Morgan Hay, an accounts payable (AP) clerk with Henderson Association Management, LLC, recalls her early days as an intern with the company.
“What I remember was how labor intensive everything was,” she said. “We’d all be running around the office with printed invoices, trying to get approvals so we could cut checks. We would file everything to make sure that we had sufficient back-up. Today, thankfully, things are much different.”
What changed between the time Hay left the company as an intern and returned as a full-time employee was that Henderson, which manages more than 750 rental properties and 200 homeowner’s associations (HOAs), integrated the AvidXchange Strongroom AP software for community association management with their Jenark™ accounting system.
She estimates this shift to automation has cut the company’s payment and invoice processing times by at least 90 percent. The technology has enabled the company to eliminate manual processes, gain more visibility and access into corporate data.
Payments made in a few hours versus days
AvidXchange Strongroom has also helped Hay free up some resources. She’s much better positioned to address other important tasks such as monthly bank reconciliations, handling accounts receivables, depositing checks that come in house, opening and closing bank accounts, putting things on auto draft and on-boarding new associations.
As the number of invoices her department processes continues to grow, so does Hay’s appreciation for what AvidXchange Strongroom does for her and her company.
She noted recently that over a two-day period she received 832 invoices that needed to be processed.
“Without AvidXchange Strongroom, I’d be stamping invoices and running them around and I’m sure they wouldn’t get paid for days. Now, they’ll be paid in just a couple of hours.”
Improved access to data and customer support
AvidXchange Strongroom has also had a positive impact on the efficiency of customer support. She said Henderson Properties no longer needs to field association questions that would easily consume its resources.
“So many times we’d be chasing down a check that hadn’t been cashed or a vendor that hadn’t provided the correct contact information,” she said. “Now AvidXchange Strongroom takes care of that for us. This has really helped boost our relationship with vendors.”
Better relationships with HOA board members
Not only has AvidXchange Strongroom helped with bettering the Henderson Properties vendor relations, but it has also contributed to the company building better relationships with HOA board members, some of whom prefer to take a more hands-on approach to payments.
Now Henderson Properties can accommodate them. Treasurers, for instance, have requested that the company make them part of the process, which it has done, and this deepened the trust in the relationships.
Operational efficiencies
AvidXchange Strongroom also provides operational efficiencies. When a board member is not designated as a member of a review process, for example, they can still log into the system easily at any time from anywhere and perform a self-audit, reviewing bills that have been approved and payments that have been made.
If they want to do some research into, for instance, what the water bill was the same time last year, they can quickly and easily do so without having to rummage through filing cabinets. This kind of visibility helps them make better operational decisions while saving time and money.
Because of this, she said she wouldn’t be surprised if the organization continues to add associations to its portfolio because its HOA board appreciates the benefits of the AvidXchange Strongroom system.
AvidXchange Strongroom helps with customization
The ability to customize AvidXchange Strongroom based on an association’s needs has also been a tremendous benefit, she said.
“No two associations are alike and AvidXchange Strongroom helps us better serve our associations with the flexibility it offers, the ability to really tailor the process to what they need,” she said.
Some associations only want invoices above a certain dollar amount to be routed for approval, said Hay. “If that’s what they want, thanks to AvidXchange Strongroom, that’s what we give them.”