What You Actually Store
A property system holds tenant and owner ID numbers, deed numbers, bank accounts, contract amounts, and personal documents. If leaked, this causes real harm to people who trusted you with it.
Four Questions Before Choosing
- Permissions: Can I control what each employee sees? A rent collector does not need owner bank details.
- Audit log: Does it record who changed what and when? When a number is disputed, this log settles it.
- Backups: How often, stored where, and has restoration actually been tested?
- Export rights: If I leave, can I extract all my data in a usable format?
The Fourth Question Matters Most
Export rights protect you from lock-in. Ask directly: in what format can I export all my data? An acceptable answer is an open standard format covering properties, units, contracts, payments, and documents — not a printed report.
Permissions: The Most Neglected
The common small-office mistake is everyone sharing one account or holding full permissions. This creates two problems: potential exposure of sensitive data, and inability to trace who made a change when an error appears.
Untested Backups
A backup never restored is not a backup, it is an assumption. Ask about restoration policy, retention period, and how long recovery takes.
Your Own Responsibility
- Never share accounts — give each employee their own
- Revoke access the day an employee leaves
- Enable two-factor authentication where available
- Review active users periodically
- Never send ID documents through insecure channels
The second point is most neglected — a former employee's account left active for months is the most common gap in small offices.