Tenant Portals: 9 Ways They Make Bookkeeping Easy

Tenant portals allow renters to access an array of tools and resources making it easier for them to manage the rental property and their tenant account. Taking the management of their rental online gives them access at any time and from anywhere improving communication and their relationship with their landlord. Ultimately this leads to happy renters.

Tenant portals open the possibilities of integration and automation. Make use of these tools to save time, improve organization, reduce errors, and maintain cleaner books. Utilize tenant portals to keep better records without increasing your workload.

1. Reduce Delinquent Accounts With Online Payments

A tenant portal is a convenient one stop shop where renters can view and pay their bills online. This innovative tool allows tenants the flexibility of managing their own account. They can easily view invoices, make payments, and review prior transactions.

When tenants have easy access to their outstanding invoices and a simple way to pay all in one place they are less inclined to put off making payments. Empowering renters to take control of their own account has been proven to reduce delinquent accounts. Fewer late or missed payments means cleaner books and better cash flow for your business. 

2. Put Tenants In Control Of Maintenance Requests

When a tenant has a problem with their rental they want it taken care of promptly. This process involves logging the maintenance request, dispatching the appropriate vendor, maintaining communication between both parties, paying for the work, and billing the tenant. It’s an involved process with several accounting entries and a fair bit of coordinating.

A tenant portal can put maintenance requests in the hands of your renters. They can log the request directly through their portal and have the appropriate vendor dispatched automatically. All of the communication can be conducted within the portal and invoices can be sent and paid there too.

3. Give Tenants The Freedom Of Self Serve Bookings

In multi-family dwellings it is often necessary to maintain a booking schedule for shared facilities such as party rooms, parking, or elevators for moving days. Taking these types of reservations manually is time consuming. With a busy staff the chances of double booking increase and that can be a real hassle.

Tenant portals make it possible to automate the process and put bookings under the jurisdiction of tenants. They can make reservations right from their portal and the booking schedule can be updated automatically. You can even send any bills to the tenant portal and renters can pay their invoices all in the same place.

4. Improve Transparency With Online Documents

Tenants should have easy access to documents which pertain to their account. Rental agreements, past invoices, maintenance requests, payment histories, and correspondence should all be accessible to them. Ensuring that tenants have these documents on hand improves transparency, tenant satisfaction, and reduces unpaid invoices on your books.

Online tenant portals are the perfect place for rental documents. They can give your renters secure access to their files without having to ask anyone for help. A tenant portal where residents can find their own documents improves transparency and saves you time as you won’t have to track down paperwork whenever a tenant asks.

5. Reduce Errors

Tenant portals bring automation to renter files and communications. Whenever a tenant enters any data it can be automatically sent to the appropriate place. This can significantly reduce the need for data entry and eliminate the human errors that come with it.
Giving tenants full access to their accounts allows them to review all of their information. They can spot errors and alert you so that corrections can be made. In some cases they might even be able to make the corrections themselves.

6. Retain Quality Tenants With Improved Communication

Clear and transparent communication is the key to any relationship including the one you have with your tenants. Providing your renters with quality tools such as online documents and payments gives them one more reason to renew their lease agreement. Retaining more tenants allows you to be more selective so that you can focus on quality tenants who pay their bills on time and make bookkeeping easy.

Tenant portals are a communications hub. Share valuable information about what’s going on in the building and the community. You can even highlight tenant appreciation events and solicit feedback to create a positive experience and build an even better relationship.

7. Save Time For More Important Things

Providing tenants with self serve options frees up time for you and your staff. Tenant initiated maintenance requests and bookings along with reduced data entry and online documents means you don’t have to spend time doing these tasks yourself. All that free time can be used to keep your books in tip top shape.

8. Reduce Clutter And Save Paper

Giving renters the online resources of a tenant portal reduces the amount of paperwork you have to produce and store. You won’t have to print and mail statements, invoices, or receipts if your tenants can view them online. Less paperwork means less clutter and that makes it much easier to stay organized.

Sending out less paperwork means reduced clutter for your tenants too. Having easy access to all of their records and files through their own secure tenant portal makes it unnecessary to keep paper copies. Tenants will appreciate having this option and so will the environment.

9. Be Accessible Even When You’re Not

Tenants enjoy their space and privacy but they want to know that there is a caring landlord available to offer help when they need it. Tenant portals are available 24 hours per day and 7 days per week. Providing the tools and resources for tenants to solve their own problems makes them feel like they are never left to fend for themselves, even when they are.

Tenant portals are easy and convenient. This suite of tools can lead to a more rewarding tenant-landlord relationship while saving you time and money. Tenant portals are not created equal. Property Matrix integrates tenant portals with bookkeeping and property management software for the greatest benefits to landlords and tenants.