Property Management Software

A. Genes regulate lifestyle.
B. Genes control the amount of fat in the body.
C. Genes control the body’s signals of hunger and satiety.
D. Genes regulate the body’s activity levels.

All of the following are important parts of starting and maintaining a healthy weight management plan EXCEPT
A. changes in behavior.
B. a regular exercise program.
C. a well-balanced diet.
D. a fad diet.

Which of the following statements about fad diets is correct?
A. Most fad diets help you achieve a healthy energy balance.
B. Most fad diets help you lose weight slowly.
C. Most fad diets suggest that specific foods or combinations of foods have weight-reducing properties.
D. Most fad diets require you to eat foods that contain essential nutrients.

Which of the following is NOT a dangerous weight-loss diet?
A. Fasting
B. Taking diuretics
C. Taking stimulants
D. Surgery

The safest and most reliable way to lose weight requires all of the following EXCEPT
A. exercising.
B. reducing portion sizes.
C. changing habits.
D. fad diets

As a landlord, your tightest months for cash flow are usually at the end of the winter and beginning of spring, in March, April and May. You’ve just finished paying for the extra costs that winter brings; sky-high utility bills, snow and ice removal, heating issues and so on. Not only that, but any vacant units probably took longer to fill because people are less likely to move during the winter. You might even have had damage from ice dams or frozen pipes.

The end of the winter is the worst possible time to get a huge unexpected bill. And yet here it comes; hundreds or even thousands of dollars due to your {{{CPA or bookkeeper|tax advisor}}}.

Fortunately, there are ways to really reduce this bill without adding a lot to your workload. The key is to organize your tax documents in a way that will let your tax advisor (or yourself, if you do your own business taxes) prepare your return in a lot less time.

I use property management software to organize all of my income, expenses and assets, and make sure that my bank account statements match up with my own personal accounting. It’s faster than maintaining my records in Excel, and it only takes a little longer than the method used by lots of old-school landlords; stuffing all their records into a shoe box and hoping for the best.

Because you’ve organized your land lording income and expenses in your property management software as they occur throughout the year, they are completely organized and ready for you at the end of the year, at tax prep time. Somebody’s going to be doing a lot less work then – either your tax advisor (which means you pay him less) or yourself (which means you get to bed earlier).

You want your records to be organized along the categories of the IRS Schedule E form, which you use to report rental property income and loss, along with income and loss from related investments such as partnerships and trusts. You’ll need to submit an IRS Schedule E along with your 1040 tax return. You’ll also take the summarized results from the Schedule E and incorporate them into your 1040 calculations. You can do all this with the correct property management software.

There are two Schedule E categories for Income and 14 for Expenses. For Income, any time you receive rents, you’ll record them in your rental property program as a deposit; thus updating both your bank account records and your ledger account records. For Expenses, any time you spend money on anything related to your properties, you’ll record those Expenses either through the check register or a journal entry. Your property management program should let you enter any Expense under a category that matches a Schedule E category; they are Advertising, Auto and Travel, Cleaning and Maintenance, Commissions, Insurance, Legal and other Professional Fees, Management Fees, Mortgage Interest, Other Interest, Repairs, Supplies, Taxes, Utilities, Other, and Depreciation. Some of these property management expense categories will make perfect sense to you, but others may need explanation.

• Advertising: this is really all of your marketing expenses, including things like signs and web postings.

• Auto and Travel: this is an easy Expense to miss because you won’t pay it with a check or something else that’s easily tied to your bank accounts. One option is to record all the actual expenses such as gas, oil and depreciation. The other, simpler way is to just record your mileage spent on business travel and multiply the total times the current per-mile expense rate (48.5 cents for 2007).

Not only is it simpler to record expenses this way, it may also be a better deal for you. That 48.5 cents per mile applies whether you are driving a new Hummer H2 or an old Toyota Corolla. Obviously you spend a lot less than 48 cents a mile driving that old Toyota (and it makes a better impression on your tenants).

You should record auto expenses by mileage every time you take a trip related to your investments; these include every time you drive to a building. Once per month, if you can afford to do so, pay yourself for the mileage or any other expenses from personal funds with a check from your business account. Record that as well. (Obviously you can’t record mileage expenses as you incur them (the day you drive) and when you reimburse yourself – that would be double dipping.) You can also expense tolls and parking fees, but not tickets or other legal fees from parking or driving violations.

• Mortgage Interest: new landlords often think they can expense all of their debt service, which is your mortgage payments plus any other money paid toward retiring the loan. But you can’t expense the money that goes toward principal because it’s not really an expense. For example, suppose you make a $1,000 mortgage payment, $200 of which goes to principal and the rest to interest. By doing so, you spend $1,000 from your checking account, while increasing your equity in the property by $200. The correct transaction will be a $1,000 credit to the checking account, an $800 debit to the Mortgage expense and a $200 debit to the Building Equity Asset account. Your rental property program should calculate this automatically.

• Depreciation: this expense relates to the natural deterioration that happens to almost any long-lasting asset. Most landlords think of depreciation in terms of buildings. For example, most residential buildings have a depreciation period of 27 1/2 years. This means that you can take 1/27.5 (3.63636… percent) of the building’s value as an expense each year; until you’ve owned it for 27.5 years or sell it, whichever comes first. How are you going to determine the building’s value? Multiply the purchase price by this ratio: building assessment / overall assessment. You can usually get the assessments from the town or county.

It makes a lot of sense to depreciate items in a building separately from the building itself, because such items usually have shorter recovery periods (meaning you can take more of the value – as much as 20 or even 33 percent – each year until the end of the period).

Depreciation is tricky – one reason is that the federal government frequently changes depreciation rules in esoteric ways. For example, they changed the rules to make investing in New York City more appealing after the 9/11 attacks. It may make sense to get some additional help from your tax advisor here.

Around February 1st of the new year, print out a profit and loss report and all of your bank reconciliation reports for the previous year. All of this information will be neatly organized by your property management software. Review the reports carefully and either send them to your tax advisor or enter the information into tax forms yourself. If you send them to your tax advisor, include the actual bank statements as well. He’ll want these records to prove that you recorded all of your financial transactions honestly.

At the same time, make sure your CPA or bookkeeper knows that you’re NOT expecting him to do your Schedule E calculations all by himself. You don’t expect to be charged for all that work, either.

Last point – even though property management software is going to help you with your record keeping and calculations, don’t throw out your paper records. You’ll need them if you are ever audited.



By: Brendan O’Brien

Being a property manager requires a lot of time and hassle making sure tenants are up to date with their rent, addressing maintenance issues, advertising vacancies for landlords, doing credit and background checks on tenants, organizing inspections schedules, chasing up repair contractors, doing the paper work etc. In addition to managing income and expense related activity, property managers may also manage construction, development, repair and maintenance on a property.

Property management software enables property managers to communicate more efficiently with suppliers, tenants and other stakeholders, and it has powerful online document management capabilities. Almost all property management software works for apartment complexes, commercial properties, home associations, condo associations, storage units, mobile home parks, and other rentals. Property Management Software makes it easy for you to quickly enter rents and post expenses.

Key benefits of property management software are you can keep track of rent arrears, record all your property transactions so you know exactly where the money is coming from and going to, send mail merge letters to tenants and property owners, landlords, tenants and property managers can access their own data online, landlords can track their depreciation expenses every year, and also for future years. All property management software is multi-user enabled to allow multiple networked computers to use the software all at the same time.

Key-data systems offer software solutions in the design and development of property management. Their main products are ‘Key-Data Gold’ for lettings management and ‘Key-Data Pathways’ for property sales have become an indispensable office tool for clients to manage their property with greater ease.



By: Ricy Chacko

Can anyone direct me to a software that I could use to do simple business risks. Loss of property , intellectual, etc. Loss through, fire, theft, etc. something simple?

Jacksonville is the city of fun and sun. Where the average household income is $40,316 it is also the most affordable place to live in Florida. Next to Gainseville, Florida, Jacksonville boasts the highest population per acre. Nearly 800,000 residents call Jacksonville home.

Owning property in Jacksonville is something more and more people are doing because Jacksonville doubles as a tourist city, deeply entrenched in history and it is also a popular place to live due to their economic boom and no bust. It is not merely fueled by the Jacksonville Jaguars or any other professional team. It is fueled by businesses deciding to move into Jacksonville and giving back into the city.

As the business comes in, so too does the fact that people must live somewhere and it is often too late for someone to go through a full 30-day closing period. They are then forced to rent an apartment or rent a house.

Rental property is often difficult to maintain, but it is necessary. Owners do not have the time to do so and they also have no time in showing the house for rental purposes. That is all done by Jacksonville property management companies. They are schooled in preparing a home, knowing the housing market and adjusting the rates to compete with the market. It is a money maker, all by being passive.

Taking advantage of property management companies is a smart way to run your investment. Jacksonville is not getting any smaller and the homes are continually being vacated because of the departure rate, but on the flip side of that, there are plenty of people who are flocking like there’s not tomorrow.



By: Stephanie G Johnson

OK, My family is in the real-estate business, We own multiple properties in different locations (only about 15 miles apart) consisting of about 35 housing units and about 12 business units. I have learned a-lot from my family about renting apartments and they have learned a-little bit from me. I am now confident I could run these Properties properly, but they want me to get some sort of Business Management degree before I get more involved. (involved meaning INHERITANCE) so what type of education should I get, and what are some good schools that offer online programs?

When you research you find many things questionable and scary like this courtesy of the Freedom of Information Act –

SUBJECT: Executive Orders

APPLICABLE EXECUTIVE ORDERS

The following Executive Orders, now recorded in the Federal Register and therefore accepted by Congress as the law of the land , can be put into effect at any time an emergency is declared:

10995–All communications media seized by the Federal Government.

10997 – Seizure of all electrical power, fuels, including gasoline and minerals.

10998 -Seizure of all food resources, farms and farm equipment.

10999 -Seizure of all kinds of transportation, including your personal car, and control of all highways and seaports.

11000 – Seizure of all civilians for work under Federal supervision.

11001 – Federal takeover of all health, education and welfare.

11002 – Postmaster General empowered to register every man, woman and child in the U.S.A.

11003 – Seizure of all aircraft and airports by the Federal Government.

11004 – Housing and Finance authority may shift population from one locality to another. Complete integration.

11005 – Seizure of railroads, inland waterways and storage facilities.

11051 – The Director of the Office of Emergency Planning authorized to put Executive Orders into effect in times of increased international tension or financial crisis. He is also to perform such additional functions as the President may direct.

Stated simply : the dictatorial power of the Executive rests primarily on three basis : Executive Order 11490 , Executive Order 11647 and the Planning , Programming , Budgeting System which is operated through the Office of Management and Budget .

E. O. 11490 is a compilation of some 23 previous Executive Orders , signed by Nixon on Oct. 28, 1969 and outlining emergency functions which are to be performed by some 28 Executive Departments and Agencies whenever the President of the United States declares a national emergency { as in defiance of an impeachment edict, for example } . Under the terms of E. O. 11490 , the President can declare that a national emergency exists and the Executive Branch can :

Take over all communications media

Seize all sources of power

Take charge of all food resources

Control all highways and seaports

Seize all railroads, inland waterways, airports, storage facilities

Commandeer all civilians to work under federal supervision

Control all activities relating to health, education, and welfare

Shift any segment of the population from one locality to another ,Take over farms, ranches, timberized properties

Regulate the amount of your own money you may withdraw from your bank or savings and loan institution

All of these and many more items are listed in 32 pages incorporating nearly 200,000 words providing an absolute bureaucratic dictatorship whenever the President gives the word.

Executive Order 11647 provides the regional and local mechanisms and manpower for carrying out the provisions of E. O. 11490 . Signed by Richard Nixon on Feb. 10, 1972, this Order sets up Ten Federal Regional Councils to govern Ten Federal Regions made up of the fifty still existing States of the Union .

Any comments ?

Choosing a strong and diverse evaluation team to help choose the best tools to run your hotel is also the first step to having buy-in from your hotel team. It is important to have everyone on-board when a new property management system is selected for your Hotel, Resort or Inn. Everyone involved in your organization from the owner, hotel management company and senior management to the front desk, reservations, sales and housekeeping department needs to be invested and committed to the project.

Prior to beginning the evaluation process, it is important to designate a project manager that will be accountable and see the project through from start to finish. The purchase of the property management system will signal that the the evaluation process has officially ended.

The Project Manager is the first person to be selected. This selection may already be determined and possibly a consultant has been hired for the job, a manager at head office, a manager at the hotel, someone in operations or someone in the information technology department.

At this time it is important begin to think about the next project, this will be the property management system training and implementation which is likely to occur several months to a year after the evaluation process begins. This time line depends on how complex your business needs are and how much time can be dedicated to the evaluation and purchase process not to mention the schedule of the property management system vendor.

Evaluation team members may consist of operational managers that may use functionality that is geared to their management role as well as front line staff that would use the property management software on a daily basis and for the majority of their day. Staff in various positions such as Front Desk Clerk, Reservations Clerk, Housekeeping Managers or Supervisors, Sales Staff, Accounting Staff, Concierge Staff and staff in the Information Technology Department would be able to offer different perspectives. Consider representatives from these departments to be included in the evaluation process. Their experience with past systems as well as their department processes and their insight into what functionality they need to best serve the hotel guests will be very valuable when building your requirements list.

The Project Manager should set expectations and objectives of what is to be accomplished during the evaluation process and provide this information in writing to the team. Setting expectations and objectives will help to keep the evaluation process on track. The team needs to understand that although comments and suggestions are appreciated and necessary, not everyone’s wants will be fulfilled. The goal is to choose the best system to meet your specific business needs while providing the best overall tool for all departments and the business as a whole. There will be some areas and functionality that will require compromise. Sorting out items that are needs as opposed to those that are wants is essential during this process. Items that are determined to be needs should be qualified as such.

Now it’s time to start building your team!

Jeff Sefton



By: Jeff Sefton

Collecting unpaid rent is part of the property management process. The trick is to not let the situation get out of hand, says Massachusetts’s collections attorney Phil A. Taylor. The first month a tenant falls behind in the rent, you need to take action.

While it’s important to respond quickly, Phil says you want to avoid face-to-face contact because it could lead to confrontation. The better alternative is to send a letter to the tenant, and because it’s not one of the legal forms in your library, it doesn’t have to be sent certified mail. Any letter that has the correct address and postage is considered received once it is mailed. The body of the letter should instruct the tenant to call you so that the matter can be resolved.

If the tenant offers you a partial payment, Phil recommends that you accept it. However, it is important that you give the tenant a receipt that clearly states that what you received is only a partial payment, and that you still have the legal right to collect the rest of the unpaid rent.

You may also feel that effective property management techniques require you to investigate how serious your tenant’s financial crisis is. That means checking to see if they’re still employed, and how much other debt they’re carrying. Phil says that if your original rental agreement doesn’t prevent you from calling the employer listed, you can do so to see your tenant is still working for the company.

Also, as long as you maintain a debtor-creditor relationship with your tenant, the Fair Credit Reporting Act allows you can to get a copy of the tenant’s credit report. Legal forms like your rental application usually have a release allowing this.

Although you can get this information, Phil says it really won’t do you much good. Even if the tenant is unemployed and is carrying a huge debt, if they pay the rent they can’t be evicted. The only value that information might have in terms of property management is if you use it to decide how much leeway you are willing to give them.

The real problems start when you’ve put off collecting back rent and the tenant is still in the apartment. Your only choice is to start eviction.

You begin by sending your tenant a Notice To Quit, which IS one of the legal forms in your library you have to use specifically. The letter tells your tenant how much time they have to pay the back rent, typically 3 to 14 days according to state law. If the tenant pays, they can stay, but if they don’t, they must vacate.

Should your tenant leave still owing you back money, you’re going to have to collect the debt some other way.

The Fair Debt Collections Practices Act (FDCPA), which protects consumers from abuse from debt collectors, says that a landlord acting on their own behalf isn’t subject to the provisions of the law because they aren’t considered a debt collector. However, even though you aren’t subject to the law, you can’t engage in any of the abusive practices the law prohibits.

Employees of property management companies aren’t considered debt collectors under the FDCPA either because the rental payments aren’t owed to another individual or entity. But if at any time during the collection process the landlord/property manager mentions any name other than their own, that means that a third person is collecting the debt, and the landlord/property manager becomes a debt collector subject to the FDCPA.

If you can’t collect on your own, you will probably have to sue for the amount owed under breech of contract. An attorney familiar with your state’s collection laws and the necessary legal forms required to sue should be contacted.



By: Maria Esposito

Executive Summary
We design and deliver the systems, software
and services that drive next-generation communications
networks. Backed by Bell Labs
research and development, we use our
strengths in mobility, optical, access, data and
voice networking technologies, as well as
services, to create new revenue-generating
opportunities for our customers, while
enabling them to quickly deploy and better
manage their networks. Our customer base
includes communications service providers,
governments and enterprises worldwide.
We have three segments organized
around the products and services we sell.
The reportable segments are Integrated Network
Solutions (“INS”), Mobility Solutions
(“Mobility”) and Lucent Worldwide Services
(“Services”). INS provides a broad range
of software and wireline equipment related
to voice networking (primarily consisting
of switching products, which we sometimes
refer to as convergence solutions, and voice
messaging products), data and network
management (primarily consisting of access
and related data networking equipment
and operating support software) and optical
networking. Mobility provides software and
wireless equipment to support radio access
and core networks. Services provides deployment,
maintenance, professional and managed
services in support of both our product
offerings as well as multi-vendor networks.
Beginning in fiscal 2001, the global
telecommunications market deteriorated,
resulting from a decrease in the competitive
local exchange carrier market and a significant
reduction in capital spending by established
service providers.This trend intensified
during fiscal 2002 and continued into fiscal
2003. Reasons for the market deterioration
included general economic slowdown, network
overcapacity, customer bankruptcies,
network build-out delays and limited availability
of capital.
We believe that the market for telecommunications
equipment has stabilized
and is starting to grow in certain areas. The
growing demands of enterprises and consumers
for additional services tailored to
their needs is creating the need for a new
convergence of networks, technologies and
applications.
Required
1. Using the Consolidated Balance
Sheets for Lucent Technologies for
September 30, 2004 and 2003, prepare
a common-size balance sheet.
2. Evaluate the asset, debt, and equity
structure of Lucent Technologies, as
well as trends and changes found on
the common-size balance sheet.
3. What concerns would investors and
creditors have based on only this
information?
4. What additional financial and nonfinancial
information would investors
and creditors need to make investing
and lending decisions for Lucent
Technologies?

LUCENT TECHNOLOGIES INC. AND SUBSIDIARIES
CONSOLIDATED BALANCE SHEETS
(in Millions, Except per Share Amounts)
September 30, September 30,
2004 2003
Assets
Cash and cash equivalents $ 3,379 $ 3,821
Marketable securities 858 686
Receivables 1,359 1,511
Inventories 822 632
Other current assets 1,813 1,213
Total current assets 8,231 7,863
Marketable securities 636 —
Property, plant, and equipment, net 1,376 1,593
Prepaid pension costs 5,358 4,659
Goodwill and other acquired intangibles, net 434 188
Other assets 928 1,608
Total assets $ 16,963 $ 15,911
Liabilities
Accounts payable $ 872 $ 1,072
Payroll and benefit-related liabilities 1,232 1,080
Debt maturing within one year 1 389
Other current liabilities 2,361 2,393
Total current liabilities 4,466 4,934
Postretirement and postemployment benefit liabilities 4,881 4,669
Pension liabilities 1,874 2,494
Long-term debt 4,837 4,439
Liability to subsidiary trust issuing preferred securities 1,152 1,152
Other liabilities 1,132 1,594
Total liabilities 18,342 19,282
Commitments and contingencies
8.00% redeemable convertible preferred stock — 868
Shareowners’ Deficit
Preferred stock—par value $1.00 per share; authorized shares:
250; issued and outstanding: none — —
Common stock—par value $.01 per share;Authorized shares:
10,000; 4,396 issued and 4,395 outstanding shares as of
September 30, 2004,and 4,170 issued and 4,169
outstanding shares as of September 30, 2003 44 42
Additional paid-in capital 23,005 22,252
Accumulated deficit (20,793) (22,795)
Accumulated other comprehensive loss (3,635) (3,738)
Total shareowners’ deficit (1,379) (4,239)
Total liabilities, redeemable convertible preferred stock
and shareowners’ deficit $ 16,963 $ 15911