The Company
Arcadia Management Group, Inc., based in Phoenix, Ariz., performs management and maintenance for commercial properties across the United States. Arcadia is designated an Accredited Management Organization® by the Institute of Real Estate Management®, an affiliate of the National Association of Realtors®.
The Challenge
Paper Domination
Arcadia found itself awash in paper processing thousands of invoices for goods and services every month. “I would spend my whole day approving boxes full of invoices, or somebody else would work on them at home until late at night, then their kids would spill apple juice on them or lose them in a drawer,” recalled Gary Shaw, Arcadia’s president. The disarray extended to vendor management. “Chasing down workman’s comp, liability insurance and other documentation was very time-consuming for our staff,” Shaw said.
The Solution
Yardi Procure to Pay Suite
Arcadia adopted products from the Yardi Procure to Pay Suite, a centralized, end-to-end platform that delivers spend visibility, streamlines invoice processing, centralizes MRO purchasing and simplifies vendor onboarding. The full Yardi Procure to Pay Suite includes Yardi PayScan, which scans invoices into electronic transactions and automates workflow across the approval process; VendorCafe, which centralizes product and service vendor information in a single system of record; VendorShield which automates vendor credentialing and compliance; Yardi Bill Pay which streamlines the vendor payment process; and Yardi Marketplace, an online procurement and invoice processing platform for maintenance, repair and operating supplies.
The Story
Efficiency and Peace of Mind
The electronic approvals and automated approval workflows enabled by Yardi PayScan dramatically reduced Arcadia’s cost of processing invoices.
Meanwhile, Yardi Marketplace “completely transformed our accounting controls,” Shaw said. Under Arcadia’s previous system, maintenance technicians took an invoice from a retail store purchase back to the office, explained the purchase and the property for which it was to be billed, routed it through the company’s billing system and posted it, at which time it went to the property manager for coding. “That’s far too many steps, and centralizing our procurement activities eliminates most of them. The property manager is part of the invoice approval workflow and knows what’s happening at each step,” Shaw said. Ordering online eliminates time the maintenance staff spent shopping at a store. The item can be shipped directly to its destination, a boon for productivity.
VendorCafe saves Arcadia time by allowing vendors to submit invoices online, with approvals auto-routed and approved payments delivered electronically. Along with eliminating lost and duplicate invoices, the system provides a single vendor management system of record that reduces Arcadia’s vendor onboarding risk. Vendors can upload insurance certificates and other documents themselves. “The transparency and security from VendorCafe give our entire team peace of mind,” Shaw said.
Yardi PayScan also streamlined Arcadia’s common area maintenance reconciliation process. The company’s Yardi Voyager property management and accounting system automatically captures invoices, relieving the staff of photocopying paper versions and sending them to vendors with the reconciliations.
“The Yardi Procure to Pay Suite makes the procurement cycle easier and saves us a bunch of money. It’s a huge time-saver.” Shaw said.
