Mid Atlantic Real Estate Journal — Owners, Developers & Managers — November 22 - December 5, 2013 — 15B C onstruction M anagement
www.marejournal.com
By Anupam Goradia, CPA, CISA, CITP, WithumSmith & Brown, PC Getting more out of your commercial leasing software
accordance with the respon- sibilities of each individual who has access to the soft- ware improves the control environment and integrity of the data in the system for both management and audit purposes. For example, the ability to give tenant credits should be restricted to only select authorized personnel. Once the billing is set up, there should be restrictions around who can
change billing schedules in the system. 10. Investing Time with Your Software Provider: The next time your soft- ware provider wants to re- new their contract or sell you an upgrade, spend some time with them to understand the features that you do not use. Have them train your staff so that the existing system is used to its maximum po- tential – most users only rely
on a fraction of features their current software provides – features you may be cur- rently paying for. Even the slightest im- provements in the automa- tion process can improve efficiency and reporting. Every upgrade can offer an increased level of automa- tion and convenience. Every business needs do its own cost-benefit analysis before it spends more on technol-
ogy; it may not take a large investment to improve your processes and get more out of your existing system and software. Anupam Goradia i s a CPA, CISA and CITP wi th the account ing and consulting firm of WithumSmith+Brown, PC in New Brunswick NJ. He specializes in systems con- trols, internal audit and process improvements. n
process can be a long, drawn out process, bits and pieces continued from page 8B
o f i t such as generat- ing prelimi- nary data, a d j u s t i n g for gross-up percentages or calculat- ing tenant shares, gen-
Anupam Goradia
erating letters to tenants for final amounts, etc. can be automated relatively easily. This allows management to obtain an exception report of all tenants whose reconcili- ations were not completed. This should help ensure that the reconciliations are done in a timely manner. 7. Tracking Other Ten- ant Requirements: Apart from rent and other charges, commercial tenants typically have other obliga- tions such as maintaining insurance as specified in the lease or maintaining a line of credit or a guarantee in good standing. Tenants’ insur- ances need to be monitored for expiration and follow-up for renewal is needed. Guar- antors’ information should be confirmed periodically. Many systems allow such information to be stored in separate data fields for the generation of reports to help track and follow-up on these types of items. 8. Using Standard Re- ports: Most software has a num- ber of standard reports such as tenant history, leasing statistics, CAMamounts, va- cancy reports, etc. Manage- ment should invest time in becoming familiar with stan- dard reports and determine which reports provide useful information or can replace manually maintained infor- mation. Most software also provides the ability to export reports into Excel spread- sheets, which then allows for customization. Management should be familiar with such export capabilities of the system they are using. 9. Enhance Segregation of Duties: Many systems can facili- tate segregation of duties by restricting access to dif- ferent modules within the system. Setting up access in
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