Employee spotlight: Ashley Romano, from client to team lead

By Amy Reinholds on October 14, 2025 in People Senior Living

Meet Ashley Romano, a senior team lead for Yardi client services. She and her team help senior living providers switch from paper-based leases to secure digital documents with electronic signatures.

When COVID-19 accelerated the need for contactless solutions in 2020, the senior living client services group formed a dedicated electronic documents team. Since then, the team has helped providers increase electronic lease signing by 64% year over year. This makes the leasing process faster, safer and more efficient.

Electronic leasing in senior living

For senior living providers, compliance challenges are a major reason to pursue electronic leasing. The Yardi Senior Living Suite began adding capabilities in 2016 at the request of clients who needed to confirm resident sign-offs on care service levels. With this documentation in place, providers are better prepared for audits and can avoid costly fines.

The senior living electronic leasing team has now grown to 10 in the U.S. and four in Pune, India. They help clients convert paper leases into digital, tokenized formats with electronic signatures. They also support ancillary documents such as pre-move-in packets. This collects important information from applicants or their family members.

While implementing an electronic leasing solution can have significant upfront costs, the future savings are clear.

“On average, manual leasing processes incur approximately 85% higher administrative costs for move-ins compared to electronic methods,” Romano said.

Making the move from paper to digital simple & secure

When communities use paper leases, staff might accidentally use outdated paper leases pulled from a drawer, rather than the most recent version approved by the legal team.

“Electronic leasing helps eliminate this issue by ensuring that the latest, legally compliant lease documents are used and attached to the resident record,” Romano said.

Another challenge of the manual approach: during audits, staff often struggle to access and provide the most recent signed lease.

“With Yardi electronic leasing, the final signed lease is automatically attached to the resident’s record when the signing process is completed,” Romano said. There’s also an option to upload manually signed leases to the resident record.

Romano’s team tracks adoption across their clients’ communities, monitoring new leases and renewals, whether they’re signed electronically or manually.

Her team found that from 2024 to 2025, across all communities:

Electronic signings rose 64%.
Total executed leases increased 189%.

They also measure compliance and provide tools and reports to share with clients.

“We install a report in the client environment so clients can ensure each community is following best practices, and we offer additional training to those communities that are struggling with adoption.”

From client to analyst to team lead

Romano first joined Yardi in 2016 as a senior technical analyst for senior living, helping to create policies and procedures for other technical analysts. With a background in accounting and seven years as a Yardi client, she knew the pain points of senior living companies. “I empathize with the operational hurdles they must overcome,” she said.

She started as a project manager for the new electronic documents team in 2020 and was promoted to the team lead role in June 2025. “It’s truly amazing to look back on the last five years and how much we’ve grown in our capabilities and efficiencies.”

Romano joins calls with clients and brainstorming sessions with her team. She also supports the technical review committee and can push for enhancement requests to improve the next version of the software.

“I love working with clients and coming up with new and innovative ways to help make move-ins smoother for clients and their residents and families,” she said. “And I have the best team, both brilliant and efficient.” She credits her manager, Lee Glover, with encouraging unconventional thinking and nurturing a team environment.

A culture of happy employees & happy clients

With two young girls, Romano’s family life outside of work is an adventure. They live in the Boston area, and some of their favorite activities are farm and beach visits. “And they love the theater!” she said. “They’ve probably seen more Broadway performances than most adults.”

She said Yardi’s collaborative work environment and respect for work-life balance is rare. “Anant Yardi’s position is, if his employees are happy, the clients will be happy,” she said. “He goes above and beyond to make sure employee satisfaction is very high, which is shown through the success of the company.”

Meet more of Team Yardi

Thanks for taking a moment to get to know a member of the senior living team. To meet more dynamic individuals who make up #TeamYardi, visit the People page.