Cloudfox builds sophisticated financial controls for the property sector

Learn how Cloudfox helps its property clients construct and manage sophisticated tech stacks for student housing.

Cloudfox provides build-to-rent and purpose built student accommodation companies the software and expertise to run their operational software and accounting functions.

Employees

Xero

Accounting Platform

Real estate

Industry

London, UK

Location

ApprovalMax is our go-to solution for POs, invoice and credit note approvals, and some custom standalone workflows, such as new budgets and change budgets. Every time we show it to a customer they love it – they all take a slightly different approach to which features they use but they’re very happy with the solution and team.

Lee Shaw

CFO and Systems Architect at Cloudfox Group Ltd

In the UK, the vast majority (96%) of students seek out student housing at some point in their academic journey – and demand only keeps growing as student numbers rise. This makes student housing a big business, but also a complex one. From complex CAPEX and OPEX budgets to the individual management of thousands of units, student housing providers need sophisticated systems to stay up-and-running and manage their finance and operations.

That’s where Cloudfox, a firm offering consulting, software selection and setup, outsourced bookkeeping, and system support for property companies, comes in. Founded in 2013, the firm helps real estate businesses set up and maintain the right systems to smoothly run their operations, working primarily with student housing providers, along with other private rental and development companies.

From legacy to the cloud

When Cloudfox was first founded, the team mostly focused on client server software managed on-premise. These days, everything is in the cloud – and the focus centres on building the right tech stack to manage their clients’ complex needs.

“Our clients aren’t just renting out one or two units – we’re talking about portfolios ranging from 500 to 10,000,” says Lee Shaw, CFO and Systems Architect at Cloudfox Group Ltd. “They typically come to us with issues around the cost of their current systems or lack of functionality, or a combination or the two. We’ll then tune the tech stack to get them exactly what they require.”

A big part of this is replacing legacy systems, like on-premises property management and accounting tools, with best-of-breed cloud-based solutions. “We find that these legacy systems are very complex, making them difficult to roll out and train end users, as well as get consistent reporting out of. Simplicity with the necessary guardrails wins, and that’s what we try to promote.”

“We found it very intuitive, easy to use, well-priced and with a clean interface. It ticked all the boxes,” says Shaw.

Now, the team recommends ApprovalMax to most of its clients. “There’s no other solution with the level of complexity that you can bake into ApprovalMax and the final user experience is very easy,” says Shaw.

“Its speed of set up, flexibility of changing the approval matrices, and straightforward connection make it so easy to use. Plus most people use the mobile app so they can see the record, add comments and approve right from their phone.”

Sophisticated CAPEX and OPEX budget tracking and support

ApprovalMax’s purchase order approval and budget tracking allows Cloudfox’s clients to see how CAPEX and OPEX budgets are performing and manage spend in real time.

Fraud detection and prevention

With so many vendors, real estate has a high risk of fraud. ApprovalMax’s fraud detection features and strong controls help detect and prevent fraudulent activity.

Complex, adaptable financial controls

Cloudfox easily sets up and manages strict, fully-customisable financial controls to meet the unique needs of each client, along with automatically generating an audit trail for each document..

Straightforward set up and use

The team can get clients up and running on ApprovalMax in almost no time at all, allowing them to see the benefits sooner.