Go With the (Data) Flow

Budgeting Simplified

By Lee Ann Stiff on Sep 9, 2024 in Technology

Connecting accurate information to support budgeting, leasing and construction projects is essential to optimizing CRE asset performance. Working with the right set of software tools not only ensures transparency and data accuracy but also provides real-time and actionable insights. For example, when live data from the leasing pipeline and construction projects are available within your budgeting solution, you can manage forecasts on a rolling basis without the hassle of updating spreadsheets.

So what’s the best practice? Using a single stack solution with a single source of truth and real-time data access. From lead-to-lease pipeline management to streamlining the budgeting process and optimizing the construction lifecycle, connected solutions with seamless dataflow and automated workflows can unlock operational efficiency.

Side-by-side comparisons and real-time budget tracking

Yardi Forecast Manager is a full-featured software solution that enables clients to monitor annual budget performance relative to their approved budget. Clients can promote deals from Yardi Deal Manager to Forecast Manager and use re-forecasting to accurately analyze their budget based on all deals in the pipeline.

A built-in hover-over feature in the forecasting tool shows where a particular data set originated and clients can make necessary adjustments along the way. Correspondingly, Deal Manager incorporates settings that ensure the appropriate information is pushed to Forecast Manager.

When it comes to assessing risk, clients have access to a comprehensive view of their portfolios in both Deal Manager and Forecast Manager and they can filter and view a wide range of information about each space — even across properties — including tenant risk and lease expiration date.

As an additional benefit, Forecast Manager enables clients to easily identify deals (when they also use Deal Manager) at a particular stage and promote them into the forecast. A deal can be included in the budget by simply clicking the “promote” button next to the deal. Promoting the deal means that it will be included in the worksheet the next time the client runs the forecast or revenue projection.

No more tedious spreadsheets

This combination of features and integration of deal pipeline data helps asset management and operation teams budget more accurately and eliminates the need for manually compiling various spreadsheets.

Industry leaders using Forecast Manager are seeing results. Rexford Industrial quickly discovered the benefits of using a connected software solution to optimize the CRE revenue lifecycle. “Our forecasting is correct the first time and easy to see on a dashboard. I can add acquisitions and quickly get a snapshot of what the acquisition will do many quarters out. All this used to take days, and now it takes 15 minutes,” said Alex DeHaven, VP of Corporate Finance, Rexford Industrial.

Learn more about Yardi Forecast Manager and hear how it’s working for Rexford Industrial.