1. Setting up your organisation

To get your property management company started in Xero there are a few simple things you need to set up first.

• Enter your company details including your Company name and GST number (if applicable) into the Organisation Settings screen.
• Set up your invoices by uploading your logo and entering your contact details in the Invoice Settings screen.
• Invite any other people you wish to access the financial data for your company eg. your accountant.

• Set up your Chart of Accounts in Xero by importing your existing Chart of Accounts or use the Property Managers Chart of Accounts Template attached here for you.

  Download: Property Manager Chart of Accounts (CSV)

  Download the Property Managers Chart of Accounts template (CSV file) to your computer. You can then upload it into Xero to replace the default Chart of Accounts set. It is important that it remains a CSV file and isn’t changed into an XLS or any other file type.

2. Adding in your bank details

Xero can automatically import your bank statements overnight. Each morning you can quickly process the new transactions, including rents received and expenses incurred.

• Add your bank account(s) including your bank account number.
• Set up your automatic bank feeds so that all your rent payments will be brought in daily. Xero provides you with a form that you send in, which gives authority to enable the bank feeds.
• Enter your bank account balance in the Set Starting Balances screen. The balance you should enter is the closing balance as at the day before you start using Xero.

3. Setting up each property in Xero

• Set up your properties in Xero using Tracking. You can then allocate the income and expenses for each individual property that you manage.

4. Making it easier to record your rents

• Set up your rent schedule to record rental payments due. This can be done easily in Xero using our Repeating Transactions function. You will immediately be able to see when a rent has become due.

5. Set up customer accounts

• You can set up each of your customers in Xero by adding a new organsiation for each. When you create Accounts Payable invoices in your Xero System (which record the rent received for each property less any fees), you can use the Xero Network to automatically send these to each of your customers. These invoices will appear as draft Accounts Receivable invoices in their Xero account.
• Set up each property using the Property Investors Guide.
• You can then invite your Cutomers into their Xero account.

These are the normal activities you would do each day in Xero.

• Each morning you can log in to Xero where you can see any rental payments received, you can then allocate this directly to your repeating rental invoice, most of these can be reconciled with a single click.
• Record any expenses or disbursements made on behalf of your clients using Spend Money(s) and Tracking to associate expenses to a specific property.
• Reconcile any payments made to your clients against money spent from your bank account.
• Check for any rental payments that are overdue. You can see this information on your dashboard.

Processing each property:

When rent is received for a particular property and you are ready to pass it on to your clients:

• Run an Account Transactions Report filtering on each property to show the income received and the expenses paid.
• Using this information you can create an accounts payable invoice in Xero, deducting your fees as a line item. You can then use the Xero network to send the invoice to your customer. Xero presently does not support buyer-created invoices to the required Inland Revenue standard. In the interim you can use Add Summary on the Account Transaction Report to create a text field. This field enables you to insert the information required to meet Inland Revenue requirements for buyer-created invoices. Which you can then print and send to your client.
• Make the net payment to your client with either a cheque or online banking. When the payment leaves the bank account, it can be reconciled as noted above.

Looking to add even more value to your clients? Ask them to set up their own Xero account:

• You can provide the option to have their rents received and disbursements made in real-time; meaning they can see the financial position of their investment properties now.
• Your clients can view their data anytime, anywhere.
• They can give their accountant access, so they can make sure the transactions are correctly recorded.