It is safe to say that no estate agent started their career in property because they were keen to get involved with ‘Bye Law 3 NFoPP Client Account Rule Guidelines.’ But the truth is that no sale or letting can go through without much red tape being adhered to; no management contract can be performed without numerous legislative and financial forms filled in and no branch or chain can exist without implementing numerous accountancy procedures.

But luckily for agents who would rather be out doing deals than operating an abacus, the massive strides made by software developers in creating accounting systems specifically for property means that they can be out hunting commission rather than getting bogged down with red tape.

It is also about efficiency. Every new piece of legislation or change to tax positions can be updated on the system – there is no room for human error.

PropCo is a well established supplier; Commercial Director, Mark Howlett, says that the key benefits are: speedy processing of receipts and payments; managing cashflow; transparency for landlords; simplicity for tenants and contractors; audit trail; client accounting separate from business accounting and a 24/7 office.

A comprehensive software package will cope with multiple banks, brands and third parties; it can deal with intricate domestic and overseas taxation issues and give complete control of the holding and release of funds.

The provability of the transaction trail gives essential transparency.” Mark Howlett Commercial Director, PropCo

One of the most important innovations is an audit trail of every penny from the point of receipt, to payment to reconciliation.

Mark says, “The provability of the transaction trail gives essential transparency to landlords and confidence to agents.”

For instance, PropCoTM receives and manages the allocation and payment of funds at the earliest opportunity, allowing agents to control cashflow by recording, for example, that funds were received by cheque with say, a seven day payment delay – or receipts by standing order can be electronically imported from tenants’ banks or by Direct Debit.

It’s great for agents who’d rather do deals than operate an abacus.”

The good packages also help contractors who can access their accounts, tenants who can pay rentals and landlords who can pinpoint exactly what is happening with their account.

HOW FOXTONS ACCOUNTS FOR ITS MONEY WITH  iXBRL

Foxtons Estate Agents, with a £100m turnover, has over 30 branches in London and the Home Counties. The agency brought iXBRL accounts production in-house in 2010.

Group Financial Controller Gerard Nieslony, says that implementing iXBRL’s IRIS Accounts Production system resolved more than one business challenge, “Our auditors said that they would prefer us to produce the statutory accounts in-house for them to audit. However, with a small accounts team supporting a business with a £100 million turnover, this had never been a high priority for us.”

With the advent of iXBRL, bringing the additional work and cost of tagging accounts, Gerard Nieslony considered his options. “We did think about outsourcing the tagging exercise, but as users of IRIS Exchequer accounting software since 1999 we wondered what IRIS could offer us. The IRIS Accounts Production software seemed to have great merit, killing two birds with one stone, prepare statutory accounts for auditing and comply with HMRC requirements on tagging in a cost-effective way.”

Foxtons trialled the software with a set of published accounts from the previous financial year, which Gerard says went well, “There is an investment of time in the first instance, but once it’s running, the effort pays dividends. Also, the figures then roll forward to the following year. My first impressions of the software as straightforward and logical proved well-founded and it has fully met my expectations.”

One of the things which particularly appealed to Foxtons was the structured process within the software. Gerard says, “IRIS Accounts Production is very user-friendly, offering a guided process for statutory accounts production. This is especially important for accountants in the commercial sphere who, unlike accountants in practice, don’t work on statutory accounts every day. The software helps me to create a great set of professional accounts in compliance with the legislation.”

By bringing in this important accounting task within its control, Foxtons has achieved lower costs and is able to make amendments easily itself – this was achieved without adding to the burden on its own accounting team.

Gerard says they are very happy, “Our time is at a premium and IRIS Accounts Production has proved a most efficient way to prepare our statutory accounts, while meeting HMRC’s iXBRL requirements.”