How to calculate the cost of contact admin in property management
Keeping tenant, vendor and partner contact details current takes real staff time. Here is a simple formula to put an annual dollar figure on it.
- 2 min read
Every property management team spends time keeping contact details current. Phone numbers change, tenants move out, contractors change roles and emails start bouncing. Because the work arrives in small pieces, it rarely gets measured. This guide shows how to put an annual figure on it.
What counts as contact admin
Contact admin is the routine work of keeping tenant, vendor and partner contact details accurate. It typically includes:
- Updating phone numbers, emails and addresses when people move or change roles
- Confirming emergency and after-hours contacts for each property
- Chasing bounced emails and undelivered SMS
- Keeping vendor and contractor details current
- Adding and removing tenants at every lease change
- Reconciling duplicate records across spreadsheets, inboxes and phones
The formula
Annual cost = number of properties x hours spent per property each period x periods per year x hourly admin rate.
Count the period however your team works: weekly is 52 periods a year, monthly is 12, quarterly is 4 and annually is 1.
| How often | Periods per year |
|---|---|
| Weekly | 52 |
| Monthly | 12 |
| Quarterly | 4 |
| Annually | 1 |
A worked example
A team managing 25 properties spends about 30 minutes per property each month on contact admin. That is 6 hours a year for each property. At an admin rate of $35 an hour:
25 properties x 0.5 hours x 12 months x $35 = $5,250 a year.
That is about 7.6% of a full-time role on a 38-hour week, spent on keeping records current rather than looking after properties.
Getting an hourly rate from a salary
If you know the salary rather than the hourly rate, divide the annual salary by the standard full-time hours in a year: 1,976 hours on a 38-hour week, or 2,080 hours on a 40-hour week.
That figure excludes on-costs such as superannuation or pension contributions, payroll tax, benefits and overheads. For a fully loaded cost, use an hourly rate that already includes them.
How to reduce the time spent
- Keep one shared record per contact instead of copies in spreadsheets, inboxes and phones
- Ask contacts to confirm their own details on a schedule rather than chasing them by hand
- Fix bounced emails and undelivered SMS as they happen, before an urgent message fails
Properlex sends scheduled confirm-your-details messages and records each response, so contact records stay current without the manual follow-up. See how it works.
Frequently asked questions
What is contact admin in property management?
The routine work of keeping tenant, vendor and partner contact details accurate: updating phone numbers and emails, confirming who to call in an emergency, fixing bounced messages and reconciling spreadsheets.
How do I calculate the annual cost of contact admin?
Multiply the number of properties by the hours spent per property each period, the number of periods per year and your hourly admin rate.
Does the estimate include on-costs?
Only if the hourly rate you use includes them. Add superannuation or pension contributions, payroll tax, benefits and overheads to the rate for a fully loaded figure.