I remember when we built our management software. We programmed Work Orders to convert to Accounts Payable – totally logical. But when I walked into the AP department, there were stacks of printed Work Orders!! Guess why?
They needed to attach the check stub to something! Um – no, we don’t. But it took some effort to change that mindset and realize the efficiency we envisioned.
Staff working remotely will expose several bottlenecks (opportunities) in your operation. What are you doing manually that should be automated?
One obvious choice is collection operations. Most still require manual processes that have been in place for decades:
- Generate a ledger (direct to PDF or kill a tree; either is silly)
- Send ledgers to attorney
- Bug attorney for collection updates
- Receive attorney invoice and manually apply collection costs to owner ledgers
- Provide payoff when requested by attorney
- Do final manual reconciliation of delinquency
If your operation looks anything like this… (insert Jeff Foxworthy joke here) you might be dealing with bottlenecks! Do a quick calculation of the time required for each step and you are probably wasting around 150 hours for every 10,000 units under management (assuming 3% of units are sent to collections). That is real money!
Management software now has the capability for data transmission that can automate 4 of the 6 steps outlined above. And it is NOT costly or complicated.
Deferred collection fees can eliminate the remaining 2 most time-consuming steps; applying collection costs to ledgers and manually reconciling payoffs.
Here is a short video that shows the automation in action. What would you do with another 150 hours per month?? Or in the event of a recession, 2 or even 3 times that amount?
Equity Experts recently won an important case that affirms the legality of deferred collection fees and addresses the benefits this approach offers to community association.
Gar Liebler is the Founder and Visionary of a national real estate services and investment company headquartered in Auburn Hills, Michigan.
His original property management firm, LandArc, was founded in 1985 and grew to operate in multiple states. After selling LandArc in 2015, Gar shifted his focus to value-added services for the community association industry, both as Visionary for LifestyleLink, a digital event management software for highly-amenitized communities, and with the national leader in assessment recovery, www.equityexperts.org, LLC.
Gar also serves on various professional boards and charities.