Need Accounting Software To Manage Condo In Pattaya

[jm49er1]

i am one of the directors for a 400+ unit condo here in Pattaya. The condo is currently using a legacy system for all of its accounting which is sadly deficient. I am looking for a software system that will do everything necessary to manage the units as well as producing balance sheets and income statements. Would appreciate any recommondations you might have. thanks

[Darrel]

You should be able to do all that with OpenOffice which is free.

[jm49er1]

You should be able to do all that with OpenOffice which is free.

This may work however it would take a great deal of work to configure before it would be workable. The computer skills of the staff are poor and altho my background was in the software area before i retired i cannot dedicate much time to setting the system up. I am looking for more of an "out of the box" system that is currently being used in Pattaya or Bangkok that has a few bells and whistles, Thanks for your help!!

[whybother]

How much are you prepared to pay for it?

[simple1]

How much are you prepared to pay for it?

To state the obvious investment would be dictated by the ROI for the application; time saved, reporting capabilities etc If the OP has the time document your requirements and then shortlist say 3 apps vendors for evaluation. Naturally vendor support and maintenance should be included by way of selection criteria. Perhaps a good place to start would be to contact some local condo managemet companies for their input. If you have 400 condos under management will be worth the effort

[Darrel]

This may work however it would take a great deal of work to configure before it would be workable. The computer skills of the staff are poor and altho my background was in the software area before i retired i cannot dedicate much time to setting the system up.

It certainly would work.

If they are already using MS Office then I'm sure that you could find some pre-written free XL spreadsheets with macros that will do what you need, if you prefer not to DIY. Someone somewhere will probably have done something suitable in Access also. These would have the advantage of being easy to modify as they are not compiled and probably wont have passwords.

There are also lots of stand-alone compiled property management programmes for sale on the web and also some available for free. A few years ago I installed a hotel/restaurant management package for a client which was written for a programmer's university degree and subsequently made available for free. It worked very well and the hotel is still using it.

Does it need to be in both Thai and English?

[simple1]

This may work however it would take a great deal of work to configure before it would be workable. The computer skills of the staff are poor and altho my background was in the software area before i retired i cannot dedicate much time to setting the system up.

It certainly would work.

If they are already using MS Office then I'm sure that you could find some pre-written free XL spreadsheets with macros that will do what you need, if you prefer not to DIY. Someone somewhere will probably have done something suitable in Access also. These would have the advantage of being easy to modify as they are not compiled and probably wont have passwords.

There are also lots of stand-alone compiled property management programmes for sale on the web and also some available for free. A few years ago I installed a hotel/restaurant management package for a client which was written for a programmer's university degree and subsequently made available for free. It worked very well and the hotel is still using it.

Does it need to be in both Thai and English?

Another reasonable approach. Darrell can you advise the OP of any issues should Thai law change that would require update/s to the application or is this being overly cautious?

[ballbreaker]

Check out this website: http://property-management.softwareadvice.com/apartment-management-software-comparison/

[Darrel]

can you advise the OP of any issues should Thai law change that would require update/s to the application or is this being overly cautious?

Cant think of anything that would affect the functionality of such software apart from perhaps a change in the VAT rate. Most well-designed software would allow you to change this manually anyway.

Anything more complex like tax and social security payments would probably be better handled by specific salary/accounting software anyway, with just the bottom line labour costs copied across to the condo management software.

[jm49er1]

How much are you prepared to pay for it?

To state the obvious investment would be dictated by the ROI for the application; time saved, reporting capabilities etc If the OP has the time document your requirements and then shortlist say 3 apps vendors for evaluation. Naturally vendor support and maintenance should be included by way of selection criteria. Perhaps a good place to start would be to contact some local condo managemet companies for their input. If you have 400 condos under management will be worth the effort

this is exactly the approach i plan to take - the amount i am prepared to pay is unknown at the moment as ROI will dictate that - my initial feeling is that we can reduce two staff with the proper software - needs to be in thai but would be nice to have reports available in english as well - late payers; profit/loss: balance sheet etc as there is a fair number of non thai speaking owners

todays software is so poor that i cannot even get it to charge interest properly on deliquent owners - that feature alone would bring in another 10,000 baht per month - if there are any directors reading this message and you have software to recommend please pm me

[jbaldwin]

I think that there is no reason to look at specialist condo software. Globally there are two small business software packages - Quickbooks and Sage. I suggest you consider one of these.

We have two condominiums each with about 150 units and a Village with about 40 houses managed from a single office. We use Quickbooks - I think the licence cost around 15,000 baht. We have one member of accounting staff. However, each of the committees has a member with accounting knowledge who carries out a final review of the monthly accounts.

Please PM if you would like more details.

[Darrel]

I think that there is no reason to look at specialist condo software. Globally there are two small business software packages - Quickbooks and Sage. I suggest you consider one of these.

Intuit (Quicken) do a property management package at about USD110 that would probably do the trick also. Dont know if it is in Thai though.

[jm49er1]

I think that there is no reason to look at specialist condo software. Globally there are two small business software packages - Quickbooks and Sage. I suggest you consider one of these.

We have two condominiums each with about 150 units and a Village with about 40 houses managed from a single office. We use Quickbooks - I think the licence cost around 15,000 baht. We have one member of accounting staff. However, each of the committees has a member with accounting knowledge who carries out a final review of the monthly accounts.

Please PM if you would like more details.

will pm you - would like to take a look at the system you are using - thanks

[aegdawson]

If you are still looking for condo software we have online software specifically designed for use in Thai juristic condos which we are implementing at Siam Penthouse Condominium 1 in Bangkok. It automatically calculates late payment surcharges at two rates 1-6 months, I generates monthly invoices, payment receipts, payment vouchers, tracks all money movements into and out of bank accounts, petty cash, on and on and on... plethora of reporting functions all in Thai and English.

Rgds,

Tony