Expense Management Strategies for Real Estate Professionals

The real-estate business is known to be all about projects, which are getting increasingly complex, pricey and tight on timelines when it comes to delivery. Effective expense management is a critical factor to staying competitive in the commercial real-estate industry. Qashio offers a holistic solution to bring financial excellence to a real-estate business and contribute to its bottom line.

Understanding the Challenges of Real Estate Expense Management

Real estate businesses face unique challenges when it comes to managing expenses:

• Complex Projects: Managing expenses across multiple projects, phases, and locations can be overwhelming.
• Supply Chain Costs: Controlling costs associated with materials, equipment, and subcontractors is essential.
• Property maintenance: Managing costs related to maintenance, repairs and updating/improvements of a home or property in order to maintain the value and integrity of the property.
• Track Expenses: Expenses for tenant services and/or property management fees
• Limited Financial Visibility: Inaccuracies and delays in data and information make it difficult to responsibly run a business.

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Benefits and Drawbacks of Traditional Expense Management

Traditionally, real estate businesses run on physical, spreadsheet- and paper-based transactions. While this approach may work fine, there are major downsides. Most data, such as payments, files, requests and tenant attendance, are scattered over a number of different sources. Administrative tasks take up time and resources that could otherwise be spent on activities that add value to the business. Access privileges, payments accrual and receipts reconciliation take up workforce and add to the operational cost.

Some of the drawbacks of using outdated expense management systems: 

• Time-consuming: Manual data entry is tedious and prone to errors.
• Inaccurate: Errors in manual data entry can lead to misleading financial reports.
• Limited Visibility: Manual systems lack real-time insights into spending trends.
• Fraud Risk: Paper receipts are easily misplaced or manipulated, increasing fraud risk.

Leaving expense management up to receipts in a desk drawer is a surefire way to lose your data accuracy. It leads to lost receipts, wasted time and poor financial control; all while your team is focused on chasing errant expenses instead of core real estate operations and high-level planning efforts.

How Qashio Can Help Your Real Estate Business Thrive

Qashio provides a set of financial solutions, tailored to the needs of real estate businesses in the UAE.
Here’s how Qashio can give you power over your business.

 • Smart Cash Flow: Manage costs, identify savings, and direct your money where it’s most needed – through expense tracking, corporate cards, and automated petty cash management.

 • Better Spend Management and Visibility: Keep track of and see detailed, customised reports and categorisation of your spending.

 • Comprehensive Financial Insights: Understand the activities of the organisation and how your queues are filling up with automated reports, so you can make sound business and investment decisions.

 • Sophisticated Financial Control: Know your business is secure from fraud with extensive security and spending controls.

 • Optimised Operations: Automate tedious tasks such as expense tracking and invoice tracking to allow your staff to focus on what matters – your customers’ experience.

 • Rewards and Recognition: Qashio Points for your business spending that can be redeemed for various services.

Determining if Qashio is Right for Your Real Estate Business

 Consider whether Qashio could be a good fit for your real estate business by thinking about the following points: 

• Are you managing multiple projects at once?
• Do you work with lots of suppliers and subcontractors?
• Is maintenance of property one of your major expenses?
• Are you overwhelmed by tenant-related expenses? 
• Are you missing out on real-time data of your financial performance?

If you answered yes to two or three of these questions, then Qashio is for you!  

Tips for Successfully Implementing an Expense Management System

Implementing an expense management system requires careful planning and execution:

• Identify goals: What will it achieve? What are the specific goals? Spell out the value with a statement of clear objectives.
• Pick the right system: Opt for a system with the necessary features that will work well with your other systems. 

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• Engage stakeholders: Get buy-in from finance, operations and property management for successful adoption. 
• Provide comprehensive training: Educate employees on the system's functionalities and benefits.
• Monitor and optimise: Continuously monitor system performance and make adjustments as needed.
  
  

Common Mistakes to Avoid in Expense Management

• Porous petty cash: Lack of oversight over petty cash creates huge leaks. Qashio’s automated petty cash management eliminates this risk.

 • Lack of visibility over spending: If you don’t understand your spending patterns, how can you identify areas for improvement?

 • Manual data entry errors: Manual expense management processes are prone to errors and require a great deal of time. Qashio’s automation solutions can free up resources to create more value for your real estate business.

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Step-by-Step Guide to Implementing Qashio

To successfully implement Qashio, follow these steps:

1. Identify your challenges: Assess your current processes and understand your pain points.

2. Learn about all the features Qashio provides: Explore the features that meet your business needs, such as expense tracking, invoice issuing, or corporate cards.

3. Tailor the tool: Personalise Qashio to suit your company’s needs – set up expense categories, approval processes and reporting.

4. Train your team: Provide training on Qashio to employees.

5. Go live: Roll out Qashio across the business, starting with pilot groups if required. 

6. Monitor and optimise: Continuously monitor system performance using the customised reporting feature, and make adjustments as needed.

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Tips for Managing Expenses Effectively with Qashio

To maximise the benefits of Qashio, consider these tips:

 • Use automation: Delegating manual processes to automation can help save time and money. For example, Qashio’s automation features will suggest tips to save resources.

• Utilise analytics: Analyse expense data to identify trends, cost-saving opportunities, and areas for improvement.

• Set clear policies: Establish clear expense policies and communicate them effectively to employees.

• Keep an eye on spending: track it as frequently as possible to make sure it’s in line with budget and company goals.

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Alternatives to Qashio

While Qashio offers a comprehensive solution, other options exist:

• Spreadsheet-based systems: Offer flexibility but require manual data entry and lack advanced features.
• Expense report software: Focus on expense reporting but may have limited integration capabilities.
• ERP systems: Provide broader financial management but may not offer specialized expense management features.

Weigh carefully your needs as a real estate business and the advantages and disadvantages associated with each to decide which you should opt for.

Conclusion: Empower Your Real Estate Business with Qashio

Smart expense management plays a crucial role in the success of any real estate business. You can maximise returns by establishing a robust strategy and utilizing tools like Qashio to help you achieve cost optimisation, driving efficiency and profits.

Qashio provides an end-to-end solution for the unique needs of the real estate industry. With Qashio you can: streamline operations, help you gain real-time financial visibility, enhance compliance, optimise costs and identify cost-saving opportunities.

To better understand the ways Qashio can improve your real estate business, book a demo today.

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