8 Ways to Prepare for Budgeting Season

Like baseball has spring training and football has training camp, budgeting has its own preseason. It’s the time before the crunch that property managers and administrators prepare for planning the next year’s budget. Or at least they should be. Never mind the two-a-days, budgeting preparation shouldn’t be that exhausting. But advance preparation should be spent getting ready for the unceremonious plugging of the numbers that establish a game plan for apartments of all scales and sizes. Spreadsheets and accounts should be honed, data import and export refined and reporting dissemination fine-tuned. Getting ahead before budgeting season hits Budgeters can get a jump on the season by asking a few questions before the first number is slotted. For starters, talk with operators and asset managers to discuss changes to the budget process. Also, define due and review dates, and decide who needs to be involved in the process. And, notify managers to start gathering important data prior to budget time. “It’s extremely important to gather information and data that will be crucial to the budgeting process,” says Christine Bright, Vice President of Operations at RealPage, Inc. “Think of it like establishing a game plan, working with key players in the organization to execute how the property will tackle the coming year. You can’t just put everybody out on the field, with no direction, and expect them to reach the end goal.” Bright, who has 23 years of property management experience, offered her thoughts on how to prepare for budget season and what preparers need to update within web-based property management accounting systems before getting started. She has worked in the apartment industry as a property manager, regional manager, district manager, asset manager and national education director for large multifamily companies. Here are eight areas Bright offers that budget preparers need to address during the...