Real Estate Accounting Services for Australian Property Management Agencies
A small backlog in trust accounting can quietly create compliance risk. Our real estate accounting services give Australian agencies a trained virtual assistant. They carry your daily receipting, your reconciling and your end of month work. What they do not carry is your bank logins or your trust account authority. That line is deliberate. The work leaves your desk, and the authority over money stays with you.
Our Real Estate Accounting Services
Trust Accounting With Authority Intact
Your assistant handles daily receipting, trust account reconciliation, direct debit runs, dishonour fees and bond records. They work from the bank files you send, never your bank logins. At end of month we prepare the ABA file, and you upload it to the bank yourself. The same split covers bills, invoices and BPAY. Your assistant sets up the payment, and you release it. In New South Wales, only the licensee in charge may sign off a trust account withdrawal. Under the NSW trust account rules, that power cannot be handed on. Your assistant does the work that eats the hours. You keep the authority that carries the risk.
Compliance and Audit Preparation
End of month is where a year of small slips shows up at once. Your assistant works through the trust reconciling, owner statements, payouts and reporting pack. They follow the same set order every month, so the audit trail is built as you go, not pieced back together under pressure. Deadlines vary by state. In Queensland, a principal agent must check the cash book against the trust ledgers and bank statement. The Agents Financial Administration Regulation 2014 allows five business days after the end of each month. Your assistant also keeps the fee records and trial balance reviews your auditor may ask for.
Streamlined Invoice and Bill Processing
Repair bills, water charges, smoke alarm checks, insurance and body corporate fees arrive all week. Each one needs the right code before anyone can be charged or paid. Your assistant codes them, keeps your creditor records and sets up the payment run for you to approve. Tenant invoices and utility claims follow the same path, which helps keep cost recovery on track. In our own work, giving one person the task every day can cut invoice backlogs. It is no longer squeezed in around ten other jobs. One New Zealand agency saw invoices move faster once three assistants owned the work, as their invoice processing case study sets out. Our real estate bookkeeping services cover the wider books and payroll scope.
Commercial Financial Management
Commercial work carries a money workload that homes do not. Outgoings, expense recovery across shared sites, CPI rises and market rent reviews each run on their own clock. All of them fail quietly when nobody owns the dates. A missed review date is not an error you spot in a bank check. What follows depends on the lease and the notice steps it sets. It can delay a rent rise, or leave an increase unbilled. Your assistant tracks the dates, works out the figures and drafts the notices for you. On the sales side, they give admin support for deposit records, settlement statements and fee invoices. Every approval, and every move of money, stays with your own authorised team. For the wider picture, see our commercial property management support.
Real Estate Accounting Services FAQs
How Quickly Can a Virtual Assistant Learn Our Trust Accounting Procedures?
In our experience, an assistant trained in property management starts work in your trust system within five to seven business days. They arrive with more than 200 hours of our own training. It covers Australian trust accounting rules, so the basics are in place. Your Australian consultant then writes up your own steps with your team. Your assistant learns those steps, not a set template. Most agencies find their assistant handles routine receipting and reconciling within two weeks. By then it needs no daily oversight. Your licensee still signs off anything that moves money.
Which Property Management Software Systems Do Your VAs Work With?
Your assistant learns your platform, not a stand-in for it. We work daily in PropertyMe, Property Tree and Reapit PM, formerly Console Cloud. We also work in MRI Rest Professional, MRI Palace and Rex Cirrus8. Training on your software happens during set up. So your assistant learns the compliance tools in your system, not just the data entry screens. We work in Xero and MYOB too, where you use them for your own books rather than trust money. Still weighing platforms? Our guide to real estate trust accounting software works through the options.
Can a VA Handle Complex End-of-Month Procedures?
Yes, and it is one of the most common jobs our accounting assistants take on. They follow a set order for trust reconciling, owner statements, payouts and reporting. Your licensee approves anything that moves money. Teresa is an operations manager at a Brisbane agency. Her team moved receipting across, and she told us what changed: “For the first time in seven years, one of our directors has been able to take holidays because we have very competent virtual assistants handling all the receipting.” Read the Brisbane receipting case study. Your assistant works Australian hours, so end of month tasks land when your team needs them.
What Affects the Cost of Outsourcing Accounting Functions?
Three things move the number. The first is scope. Receipting and reconciling alone cost less than a full end of month and creditor role. The second is your rent roll, because volume drives the hours. The third is how much of this work sits with senior staff today. That is where the real saving shows up. A fair sum also counts the full cost of a local hire, not wages alone. That means payroll tax, super, workers’ compensation, hiring and training. What the change is worth to you is often about steadiness rather than headline cost, which we can work through with you in a strategy session.
What Happens if Our Regular Accounting VA Is Sick or on Leave?
Our Zero Downtime Commitment means a trained backup assistant steps in. Backups work only from the PC unit assigned to your account, so your data stays on that controlled machine. They get a handover briefing and access to your written steps. The point is that receipting, reconciling and reporting keep running to your agreed dates. That cover matters most in the weeks your main assistant is away and your compliance dates do not move.
How Do You Ensure Compliance With State Trust Accounting Regulations?
Trust accounting is governed state by state, not across the country. New South Wales works under the Property and Stock Agents Act 2002, through NSW Fair Trading. Queensland works under the Agents Financial Administration Act 2014, through the Office of Fair Trading. Other states and territories have their own laws and their own regulators. The rules are not the same. Your assistant is trained on the rules that apply to you when they start. Our Australian team tracks changes in the states our clients work in. Where a rule is genuinely unclear, we go to your licensee rather than guess.
What Financial Tasks Should We Keep In-House Versus Outsourcing?
Your assistant can handle data entry, receipting, bank and trust reconciling, reports and compliance record checks. Four things stay with you. Trust account approval stays with the person authorised under your state or territory rules. Bank logins stay with you. You control your assistant’s passwords and email. BAS work stays under your registered agent. A BAS service must be given by a registered tax or BAS agent, or done under the direct supervision and control of one. Our assistants do the books under that agent’s instruction. That means coding, data entry and bank reconciling. The agent works out the figures and lodges them. Your trust audit stays with an auditor who meets your state or territory rules on skill and independence.
How Do You Protect Sensitive Financial Data?
Every assistant gets a PC unit of their own with a unique IP address. That unit stays with them from training through to the secure office they work in. Our offices run CCTV, download restrictions, two factor authentication, password protection, firewalls and malware protection. You hold the passwords and email of your own assistant. So access is visible to you, and you can pull it at any time. Our article on how we protect your data covers each control, and how they apply to backups. We are happy to sign extra confidentiality terms and work through your own security needs before you commit.
Testimonials: What Our Clients Are Saying
“Our agency have been using PMVA for quite a few years now and find exceptional service from the team. Always happy to make adjustments, ensure the VA’s are on track, errors are corrected and procedures are in place for extended training”.
— Jacqui Kerin
“PMVA was the perfect fit to support our business. They have made our jobs so much easier and more efficient and allowed us to build better relationships with our agents and their clients. We couldn’t recommend the entire PMVA team highly enough. They are organised, professional, reliable, and supportive”.
— Georgia Parry
“PMVA operates with remarkable efficiency. From property oversight, document management, to marketing support, they consistently provide work of exceptional quality. For those in search of dependable and proficient assistance within the real estate realm, I would recommend the services of PMVA”.
— Cathay Caven
Client Success Stories
How we are delivering everyday consistency through outsourcing
How I’m Delivering Exceptional Service
How I’ve Streamlined My Business Processes
Premium Outsourcing Solutions for Property Management Agencies
Zero Downtime Commitment
We provide an experienced backup service should your dedicated real estate Virtual Assistant require any time off.
Benchmarked Processes
We elevate your systems and processes by benchmarking them against industry leaders.
No Turnover Costs
We safeguard your business against the high cost of turnover with inclusive recruitment, training and replacement services.
Fast Implementation
Our expert consultants will guide your team through the entire implementation, without the usual roadblocks associated with outsourcing.
Get Started With Real Estate Accounting Support
A dedicated Virtual Assistant in your real estate business can open the door to various new opportunities. Learn how to grow beyond your current limits by booking a private consultation with our CEO, Tiffany Bowtell.
Australia’s most trusted premium outsourcing provider
