Industries · Property management
IT for strata and rental property management
A management office runs the money, the records and the buildings for people who never wanted to think about IT. We keep strata and rental property managers across Greater Vancouver and the Fraser Valley working — through AGM season, portfolio handovers and the records request that arrived this morning.
IT priorities
- Multi-factor authentication on email, the portal, banking and remote access
- A written rule that no banking or payment change happens without a call to a known number
- Document storage organized by building, so a records request is a search and not a hunt
- Offboarding that removes email, portal rights and building credentials the same day
- Backups of the management platform and document library, with a restore tested before AGM season
- An owner for the building systems nobody owns: cameras, access control and their networks
Overview
Technology for property management companies
A management company runs more systems than its headcount suggests. There is the management and accounting platform holding every building's ledger, an owner and tenant portal, a document library of minutes, bylaws, budgets, engineering and depreciation reports, and a work-order queue dispatching trades to addresses across the region. Then there are the buildings themselves — access control, cameras, intercoms and network gear that someone assumes IT understands, even when a security contractor installed it years ago and left no documentation.
The money is the unusual part. Strata fees, rent, reserve contributions and supplier payments move through accounts that belong to somebody else. Under BC's Real Estate Services Act a licensed brokerage must maintain interest-bearing trust accounts with savings institutions in British Columbia, must keep proper books, accounts and other records, and must keep those records in British Columbia. That last requirement quietly decides more IT questions than most offices expect: where the accounting data lives, where documents are stored, and which cloud services are appropriate.
We support management offices remotely first, which matters when a manager is standing in a lobby and can't get into the portal an hour before a meeting, and on site across Greater Vancouver and the Fraser Valley when equipment needs hands. The work is unglamorous: sign-ins locked down on email and banking, document storage a records request can actually be answered from, devices that survive being carried between buildings, and backups that have been restored at least once.
Scope
What we look after
What we keep running
- Property management and accounting platforms, and the building ledgers behind them
- Owner and tenant portals, including the accounts staff spend their mornings resetting
- Document libraries of minutes, bylaws, budgets, engineering and depreciation reports
- Work-order and maintenance dispatch, and the trades who have to receive it
- Building systems — access control, cameras, intercoms and the networks they sit on
Microsoft 365 for a management office
- Email with multi-factor authentication on every account, shared ones included
- Shared mailboxes for accounting, maintenance and general enquiries
- Document storage organized by building, not by whoever saved the file
- Retention settings that match the records your brokerage has to keep
- Independent backup of mail and files, proven by restoring something
Security that fits the data
- Protection against mailbox takeover and payment redirection aimed at fees and rent
- Email authentication so notices from your domain are harder to spoof
- Encrypted laptops and phones that leave the office carrying owner and tenant data
- Access that ends the day a manager leaves — email, portal and building credentials
- Storage choices that respect where your records are required to be kept
Pressures
What makes IT different for property management companies
Money that isn't yours
Fees, rent, reserve contributions and supplier payments run through trust accounts a brokerage is required to maintain with savings institutions in British Columbia. Who can approve a payment, and how well their sign-in is protected, is an IT question long before it is an accounting one.
Fees and rent are the target
A compromised mailbox lets someone email owners a new payment address, or change a supplier's banking details mid-project. Both are routine now rather than rare. Sign-in security and a phone-call rule for banking changes do more than any filter.
Records requests run on a clock
The Strata Property Act requires a strata corporation to keep records including minutes, the owner list, books of account, bylaws, financial statements and contracts, and to make them available to owners on request within two weeks — one week for bylaws and rules. Producing them is a storage problem.
AGM season
Packages go out, hybrid meetings have to work from a lobby with unreliable wifi, and votes get counted in front of an audience. It is the one stretch of the year where the document library, the mail merge and the meeting platform all have to behave at once.
Managers move
Staff work between buildings, cars and the office, and portfolios change hands often. Every handover moves a laptop, a phone, a set of portal rights and a set of building credentials — and every one is a chance for access to be left behind.
Personal information, and where it lives
Owner lists, tenancy applications, arrears histories and camera footage are personal information under BC's Personal Information Protection Act, which requires reasonable security. Licensing obligations about where brokerage records are kept narrow the storage question further.
Priorities
Where we start
- Multi-factor authentication on email, the portal, banking and remote access
- A written rule that no banking or payment change happens without a call to a known number
- Document storage organized by building, so a records request is a search and not a hunt
- Offboarding that removes email, portal rights and building credentials the same day
- Backups of the management platform and document library, with a restore tested before AGM season
- An owner for the building systems nobody owns: cameras, access control and their networks
Other sectors
We also support
Every sector is supported across Greater Vancouver and the Fraser Valley.
FAQ
IT for property management companies: questions
Can you support our property management software?
Yes. We support the workstations, servers, permissions, network and backups a management and accounting platform depends on, and we work with the vendor's support when the application itself is the problem. If it is hosted, our part is the sign-in security, the devices and the connection. If it runs on your own server, it is all of it. See managed IT services.
Our records have to stay in British Columbia. Does that rule out cloud?
No, but it decides which cloud. A licensed brokerage has to keep its books, accounts and other records in British Columbia, so the real question is where a given service stores data and whether a Canadian region is available. We map that out service by service with your managing broker before anything moves. See cloud services.
How do we stop fraud aimed at fees and rent?
Layer it. Strong sign-in security so mailboxes aren't taken over, filtering and domain authentication so spoofed notices are caught, alerts when someone creates a forwarding rule, and a standing rule that no payment or banking change is actioned without a phone call to a number you already had. Our cybersecurity checklist covers the technical half.
Do you look after cameras and access control?
We look after the network, power and remote access those systems depend on, and we coordinate with the security vendor who installed them. Access control and camera equipment is often the oldest and least documented gear in a building, so the first job is usually an inventory: what is installed, who can reach it, and whether the default passwords were ever changed. See networks and servers.
Can AI help a management office?
For the paperwork, often. Summarizing minutes, drafting owner correspondence, triaging maintenance email and pulling an answer out of a long engineering report are all reasonable starting points. It should not be pointed at owner and tenant records until you know where that data goes. See AI consulting and our guide to what to automate first.
Services
Services for property management companies
Managed IT Services
Help desk, device and Microsoft 365 management, security and backups — your outsourced IT department under one agreement.
Learn more->Cybersecurity
Security assessments, MFA, endpoint protection, email security, backups and staff training — the controls that stop common attacks.
Learn more->Networks & Servers
Wi-Fi, firewalls, switches, cabling, VPNs and servers — designed, installed, documented and supported.
Learn more->
Guides
Guides for business owners
[Security]
Cybersecurity Checklist for Small Businesses in BC
A cybersecurity checklist for BC small businesses built on the Canadian Centre for Cyber Security’s baseline controls, plus what to do after a breach.
[Security]
Backup and Disaster Recovery for Small Business
Backup, retention and disaster recovery for BC small businesses: the 3-2-1 rule, what cloud suites don’t cover, RPO, RTO and restore testing.
[IT strategy]
Business Network Setup: A Checklist for New Offices
What to plan before you sign a lease: internet, cabling, Wi-Fi, firewall and network segmentation, plus a move-day checklist for a new office.
Get in touch
Talk to us about IT for your property management
Tell us about your business and what you need from technology. We reply within one business day.
Tell us what's going on
Send the form or call. A rough idea of your team size and current setup helps us come prepared.
A 30-minute conversation
We ask about your people, systems and goals, and flag anything urgent we notice along the way.
A written proposal
Clear scope, a plain-English plan and pricing laid out line by line. Nothing starts until you approve it.