How to Get Package Management in Your 2026 Budget

Although it may be the height of summer, now is the perfect time to start planning your budget for next year. Since budget planning and approval take time, this blog gives you tips and suggestions to ensure you plan successfully – and can get important initiatives, like package management, into your 2026 budget.

Budgeting Best Practices

Creating accurate, manageable budgets is essential for successful property operations. These proven strategies will help you streamline your budgeting process while maximizing your property’s financial performance.

Start Early and Plan Thoroughly

Budget preparation usually takes longer than expected. Begin your budgeting process well in advance to give yourself, your team, and vendor partners sufficient time to provide accurate forecasts. Since budgeting often occurs alongside your regular responsibilities, be sure to allocate extra time in your schedule for reviews and revisions.

Early preparation allows you to thoroughly analyze last year’s performance, identify cost-saving opportunities, and address operational inefficiencies. This proactive approach transforms budgeting from a stressful scramble into a strategic planning process.

Leverage Your Team’s Expertise

Don’t tackle budgeting alone. Assign specific budget categories to team members based on their areas of expertise. Have your maintenance specialist handle repair and upkeep projections, while someone else focuses on utilities and amenities. This division of labor ensures more accurate estimates while reducing your workload.

Ensure your team incorporates current market data, including local vacancy rates, demographic trends, and economic forecasts that may impact your property’s performance.

Document Every Change

Maintain detailed records of all budget adjustments throughout the planning process. Note the reasoning behind each change, as this documentation reveals spending patterns and helps identify areas where costs can be reduced or additional funding may be needed. These insights prove invaluable for future budget cycles.

Partner with Reliable Suppliers

When planning property improvements, work with established suppliers who have a deep understanding of the multifamily industry. Remember that the lowest bid isn’t always the best value for your property.

Remember Resident Satisfaction Drives Financial Performance

When planning your budget, don’t overlook the financial impact of resident satisfaction. While harder to quantify than traditional metrics such as NOI, ROI, and TCO, renewal rates, referrals, positive reviews, and social media comments have a direct impact on your property’s profitability.

The Hidden Value of Happy Residents

Satisfied residents stay longer, reduce costly turnover expenses, and boost word-of-mouth recommendations, helping attract quality prospects at lower acquisition costs. Research indicates that parcel lockers significantly enhance resident satisfaction and lease renewals, with some communities experiencing renewal rates of up to 40% following their installation.

…And the Positive ROI of Satisfied and Engaged Employees

Package management can be a thankless job for your employees: playing communication tag with residents, moving packages to and from storage areas – not to mention dealing with oversized packages. Package lockers allow you to streamline operations by automating resident notifications and reducing staff workload. Real-world results demonstrate significant efficiency gains: Optima Camelview, a 700-unit upscale community in Scottsdale, AZ, achieved a 66% reduction in staff time spent on package management, while also eliminating lost packages and providing 24/7 resident access. Similarly, Brickell on the River, a luxury condominium in Miami, was able to reallocate staff resources and reduce headcount after implementing automated package management systems.

Strategic Amenity Investment

The key to strategic amenity investment is identifying improvements that solve common resident pain points while demonstrating clear value to justify the investment in your budget planning process. Universal amenities that address daily needs, such as package management, tend to generate higher satisfaction scores and a stronger return on investment compared to specialty features that appeal to smaller segments of your community.

Smart locker investments yield exceptional returns in satisfaction because, unlike amenities such as dog parks or EV charging stations, they serve nearly the entire resident population. A recent National Business Research Institute (NBRI) survey revealed approximately 90% of residents use parcel lockers in buildings with locker systems, with 73% receiving one to three deliveries per week.¹

Where Package Management Fits in Your Property Management Budget

To effectively plan and budget for package management, it helps to understand where it fits in your overall property budget. Most property managers allocate annual operational and capital expense funds across a few key categories:

• Staffing and payroll
• Maintenance and repairs
• Marketing and leasing
• Utilities and operations
• Technology upgrades
• Resident amenities and services

Smart lockers typically fall under technology upgrades or resident amenities, depending on your organizational structure. Either way, they’re increasingly seen as essential operational solutions—not just a nice-to-have amenity.

With delivery volumes continuing to rise and resident expectations shifting toward on-demand, self-service experiences, package management now plays a critical role in both operational efficiency and resident satisfaction. Investing in the right solution helps future-proof your property while supporting long-term retention.

How to Justify the Cost to Stakeholders

Even when the need is clear, getting new initiatives into the budget often requires buy-in from asset managers, ownership groups, or executive leadership. The key is to present package lockers as more than just an amenity—they’re an operational necessity.

Sample Talking Points to Build Your Case:

• “This solution pays for itself.” – Some locker vendors, like Parcel Pending by Quadient, offer subscription pricing or resident-bill back programs that can recoup the cost of locker ownership, or even leverage lockers to create a new revenue stream for the property.
• “It improves our bottom line.” – A smart locker system can cut up to 20 hours of staff time each week spent manually managing packages. That time can be reallocated to resident services or leasing support. 
• “It drives renewals and retention.” – Reducing lost or stolen packages helps properties avoid liability and improves resident satisfaction. Further, properties that offer convenience-focused amenities like package lockers also see higher renewal rates (up to 40% higher) and more positive online reviews.

Align with What Decision-Makers Care About:

• Lower operating costs
• Improved NOI
• Reduced staff workload and turnover
• Stronger resident loyalty

Position your proposal as a high-impact, low-friction investment that solves multiple operational and resident-facing challenges at once.

Click here for more tips on how to gain stakeholder buy–in for smart package lockers.

Budget Planning Timeline and Process

Capital improvement items and new tech investments often take longer to approve, so the earlier you prepare, the better.

The Typical Multifamily Budgeting Timeline:

• Q2 (Spring–Early Summer): Budget planning begins. Start gathering cost estimates, assessing operational needs, and identifying ROI opportunities.
• Q3 (Late Summer–Early Fall): Budget reviews, stakeholder presentations, and approvals happen. Final budget decisions are made for the following year.
• Q4-Q1 (Late Fall-Winter): Approved projects move into procurement and implementation planning.

Tips for Getting Ahead on Budgeting:

• Request vendor quotes early to understand pricing models and lead times
• Use internal data to quantify current package volumes and handling time
• Gather resident feedback or staff pain points to support your case
• Document any known inefficiencies related to manual package handling

By preparing a strong business case with data and timing in mind, you’ll increase your chances of getting lockers approved for next year’s budget. For more help with identifying your property’s package management needs and ROI benchmarks, click here.

How Parcel Pending Can Help

If you’re looking for additional support with getting package management, Parcel Pending offers a number of flexible financing options that can help get smart lockers in your budget. These include:

Purchase

A one-time investment covers hardware and installation costs, followed by ongoing monthly fees for software and support, making it ideal for properties with available capital expenditure budgets that seek to own their package management infrastructure.

Subscription Model

Parcel Pending’s subscription plan offers multifamily properties a flexible way to implement smart locker solutions through one predictable, all-inclusive monthly fee on a 60-month term, with no upfront investment required. This comprehensive fee covers all locker-related expenses, including maintenance, service, and shipping costs, providing complete financial clarity throughout your contract.

Resident Bill-Back

Some properties offset smart locker costs by charging residents a monthly fee. For instance, when Winther Investment Inc. adopted smart lockers at its 12 communities, it charged its residents $10 per month to recoup some of its investment. And AG Living, a Dallas-area multifamily operator managing six properties, successfully integrated locker fees into its amenity package, creating additional revenue while maintaining resident affordability.

Sources:

1. Parcel Pending by Quadient. 2024 Resident Preferences Report. www.parcelpending.com. August 2, 2024. https://www.parcelpending.com/en-us/resources/2024-resident-preferences-report/

Budgeting can be a challenging task, but with sufficient planning, you can develop a plan that enhances resident and employee satisfaction, boosts retention rates, and improves staff efficiency.

Ready to lock in your package management solution? Contact a Parcel Pending representative today for support with getting lockers in your 2026 budget.