Managing Real Estate Clearance Tracker

Real Estate Industry is known to be one of the unorganized sector wherein a lot of statutory clearances, sanctions and approvals are required from various authorities to start the construction. Naming a few like, building plan sanction, fire NOC, PCB clearance, clearance from the Airport Authority, etc.

Every single clearance has a different validity period and a builder needs to approach various different authorities for the renewal or regularization of all such clearances, whenever required.

In the time where people forget birthdays or anniversaries of their loved ones - is it really possible to remember the validity period of all the clearances, sanctions and approvals having multiple expiry dates? I believe the answer is NO. Then what’s the solution?

So, the solution is to either install a software which pop-ups / highlights the due date of the nearby expiry OR to manage an efficient tracker in MS Excel which indicates the due date and alarms the nearby expiry of various statutory clearances.

We know that the installation of a new software is a costly affair. Hence, it's better to start off with MS excel at no cost and with a user friendly experience.

Clearance tracker has to be divided into two parts i.e. Pre and Post Clearances for better tracking and decision making. Extract of the clearance tracker template is shown below for your reference.

Now, apply conditional formatting with a color coding in MS Excel on Due / (overdue) column after applying todays formula to automatically highlight the nearby expiry or expired clearances.

The above tracker cannot be a permanent solution but will surely act as a relief in a current scenario where no proper format is followed to track the due dates of the clearances.

Usually, it becomes difficult for the liaisoning team to move with urgent haste in various statutory departments for the extension, renewal or regularising various clearances. Needless to mention that the delay in regularization could impact a company's performance.
Tracker has always been a game changer in terms of monitoring a project in real estate industry. However, there are only few organisations who maintains a proper tracker to keep a track on the expiry of all the statutory clearances and are able to avoid last minute rush in regularising the same.

Looking at the above concerns, its indeed a high time to maintain a tracker to avoid last minute surprises.

I hope this article will help to develop a tracker of various statutory clearances required for construction.

Please give your valuable feedback in the comments below.

Decoding CRM Report

Being in the Real estate industry for the past few years, I have often experienced that during the month end, the CRM (Customer Relationship Management) team will be under tremendous pressure to achieve their target collections and submit their reports to the upper management. 

Gradually, when I started analysing and decoding the reasons of the stress faced by the CRM team every month, I found some interesting facts which are rarely scrutinized by the upper management other than few companies or are barely looked into these facts to take necessary steps instead only pressurizing the team on achieving their monthly targets. Undoubtedly, best results are performed under pressure but we also need to look into the critical bottleneck areas to improve the overall performance and support the team.

Many companies follow a standard format of monthly reporting of CRM reports either in excel or through a software.

After spending a lot of time with the CRM team and the upper management, I found a gap in understanding the analytics of the report.

Analysis has always been a vital part in understanding the bottle necks and finding a solution accordingly. However, there are only few companies who analyse the reports and find the critical areas to take the necessary action. Basically, they are the ones who hit the bull’s eye.

Firstly, let me tell you on how to break the stone and understand the various bottlenecks i.e., break the total outstanding into two parts – collectable and uncollectable outstanding.

Now, you must be thinking what is uncollectable outstanding?

Uncollectable outstanding is the outstanding from customers pending due to various reasons which are beyond the control of the CRM team directly i.e., these amounts cannot be collected if those various issues are not resolved, like clarification requested by a customer on GST calculation which may be beyond the understanding of the CRM team and the same is pending with the accounts team, unresolved snags raised by the customers which may be pending with the projects team, disbursement from customers banker which may be pending with the finance team who will arrange an NOC from the lender of the project to whom the unit has been hypothecated, etc.

In the above cases, the CRM team can merely play a role to follow up with the individual departments to resolve the queries at the earliest instead resolving themselves because these issues are beyond their control.

Secondly, once you are through with the segregation of collectable and uncollectable outstanding, the HODs or the upper management should now analyse the turnaround time taken by the individual departments to close the queries raised by the CRM team.

Thirdly, after giving an opportunity of being heard to all the departments concerned including CRM team, a company should formalize an SOP for a standard turnaround time for all the departments concerned to the queries raised by the CRM team so the CRM can effectively communicate a due date to a customer which brings transparency and confidence in the mind of the customer.

Finally, decoding the outstanding numbers into various categories and analysing the bottleneck areas will help the organisation in understanding the actual reasons of delay in collection and will have a better insight to take the necessary action accordingly.

Total Outstanding - Uncollectable Outstanding = Collectable Outstanding

Uncollectable Outstanding = outstanding beyond the control of CRM

I hope this article will be helpful in decoding and analysing the CRM reports.

Please give your valuable feedback in the comments below.