Anyone involved in housing, from private landlords to commercial premises managers, needs documentation of some kind or other. The sector relies on forms for tenancy inspections, property maintenance checklists, tenancy agreements and other legal documents. Whether it is for sales or lettings, form filling in is something that anyone involved in real estate and property management has to complete. And yet, you don't need to use paper to get all of the paperwork completed on time. In fact, digitising all of your housing forms will make your entire operation run a great deal more smoothly.
Completing a form that has been adapted from your old ones or that has been 'borrowed' from elsewhere on the internet may be a common practice but it is inefficient. On the other hand, a mobile form which can link to your client database and have the remaining sections completed when you are on site is much more convenient. For example, you could show a prospective tenant around an apartment only for them to decide they'd like to rent it. From your mobile device, you can call up the necessary form – in this case, a tenancy agreement – and fill in the client's details from your digital records. All that is needed is to complete the remaining sections of the form with the relevant details and to have the client sign the agreement. All of this can be completed on your smartphone or tablet and then, crucially, sent straight back to your office without any delays in getting the original posted in or scanned.
Digitising all the forms your organisation currently uses is certainly possible. Once the structures of your forms have been mapped, you can then integrate them into your housing management software or client database. SQL queries can be completed in moments so that up-to-date records are included in the relevant form when it is called up in the field. The degree of synchronisation you want your form to have with your database reflects its operational speed, of course. Therefore, such an approach should only include the most relevant data that is actually required for the form being filled out.
A digitised housing form workflow solution offers a great number of advantages including:
- The selection of the right residential unit and the correct assignment of the tenure type.
- A significantly lower amount of time spent on documentation thanks to auto-filled sections.
- No additional processing required by head office staff.
- The possibility to insert one-off text for special cases.
- Full inventories of furnished residential units.
- The possibility to integrate images taken of the property.
- Digital signing of contracts by both parties is possible.
- Finished reports are sent directly to your office.
- Staff can receive forms in a PDF format by email.
- Centrally filed digital reports arrive instantly.
No matter which part of housing you work in, why not call us to discuss the digitisation of your organisation's paper documentation and see how efficiently you will operate as a result?
Mobile forms, Housing and maintenance checklists
Any business which has staff members working out in the field – and most housing companies, landlords and letting agents do, of course – will find that mobile forms that integrate with their back-office systems quickly become a reliable and professional work tool that is soon indispensable.
