Start with the operating numbers you already know
Budgeting gets clearer when it is based on actual users, offices, properties, and the work those people do. Count what exists before estimating tools or projects.
- Number of employees, seasonal staff, and contractors who need accounts or devices.
- Number of corporate offices, leasing offices, and other supported locations.
- Current workstations, laptops, phones, printers, scanners, and network equipment.
- Known Microsoft 365, security, backup, internet, and software subscriptions already in place.
Separate labor, recurring tools, and project work
ArcTechOne property management IT support starts at $150 per hour. Labor should stay visible and separate from the recurring third-party costs and one-time projects that can sit next to it.
- Outsourced or co-managed support labor for helpdesk, administration, and planned work.
- Internal IT capacity, if the company already has an IT manager or technical employee.
- Recurring Microsoft 365, cybersecurity, backup, monitoring, internet, and software costs.
- Projects such as acquisitions, new leasing offices, office moves, hardware refreshes, and migrations.
Plan for growth and turnover you can already see
Property management budgets change when the company hires, loses people, adds properties, or opens a location on a known date. Put those events in the operating or project lines. Do not hide them inside leftover tool money.
- User growth, seasonal leasing staff, and the onboarding or offboarding work that follows.
- New properties, management transitions, and extra locations that need internet, devices, and accounts.
- Hardware lifecycle replacements and the printers, scanners, or workstations a leasing office needs.
- Microsoft 365, security, and backup licensing that will change when headcount or locations change.
Build a named IT contingency line
Contingency is a reserve for work you cannot schedule yet. It is not a project with a date, and it is not leftover cash after licenses. Size it from the events that would stop leasing, accounting, or a property handoff, using the known labor rate and likely third-party costs.
- Keep contingency as its own line. Do not bury it in Microsoft 365, backup, or hardware totals.
- Fund it from operational interruptions: leasing-office internet failure, a down printer during traffic, a compromised mailbox, after-hours offboarding, or an inherited property with no documentation.
- Estimate labor hours at the starting rate of $150 per hour, then add the likely vendor, ISP, license, or replacement-equipment cost for each event. Do not use a percentage of revenue.
- Put known acquisitions, office openings, and migrations in the project line. Contingency is only for work that does not yet have a date and a scope.
- Split a labor reserve from an equipment and vendor reserve so a replacement workstation cannot wipe out incident-response hours.
- When you spend it, record the event, the hours, and the third-party cost, then reforecast. Unused reserve is an accounting decision; the IT plan should still be reviewed against what actually happened.
Questions to ask
What is ArcTechOne's starting labor rate?+
Property management IT support starts at $150 per hour. Recurring third-party tools, licensing, cloud services, monitoring, backup, security, and hardware are identified separately when they apply.
Should we budget a percentage of revenue for IT?+
This guide does not use industry-average spend percentages. Build the budget from users, locations, devices, subscriptions, projects, internal capacity, and a realistic contingency instead.
What usually gets missed in a property management IT budget?+
Common gaps include employee turnover work, new-property setup, printer and leasing-office equipment, Microsoft 365 licensing changes, backup tools, and the vendor costs that sit outside support labor.
How should we size an IT contingency?+
List the events that would stop leasing, accounting, or a property handoff. Estimate labor hours at $150 per hour and the likely vendor or hardware cost for each event. Keep that total as a named reserve. Do not use a percentage of company revenue.
What belongs in contingency versus a project?+
If the work already has a date and a scope, such as a known acquisition or a new leasing office, budget it as a project. Contingency is for urgent work you cannot schedule yet: undocumented inherited environments, security incidents, and equipment or internet failures.
