Property management is a dynamic field, constantly ever-evolving to encourage property management businesses to keep up with the times. From property managers to property management virtual assistants, there are a lot of people involved in keeping your business up and running. While virtual assistants are in charge of administrative and marketing tasks, property management accountants handle the finances.
However, the job of a property management accountant is not confined to accounting and finance. They are collaborators too, often partnering with real estate agents, property owners, external auditors, and other key stakeholders in the real estate industry. Let’s explore the day-to-day duties of a property accountant — and for companies looking to hire one — we also included a dedicated section on the essential skills of this profession.
Property Accountant Job Description and Key Responsibilities
A property accountant is a real estate accounting professional who works for a property investor. Occasionally, property accountants are employed by property management companies or real estate outsourcing agencies. Apart from their finance and accounting backgrounds, they also excel in the legalities of the real estate industry.
From budgeting to preparing financial reports, a property accountant’s responsibilities are a valuable asset for ensuring the legal and financial integrity of your real estate business. Below, let’s explore the most common job responsibilities of a property accountant.
1. Auditing
Auditing refers to the yearly review and verification of balance sheets and other financial statements. By auditing financial reports, companies can prevent fraud, ensure accuracy, and maintain legal compliance — allowing business owners to uphold themselves to high accounting standards.
In the real estate industry, property accountants perform audits to build trust. For example, they can verify tenants’ balances to reduce cases of underpayment and overpayment. Their duties also extend to reviewing maintenance and utility expenses and checking the authenticity of receipts, invoices, bank confirmation documents, and other pertinent paperwork.
2. Budgeting
Budgets are the strategic financial plan of a business. Without a clear budget, business owners can’t execute goals or targets within the quarter or fiscal year. That’s where a property accountant comes in.
Property accountants leverage their knowledge of the local economy, real estate trends, and their company’s historical financial data to craft realistic annual or quarterly budgets that forecast potential income and unforeseen expenses due to maintenance or staffing issues.
Because your property management accountant keeps track of your property management company’s financial performance, they can ensure your business’s short- and long-term profitability even amidst different economic situations.
3. Financial Reporting and Analysis
Financial reporting and analysis are like the “performance review” of your business. Cash flow statements, income statements, and balance sheets comprise the bulk of financial reports, with Management’s Discussion and Analysis (MD&A) thrown into the mix for additional financial insights.
When handled by a competent property accounting professional, they can shed light on your property management business’s current financial performance — basing their analysis on raw data from balance sheets and other financial documents. Through these data-driven insights, you and your property management can make sound decisions to drive profit and sustainability while minimizing risks.
4. Financial Tracking
Final tracking is a business practice referring to the regular monitoring of expenses. As expected, failure to track finances inevitably sets your business up for poor growth and success. Since this task involves handling financial data from receipts and invoices, keen accuracy and attention to detail are key.
With a reliable property management accountant, they can keep tabs and record every transaction — from utility bill payments to rental fees — without fail. Delays in payment are also confirmed and addressed, preventing financial discrepancies. As a result, your real estate accountant can optimize costs, prevent fraudulent financial transactions, build financial trust among tenants, and spot new business opportunities.
5. Lease Analysis
Lease analysis is one of the most important tasks in the real estate industry. It involves not just understanding the financial and operational impact of a lease, but also analyzing and reviewing the nuances of the terms and conditions of a leasing agreement.
Property management accountants play a big role in lease analysis, optimizing expenses and driving investment revenue to property owners and landlords. Risk factors such as environmental hazards and economic factors are also considered, so your property accountant can anticipate dips in leasing value and tenant satisfaction.
6. Legal Compliance
Compliance with local real estate laws makes for a successful property management business. The legal side of real estate is complex, requiring careful perusal to minimize legal disputes and financial risks.
As mentioned earlier, a property accounting professional is well-versed in this department. They understand the intricacies of real estate laws, so your property management business can preserve its integrity and meet accounting and industry standards.
With the inevitability of amendments in legal frameworks, your property management accounting staff can keep abreast of such changes to ensure your real estate business stays relevant and compliant with local regulations now and in the future.
What Are the Qualifications of A Property Management Accounting Professional?
Before drafting a winning property accountant job description, you must understand the professional and educational qualifications that make up the best property accounting professional. Let’s check them out below.
Education
A property accounting professional must — first and foremost — possess a bachelor’s degree in accounting or a related degree. While a master’s degree is a plus, a college degree is often enough to enter the property accountancy field.
Regardless of a property management accounting professional’s highest education level, they boast extensive knowledge of taxation laws, generally accepted accounting principles (GAAP), International Financial Reporting Standards (IFRS), and financial analysis and management. Because real estate is a fast-paced industry, a property accountant must continuously upskill and learn current market trends.
Professional License and Certifications
Ideally, a property accountant must be a Certified Public Accountant (CPA). This credential is only awarded to individuals who pass the CPA licensure exam, which covers key finance and accounting principles and subjects. A CPA license ensures the marketability of a property management accountant, making them well-sought-after by companies. A property accountant can be a Chartered Accountant (CA), too.
Licenses and certifications are not just for show, though. These accolades represent the dedication of an accountant to their professional growth. By opting for licensed property management accountants, you’re getting a hardworking professional who’s committed to the success of your property management company.
Work Experience
Education, certifications, and professional experiences go hand in hand. More often than not, accountants have their first foray into accountancy through internships. After earning a bachelor’s degree, the newly graduated individual applies for entry-level property accountant positions in a real estate company.
This allows the accountant to gain first-hand knowledge of property management and the real estate industry, further honing their skills and gaining relevant work experience. As they earn more and learn new, their marketability in the job market increases, giving them leverage in applying for positions with higher pay and better career growth.
What Are the Skills of A Property Accountant?
Financial management and auditing skills are not enough. In order for a property accountant to be successful in the industry, their soft skills must be the same caliber as their hard skills. Be sure to include the following skills as you continue drafting a solid property management accountant job description.
1. Communication Skills
Nowadays, communication skills are the bare minimum. Property management accountants communicate with property investors, property owners, and other real estate professionals through writing and speaking.
Through effective communication, accountants can articulately present financial reports and analyses in a way that is easy to digest for their colleagues and stakeholders — who may or may not have a background in finance or accountancy.
2. Problem-solving & Analytical Skills
Every day, property accountants deal with data from financial records. Strong problem-solving and analytical skills — combined with ample knowledge of taxation laws and other legal frameworks — help accountants identify patterns and glean insights to produce comprehensive reports that turn data into business strategies to encourage growth and reduce financial risk.
Property management accounting professionals also tap into their creative side to formulate out-of-the-box solutions and analyses, helping real estate businesses push the boundaries of what is currently possible.
3. Time Management Skills
In real estate, time waits for no one, and deadlines are always at bay. Hence, property accountants simultaneously work on multiple tasks, dividing their day into time blocks to maximize productivity during working hours. By leveraging automation technologies and calendar tools, property accountants can meet submission deadlines for audits and financial reports.
4. Attention to Detail
We all make mistakes. An incorrect entry here, a duplicate income statement record there. Such mistakes may be minor to some — but in the real estate and accounting industries — these errors could spell trouble for your business. Fortunately, if spotted, accounting errors can be easily rectified.
With the help of a property accountant and the right accounting software, the likelihood of committing and seeing accounting errors becomes slimmer. However, it’s important to differentiate accounting errors from fraud. While the former is unintentional, the latter is committed with the intention to manipulate or hide financial records to show that the business is financially healthy and performing well.
5. Confidentiality
Upholding good work ethics is a skill in itself. In accountancy, maintaining confidentiality means a property management accountant is responsible for the non-disclosure of sensitive personal and financial information.
This shows that the professional complies with their local accounting code of ethics not just through words, but also through actions. When you trust your property accountant, you can count on them to handle and safeguard personal data from competitors or cybercriminals.
The benefits of confidentiality also trickle down to your clients. This means they have enough peace of mind to trust your business to collect and store their personal information. When hiring a property accountant, look for candidates who have zero history of fraud and breaches in confidentiality.
6. Software Proficiency
Modern accountancy is grounded in data analytics, automation, and AI. That’s why technology is an accountant’s best friend. Because technology is intertwined with our lives, there’s all the more reason to expect a high level of software proficiency among accounting professionals. Right now, there are tons of accounting and bookkeeping software for property accountants.
These programs employ data consolidation, automation, and other advanced technologies to organize data, minimize errors caused by manual input, and speed up accounting processes.
Whether an accountant is an entry-level professional or a senior property accountant, tech proficiency and literacy pave the way for better career opportunities.
To employers like you, a property accountant’s drive to improve their tech skills is a giveaway that they value life-long learning and position themselves as flexible accounting professionals in the real estate industry.
Hire A Filipino Property Accountant Today
A property accountant is as vital as any other position in the real industry. Not only do property management accountants prepare finance reports and audit financial statements, but they also aid in legal compliance, uphold integrity, and offer strategic yet creative solutions.
Moreover, property accountants take pride in their educational and professional backgrounds, with their licenses and certifications serving as their crowning glory. However, hiring the right one is a hurdle every real estate business owner must overcome.
Today, employers are overwhelmed with a sea of property accountants competing for the role. While education and certifications get an accountant’s foot in the door, mindset and soft skills are what make employers choose them over other candidates. If you don’t want the tedium of hiring a property accountant from a freelance platform, we recommend outsourcing accounting and bookkeeping to the Philippines.
At KDCI Outsourcing, we provide personalized outsourcing solutions to property management companies looking to empower their accounting department. Our recruitment team carefully vets candidates, basing our assessment not just on their education and work experience, but also their soft skills and compatibility with your team’s values.
After KDCI Outsourcing shortlists candidates, we conduct training sessions to help them learn the ropes of your business’s preferred accounting software. Whether your company uses Wave Accounting or Zoho Books, we make sure our team of property accountants demonstrate a satisfactory level of proficiency in your software for hassle-free onboarding.
Ready to up your real estate game with KDCI Outsourcing? Contact us now!
