Assetsoft - Blog #asset management

Enhancing Tenant Experience Through Digital Asset Management Solutions

Mon, 24 Jun 2024 23:36:19 -0500

For any real estate management company, the tenant experience is always a primary concern. Satisfied tenants are more likely to renew their leases, generate stable revenues, and promote the property to other potential customers.

So, the success of the property management business largely depends on tenant engagement and satisfaction. In today's digital world, relying on strategic planning is not sufficient. Advanced technology is needed to personalize the customer experience.

To stay ahead in today’s competitive landscape, providing tenants with a digital framework within which they can connect and operate digitally becomes necessary.

Here, we will elaborate on how digital asset management solutions can help enhance tenant experience.

What Are Digital Asset Management Solutions?

In the era of remote work and digital transactions, every industry can only survive with automation.

Digital asset management(DAM) solutions in the real estate industry are software applications designed to manage and operate all the digital assets involved in real estate business.

These digital assets could be videos, images, documents, blueprints, or any other digital file used in leasing, marketing, selling, managing, or other property management operations.

The DAM solutions allow the seamless flow of digital assets across various stages of real estate development.

How Property Managers Enhance Tenant Experience Using DAM Solutions?

The digital asset management solutions improve the workflow and enhance the user experience by enabling easy access to digital assets online. They have completely transformed the ways tenants and owners interact and operate.

Real estate owners also experience improved efficiency, accuracy, and satisfied tenants.

By managing all the property-related data and documents in digital format

1. Easy Navigation

The real estate sector requires many images of each property from different angles to provide users with the exact picture of the property. Dealing with multiple properties assembles a huge amount of imagery data that is needed for marketing purposes.

With the growing business, the volume and complexity of such data are also expected to rise further.

The DAM solutions manage all the images in the required format and allow users/tenants easy navigation to all of them whenever they need. Easy navigation helps potential customers search any property picture across their websites and other platforms.

2. Trust-Building

The DAM solutions centralize all the digital assets of a real estate firm. It distributes all the media and products across different channels, including social media, e-commerce websites, and marketplaces.

This helps real estate companies build up their brand image by ensuring customers have regular brand interaction and experience.

Consistent branding is the key to trust building and increases the possibility of customers using user property or recommending it to others.

3. Enhanced Accessibility

One of the most significant benefits of digital asset management solutions is the easy accessibility of digital media and files. DAM solutions help develop mobile apps for tenants to enhance their user experience.

Through apps, tenants can easily make service requests or report issues directly through smartphones.

They don’t need to visit the management in person or make any calls all the time.

This allows easy accessibility, and tenants can connect whenever needed or wherever they are.

Such digital interactions are also recorded, so the tenant gets a history of their requests and services received.

4. Better Communication

Property managers can utilize digital asset solutions to develop better communication with tenants. To keep their tenants informed and updated about news, events, or reports, they can use mediums like digital newsletters, social media platforms, and tenant portals.

Such regular interactions foster a sense of community among tenants and improve their user experience.

Owners can also receive tenants’ suggestions through digital surveys and feedback tools.

Other online forums or social media groups can also be created to improve regular communication with tenants.

5. Digital Agreements

Whenever a tenant and an owner enter into a lease contract, a lease agreement is signed between them. These agreements are crucial for all the parties involved in the property management business.

To make these agreements readily available to everyone, digitalization is essential.

An online lease agreement serves various benefits:

Saves time and paperwork involved in the traditional process.

Online agreements are easily accessible and allow tenants to fill them wherever they want.

Such digital documents are stored in the Cloud, so there is no risk of losing them.

Conclusion

If you, as a property manager or real estate owner, wish to enhance your tenant experience, then apply digital asset management solutions to your business.

With constantly evolving technology, there is a considerable possibility of streamlining workflows and enhancing a tenant-friendly environment.

Contact us to know more details on DAM solutions. We help our clients to streamline their workflow irrespective of their business size and budget.

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8 Types of Journal Entries that You Need to Know About

Thu, 13 Oct 2022 18:12:19 -0500

The main idea of bookkeeping and accounting for any company or business is to have a clear picture of books and know where your finances stand. Journal entries are the most efficient way to keep track of the books.

Businesses can take a quick look at their concise and accurate books to make a better budgeting and forecasting plan and also further their future investments. But the world of back office accounting has many different types of journal entries that you need to stay updated about.

Journal entries list vital financial data and keep track of the company’s cash flow and accounts. Without these reports and entries, you will never know where your finances stand and how your cash flow looks.

Why is that important? US Bank survey reports have found that more than 82% of businesses fail due to cash flow issues. To not get lost in the multi-step process and still stay in control of your cash flow, learn more about the various types of journal entries. Read this blog to find out more about it.

Why are journal entries so important?

Journal entries help companies keep track of the date, time, and other such transaction details of the business. From the cash in pipelines, credits, debits and outgoing payments, journal entries can help provide concise reports. If your accounts affect multiple business processes, your entries can also give you a picture of that.

Accurate journal entries also help make better financial decisions and also help in sudden auditing needs. Auditors will always look for entries and want fast responses. So it is better to have all your entries in place, no matter what month or time, to ensure faster work.

What is included in a journal entry?

Before we learn the types of journal entries, let us figure out what are the common things that every journal entry should have,

An entry type, date, time, recipient/sender name
A reference or unique identification number

Which are the accounts that will be affected by the debit/credit amount, and a mention of those accounts
A short description of the transaction - you might refer back to this in the future, so make it concise yet informative at the same time.

Top 8 journal entries you must know about

Here is a list of the top 8 types of journal entries that every business should know about to perfect their back office accounting work. Check them out.

Simple entries

Simple entries are one of the easiest; only two accounts are affected in this transaction, one debit account and one credit account. There are no other extra details in this one.

Compound entries

Compound entries are the ones which have at least two or more debit and credit items/transactions. These transactions are generally entered in one single day, and similar transactions are clubbed together to uncomplicate the process. Wall Street Mojo reports say that this process improves productivity and simplifies work for the back office accounting team.

Opening entries

Opening record the balance of assets and liabilities of any company. They carry forward the ending balance from the previous month/week/quarter/year to the next accounting period. The ending balance in the last period becomes the opening entry of the next accounting period. These types of entries work as a KPI to help track the in-hand cash of any company and paints a clear picture of the financial health.

Closing entries

Closing entries are one of the most vital, marking the end of a financial period. The company’s balance amount can then be transferred from a temporary accounting to a permanent accounting marking the profit, loss or the overall financial condition of the company. This helps the balance of the temporary account be reset to zero to mark the beginning of a new financial period.

Transfer entries

Transfer entries are the ones when a certain amount of funds is moved from one accounting to the other, like the main account to a subsidiary. The credit and the debit amount is always the same in these entries. No third parties are mentioned in these transactions, and the net value must be zero at the end of the process. Keeping these records will help you catch and keep track of internal frauds, and even small internal transactions will be accounted for.

Adjustment entries

Adjustment entries are special entries that are not otherwise accounted for in journals. These record any special changes in accounts within a certain accounting period. These entries help companies to avoid any discrepancies and missed entries. These entries are generally entered in the general ledger at the end of a specific time period.

This type of accounting entry converts a particular entity’s accounting record into the accrual basis of accounting to keep up with all compliances.

Rectifying entries

Rectifying journal entries are exactly what they sound like; they are amendment entries. They are passed on to make corrections in the original books or a particular account in the ledger. This also helps restore the effect of the original credit and debit amount, clearing any mismatched entries along the way.

Reversing entries

These journal entries help reduce the number of errors in entry and keep room for corrections. They help to reverse or correct the adjusting entries made at the end of the previous accounting period. Reversing entries are generally made at the beginning of an accounting period.

When there is a lot of work on the back office accounting team's plate, there can be double counting, missed records and more due to simple human errors.

Backoffice Accounting with Assetsoft

The number of errors in back office accounting work increase even more when small companies do not hire a professional accountant but use other staff to do their accounting work. Such a DIY process can land you and your company in a lot of soup with auditors. But some small companies genuinely lack the budget to hire a full-time accountant.

Why? Indeed.com's study says that an American accountant's average salary is around $59,542. If this is beyond your budget, get outsourced accounting services from Assetsoft and get budget-friendly accounting work done at lower costs.

Talk to us to learn more about our services!

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Hotels and Post Pandemic Asset Management to beat the pandemic

Fri, 08 Jul 2022 12:04:48 -0500

Among all kinds of real estate, hotels and related retail businesses have seen the most disruption due to the pandemic. Neither families nor corporate companies had enough budget to spare on trips and tourism. This led to the hospitality and hotel industry taking a significant hit, with many hotels being closed down for business for months.

According to USA Today reports, even big hotel tycoons like Marriott had more than 25% of their hotels closed worldwide due to the pandemic. This definitely had short-term impacts like loss of jobs and lack of business, and massive loss of money. But these trends and the pandemic had many long-lasting effects too. What were they, and how can better asset management help get through this crisis?

Are you a hotel real estate owner or property manager who is still feeling the grilling effects of the pandemic? Is your business still suffering from the two years of the pandemic even when the COVID cases are going down? Well, you are not alone. The pandemic has left some significant impacts on the hotel industry, but they are not unbeatable.

Find out how you can steer through this problem and become more assertive on the other side of the pandemic.

Impact of COVID-19 on the hotel industry

According to the reports by the US Travel Association, travel expenses were reduced by 42% from 2019 to 2020. That was more than a $500 million loss in business for the hospitality industry. International and corporate stays in hotels suffered the most among these.

But the reports in 2022 look much better. Travel expenses in 2022 have increased by 3% over the 2019 yearly spending, which is a major and positive change after the two years of the pandemic. According to NRP research reports, 2020 was one of the worst years for American hotels. They saw only 44% occupancy till the year-end. This led to a lot of job loss, and many hotels closed doors permanently. The picture looked quite grim for the hotel real estate owners due to this steep fall in business.

Post-pandemic hotel real estate trends

Though the situations were challenging, the pandemic gave rise to many trends in the hotel real estate market and hospitality industry in general. Check them out.

Discounted sales are rising; this includes package deals and long-stay options to attract more customers and let businesses get back some of their money. Many hotels are giving such offers to stay afloat and not permanently close doors.
Virtual customer experience is on the rise. This includes virtual room tours and self-check-in facilities for customers to promote social distancing norms.
Sustainable real estate in the hotel industry is becoming more critical than ever. From energy-efficient projects to health and wellness tours are some of the demands customers have had from tourism ever since the pandemic.
Technology implementation plans to help manage hotels and customer relations virtual project management. From installing the correct CRM software to connecting with customers to using AI-powered devices to upgrade customer services, hotels are going through a lot of changes.

Handling the post-pandemic situation

Recovering from the two years of the negative impacts of the pandemic is not an overnight task. It needs careful strategy and leadership planning, and impeccable management to get a hold over the situation. Here are the best ways you can handle it.

Asset management

The assets you already have has to be rethought and differently used to increase the optimization of resources. You can use AI-powered tools and data analytics to predict customer behaviors and buying patterns. You can also change your hotel renting policies to accommodate the workation crowd. This crowd demands leisure and formal work atmospheres at the same place.

Due to the increase of remote workers, the demand for workation spaces is also increasing. You can revamp your hotel spaces a little to make a workspace inside the hotels and cater to these crowds.

Impactful marketing

The present world of business is all about marketing, especially when it comes to hotels and tourism. You must strategize and market your hotels across social media and promote your USP. Give your customers real-life updates about the COVID safety policies and how you have changed your business to best suit the customers' needs.

Revamping guest and service experience

Followed by the marketing, you also need to make real changes in your hotel services to gain back customer loyalty. Following hygiene norms, social distancing, and staff vaccination are some of the essential things that are a must for hotels to stay in business. You can try to change the layout of your hotels to do this if your old setup does not allow social distancing practices.

Cash flow and financial management

Liquid cash management and stabilizing cash flow are one of the biggest things in the hotel industry to stabilize everyday workflow. Without a stable cash flow, the general financial conditions of the business suffer and disrupt business. You need to employ a proper accountant or integrate back office accounting software to streamline the process and never run out of in-hand cash.

Staff management

With the proper selection of technology in project management, you can easily handle staff management from remote locations. You can keep track of your staffs whereabouts, their sales reports, and their general performances and communicate with them via the software dashboard without constant physical contact.

Employing property and asset managers

If all of these new trends and the added work due to these trends seem a little overwhelming for you to handle, you can easily hire property managers and asset managers to take the load off your shoulders. If you do not have the budget to employ new people for these tasks you can also integrate software solutions into your existing systems to streamline the management process.

Make Asset Management Easier with Assetsoft

Though no predictions or market statistics are sure when the hotel business or its associated hotel real estate will return to its original “pre-pandemic” state. But do not let these new trends intimidate you; rethink your strategy and leadership to keep these trends working to your advantage.

At Assetsoft, we can help you integrate the right technology, plan project management in line with all these trends, and help your business soar. Talk to us soon to find out more about our services.

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Business Travel Took a Hit Post-pandemic. Know Why Better Asset Management Can Help

Fri, 04 Mar 2022 11:06:00 -0500

Business and quality analysts across the world are sweating over the post-pandemic dip in business travel. The major chunk of the hospitality industry is banked on these business trips. Work has shifted online and business trips have taken a major hit as collateral damage.

Major studies and research says that with the onset of the pandemic in 2020, 90% of US companies reduced travel to unavoidable work trips. To date, corporate travel is yet to get back to its original state.

How People Looked Beyond Business Travel

When the world of business and work shifted online on Zoom calls, business trips went on a downward slip. What are the major factors that led to this?

Promotion of remote work across the globe. Reducing physical client visits and conference meets.
Companies cutting costs due to a lack of revenue to spend on non-essentials.
Permanent remote work has blurred the lines between corporate travel and travel for leisure.
Due to the rise of environmental awareness many companies want to reduce their carbon footprint. The pandemic and unavoidable remote work have given companies time to rethink their business policies for a greater cause.
Salesforce business process overview data says that their corporate travel results in 146,000 metric tons of CO2 emissions. This dramatically reduced to 20,000 metric tons due to the pandemic. Though it was great for the environment, the hospitality industry lost a huge chunk of business.

Corporate travel is worse hit than personal travel

The Canadian hospitality market kept hoping for a resume in corporate travel but statistics show otherwise. Market data shows that weekend hotel bookings are much higher than on weekdays. Weekend travel is mostly dominated by leisure travellers. Weekday bookings are banked on corporate companies and work-related travel.

With two sets of COVID waves, the delta variant and omicron, the work travel is at a constant low. But it is also noteworthy that though the number of work trips has reduced, the duration of these trips has increased. Companies are practising this to get maximum work done in single trips. This trend has given some boost in the dipping market.

How can better asset management help you get through this?

In the growing age of technology-based solutions to business and life problems, travellers expect you to provide them with quick solutions too. You need to optimize your assets in order to come out stronger on the other side of the pandemic.

Use of AI -

From the use of algorithms to customise travel plans for your customers to conducting digital assistance, AI can do more than you think. As a real estate property management owner, you need an assistive technology implementation plan to smoothen the process. The pandemic may have already taken a hit at your business, do not let technology hold you back even more.

Companies like SkyScanner and Booking.com are using their chatbot services to change the game. They are using AI to offer their customers a personalised experience.

At Assetsoft we make this process seamless for your business. From helping you choose the right real estate property management software for your business to property management, we are here for all your needs. Our holistic approach to organically incorporating technology into your business will give it the right push it needs.

Promoting combined work & leisure stays -

Employees across the globe have become highly mobile due to remote work. People are now indulging in workations. You need to tap into this market and promote your business as a dependable workspace as well as a reliable leisure provider. You need to blend the best of both sides of the hospitality industry to understand the present market trend.

Data analytics -

You will find endless market data on the hospitality industry. It is not cost-effective for a human to process this. Your business needs technology to make this faster and error-free. From finding what services worked best with your customers to finding booking trends, you can get all of it in a click. Contact the Assestsoft team today to get started and take the first step forward.

Big stakeholders in the market like Booking.com and many more are already using Data analytics to conduct their daily business. You need to rethink your project management processes to imbibe these essentials at the quickest.

Unique hospitality industry comeback story

With the rise of remote work, hospitality has shown some unbelievable resilience and new strategies to stay in business. Like the Marriott group of hotels started something called a “Day Pass”. They are renting their hotel rooms for 12 hours to people who want to get away from the monotony of home offices. They provide premium luxury services along with a workspace for people to relax at work.
TUI Travel Company of Britain recognised the change in market trend and revamped their hotel policies to promote workations. They now have as many as 30 of their hotels across the globe with designated workspace and WiFi services. Their use of strategy and leadership hit home and helped them stay relevant in business.

Major Takeaway

It is unclear as to when business travel might return to a pre-pandemic state. The world has reached a state where people and businesses are learning to work with or around the pandemic. Your business needs to get on top of this trend to make it boom. The hospitality industry is grilling under the pressure of the pandemic but there are some changing travel trends to look forward to.

But effective strategy and leadership can make better use of the available resources to better business. You can onboard business support service providers to optimize your available assets.

The Assetsoft team can guide you in better asset management, property management and customise strategies for all your business needs. Our experts can help you work with Yardi project management system and MRI services and provide you with the right set of tools to streamline your business. Contact us today to know more.

Did you Know?

Not all news from the travel industry is bleak. Here are some hospitality business data to inspire you for a better tomorrow.

As many as 74% of Americans have mentioned that they have serious thoughts about doing a workation.
A survey by Airbnb found that employees with prolonged remote work are keen on booking long stays.

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