Housing society MC/RWA members shoulder the added responsibility of handling the society’s finances, over and above the daily operational tasks.
It makes sense to use modern software and tools over manual bookkeeping to ease the lack of time and resources.
But with the availability of myriad accounting tools, there is a need to pick the right technology to simplify accounting for your housing society.
Let’s chalk out the essential financial activities of society RWA.
- Daily cash book entries
- Maintenance invoice generation month on month
- Track credit, debit and arrears from member payments
- Manage fixed deposits and banking transactions
- GST calculations for vendor billing and other financial transactions
- Calculating penalties for defaulters
And these are just some examples…
How to use the right tools for managing finances
- Stop using disparate accounting tools
Usually, RWA Secretary or Treasurer would maintain a digital accounting sheet (like Microsoft Excel) to track and crunch the numbers. While this is by no means a wrong tool, it still requires manual work like creating a formula for each task and adding figures, reconfiguring formula, creating a different sheet for each category of billing, etc.
Another accounting tool is Tally for end to end accounting, which is also great. However, these are general accounting tools that are not specifically designed for the needs of a housing society. They are off the shelf software designed for mass markets.
You’d have to take the trouble of shifting gears from one tool to another which is quite frankly tiresome.
- Integrate different forms of payments
The days of cash and cheque payments are over, more so after the onslaught of the Covid pandemic.
But still, if the residents are paying through NetBanking, digital wallets, mobile banking, the RWA might struggle to consolidate the payment details, late payments, defaulters information, etc. by sifting through every payment and end up wasting time in disorganised efforts.
- Streamline vendor, utilities and staff payments
RWA needs to make payments for the following on a regular basis:
Common light bills
Water tanker providers
Security guards and maintenance staff
Facilities/amenities manager
Composting unit operators
Annual Maintenance Contractors
Lift operators… etc.
It’s not feasible to maintain invoices and payments in paper format as it leads to piles of registers and search becomes a trouble.
- Prepare in advance for the Annual General Meeting
This is a big one. Come August-September, RWA has to generate annual Profit & Loss statements, along with annual budget for the coming year and reconcile general ledgers. Throughout the year, tax returns have to be filed as well.
What is the simple and elegant solution to all financial management of a housing society?
Invest in a customised tool
It goes without saying that the most effective way to handle the various accounting activities is to use a tool that allows for a complete integration of the aforementioned tasks on one platform. Too many tools spoil the number broth.
An intelligent society accounting software or society ERP app, MyGate can be your best choice.
They let you:
Automate monthly billing
Issue invoices with multiple line items in a single invoice for different flats and towers based on flat rate or consumption rates and send text/email reminders for ensuring timely payments are received from members.
Create a MindMap type of Chart of accounts
RWA can create and manage different account heads with proper hierarchy (which can be titled and configured flexibly) and link them to general ledgers, categories and subcategories with a couple of simple steps.
Generate reports with tailor made templates
Treasurer, Secretary, Admin (who have access to admin dashboard) can create, upload, download a comprehensive suite of reports for download to make accounting simpler, including reports like BS, P&L, GST Report, TDS Report, etc.
Collection reports and defaulters list
RWA/MC can access reports for every flat on all collections sorted by individual bill or group invoices as well as a report on defaulters with overdues, arrears and advance payments details.
Digital daybook, balance sheet, vendor management
Admin doesn’t have to worry about consolidating financial activities throughout the year as society ERP apps can generate as-of date actual balance in Schedule VI and N Format, along with Report on TDS Payable collected from vendors and needed to be paid. Admin can also get reports on GST input and output needed to complete monthly, quarterly or yearly GST filings.
MyGate is a fully equipped and customizable society accounting app that provides 100% data security and personalised in-built accounting suite that makes bookkeeping simple, cloud-based and adaptable to your society’s specific needs. It even allows you to integrate Tally for further accounting analysis while giving you an easy to use interface with quick upload and download options.
In summary, plenty of tools can meet your general accounting needs but only a few can meet the highly specialised needs of a housing society. So choose wisely.
