Trusted experts in business rates

A Fresh Perspective  When I joined the property technology sector just over a year ago, I did so as an outsider, that perspective has proved invaluable. Without pre-conceptions shaping my perspective, I  observed the industry through a different lens, asking questions that perhaps others were no longer asking. For that reason, I have deliberately waited before sharing my reflections as CEO of Inform Services.  What stood out most was not the complexity of estate management. Complexity is inevitable in a sector responsible for managing diverse property portfolios. What surprised me was something else entirely. Despite the significant advances the sector has made, many of the processes supporting estate management remain fragmented.  That observation shouldn't be interpreted as a criticism of the software available today. Quite the opposite. Across the market there are excellent products available, each designed to solve specific challenges, and many do so exceptionally well.  The question, however, is no longer whether individual products are capable. It is whether they collectively reflect the way organisations actually work, supporting their workflow.  That distinction has shaped much of our thinking over the past year. Rather than asking where another feature could be added or another product introduced, we have spent our time trying...

For many organisations, managing property and business rates information involves working across multiple, documents and datasets throughout the day. In itself, that’s not unusual. Different responsibilities often require different tools, particularly when managing large and complex estates.  The challenge is not necessarily the number of systems involved, but the amount of manual effort required to bring information together, validate it and build a complete picture before meaningful work can begin.    Complexity isn't the problem  Managing commercial property has always involved complexity. Portfolios evolve, leases change, valuations are updated and business rates legislation continues to develop, and that complexity is unlikely to disappear.  What deserves greater attention is how organisations manage this complexity.  Many of the frustrations experienced by estates and rating professionals are not created by the work itself. They arise from the time spent locating information, validating records and moving between different processes before meaningful work can begin.  Over time, these activities become embedded into everyday working practices and are often accepted as apart of the job.    The cost of bringing information together  Individually, opening another spreadsheet or checking another system might only take a few moments. However across an organisation, those moments accumulate.  Time is spent confirming which version of a document is current, locating historical information, manually updating records or moving between systems to build a complete picture of a portfolio.  None of these activities directly...

For many organisations, property information is spread across multiple systems, spreadsheets, emails and historic records. While this often develops gradually over time, fragmented records can create unnecessary uncertainty when managing business rates responsibilities. As rating obligations continue to evolve, having clear and consistent property data is becoming increasingly important. Why fragmentation happens Property data is often managed by different teams for different purposes. Finance, estates, surveying and operational teams may all hold separate records relating to the same property portfolio. Over time, updates to layouts, occupation, tenancy details or property use may be recorded inconsistently or stored in different locations. This can make it difficult to maintain a complete and reliable view of the information linked to each property. The operational impact Where records are fragmented, even routine reviews can become more time consuming. Teams may need to cross reference multiple systems to confirm property details, historic changes or supporting evidence. This can create uncertainty around: property history valuation assumptions relief application occupation status historic billing positions The challenge is not always that information is missing, but that it is...

Despite significant advances in technology, spreadsheets remain one of the most widely used tools in commercial property management. For many organisations, they continue to perform an important role. They are familiar, flexible and relatively easy to build. However, as portfolios become larger, reporting requirements increase and property data becomes more business critical, an important question is beginning to emerge: Is commercial property management outgrowing spreadsheets?   When a quick solution becomes a critical process Spreadsheets often begin with good intentions. A team needs to track information, monitor activity or report on a specific area of the portfolio, and a spreadsheet provides a fast solution. Over time, however, that spreadsheet evolves. Additional columns are added, new versions are created and more people become involved in maintaining it. Before long what started as a temporary solution becomes a critical source of information. As portfolios grow, so does the complexity of managing that information consistently.   The challenge isn't collecting data Most organisations are not short of property data. They hold information relating to hereditaments, valuations, leases, occupation, acquisitions, disposals and much more....

Business rates can involve several different areas of expertise, particularly for organisations managing large or complex property portfolios. Inform’s historic business rates reviews focus specifically on whether liabilities were calculated correctly based on the information and legislation in place at the time. Because of this, historic review and recovery work often sits alongside the work carried out by accountants, finance teams and rating agents, supporting a different area of the business rates process. What does a historic business rates review involve? Historic reviews focus on reviewing billing records, property information, relief application and supporting evidence to confirm whether charges were calculated correctly. This may include reviewing: historic billing adjustments occupation history property details relief application supporting valuation information The purpose of the review is to identify whether historic liabilities align with the information and legislation in place at the time. How this differs from rating agents and surveyors Rating agents and surveyors typically focus on valuation matters, including reviewing rateable values and managing Check, Challenge and Appeal processes where appropriate. Inform’s historic business rates reviews focus on billing accuracy and...