Handling add-on rentals: (eg parking, lockers) - billing, inventory, paperwork

[Brad C.]

We'd like a better way to handle add-on rentals like parking spaces or storage lockers.  In our association, we have a limited number of add-on facilities that can be rented by an association owner on a monthly basis for a modest amount ($30-$50 per month).  Most of our inventory is rented on an ongoing, recurring basis, and the charges are handled on a monthly basis the same as association dues.  Buildium has basic accounting functionality to handle the recurring charges, but we were expecting more features to help us manage the actual rentable inventory.

Managing add-on rentals should behave in much the same way that the primary rental/association units are handled, except that they are always attached to an existing unit - never rented standalone.  We want to do things like:

 - see exactly which parking spots are rented and un-rented

 - see who's renting a given spot

 - advertise the availability of un-rented parking spots

 - allow self-service rental initiation - including e-signing for paperwork

Today we have to manage all of these tasks in a spreadsheet outside Buildium.  The only part we use Buildium for is posting/collecting the actual monthly charges.

Some solutions we've considered:

1) Dedicate a new Buildium unit to each add-on facility.  This would allow us to track inventory more easily, but is an absolute non-starter as there is no way to combine the ledgers for the association owner.  This would produce a separate statement each month for the association dues and the add-on rental, and the owner would have to have separate payments set up.  It's also not feasible as it would basically double the amount of units we'd require in Buildium.

2) Using the new "parking pass" tracking system.  Unfortunately, this is basically just a structured memo field, and as such, doesn't help us track inventory.  It's good to track what passes you've handed out or which owner has which spot, but because there's no concept of an underlying rentable facility, there's nothing preventing us from assigning parking spot/pass #31 to multiple owners, no concept of start/end dates, and most importantly, there's no charge associated with pass distribution.  So very limited usefulness for us.

3) Managing add-ons completely outside of Buildium.  There's any number of web services that allow you to sell subscription services.  This would then be a completely separate listing/database/contact info, etc.  This requires separate payments by the owners and separate tracking on our side.  Without a Buildium API, this is also not feasible.

We make do today effectively by hand - with a separate spreadsheet and manually adjusting charges as necessary.  Is there any light at the end of the tunnel for us?  Anyone else with similar problems or other solutions?

[Glenn Russell]

We don't manage any associations, so take this suggestion with a grain of salt.

With properties, you can "code" the address:

for example:    C-GR-123 Sample-HW  means it is a property in our original C = Coastal portfolio

it's managed by GR = Glenn Russell,  it's address and the owner has a HW = homewarranty.

the front end coding can be exported to an excel sheet and sorted by code....which makes 

manipulating data helpful.  ie...if multiple property managers in the company, sort the

management fees report by manager.

Hopefully, this will spark some possible interim solutions in your operations.

best regards,

Glenn

Coastal Group Inc    Va Beach