Goodlord has launched a new accounting tool which is set to save letting agents up to a day every week in admin time. The Lettings Accounts product will allow agents to collect and reconcile rent, automatically generate invoices, make payments to landlords and contractors in one click, send remittances, create statements, and set up individual e-money accounts per property - tying together the whole payments process.
For an agent looking after 100 tenancies, it’s estimated that the technology will save them 8 hours a week in time spent on accounting admin.
This is the company’s first major move into the accounting space and means that, with its embedded rent collection service, the company now offers a complete payments solution for letting agencies that can be managed through one platform.
This makes Goodlord the only provider to offer a fully integrated, end-to-end offering for tenancy progression and accounts flow.
Research into over 1,300 of Goodlord's customers found that payments was the second biggest administration burden for lettings professionals, second only to tenancy progression in terms of time spent on admin.
A range of current practices are also not fit for purpose in the face of upcoming banking compliance requirements, such as the ongoing transition towards creating individual client accounts.
The whole process is built into Goodlord's existing platform, with agents, tenants and landlords benefitting from an integrated journey with no double data entry and access to all information in one place.
Agents are charged a fixed price per transaction for use of the Lettings Accounts and Rental Collection products, rather than a percentage of rent.
Goodlord is already a trusted payments provider for over 1,300 agency brands across the UK, and has transacted more than £1 billion in holding deposits, security deposits and rent through its lettings platforms for its agents and landlords.
Alessandro Venerandi, Head of Payments at Goodlord, says:
"Working with our customers has been absolutely key to developing a lettings account product that meets their needs, from being able to delegate tasks and removing the risk of manual error right through to fixed pricing that will ensure that soaring rents won't have a material impact on their bottom lines. Going forward, customer feedback will continue to be a crucial part of the continued investment and development in this product."
Preyen Patel, Lettings Manager at Elliot Lee, who is already using the product, comments:
"With Goodlord Rent Collection and Lettings Accounts, I can manage the payments myself in only half an hour each day. Even if I'm unavailable to make payments, one of the senior team can simply step in and make those payments to contractors and landlords, and reconcile rents. Plus, with the rent included on the Goodlord platform - on top of pre-tenancy, e-signing, referencing, rent protection insurance and more - everything's in one place. We're extremely happy with the product!"
Find out more about Goodlord's Rent Collection and Lettings Accounts product.