Property Management Systems, Inc.
"AvidXchange has really streamlined of lot of things and the homeowner boards love it."
Property Management Systems, Inc.
Property Management Systems, Inc. (PMSI) has delivered condominium and community association management services in northern Florida and southern Georgia for more than 30 years. The company currently manages more than 100 communities, providing a menu of service options including covenant enforcement, bookkeeping and vendor management.
Christine Connery is a licensed community association manager who’s worked in the industry for 14 years. She’s committed to staying up to date on industry trends and innovations, offering top-quality service to the communities she manages for PMSI.
Accounts Payable Tasks Consume Valuable Community Manager Time
PMSI works with a wide variety of condo and community associations in the Southeast, providing a range of services depending on their unique needs. Communities big and small often outsource accounting to PMSI, having the company collect dues and pay bills on their behalf.
Accounts payable (AP) was an ineffective and time-consuming process for community managers like Connery. She would sort through a folder of paper invoices from vendors and determine the ones for her communities which were then manually routed around the office for approval.
“You’ve got to look here, you’ve got to put it in this folder there. Then it gets approved. Then it comes back. Then it gets entered,” Connery said. “That’s too many times handling one invoice. That’s crazy!”
Additionally, when vendors or community boards would inquire about the status of an invoice, it was difficult for Connery to track down individual invoices and provide timely updates.
“We had to figure out a way to keep these boards and their associations happy, because that’s what we’re here for, to take care of and facilitate their needs,” said Connery.
AvidXchange Digitizes AP Process for Community Association Management Industry Leader
PMSI uses Enumerate as its accounting system software. When it decided it was time to digitize its AP processes, PMSI selected AvidXchange on the recommendation of Enumerate. “Enumerate considers us a pioneer because we’ve been around longer than any property management company in our area,” Connery said.
AvidXchange integrates with Enumerate to give community management associations an easier, faster and more secure way to process invoices and make electronic payments through an efficient onboarding plan that takes only 45 days or less. The purchase-to-pay automation solution matches invoices, purchase orders and sales receipts.
“Everything’s right there. I can click an invoice and click to either reject or approve the bill. Handling less paperwork is great,” Connery said.
Community Managers Gain Time to Devote to Improved Client Service
Digitizing the AP process has been beneficial for PMSI for several reasons. Now that the invoice approval workflow is automated, community managers like Connery spend much less time searching for, sorting and approving invoices. “It’s great because I can go in and approve, click and then I’m done,” she said.
Connery estimated that the team at PMSI spends 50% less time on AP tasks now that the process is automated. She uses that extra time to research issues for the communities she manages and to stay on top of the latest industry trends at tradeshows. “A good manager is somebody who can give the community boards answers,” she said.
Before digitizing the AP process, community board members were not part of the approval workflow. Now, PMSI can easily forward invoices for community board approval, even when approvers live elsewhere for parts of the year. “That’s a huge plus with the boards, being able to be in the process, and we now can include them in that,” Connery explained.
Overall, Connery and the team at PMSI are grateful for the time saved since implementing AvidXchange. “Time is probably the biggest thing that we lack in this business. To have some back is great,” she said.