Final modified on November seventeenth, 2022
By Marc Frenkiel
Whereas the rental housing trade has undergone quite a lot of seismic shifts over the previous few years, our 2022 Property Administration Trade Pulse report made clear simply how quickly priorities have altered.
In 2021, staffing and coaching was the highest problem as corporations struggled to take care of continuity. People leaving in “the Nice Resignation” created information voids and reshuffled roles, whereas remaining staff members tailored to hybrid work environments and new applied sciences.
In 2022, the most important problem turned operational effectivity. After resolving staffing points, companies confronted provide chain disruptions along with rising rates of interest and inflation.
Relating to the latter, accounting groups and processes should handle elevated prices precisely. Accounting is greater than merely business-critical for compliance; it’s undeniably the most important issue that impacts total operational effectivity — and your organization’s success.
That can assist you understand the potential inside your group, we’ll share a few of the ways in which AppFolio buyer BK Administration optimized their very own accounting operations. As well as, our on-demand webinar, “Maximizing operational effectivity: Methods to streamline accounting and increase visibility” affords key recommendations on how property managers can obtain comparable outcomes.
Tip #1: Automate the apparent and get rid of the extraneous
Stacy Holden, Senior Director and Trade Principal at AppFolio, begins with a daring however easy declare: Challenges with operational effectivity are sometimes a results of operational inefficiency. Analysis for our 2022 Hiring and Retention report helps this, with survey respondents revealing:
- 40% of staff’ time is spent on “busy work”
- 14+ hours per week are spent on duties that may very well be streamlined or automated
- 56% wished that they had extra time to give attention to higher-value duties
Stacy recommends “automating the apparent” to release further time to your groups. You are able to do this by first evaluating how accounting operations are arrange internally. Search for repetitive accounting duties that may very well be consolidated into fewer, however extra strong, processes. Then, establish easy but time-consuming administrative work akin to information entry that will profit from automation.
West Lafayette, Indiana-based BK Administration initially used two separate accounting platforms, however discovered the disconnect between these instruments generated an unwieldy quantity of double-entry work. As soon as the corporate moved to the one, complete resolution that AppFolio Property Supervisor affords, their workers was in a position to save price range and time whereas gaining custom-made outcomes. April Schuette, Accounting Supervisor at BK Administration, defined:
“We had been utilizing QuickBooks for company accounting and AppFolio for property administration accounting. We did workarounds to coordinate reporting, nevertheless it wasn’t environment friendly and it didn’t get us precisely what we wished. We migrated every little thing into AppFolio, and at last with the ability to entry it multi functional place was an enormous enchancment.”
Tip #2: Embrace flexibility with out sacrificing construction
Madison Tedesco, Discipline Answer Engineer at AppFolio, additionally introduced her trade expertise to the webinar. Since 2020, she’s seen property administration corporations adapt new, digital options for staff members and residents who require the comfort of versatile distant work.
To precisely full duties, nevertheless, Madison reiterated that staff members want to have the ability to observe equivalent processes whether or not they’re within the workplace, at residence, or within the discipline. BK Administration achieved this by switching to an internet system that supplied everybody with standardized processes for conducting enterprise. One BK Administration worker enthused, “It’s nice that every little thing is web-based, we are able to log in from anyplace.” Stacy Holden agreed, however reiterated that enhancing accounting operational efficiencies relies on three particular standards:
- Controlling prices
- Streamlining approvals
- Creating consistency
These three requirements grow to be particularly essential in staffing distant groups. New hires can undergo the property administration system step-by-step, onboard the identical means and extra rapidly, and managers can higher be certain that accounting-related particulars are correctly tracked, escalated, and managed.
Tip #3: Personalize reporting to empower stakeholders
For efficient operations, reporting is a requirement. From Basic Ledgers and Stability Sheets to Expense Distributions and Money Flows, accounting is the lifeline that connects all of it. Nevertheless, as a result of each property administration group has distinctive preferences for codecs, schedules, and entry, report creation steadily turns into sophisticated.
Regardless of the time it might take, groups nonetheless should talk outcomes to many various stakeholders, so delivering primary studies merely isn’t sufficient. When reporting is overly simplified to save lots of time, it may possibly present too little data for management to make business-critical selections. Conversely, taking an “every little thing however the kitchen sink” method implies that managers and property house owners might discover studies overwhelming and troublesome to interpret.
Organizations can thoughtfully remedy these reporting challenges by assembly within the center: The answer to each lowering time and rising relevance is to generate configurable studies particular to particular person stakeholders. A method to do that is by leveraging expertise integrations, akin to Excel and different software program APIs (utility programming interfaces). A extra complete resolution is to leverage on-line proprietor portals.
BK Administration confirms an internet portal makes good enterprise sense for a number of causes. Groups can entry important insights in actual time, faucet into particular person information evaluation, and personalize report export and supply choices. BK Administration’s Accounting Supervisor, April, likes that an internet portal saves them time and empowers their prospects:
“What’s most essential to our property house owners is reporting, they usually actually like AppFolio’s detailed statements. We’ve arrange our house owners with entry to allow them to log in, view their properties, and run studies themselves.”
The underside line
Although enterprise priorities proceed to alter, enterprise operations will all the time require each efficient processes and folks. The important thing to overcoming operational inefficiencies is to allow operational effectivity all through your complete group, and auditing your present accounting course of is a good first step.
Learn how BK Administration saved hours per week by consolidating their accounting operations or watch our on-demand webinar “Maximizing operational effectivity: Methods to streamline accounting and increase visibility” for much more insights.