Mixed Use Real estate developer

Customer service is a big plus. I like that it is specifically geared towards our business. Existing reports are comprehensive and usually will cover any needs, but you also have the ability to create custom reports.

Pros

Very good for loan draws which is important as a developer. Very easy to separate development budgets into multiple phases, or consolidate, as preferred by lender, partner, owners, etc. Most software marketed to real estate is intended for builders and is overly complicated. This programs gives us what we need and is a great bargain. The customer service is great and they are very quick to solve any issues or questions that come up.

Cons

Property management module is probably the least flushed out; however, after using if a couple of years, it is adequate for our use. We tend to not hold onto properties for a long time so the shortcomings do not hurt us. Could use better documentation on this module and custom reports, but overall it works well for our purposes.

Budgetrac Software for small to mid-size developer

Overall we are pleased with our transition to Budgetrac. The training and support provided by to us has been stellar and I cannot praise our trainer enough.

Pros

Budgetrac provided us the software to move away from spreadsheets for recording and tracking real estate development costs. We love how the entire general ledger accounting system, specifically accounts payable system, integrates with the loan draw system. Additionally, we utilize the commercial property management component since most of our completed development projects turn into managed entities. We like having all of these needs compartmentalized into one integrated software system.

Cons

A few of the screens do not have totals but we understand the developer is working on that for future roll out. It does not "do match" within a field like Quickbooks allows you too, which would be extremely helpful when required to split a cost among job codes, or other general ledger accounts like owner equity accounts.

Budgetrac review

Pros

Cost - based on other platforms BT is a value. Web based - we did not want to manage a server. allows for access while traveling. Import functionality - import invoices and journal entries which saves time and improves accuracy. Reports - decent quality and ok export functionality. Project Budgets - as a homebuilder, we setup a budget for each home, this results in > 200 budgets for some entities. the system does a reasonable job handling this

Cons

There seems to be too many glitches and bugs - at first I thought it was user error, but happens to frequently. User manuals are very basic - not meant to help experienced users. When doing Search / Edit, the user must reset the search criteria everytime - very cumbersome if we need to modify several items. Performance can be very slow at times. Reports have issues, for example there is a AP report we use a lot, but it shows voided checks as positive amounts - makes it challenging to understand what occured without exporting, filtering and sorting. Bank Rec report inserts blank pages what are unncessary. The P&L changes formats if you add the Account Numbers. Some reports use whole numbers (vs two decimals) which creates odd rounding errors. Reports have data limitations which can be cumbersome. Sometimes if you run the report, it will work the 3rd or 4th time. Other times you have to create date ranges and run the report multiple times and than merge your results - cumbersome and time consuming.

Our Picks for the Best Property Management Software

So we interviewed property managers and landlords across the country on the tools they use and the tasks that keep them busy every day. We learned there are a handful of must-haves: the ability to easily collect rent, manage maintenance requests, and advertise to new tenants, as well as robust accounting, reporting, and document management. We found 15 that met our features requirements; from there we tested each one for ease of use and customer service.

Pros

From there our task was simple: Figure out what property management software had the right features, and then see which were the easiest to use.

Cons

We started with a pretty wide lens, looking at software tailored to residential and commercial properties; for managers of hundreds of units as well as part-time landlords. (We skipped over the niche software — vacation rentals require software that can manage new tenants every week, for example — and preferred SaaS systems to desktop-only options.)

CFO

The software does not require an IT genius to repair if there are issues. I can pretty much go into the system and fix records that are damaged or missing with out calling Budgetrac support. I like that.

Pros

ease of use. It does what I need for a small contractor as well as record keeping for draw processes. The download into excel capabilities is very useful as well as pdf to send to others.

Cons

the Financial statement setup is a bit cumbersome and became too much work to program. I dump the information into excel and modify it that way for presentation purposes.