First impressions count for a lot in life and when I tried to use PC Property Manager I found myself scratching my head. So much so to I began to wonder if I’d caught head lice from my kids.

Don’t get me wrong. PC Property Manager does a sterling job at streamlining number crunching for landlords and property managers.

What it’s designed to do, and does admirably when you can get your head around the system, is to:

• Enter detailed data about multiple owners and multiple properties
• Monitor rent payments
• Maintain a ledger
• Enable bank reconciliations
• Produce customised reports.

On opening the software, the user can see nine buttons across the top representing tasks, owners, properties, tenancies, transactions, ledger, bank accounts, ledger and reports. Within these headings the landlord or property manager can enter detailed data.

They allow landlords and managers to monitor their investments, keep track of rent payments and arrears, keep inventories of chattels, depreciate buildings and contents, maintain up-to-date contact lists and set reminders for tasks.

The reports are arguably the best feature of this software in its current iteration. The list of possible reports is long. They include:

• Bank reconciliation
• Chattels inventory
• Income and expenditure
• List of payments
• List of receipts
• Overdue rents
• Profit and loss
• Rental payment history
• Rental statement
• Schedule of fixed assets and depreciation
• and more.

Some of these reports are designed with the Tenancy Tribunal in mind and will provide landlords with suitably detailed records of payments for tribunal hearings. The software loaded without a hitch when I tried, which is more than can be said for some of the programs I’ve reviewed in this column. But over and above that it’s not easy to get started.

When I tried to use the program I did what I do with all software, be it for review or my own use. I started to tinker. But I found that quite a few of the features simply didn’t work when I tried.

The reasons, I discovered on talking to a PC Property Manager representative were:

1. That the defaults of this program are automatically set to United States standards. That meant, for example, when I tried to enter 19/08/2004 as the purchase date for a property, the program refused my entry and simply flashed up the words “invalid date”. Complaining about this isn’t just chip on the shoulder stuff about American imperialism. If I’d failed to think laterally and guess what the problem was, I simply would not have been able to get this software to work. Likewise, there was a section called leases. Had I known to go into the “preferences” menu and change my location from the US default to New Zealand, I would have seen the word “tenancies” instead. 2. That I hadn’t followed the specific procedure of entering owner details first, followed by property transactions. I couldn’t, it transpired, enter the data I had to hand and then marry it up later with owners and properties.

How these problems could be overcome is by offering users an option when you very first open the program to state your country and then stepping users through a wizard to get their first property up and running.

What’s more, one thing I’ve learned from reviewing software is that integration with industry-standard software such as Microsoft Outlook and Excel and file formats is a real bonus.

One of the other software programs automatically synchronised contact details and tasks with Microsoft Outlook. This meant in theory, that a landlord on a property inspection could enter details in a hand-held computer, which would subsequently populate the property management software when plugged into the computer. Likewise, most of New Zealand’s banks allow their statements to be downloaded in standard file formats such as QIF. That means they can, in theory, be downloaded directly into a software program such as PC Property Manager and entries then assigned to properties. Unfortunately users of this software must currently re-type all of this information.

The good folk behind this program assure me that down-loadable bank statements are on the way. One aspect of PC Property Manager that I liked was the Ouickstart Guide, which covers most of the basics. The document is helpful for people like me who think manuals are a waste of trees if the software is designed in a user-friendly way.

What it needs as an addition is a one or two paragraph overview and an explanation of the need to change the preferences to New Zealand before starting. Another plus in PC Property Manager’s favour is that it’s backed from the Auckland Property Investors’ Association and the development is done here, not on the other side of the Tasman or, for that matter, the world. PC Property Manager’s main competitor is RentMaster

System requirements:
• Windows 95, 98, NT, ME, 2000 or XP operating system, Macs with a Windows partition
• PC with Pentium processor
• Mm 32Mb of RAM
• Mm 20Mb of available hard disk space

VERDICT

A useful product that will save landlords and property managers time and energy.

Pros: Designed by property professionals for landlords and property managers

Cons: It needs to become more user friendly.

Both PC Property Manager and Rentmaster can be purchased through the Good Returns bookstore by clicking here. (www.goodreturnsbooks.co.nz)