The Company

Walton Communities is a privately held company based in Marietta, Georgia. It develops, owns and manages apartment communities throughout metro-Atlanta and Augusta. With a heartfelt mission to serve its residents, Walton Communities is committed to providing exceptional residential, affordable and active adult housing at a great value in a friendly neighborhood environment.

The Challenge

Cumbersome Procurement Processes

Walton Communities was manually managing procurement for its properties. Orders had to be handwritten, approved and keyed into the system by multiple people before being processed by vendors. After an order was delivered, vendors would leave paper invoices at each property that had to be stamped as received and entered. Then the invoices would be driven to the corporate office to be reviewed, after which checks would be printed and physically signed. “The procurement process took weeks,” said Jennifer Price, IT systems trainer at Walton Communities.

The Solution

Yardi Procure to Pay Suite

Yardi Procure to Pay is a centralized, end-to-end accounts payable, procurement and vendor management solution built into the Yardi Voyager platform. Yardi Procure to Pay includes five components: Yardi PayScan, Yardi Marketplace, VendorCafe. VendorShield and Yardi Bill Pay. Residential and commercial property management companies can save time and money by going paperless and fully automating the purchase-to-invoice process.

The Story

Faster Procurement

With Yardi Procure to Pay, Walton Communities has been able to significantly speed up the procurement process. Users place orders through Yardi Marketplace, using an easy and familiar online shopping format, and purchase orders are created automatically. “That’s what we love, the instant creation of the purchase order,” said Price. “It’s eliminated coding errors, and the time it takes maintenance engineers to key in orders has gone down. For them, it’s a huge time saver.”

Maintenance staff can efficiently order supplies from vendors, get orders approved and quickly go back to work assisting residents. Many orders arrive the same day.

Speedy, Paperless Invoicing
Walton Communities reduces waste and improves vendor relationships via the paperless workflows in Yardi Procure to Pay. After orders are placed and delivered through the online marketplace, invoices are received, approved and paid online using Yardi PayScan. “It’s a seamless process,” shared Price. Almost all of Walton Communities’ payables are paperless as a result. This has decreased both waste and storage costs, as well as increased speed.

Electronic invoice processing ensures that vendor payments are made on time and late fees are avoided. “Before, paper invoices might sit in a folder until the onsite team was ready to process it,” Price continued. “Now our vendors can get paid in the same week.”

Better Budget Visibility
Yardi Procure to Pay gives Walton Communities portfolio-wide oversight of organizational spend. The company can see invoices paid, purchase orders committed and purchase orders approved at any point during the month to assess budget goals. “For us, it’s important that our property managers, area directors and partners have insight into where revenue is going to be at the end of the month,” Price said. “With Yardi, we have that.”