The Company
San Francisco-based real estate development and investment firm Mosser Companies manages a collection of 82 historic and beautifully renovated apartments in lively and vibrant neighborhoods throughout San Francisco, Oakland and Los Angeles.
The Challenge
Inaccurate Utility Billing and Accounting
For Mosser Companies, accurate utility billing for residents proved to be challenging and time consuming. In order to improve billing recovery rates, the company began searching for a solution that would allow its staff to generate precise and detailed reports while also simplifying and updating internal accounting operations.
The Solution
Yardi Utility Billing
Part of the Yardi Smart Energy Suite, Yardi Utility Billing provides resident billing services for utilities that are master-metered at the building level. Instead of absorbing all utility costs or charging a flat rate as part of rent, real estate property owners and managers can recover costs though direct billing. Not only are recovery rates higher, it also promotes conservation when residents have to pay for their own utilities.Built into Yardi Voyager, Yardi Utility Billing includes seamless integration with property management and accounting data. This improves workflows for tasks like vacant unit cost recovery and charging residents if they forget to turn utilities into their name, and makes it easy to add charges to rent statements. Yardi Utility Billing also includes easy access to detailed reporting and analytics.
The Story
Per Unit Precision
Prior to adopting Yardi Utility Billing, Mosser Companies relied on third-party billing software to manage resident utility bills at its 82 properties. Because its previous software lacked the ability to track per unit utility costs, Mosser Companies’ staff found it difficult to manage resident utility billing effectively.
“One of the challenges we faced was that we were unable to keep track of how much residents were getting billed per unit and how much of those costs were being recovered,” explains Marjorie Castro. With a goal of improving billing accuracy and gaining more operational insight, the company implemented Yardi Utility Billing.
Informed Decisions
In addition to improved billing recovery and accuracy, Castro praises the ability to generate detailed financial reports. “We can feel confident that reports we generate are accurate and can be relied upon when making business decisions,” she says.
While account reconciliation and invoicing was difficult and time consuming in the past, with Yardi Utility Billing, Castro and her team are operating more efficiently, processing less paperwork and seeing fewer errors.
“Yardi Utility Billing allows us to focus on other work that needs prioritizing because we trust the accuracy of our billing,” she says. “This means we can spend more time providing excellent customer service to our residents.”
