A Day In The Life Of A Coworking Operator With A PMS

Coworking is increasingly gaining popularity across the globe and is growing at a rapid pace. What keeps a coworking place functioning and running on the track is a coworking operator. In a very traditional sense coworking operators have always had a very rudimentary manner of conducting business on a day-to-day basis. 

Day-to-day operations of a coworking operator-

Morning Routine: A coworking operator needs to come to the facility location well in advance before all the workers come to the premises. They need to ensure that all the HVAC, lights, fans etc are in working condition. After that, they have to make sure that all the hot seats and designated spaces are in a capacity to be used. During this period of time the coworking operator usually schedules visits to the place and tours them around the facility while addressing any queries they have.

With the help of a PMS, we can reduce the time spent on many of these activities. The advantage is unparalleled as it helps in the following manner : 

1. Automate repetitive tasks: A property management software helps us better track the maintenance activity that needs to be done. Taking the example of an HVAC system in a coworking space, having a system that notifies the maintenance team of regular check-ins would be much more effective than the operator calling them and subsequently waiting for the same.
   
   
2. Ticketing: It is not uncommon for tables or chairs among others to be damaged in coworking spaces. Traditionally speaking in such a circumstance, the individual would approach an employee of the coworking space who would escalate the issues accordingly. A PMS software bypasses the need for any of this, a simple photo of the respective item directly gets assigned for someone to be addressed.
   
   
3. Chatbots: When people come for visits to check out locations and various facilities on the premises. More often than not, they will have questions regarding the various facilities. This task alone takes up a very huge chunk of the coworking operator's time. 

Afternoon Routine: During the afternoons, the employees are all in their designated workplaces doing their respective tasks. Oftentimes they need facilities such as wifi, papers, pens and notepads, which the coworking operators do provide. To break the formal setting between the workers in the coworking space, the operator organises events to facilitate a better work environment between them.

A PMS can better help expedite the process of ensuring all the needs of the coworkers are met and also allow for voluntary participation of all the employees in the coworking space.

1. Hosting events: when it comes to social events it depends from individual to individual, some people prefer to keep their professional lives separate from their social life and might choose to opt out of these events, while some may consider it a networking opportunity. A PMS can help notify those coworking professionals about these events and provide them with the opportunity to attend or abstain.  

1. Stock tracking / Inventory management: A PMS helps track all the items that are being used. If there needs to be a replenishment of the stocked items. 

1. Manage workspace contract - At any given time there are a sizable number of working professionals in the workspace. It gets very cumbersome to manually manage these contracts. A PMS digitises the whole process and channels them more efficiently. 

Evening Routine: By 8 pm most of the working professionals would leave the premises. The coworking operator has to now ensure that all the inventory is accounted for. Before winding down the place they have to schedule a meeting addressing the various issues and problems that happened in the day, how it was remedied, and possible trends that could happen in the future. 

A property management software helps streamline the whole process from scheduling the meeting to making decisions using predictive analytics. 

1. Asset registry: all the potential inventory that needs to be within the premises can be accounted for with the help of a PMS. 
2. Notice: with the help of a PMS it notifies all the respective workers about important meetings and schedules them accordingly.
3. dashboard: The PMS gives a general overview of how the coworking property is doing as of now. 

Miscellaneous:  apart from these features, there are a variety of other use cases that could come up which are not as common in the day-to-day working of a coworking operator and overall just help facilitate them. 

1. Automate Invoicing: instead of manually printing receipts and keeping a tally a PMS automates the process and encourages a paperless transaction.

1. Occupancy rate monitoring: With a PMS there is no need to memorise the vacancy of each seat and at what time, since they provide a dashboard regarding the availability. 

1. Track visitors & deliveries: A PMS helps safeguard the premises from people who might want to utilise the facilities without paying for them.
   
   
2. Quick payments: Any good PMS system has a well-defined payment gateway system and helps digitise all the physical payments. 

Popular Coworking PMS Software:

has their very own model which caters to all the needs of their tenants. Ranging from Core, Ops and Circles they have a comprehensive solution and platform that can address any query, and manage the workspace. With its dedicated team of engineers and customer support, you can rest assured that they will be able to provide to your various needs. 

Appfolio: Appfolio is a popular property management software, it brands itself as a fully data-centric company. They believe that coworking operators should focus their efforts on more pressing tasks while allowing their software to handle other requests. Moreover, appfolio brands itself as integration-friendly and being “customer-obsessed”.

Buildium: Buildium has been gaining traction among multiple companies. With the flagship features of lease and tenant tracking, rent collection maintenance management and IoT integration capacity. It makes it a very viable option for many coworking companies to opt for it. 

Conclusion 

Coworking companies are very complex and daunting to most operators. But that shouldn't be the case. In its very essence, a coworking space is an environment where people are allowed to work with one and another. A PMS seeks to simply facilitate that by providing the mall operator a helping hand