Handling utility bills is one of the things that most landlords need to tackle. And realistically, they have to do that, because sometimes, tenants just don’t pay the bills. It’s the reality of being a landlord, and you have to narrow down the best way of handling such a situation. What really matters in the end is to ensure that you have methods to handle utility bills professionally. And in reality, doing that digitally is the best approach, as it will help much more than you might expect.
What are the main challenges that come from utility bill management?
As expected, it’s always tricky to manage utility bills when you are a landlord. That’s because you need to manually access all the data, put them all in a physical folder, etc. Aside from that, you will encounter a sleuth of other challenges that can prove to be rather problematic.
- For example, manual calculations are hard to do. And if you’re a landlord, the last thing you want is to offer time for something like that. It’s a challenge for sure, and it could become very problematic in the long term.
- Also, there’s a real lack of transparency that you are dealing with as well. Costs can fluctuate, the way bills are calculated could change as well.
- In addition, you also have to consider delays in distribution. Due to the utility bills being paper-based, they need to be physically delivered, which most of the time can be very time-consuming and downright problematic.
- The fact that you need to store a lot of paper-based invoices can bring issues with the space you have and you need to use. Plus, audits or disputes can end up being more challenging and problematic, so you have to find ways of addressing that effectively.
- There can also be payment collection delays. If the tenants don’t get the bill on time, then you can have delayed collections, which usually lead to cashflow problems.
Shifting towards utility bills
The thing we have to realize is that most industries these days tend to shift towards digitalization. While some find it more difficult than the other, they all realize that it’s a necessity. And that’s the thing, you really have to find the best way of simplifying your process.
Even as a landlord, shifting towards the digital world will help quite a bit. For example, if you use a utility bill generator, you will be able to generate bills with ease and distribute them digitally. There’s no need to worry about sending physical bills, instead you can send them via portals, SMS or email. Plus, you can accept payments online and store/create a backup for all the bills at any time. That way, if you need a copy of those, you will be able to access it at any given time.
Why do landlords prefer to go for digital utility bills?
- Digital utility bills tend to be very accurate, they are much harder to fake or modify, and that makes them a more professional way of handling bills in general.
- It also gives a more professional image to the landlord. Most landlords these days want to streamline the way they get paid and how they manage any utility bills. And yes, using digital looks like a utility bill creator will surely improve their image, overall.
- Additionally, you want to think about other benefits, like improved record-keeping. It’s just a lot easier to keep records in a single place, not to mention you can access any info in the case of disputes or audits, among other situations.
- Going digital is eco-friendly, and it helps protect the environment. You don’t need to worry about continually damaging the environment.
- Paying digitally is easy, and you have a multitude of options here. These include bank transfers, credit cards, mobile wallets and so on. Plus, sometimes you might not be able to physically meet with the tenant. In those cases, digital payments become a much better solution, and the preferred way of dealing with this situation.
- It’s also important to keep in mind that digital bills offer transparency for tenants. They can see the usage, charges, applicable taxes and that alone can prove to be a stellar approach when it comes to dealing with any digital utility bills.
- Lastly, you get to save time. When you have access to digital records, you can check them out instantly, and there is no need to physically search for them. It’s a much better solution to just keep everything digitally, and the immediate access helps make the process more cohesive.
Features that landlords should use when it comes to digital billing
Every utility bill maker will have its own feature set, depending on the situation. But for the most part, you always want to focus on finding comprehensive, professional and cohesive tools that are excellent to use and adaptable to your own use case. That includes automated bill splitting, recurring bill creation, data security and cloud access.
Of course, those are only some of the features necessary, depending on the use case, requirements might change. But for the most part, people are looking for those features, along with automated reminders, reporting tools, custom templates and so on. Create a list of those features that you need from the utility bill maker, and then narrow down what tool offers those features. In the end, it’s going to streamline the process and make it better.
Pricing models vary for utility bill creators
When you want to use any utility bill generator, you do want to see what kind of pricing model they are focused on. For a landlord, you don’t really need to use too many times a month, depending on the amount of tenants you have. But it does make a lot of sense to figure out the payment systems used by such a tool.
A very common option for them is to go for a free version that requires payment if you need a specific, extra feature. Another option is to have tiered packages with different feature sets, so you can choose the package that fits your needs and requirements. Of course, there’s also the option to pay for every bill you generate, or to opt for a subscription-based system.
What can we expect in the future from these tools? It depends, but we see things like AI-powered billing and IoT integration to slowly become more prevalent within this niche. Mobile first billing also seems to be something we’ll see more of in the near future, and even more sustainability features. The blockchain can also play a major role in verification, since it can ensure that bills are transparent and tamper-proof.
Takeaways
It’s always going to be difficult for a landlord to manage bills, but there are tools that can streamline the process. That’s why we think it’s incredibly important for any landlord to use a utility bill generator. It can help you save time, money, while ensuring you get an excellent return. Plus, a good utility bill maker will allow you to use the latest technologies, keep a copy of the bills and also make it easier to find any bill whenever you need it. Moving to digital tenant management is going to take a while, but it’s the right decision for any landlord!
