Tracy and John, owners of a Florida property management company, faced a range of different problems managing invoices and payments at the start of last year.
The company, Incurrent Holdings, paid vendors multiple times for the same service and for services not provided.
In some cases the company paid vendors late because of a flawed accounts payable (AP) system. As a result, at some of the properties utility companies shut off services and trash companies stopped picking up the garbage.
Costing several thousand dollars a month
All these inefficiencies cost Incurrent Holdings several thousand dollars a month.
“We were paying a lot of bills unnecessarily,” said Tracy. “We were very paper-centric and our old system consisted of file cabinets and storage. We were changing check stock in printer drawers every time we printed a check. Nobody was really watching the shop.”
Turning point: Pandemic
Then the pandemic hit. And that became a turning point for the provider of these services for mobile home parks, shopping centers and mini-storage units. The company’s accounts payable pro, who had been handling its invoices and payments for 15 years, resigned.
Quickly the owners realized no one in the company knew how to manage invoices and payments to its vendors such as pool maintenance, pest control and utility service providers.
“AvidXchange has allowed us to analyze our payables in a way that was never possible before. The workflow functions allow us to customize who sees what and save us precious time we just don’t have. The AvidXchange system is so simple and getting the data is so much faster. We can easily find our past payments and invoices.”
– Tracy, Owner, Incurrent Holdings
Using AvidXchange to process 1,300 monthly invoices
So in September of 2020 the company started using AvidInvoice and AvidPay on a small-scale basis, to automate its invoices and payments for seven commercial shopping centers. The benefits were so valuable that in December the company started using the software to process its 1,300 monthly invoices for the remaining 60 properties and businesses.
“Covid-19 was a catalyst for doing what we should have done years ago,” said John. “It brought to the forefront how messed up our existing processes were.”
Software enables faster access to data
Using the software, the company has stopped incorrect payments, gained faster access to data and learned much more about how much money it spends, said Tracy. Importantly, property managers now see bills and give input on which ones should be paid.
“AvidXchange has allowed us to analyze our payables in a way that was never possible before,” Tracy said. “The workflow functions allow us to customize who sees what and save us precious time we just don’t have. The AvidXchange system is so simple and getting the data is so much faster. We can easily find our past payments and invoices.”
“Seamless” integration of AvidXchange software with Rent Manager
The AvidXchange software has been integrated with Rent Manager property management software Incurrent Holdings now uses. AvidXchange processes the payables and exports them electronically to Rent Manager.
“Integration with Rent Manager has been excellent and seamless in sending information back and forth between AvidXchange and our accounting software,” said John. “The integration has given us a whole new level of transparency with our payables that never existed before.”
For Tracy, the most valuable feature of the AvidXchange software has been seeing what the company actually spends on specific vendors and figuring out ways to save money. She also likes spending a lot less time on the invoicing process.
Before using this software, the company had to manually sign 1,300 monthly checks. Now that’s all automated. “Using AvidXchange the time savings alone is huge.”