Berkshire Property Advisors L.L.C.

Berkshire Property Advisors L.L.C. Speeds Month-End Close with AssureNET GL

Profile

Berkshire Property Advisors, L.L.C. is widely recognized as a fully integrated multifamily investment management firm, with properties throughout the US. Today, there are more than 22,000 apartment units under management and a period of rapid growth is forecast. Located in Boston, MA, Berkshire Property Advisors is the operating entity of The Berkshire Group, which is responsible for the property management of its multifamily portfolio and series of funds, including Berkshire Income Realty Fund, an $800M real estate investment trust and the Berkshire Multifamily Value Fund, a $1.1B multifamily fund.

Challenges

Reconciliations were completed in Excel. Managing and certifying those reconciliations was challenging as well as time-consuming. There was no visibility into all 10,000-15,000 accounts. One could challenge if all reconciliations were completed, approved, and certified. Checklists were used by reviewers to show that they had completed key areas of reconciliation and other tasks associated with closing the books. The monthly close process averaged two or more weeks.

Objectives

• Establish standard processes and formats for account reconciliations
• Increase visibility into all accounts across the enterprise and manage the sequence in which reconciliation is completed
• Simplify account reconciliation processes for reviewers and approvers
• Reduce the time it takes to complete the monthly close by half

Capabilities

• Complete visibility into the status of the control across the entire company, including detailed analysis by department, location, or region
• Template-based reconciliation that standardizes the format and content of reconciliations
• Paperless review capabilities, enabling reviewers to access the complete reconciliation package from within the application for purposes of conducting the review
• Trending, variance, and balance flux analysis in conjunction with the account reconciliation process
• Tracking of account reconciliations, including the generation of reminder emails and late notices

Proven Results

Delivered as a subscription-based, ASP-hosted solution, AssureNET GL was deployed quickly and all implementation plan due dates were met on time. The implementation of AssureNET GL required limited assistance from Berkshire Properties Advisors’ IT department. Trintech provides IT infrastructure hardware, software, and the system management necessary for Berkshire Properties Advisors’ to meet its unique business requirements. Since the implementation of AssureNET GL, Berkshire Properties Advisors has:

• Created custom templates
• Decreased data entry
• Simplified reconciliation processes for reviewers and approvers – the standardized format for reconciliations is applied across all business entities
• Saved time on complicated reconciliations, resulting from: the software’s ability to predict account balances and the fact that data can be loaded into several accounts at one time and supporting documentation can be attached to reconciliations
• Decreased the time to close each month

“Every time I explore a capability or possibility, I like the product more. AssureNET GL does things outside of the box. I get very excited about that!” – Christopher Nichols, Vice President and Controller, Berkshire Property Advisors

Published Wednesday, March 5th, 2008 at 12:53 pm and filed under Success Story Library, Applications, AssureNET GL.