The Company

Rochester, New York-based Conifer Realty, LLC is a nationally ranked, full-service real estate company specializing in the development, construction and management of high quality affordable housing communities. To successfully operate 220+ apartment communities more cost effectively, Conifer determined that it required a solution for utility management.

The Challenge

Bogged Down with Paper Bills

Conifer’s site staff were burdened with processing stacks of paper utility invoices and struggled to avoid late fees, which could easily add up to $50,000 or more per year across the portfolio. Sending checks overnight for bills processed at the last minute was an additional expense.

According to Roxann Gendron, vice president & controller, residential property management, “Thousands of utility bills were sent to our community managers. They would open up stacks of invoices and manually enter each one into the system to be paid.” She added, “If a bill was missing or late, they wouldn’t realize it until a past due invoice with late charges or a shut off notice was received.”

The Solution

Yardi Utility Expense Management

With Yardi Utility Expense Management, Yardi processes, validates, and stores utility invoices to create automatic payable processing and more accurate accounting and GL coding. Yardi receives account information and utility data directly from the utility companies servicing each client’s properties. It then provides services including audits for billing errors, identifying missing bills, and calculating vacant cost recovery opportunities.

The Story

Paper Gone, Money Saved, Time Gained

Yardi Utility Expense Management handles invoice processing and enables Conifer to be “hands off” while paying bills on-time, avoiding late fees. In addition to saving money and paper, Conifer is also saving valuable time for staff members. Gendron elaborated, “Yardi Utility Expense Management has solved our paper problem. The most important thing to us is filling the need for affordable apartment homes and providing excellent service to our residents. Now that site staff members are not bogged down with processing utility bills, they can focus on those priorities.”