You can focus on your core activities and achieve profitable growth by outsourcing property listing management to a skilled and scalable workforce.

If you’re ready to start your outsourcing journey, Global Strategic can help with your business needs and give you the Strategic Advantage needed to edge out the competition. Talk to us today and learn more about how offshore outsourcing to the Philippines can help your business and future business growth.

Outsourced Work Order Processing – How to Make It a Success

A better understanding of outsourced work orders and the methods used to complete them will make it easier for you to communicate with technicians, engineers, and other types of maintenance personnel. Furthermore, if businesses outsourced these processes, they could easily automate an integral part of their operations.

Work order processing benefits many industries, but, in this article, we’re going to focus on its use in Property Management. However, the concepts used can still apply to whatever your business might be. So, let’s jump right in and see how you can improve your maintenance processing through outsourced work order processing.

Outsourced Work Order Processing - How to Make It a Success

With multiple assets, you can expect to deal with maintenance activities more frequently. It’s the way things are – the bigger your property management business grows; the volume of work orders and other documentation that goes with it. For many, this growth is a great problem to have, but you still need to address it, nonetheless.

What Is Work Order Processing in Property Management?

Property managers need to create a maintenance task and describe what needs to be done. Afterward, it’s assigned to a specific technician, and the due date is set.

For example, if an AC breaks down, that’s a form of an unplanned work order. As a Property Manager, you should be able to guarantee the completion of work orders in a timely manner.

A structured work order management process can do all this. That’s why those in the industry outsource maintenance and repair services to property management virtual assistants automate part of the process.

Thus, maintenance workflow should be standardized. Moreover, scheduling and assigning maintenance work should be simple.

That’s why professionals keep track of everything from resources spent on maintenance, labor, material, and parts. Things like maintenance compliance, the percentage of planned vs. preventative work, and so on and so forth come to mind when we think of that.

To summarize, a Work Order handles the following:

  • Ensure maintenance is completed on time
  • Standardize workflow
  • Allows for simple scheduling and assigning of work
  • Document resources spent on the work order
  • Track performance

Work Orders Include the Following:

There are three types of work orders that we commonly see. In the property management industry, these are:

  • Unplanned / Planned Work Order
    • These are the types of work orders that suddenly arise such as a Broken AC. Meanwhile, preventative, or scheduled maintenance work are those planned days or months in advance.
  • Internal / External Work Order
    • The request coming from inside your Property Management business are examples of internal work orders. Meanwhile, external work orders are those that came from outside. It could be a tenant, property owner, and more.
  • Manual Work Order / Automatic Work Order
    • To schedule an automatic work order, such as Limble, you can use your calendar or data from condition monitoring census sensors installed on the equipment. Alternatively, a maintenance manager can schedule manual work orders by hand after receiving and reviewing a work request.


      Basically, these categories of work orders can be simplified by answering the following questions:
  • Did the team expect a work order at the current time?
  • Who created the work order request? Was it internally or externally?
  • Did the work orders come from a CMMS?

Benefits Of Outsourced Work Order Processing

Save on Operational Costs – It is possible to outsource repetitive and time-consuming order processing tasks to the Philippines for a fraction of the price it would cost to hire specialists locally; in some cases, it can save up to 70 percent.

Increase Efficiency – When you outsource some of your order processing to an offshore team in the Philippines, your onshore team will be able to focus on higher-value projects that require more time, money, and scope. Using a cloud-based data management service will significantly improve your company’s productivity levels.

Effectively Scale Your Business – Your local team will have more time to focus on increasing profits, business growth, and development opportunities when you outsource your time-consuming tasks to an offshore order processing team in the Philippines. An advantage of working with an offshore team is that you have the ability to expand your company in a sustainable manner.

Examples Of Work Orders You Can Outsource

If you want to scale your business, you need to start automating repetitive processes and outsourcing is the best way to do so. For Property Management, you can outsource the following work orders:

  • Eviction
  • Move-in, move-out
  • Repairs
  • Maintenance items on rental properties
  • Following Up.

If you’re ready to start your outsourcing journey, Global Strategic can help with your business needs and give you the Strategic Advantage needed to edge out the competition. Talk to us today and learn more about how offshore outsourcing to the Philippines can help your business and future business growth.

BPO Solutions For Property Management – Making Outsourcing Work

Real estate is among the most cutthroat industries out there – that’s why agents, property management businesses, and developers are looking at Business Process Outsourcing (BPO) solutions to have an edge over the competition.

Within the Real Estate industry, especially in property management, the smallest of transactions have a lot going on in the back end. This includes piling amounts of documentation, paperwork, and other repetitive tasks.

BPO Solutions For Property Management - Making Outsourcing Work

Although these tasks are simple enough to do, the sheer volume of paperwork that needs processing can quickly add up causing workload strains for in-house staff. According to studies, documentation, and data entry tasks alone can take up to 60% of an employee’s working hours in a week.

As such, productivity and efficiency among workers significantly drop. This could result in a property management business remaining stagnant. And, without consistent growth – your business can be left in the dust against competitors.

Luckily, Property Management businesses can look into BPO solutions to streamline operations. Now, managers have more time to do dollar-productive tasks, save money on operational costs, and improve their business’s bottom line.

A BPO Solutions provider from countries like the Philippines can easily handle the bulk of your property management businesses’ back-office tasks so you can focus your efforts on the most important aspects of your business.

How Can A BPO Company Help Your Property Management Business?

Property Managers that want to scale their business look into outsourcing and hiring Property Management Virtual Assistants to handle their back-office tasks.

Here are some specific things you can outsource:

Handle Problem Tenants

One of the most significant advantages of property management is that the manager will handle tenant screening. Because experienced property managers review hundreds (or thousands) of applications each year, their trained eyes are more likely to spot potential red flags when reviewing an applicant’s paperwork.

They can quickly identify good tenant characteristics such as on-time rent payment, property maintenance, and more. Allowing them to manage the tenant screening process can increase your chances of finding a trustworthy tenant.

Answer Tenant Concerns

It’s not always convenient or possible to drive over to the unit to inspect it yourself if something breaks on your property (especially if it’s in another town or state). A property manager can handle issues at any time of day or night and arrange for a service provider to repair or replace the item.

Alternatively, if you have a tenant who always seems to have a complaint — whether it’s about noisy neighbors or a dog that pees on the front lawn — you can rest easy knowing that the property manager is the point of contact for those types of calls.

Marketing

Property managers are knowledgeable about rental marketing, which includes writing rental ads, taking high-quality photos, and hosting open houses. They also have local real estate knowledge and can assist you in setting a competitive rent price.

Hiring a property manager with marketing experience or a BPO with a dedicated marketing team can help you fill your vacant property faster and reduce the amount of time it sits vacant.

Decrease Tenant Turnover

Good property management companies understand how to keep their tenants satisfied. They are responsive and available, and they deal with issues as they arise. Renters who are satisfied with their rental situation are less likely to look for another place to live and are more willing to accept reasonable rent increases. Tenants who choose to stay in their current lease believe their home is a good value for the price, and 40% say they enjoy living there.

Rent Collection

Property management companies are motivated to keep payments coming in because their fees are deducted from the monthly rent. Rent collection is critical to receiving rent payments on time and using a property management company will assist in enforcing lease policies if payments are not received.

If tenants fail to pay their rent on time (or at all), the property manager will know how to handle the situation, which may include issuing an eviction notice if necessary. Payment collection can be a problem — the average renter spends 29 percent of their income on rent, and many rental households are one large expense away from being unable to pay.

Save On Maintenance & Repairs

Using a property management company may also result in maintenance service discounts if the property managers use a regular service provider or have an in-house maintenance staff. They can perform regular inspections and detect issues before they become larger problems, reducing the number of emergency repair bills.

If you’re ready to start your outsourcing journey, Global Strategic can help with your business needs and give you the Strategic Advantage needed to edge out the competition. Contact us today and learn more about how offshore outsourcing to the Philippines can help your business and future business growth.

Customer Support In Property Management: Importance Of Phone & Email

Customer Support plays a big role in all aspects of Property Management. Simply put, effective communication with tenants saves you time, and money, and allows you to streamline your business.

However, choosing to hire in-house customer support can be overwhelming, especially for small and medium real estate management businesses. Furthermore, going that route means you need to scale up your customer support if you want your business to grow.

Unfortunately, this can astronomically increase labor costs. In addition, choosing to increase the workload of in-house staff to avoid hiring extra workers can destroy productivity and efficiency.

That’s why many property managers look into outsourcing their phone and email needs to virtual assistants. But, why the need for outsourcing when you can do it yourself?

Benefits Of Customer Support in Property Management

Since 2006, Global Strategic has provided custom outsourced solutions to businesses – including Property Management firms – helping scale their business and revenues. But, throughout the years, one thing remained constant – the need for effective customer service.

Price Waterhouse Coopers (PWC) conducted a study on customer service and found that 73% of customers said good support was a major factor in choosing a service or product. Furthermore, PR Newswire suggested that 92% of companies increased customer loyalty. Then, 84% got more revenue, and 79% said good cx saved them money.

With those statistics, it’s no surprise that a lot of Property Managers are already investing in good customer service. And, the best part about it is you can automate this process through Property Management Virtual Assistants (PMVAs).

Here’s a diagram of how hiring virtual assistants to manage your customer support can help automate property management businesses:

[Diagram]

In the diagram, you can see how Property Managers can partner with an outsourcing service to hire PMVAs. Then, they can be assigned to handle back-office processes or customer service.

Under customer service, the PMVAs can be in charge of maintenance and repair, tenant-related processes, or email & phone tasks.

Outsourcing Property Management Customer Service

As discussed earlier, outsourcing is one of the best ways to automate your customer service-related tasks. Also, the ability to automate an integral part of your business gives you more time to focus on profit-driving endeavors.

With that said, here are the main customer-related services that you can outsource:

Maintenance and Repairs

To ensure the happiness of your tenants, it is necessary for you to take care of any maintenance issues. It goes without saying that you don’t want your tenants calling at 2:00 AM because of a malfunctioning smoke alarm.

It is a fact that these things occur from time to time. And, if an effective system is in place to deal with these issues, good tenants may lose trust in you. As a result, they may decide to vacate your property as a result.

Tenants and owners of rental properties should always be aware of how to get in touch with their property managers. The names and numbers of emergency contacts should be available in case of an unexpected need for maintenance late at night or over the weekend.

In summary, if you want to achieve good tenant retention, fast and effective customer service is a must, especially when it comes to Maintenance and Repairs.

Outsourcing maintenance is a good way to cut costs. Also, outsourcing may be the best option for managers with staffing issues, training budget cuts, aging maintenance workforces, and hard-to-find skilled labor pools.

It also offers budget flexibility, people and tool optimization, cost savings in hiring specialists, and training, to name a few benefits. Also, the outsourcing structure can be changed to meet your maintenance needs.

It’s a big reason why some property managers outsource their maintenance. Many companies have increased their competitiveness by outsourcing.

Tenant-Related Processes

Everything related to tenants, documentation, screening, unpaid tenant balances, and more can be handled by virtual assistants. With proper outsourcing set-ups, Property managers won’t have to lift a finger unless serious issues occur.

Starting from the screening process, PMVAs can already filter applicants eligible to lease properties. Additionally, PMVAs also handle the mountains of paperwork that come along with onboarding new tenants.

During a Podcast on the Property Management Show, Todd Ortscheid of GTL Real Estate said he only had five in-house employees working under him. The rest were contractual or outsourced.

He emphasized how much outsourcing helped him free up much-needed time for him to focus on growing the business instead of maintaining it. Ortscheid said:

A huge portion of our day – basically the first few hours were spent looking through service request that we got, dispatching vendors, and trying to get in touch with tenants that haven’t scheduled their repair work orders, which is taking an inordinate amount of time.

Data entry, documentation, and other paperwork that come along with tenant processes can take up to 60% of an employee’s daily workload. As a result, productivity and efficiency significantly decrease. But with outsourcing, you take away tenant interaction or are able to keep it to a minimum.

Email and Phone Tasks

Having a dedicated call center at a cost-efficient price can greatly boost tenant retention and new tenant rates. Having a call center also means that you can easily segregate tenant concerns such as maintenance and repair, billing issues, disputes, and so much more.

Furthermore, your PMVAs can also schedule appointments, answer client calls, or update property listings. Even when done remotely, technology has evolved to a point where this is not only feasible but highly effective at reducing costs and increasing revenue.

Conclusion

Outsourcing property management customer support can help you automate everything from tenant processes all the way to maintenance and repair. With things running smoothly, managers have more time to streamline their business and focus on critical decision-making.

If you’re ready to start your outsourcing journey, Global Strategic can help with your business needs and give you the Strategic Advantage needed to edge out the competition. Talk to us today and learn more about how offshore outsourcing to the Philippines can help your business and future business growth.

Reasons To Hire Offshore Property Management Assistants

If you want to hire an offshore property management assistant, there’s no better place to look than the Philippines. Now, property managers can focus on core tasks related to profitability, efficiency, and scalability with the help of the Business Process Outsourcing (BPO) industry.

However, firms can only truly realize the attributes listed above if they can effectively delegate tasks. And, for businesses to effectively delegate, they need to know which tasks drive profit, and which ones don’t.

Reasons To Hire Offshore Property Management Assistants

The biggest example of this can be found in admin tasks. According to a McKinsey Insight study, businesses spend on average 21.8 hours per week on documentation-related duties. On average, that already accounts for over 54.5% of a businessess’ working week.

But, despite these tasks being important – they’re time-consuming and non-dollar productive. Meanwhile, hiring locally to ease the workload of your in-house staff adds labor costs that eat your budget.

Luckily, this is where outsourced or offshore property management virtual assistants come in. In tandem with the help of a BPO, firms can easily scale up and streamline operations.

Should Property Management Firms Hire Offshore Assistants?

The study looked into the automation of tasks in several industries. The study revealed that automating significantly increased productivity within the workplace.

According to the study, one-third of the tasks in about 60% of occupations can be automated. Among these tasks are document-heavy admin tasks.

These document-related tasks became a major concern for property managers. Because of this, they would waste time and spend valuable resources and capital. Meanwhile, as the business grows – so does the volume of these non-dollar productive tasks.

And, with the number of moving parts in this business, managers soon realize that these arduous and repetitive tasks kill productivity levels. For these reasons, managers invest in outsourced virtual assistants for property management.

Property Managers Should Stop Wasting Time On Manual Repetitive Tasks

An offshore property management virtual assistant automates repetitive tasks for you. This, in itself, offers more value to your business than you’d realize – especially when it comes to your in-house staff.

Smartsheet did a survey and revealed that the majority of workers want to spend less time on manual tasks, repetitive tasks such as data entry, scheduling, database updating, email, data collection, and more.

Additionally, the study revealed that 60% of workers estimate that they could save over six hours a week if their tasks were automated. During the study, management said:

“If employees don’t have to complete so many mindless tasks, they are free to focus on creative endeavors and coming up with ideas.”

BPO Companies Help Automate Your Property Management Tasks While Saving Costs

As discussed earlier, the Business Process Outsourcing (BPO) industry in countries like the Philippines plays a major role in Property Management.

Property Managers don’t have to worry about training or onboarding staff with the help of BPOs. After discussing the client’s needs, a BPO provides solutions to address their issues by allowing them access to a large labor pool of talented workers.

So, instead of paying a premium on local talent, you could outsource and get professionally trained virtual assistants to do the bulk of admin-related duties. And, with the overall work culture in the Philippines, adjusting to a client’s time zone won’t be an issue.

Among the tasks a property management virtual assistant can help automate are:

  • Phone and Email Support
  • Creating and Processing Work Orders
  • Creating Bills/Invoices
  • Reconciling Bank Accounts
  • Screening Property Applicants
  • Generating Status Reports

Benefits Of Hiring Offshore Property Management Virtual Assistants

In most cases, property managers – whether they want to or not, are forced to wear many hats. Thus, a business may become unsustainable, especially if you want to scale up and go to the next level.

Thankfully, one thing that a property manager can do is improve profitability by lowering operational costs. Naturally, the best way to do this is through BPOs.

Because virtual assistants can easily be trained thanks to advancements in technology, you get premium services for a fraction of the cost. Furthermore, the bulk of the training doesn’t fall on the clients – unless they use specific software that only they use.

Outsourcing Is Cost-Effective & Efficient

Hiring offshore property management assistants to do administrative tasks can reduce a business’ operational costs by up to 70%.

With the amount of money and time saved, managers can get back the luxury of creative thinking – now, decisions get to be more strategic and well-thought-out. Moreover, property managers also get the chance to work on larger portfolios as they’ll have more time to conduct client-facing tasks and build relationships with property owners.

The BPO industry in the Philippines is rapidly advancing and has not shown any sign of slowing down.  Learn more about how outsourcing can help with your current business needs and future business growth.

If you think you’re ready for outsourcing or want to find out about how it may work for your business, contact us today so you can get the Global Advantage and learn how Global Strategic can help solve your business process needs!

Offshore Property Management Services – Outsourcing To The PH

Real Estate Professionals are Outsourcing Property Management Services Offshore and Here’s Why!

OFFSHORE PROPERTY MANAGEMENT – Saying that building a successful business in the real estate industry is hard is a major understatement. It takes indescribable amounts of hard work, dedication, and perseverance that get you through this hyper-competitive industry.

For this reason, the best real estate professionals are using all of the modern tools available to get even the slightest edge over the competition. However, there’s only so much you could do before encountering major hurdles in your business. Unfortunately, it’s often not about getting new property or clients – it comes in the form of scalability.

Offshore Property Management Services - Outsourcing To The PH

When you’re starting with your first 10 doors that’s easy enough to handle. But what if it goes to a hundred or a thousand? Instead of celebrating, Property Managers need to deal with mountains of administrative work. So, what often happens?

Businesses start hiring locally to handle the heavy workload. But this can cost a premium and as a result, owners would task in-house staff to handle the admin tasks – easy enough – it’s just paperwork.

Now, here’s the problem – studies suggest that these simple admin tasks can take up to 60% of the workload of your average employee. And, with more than half of the working hours spent on non-profit driving tasks – productivity and efficiency significantly decline.

Because of this repeating cycle of unproductivity, a business’s growth can become stagnant. Luckily, more and more real estate professionals are embracing the trend of outsourcing their property management services offshore.

Why Are Property Managers Outsourcing?

There are a lot of stigmas that go along with the term “outsourcing“. Granted, there are several risks involved – especially when your business is on the line.

But, thanks to advancements in technology, outsourcing not only saves you money but also mitigates risks and provides solutions to some of the most pressing business problems.

During a Podcast on the Property Management Show, Todd Ortscheid of GTL Real Estate said outsourcing has greatly benefited his business. On the show, he said:

A huge portion of our day – basically the first few hours were spent looking through service request that we got, dispatching vendors, and trying to get in touch with tenants that haven’t scheduled their repair work orders, which is taking an inordinate amount of time.

Sadly, this isn’t just an isolated issue. Earlier, we discussed how back-office processes can take up to 60% of a worker’s daily workload. To solve this issue, Todd said that he invested in outsourcing.

He contracted a call center to handle maintenance calls and has Property Management Virtual Assistants to handle tenant-related processes which include:

  • Screening Tenant Applicants
  • Data Entry work
  • Collecting unpaid tenant balance
  • Repair and Maintenance Requests
  • Customer Service

These are just five examples of tasks property managers can outsource. If you want to get an in-depth look at the services you can offshore, check out our article below:

What Can Property Managers Outsource? – Key Considerations

Outsourcing Takes Away Tenant Interaction

One of the most underrated benefits of outsourcing is minimizing tenant interaction. Imagine how productive a property management team can be if they didn’t have to chase after tenants late on rent or take a 45-minute call about how a maintenance fee should be waived.

All of this can be automated with the help of outsourcing. Thanks to virtual assistants, leasing agents can do entire tenant-related processes from screening all the way to rent collection hands-free.

In fact, Todd Ortscheid said that he only has five employees in-house and has the rest in service contracts or outsourced. So, the only time they need to interact with clients is during major issues that need to be addressed personally.

This way, you don’t have to do a lot of leg work and focus on meeting more property owners, marketing, or other profit-driving endeavors. Not only that, the less you’re at work, the more time you get for hobbies, friends, and loved ones.

Offshoring Property Management Services Helps Your Business Scale

Smart Property Managers are those that know their limits. After hitting milestone after milestone, it’s easy for businesses to forget how quickly back-office processes pile up.

That’s why good property managers realize that sometimes, it would be irresponsible to keep the business growing. Here, the saying “Don’t bite off more than you can chew” rings true.

If your rental property business stops growing, owners or managers need to look at several factors. You’d see this scenario happen for a lot of small businesses. Meanwhile, you could also see businesses taking in more doors than they can handle.

Ultimately, this leads to expenses eating up supposed revenue. At this point, you’re not only wasting money but also precious time and manpower.

Now, let’s place outsourcing into the mix. The great thing about that is once you partner with an outsourcing company – you gain access to highly skilled and professionally trained individuals.

And, with a variety of skills at your disposal, there could be a broad range of solutions that could be applicable to your specific business needs. For Property Management, a Business Process Outsourcing (BPO) company such as Global Strategic can provide:

  • Phone & Email Support
  • Creating and Processing Work Orders
  • Creating Bills / Invoices
  • Reconciling Bank Accounts
  • Screening Property Applicants
  • Status Reports
  • Listings & Online Management

Small Property Managers Can Extend Their Workforce for a Fraction of the Cost

According to the U.S Small Business Administration, more than a third of small businesses currently outsource. More importantly, outsourcing gives small businesses the opportunity to get more done without investing too much capital.

For the longest time, there’s always been a debate on which is better: in-house or outsourcing? But, in most cases, the answer would always depend on a business’s needs.

However, if businesses want to effectively scale, then staffing should be one of their top priorities. Manpower directly impacts everything in a business. Like a simple physics formula, we can say that manpower is proportional to productivity.

The more people you can get working, the more tasks can be completed at a faster rate. But, as you hire more in-house staff, this can translate into a massive reduction in revenue and profit.

Hiring new staff equates to paying more for health care, insurance, and other benefits. Additionally, you’d also have to pay employees for the training if they lack the skills to do the job.

According to Salary Expert, rent collectors in the US have an hourly rate of $14-$25. Meanwhile, hiring in the Philippines would be significantly cheaper, not to mention the other costs of employing someone locally besides just the simple salary.

Conclusion

Outsourcing is an effective way for property managers to increase productivity and efficiency in a cost-effective manner. And, for small businesses that want to streamline their operations, outsourcing provides a way to strengthen your workforce for a fraction of the cost.

That said, there’s more to outsourcing than just saving on costs. So, if you want to learn more about how your property management business can effectively use outsourcing talk to us today!

Global Strategic can help with your business needs and give you the Strategic Advantage needed to edge out the competition. Learn more about how offshore outsourcing to the Philippines can help your business and future business growth.

Structures Of Property Management Outsourcing

Property Management Outsourcing has different structures – each one leading to a different business model. Primarily, we’d see three models used in this industry – corporate, business, and functional.

The word “structure” is a broad term. But in this context, we’ll refer to structure as the responsibilities and reporting related to customer focus in real estate and property management.

Moreover, all organizational structures have pros and cons regarding transaction costs and the principal-agent complex. Thus, the business model is what we’ll focus on in this article as it better represents the sentiments of property managers.

Structures Of Property Management Outsourcing

In the business model, the focus is directly on outsourcing as a business strategy. Here, managers focus on value-creating resources and how it’s used within the firm.

Examples of value-creating resources are top managers, agents, and other integral employees that focus on driving profit into the businesses.

As such, management should decide if the value activity should be in-house or outsourced. Furthermore, the firm should determine if a value-creating resource available in-house should be considered a separate function (outsourced) or keep it as a task within the organization.

For this reason, firms outsource non-dollar-productive activities to property management virtual assistants. Examples of these are data-entry or tenant-related documentation or processes. Most of these tasks are simple in nature – as a result, third-party services can handle them with ease.

Outsourcing as a Business Strategy

An organization’s business model relies on its “strategic capacity“. Danish economist Birger Wernerfelt says “strategic capacity” is determined through service, marketing, delivery, and monitoring.

Moreover, within the context of “capacity“, we can view a company’s competitive advantage as its value-creating activities and their interrelation.

For example, a real estate manager (agent) may prioritize a new lease over a customer service meeting. Additionally, new leases reduce vacancies and increase rental income.

However, both activities are important. But, one can be considered as a value-creating activity while the other doesn’t directly serve that purpose. As a result, managers can easily outsource customer service-related activities.

Meanwhile, based on the structures of property management outsourcing, two arguments are primarily discussed. Peter Palm from the Department of Urban Studies, Malmo University, Sweden conducted a study on outsourcing and says these two arguments are “resourced-based view” and “transactional costs”.

What is a Resourced-Based View (RBV)?

According to the study, the resourced-based view states if certain tasks are not done within a firm’s core business, they should be outsourced. Meanwhile, the next argument, “transactional costs“, states services available on the market for a lower price with the same or better quality than in-house, you should turn to the market.

Thus, outsourcing strategies should consider balancing the skills of third-party services in relation to the cost. Still, both terms are closely connected with each other.

Economist Oliver E. Williamson characterized this link as organizations integrating specific assets (or competencies) that create value. Thus, specific value-adding features are defined as the company’s core business.

Through this, outsourcing stepped away from short-term cost-cutting means and focused on long-term strategic outsourcing. Currently, this trend of long-term outsourcing better reflects the organizational structure and business model.

What Are Transactional Costs?

All business or service agreements have transaction fees. These include contract formation, information retrieval, and service exchange participation. Thus, transaction costs are all costs associated with performing an activity.

Transaction costs include contracting and getting information. As the transaction can include opportunistic behavior, expenses connected with misunderstandings, disagreements, and anything else that interrupts the service delivery exchange are also transaction costs.

According to the study, transaction costs can be studied on three levels. First, we have the overall structure of the firm. This level examines operational parts and their relationships.

The second level focuses on how the organization is structured which functions should be undertaken within the corporation and why. Third, how human assets are organized in the company.

Themes Motivating Property Managers To Outsource

In the study, real estate owners answered interview questions based on four themes – Role and Function, Information Sharing, Regulations, and Experiences.

These became the basis or deciding factor for them to look into outsourcing. Shown below is the table and the result of the interview.

Structures Of Property Management Outsourcing
Outsourced property management: the regulations of
the property manager / Peter Palm

The primary theme that motivates real estate owners to outsource is divided into two parts – organizational choice and role and function. These themes focus on the work managers want to outsource, the size of the team they want to hire, and the current number of clients/properties they need to be managed.

Based on the table above, property managers should already have a baseline on what to consider when it comes to outsourcing. But, each organization would need specific strategies to make outsourcing work efficiently.

If you’re ready to start your outsourcing journey, Global Strategic can help with your business needs and give you the Strategic Advantage needed to edge out the competition. Talk to us today and learn more about how offshore outsourcing to the Philippines can help your business and future business growth.

Outsourcing Residential Property Management Services To The Philippines

Residential Property Management Services Outsourcing to The Philippines

More residential property managers are outsourcing services to the Philippines in 2022. But, as businesses grow, so does the workload in administrative tasks. For these reasons, property management businesses hire offshore services to automate tasks.

Outsourcing Residential Property Management Services To The Philippines

For several years now, outsourcing has been the rising trend for many businesses – and property management is no exception. The good news is that firms, especially businesses that belong within the Small and Medium Enterprises (SMEs) can still hop on this trend.

Outsourcing back-office operations in property management have become the standard, still only 0.5% of companies that outsource belong to SMEs. This makes for a market with vastly untapped potential. Still, there can be uncertainties and doubts that go along with outsourcing – and that’s perfectly normal!

If you built a property management business from the ground up, chances are you wearing too many hats and already have a habit of doing things in-house. Additionally, you may think that the security and risks involved in outsourcing are way too high.

Luckily, offshoring your back-office tasks is already the norm worldwide. Furthermore, the practice has become well-established with large US firms having decade-long relationships with outsourcing companies in countries like the Philippines.

And, if you’re still not convinced, here’s a quick rundown of how hiring an offshore staff can benefit your residential property management business:

  • Massive Operation and Labor Cost Savings
  • Easily Streamline Business Operations
  • Access to a large pool of talented and highly skilled workers

Reasons Why Your Residential Property Management Business Should Try Outsourcing in The Philippines

When it comes to outsourcing, property managers can take a look at several countries with low labor costs. According to an article from Outsource Accelerator, investing in offshore staffing can save businesses up to 70% on labor alone.

And, if you’re just looking at the countries where you can get the most savings then your top 3 should be India, Brazil, and the Philippines. However, for most companies – outsourcing property management services to the Philippines offers you a definitive advantage compared to other countries.

The Philippines has continued to reign supreme when it comes to its Business Process Outsourcing (BPO) industry. In fact, the country still holds the title of “BPO Capital of the World”. Moreover, the country boasts a high English proficiency rate of 98%.

You can also stack this up with the Filipinos’ more westernized culture making them perfect for customer service for your residential property management business. Also, virtual assistants can handle a variety of tasks for a mere fraction of the cost.

Where Can You Find An Offshore Back Office Service Provider For Residential Property Management In The Philippines?

The BPO industry in the Philippines hit an incredible milestone of $26.7 billion worth of revenue despite the pandemic. Analysts suggest that this number could go up to $29 billion by 2022.

That said, finding a BPO company that can seemingly handle your back-office or administrative tasks is quite easy. Just a simple Google search can show you a list of several top-quality BPO companies.

However, a bit of caution is advised as the Philippines’ BPO industry has a notorious reputation for “job hoppers“. So, when choosing your outsourcing provider in the Philippines, make sure that their recruitment process involves a rigorous hiring system that ensures quality applicants.

A company should also be able to speak to their experience, security, and overall process in order to fully answer any concerns you may have.

Hiring Freelance VS BPO

As an example, Global Strategic has a culture of conducting multiple interviews to ensure that an applicant is a perfect fit for the company. Through this extensive process, clients are less likely to see “AWOL” (absent without leave) virtual assistants and more likely to experience increased productivity and efficiency.

On the other hand, you can go the freelance route and hire from online job boards such as Upwork or Reddit, but this process can take time and a long trial-and-error period before finding the right property management virtual assistant. You may end up having several who do not work out for you before finding the right fit.

On property management forums, users that hired freelance VAs from the Philippines have the saying “hire slow, fire fast“. For most of them, the trick to making freelance hiring work is to onboard multiple people, test them, and quickly fire those that don’t work out. This is not always the most prudent way for a business to approach staffing.

Cost of Hiring Freelance Property Management Virtual Assistants

You may think that hiring freelance VAs can be an even better way to outsource your services. However, with freelancing, you also need to account for the time it takes to train the virtual assistant, onboarding, and make sure that the VA has all the necessary tools to do your job well.

Furthermore, In the Philippines, a large majority of the population is susceptible to power outages, storms, loud parties, and even roosters crowing in the background. That said, you can definitely go for cheaper freelancers, however, you do need to be prepared for often running into problems where your freelancer needs extra equipment, training, and more.

Meanwhile, doing a quick job search on Upwork can show that the average hourly rate for Filipino Virtual Assistants for the property management niche on the high-end can go up to $12-18 dollars. But, even with the recommendations and the success rates – hiring freelancers can still be up to luck.

Offshore Back-Office Assistant Rates in the Philippines for Residential Property Management

When it comes to the Philippines, you could always expect highly skilled and professionally trained workers who are more than eager to learn new things. The difficulty lies in finding these workers who are suitable for your company, can complete the work, and will hopefully stay engaged and productive for you.

Many companies, need to work with an outsourcing company in order to provide them with the requisite training, security, escalation, and management. Doing so will still provide you with cost savings on hiring locally, but also gives you a much higher probability of success when working with trusted, experienced, and professional partners.

If you’re ready to start your outsourcing journey, Global Strategic can help with your business needs and give you the Strategic Advantage needed to edge out the competition. Talk to us today and learn more about how offshore outsourcing to the Philippines can help your business and future business growth.