There's an oft-repeated phrase heard around the RE Technology offices: "Plan your work and work your plan." It's something our CEO, Victor Lund, says when he's trying to motivate our team to tackle a mountain of work. He's right (as usual)--approaching a to-do list with a plan of attack makes it a) less intimidating, and b) quicker and easier to execute.

When Victor trotted out his favorite adage again recently, it reminded me of a feature we've seen across an increasing number of technology solutions--task management. It's a natural fit for transaction management platforms, but we've seen it in CRMs, too, under names like "Activity Plans," "Tasklists," "Checklists," and more.

It's a feature that enables agents to manage their processes and keep their workflow under control. For example, let's say an agent acquires a new listing. This event would trigger a to-do list that the agent can follow through the entire life of the transaction, effectively preventing important details from slipping through the cracks.

When implemented at the brokerage level, task management features serve a similar purpose. Brokers can use them to keep track of all their agents, monitor cash flow and, above all, maintain consistencies and efficiencies throughout the entire office.

Today, we're going to take a closer look at how brokers can leverage task management to improve how transactions are handled and bolster their bottom line.

Examine Ways to Automate

First, begin by examining opportunities to automate tasks. If your firm is very small, this may not be necessary. The trick is to balance investments in humans versus automation. After all, you don't need a tremendous amount of automation if you're only doing a handful of transactions per year. It's when you begin to juggle transactions that automation via task management becomes worthwhile.

In the midst of a transaction, the players involved are highly focused on the details and not on acquiring new deals, new closings, and new listings. Often what happens is that you need to clear out existing transactions before finding new ones.

The transaction cycle of a firm or team can be erratic--first you're busy prospecting, then managing deals, then prospecting again. When thing are going well and you're handling multiple transactions, it's easy to get bogged down--and hinder future opportunities. Failure to automate transactions can contribute to you missing the market. This is a clue that you need to (yes) plan your work and work your plan. Start by knowing what you're expecting from whom.

Understand Roles

Once you realize that you need a transaction management task list or process, begin constructing it by understanding the roles played in a transaction. Ask who is involved in a transaction? What role do they play, and what triggers their activity? Once you understand that, you can break down activities by the player. Have roles trigger one another. Focus on stages of a transaction where activities are co-dependent on different roles people play.

For example, what triggers an inspection to be ordered? Who triggers the ordering of that inspection? Is there a bidding process? Are those people a party to the transaction? What is the scheduling time for an appraisal? What is the lead time? Once an inspection is completed, how long until you get the inspection report back? Who does the inspection report go to? What happens if the inspection report is bad?

If you haven't completed a step, the next step doesn't happen. If everything is not in order, the transaction doesn't proceed. One of the great benefits of task management is facilitating a quick transaction.

Understand Cash Flow

When you think about roles, a part senior management plays is using transaction management to understand cash flow. Task lists and set processes enable transactions to be completed faster, and there's lots of value in being able to expedite closings--namely the time-to-cash gets lower.

Think of the benefits of task management in terms of managing cash flow. The quicker the time to close, the more time cash sits in your account rather than someone else's, and the more profitable you are. On the other hand, if a transaction closes in four months instead of three, you've missed 30 days of capital in your bank. Obviously, many fixed business costs are monthly--rent, software fees, utilities, etc. The more productivity you're able to pack into every month, the more profitable you will be.

Getting Started

If you're a broker without transaction management processes in place, there is likely a contractor in your area who is or has been a transaction coordinator. Consider hiring them to help build out or tweak your process.

Leveraging technology is the easiest way to manage processes. If you don't have the resources to hire a contractor to help flesh out your processes, most solutions with task management functionality come with pre-built task lists. Use those as your starting point, and then customize as suits your business.

One of the more recent solutions we've reviewed with transaction management features is Realty Commander. They offer task lists that dynamically assign to-do's based of off file dates, and document checklists that can be customized by file type (short sale, traditional, buyer, etc.) and applied with one click.

Touching again on the ideas of understanding roles and efficiency, Commander allows documents to be sent to a number of different people for approval, and brokers can set importance on who is necessary for that approval. Therefore, if one person is too busy to approve a document, it moves to another team member, preventing the transaction from slowing down. To learn more, read our product review.

Remember, the failure of most brokers or teams is a lack of clearly articulated processes. Instead, any "processes" are in the head of one or a few people. If a process not documented, you're effectively reinventing process with each and every transaction, and that will hinder your success.