The Problems We Solve

Scroll below for our solutions to the most common problems we solve for our customers.

1. Metrics are not instantly visible (more)
2. It is too time consuming to manually calculate and display the key performance indicators (KPI) (more)
3. Having to export data into Excel and then produce reports (more)
4. Inability to visualize trends and outliers in charts (more)
5. Inability to drill-down into data to understand key metrics such as delinquency, collections, occupancy, cash flow etc. (more)
6. Valuable data is stored complicated spreadsheets, thereby creating risk (more)
7. Data is spread across multiple systems so it is difficult to look at a combined picture in a single report (more)
8. Month-end close takes too long, is tedious, and too dependent on PDF reports and Excel files (more)
9. Not sure how to utilize data and analytics to drive business performance (more)
10. Not sure which metrics to track (more)

Problem #1: Metrics are not instantly visible

There are several reasons why executives don’t have instant visibility to the metrics they care about:

1. The data required to calculate them is spread out in different systems and is hard to get to
2. The calculations are complex, and therefore requiring advanced data management and Excel skills
3. The numbers are usually out of date because it takes too much effort to re-calculate the metrics
4. They have to log in to the property management system or open a specific Excel file to view the metrics

How We Solve This

We want you to be able to see the metrics you care about when you want to see them.

Once we understand how you calculate your metrics, we will create connections to the systems from which data is required, write code to calculate the metrics, and setup a web-based dashboard to display the metrics to you. 

In addition to custom metrics dashboards, we also provide a set of pre-built dashboards that display commonly used metrics for running a property management company.

For More Information

See examples of our dashboards here (Dashboard Examples)

Learn more about Data Warehouses here (Data Warehouse)

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Problem #3: Having to export data into Excel and then produce reports

The good thing about being able to export data to Excel is that you can do what you want with the data once it is in Excel.

However, there are many downsides. Using Excel for recurring activities is going to prevent you from scaling your business and better utilizing the talents of your team.

How We Solve This

Many systems allow data more than one way to export data. A common method for extracting data from a system is to use an “API connection”.

Systems such as Rent Manager, QuickBooks, Salesforce, Google Analytics etc. have an API for extracting data. In most cases, we automate the exporting of data from systems using an API connection.

We pull data on a regular basis (for example, daily, weekly or monthly) and can display the data in reports and dashboards.

For More Information

• See this video about “Open and Closed Systems”
• Once data is exported, it makes sense to store it in a Data Warehouse: (Data Warehouse)
• XLhub is our product that makes it easy to push data from Excel into a SQL database: (XLhub)

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Problem #5: Inability to drill-down into data to understand key metrics such as delinquency, collections, occupancy, cash flow etc.

While looking at a report and you see an unexpected change in month-over-month numbers, or see something else that is unexpected, it is natural to want to drill down into the data to understand what caused it.

For example, if the NOI of your portfolio is lower than you expected, you want to drill down to see which property is dragging down the NOI for the portfolio. Once you’ve identified the property, you want to know if the income went down or the expenses went up for that property. If expenses were higher than expected, then you want to know in which GL account the unexpected expense was incurred. And for which units and who approved the expense.

Wouldn’t it be great if the tools you used enabled you to follow that line of questions and easily find the answers?

How We Solve This

The scenario described above can accomplished once your data has been properly organized and you are using the right tools for visualizing your data. This example would involve starting at the portfolio P&L, then looking at the property P&L, and after drilling down into the a line on the property P&L, go to the General Ledger and look at individual transactions.

In order to do this, we would load both the P&L data as well as General Ledger transactions, and create associations by GL Account, Property, Property Group, Time Period etc.  The data would be extracted from your accounting system, stored in the Data Warehouse, and visualized using a tool such as Tableau.

For More Information

• Watch demos of data visualizations: (Visual Data Analysis Videos)
• See how plain General Ledger data can be visualized (Expense Transactions Visualization)
• Examples of more data visualizations: (RentViewer Report Examples)
• Example of scatter plot for visualizing activity:(Scatterplot Example Video)

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Problem #7: Data is spread across multiple systems, so it is difficult to look at a combined picture in a single report

The good thing about being able to export data to Excel is that you can do what you want with the data once it is in Excel. However, there are many downsides. Using Excel for recurring activities is going to prevent you from scaling your business and better utilizing the talents of your team.

How We Solve This

Many systems allow data more than one way to export data. A common method for extracting data from a system is to use an “API connection”. Systems such as Rent Manager, QuickBooks, Salesforce, Google Analytics etc. have an API for extracting data. In most cases, we automate the exporting of data from systems using an API connection. We pull data on a regular basis (for example, daily, weekly or monthly) and can display the data in reports and dashboards.

For More Information

See this video about “Open and Closed Systems”

See this page to learn about data warehouses

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Problem #9: Not sure how to utilize data and analytics to drive business performance

The good thing about being able to export data to Excel is that you can do what you want with the data once it is in Excel. However, there are many downsides. Using Excel for recurring activities is going to prevent you from scaling your business and better utilizing the talents of your team.

How We Solve This

Many systems allow data more than one way to export data. A common method for extracting data from a system is to use an “API connection”. Systems such as Rent Manager, QuickBooks, Salesforce, Google Analytics etc. have an API for extracting data. In most cases, we automate the exporting of data from systems using an API connection. We pull data on a regular basis (for example, daily, weekly or monthly) and can display the data in reports and dashboards.

For More Information

See this video about “Open and Closed Systems”

See this page to learn about data warehouses

(go to top)