How do you reconcile reports from various property management softwares into one report for LPs?
Hi all! new to asset management space. Basically a software engineer looking for opportunities to build tooling/software in this space. I was recently reading an article in AZ16 blog: [https://a16z.com/2022/12/09/serving-the-multifamily-real-estate-industry-with-software/](https://a16z.com/2022/12/09/serving-the-multifamily-real-estate-industry-with-software/)

specifically this paragraph piqued my interest: 

**Today, most asset management divisions for large multifamily owners and investors manually pull reports from the various PMSs their end properties run on to understand how their assets are performing. Often, everyone from an entry-level analyst all the way up to the heads of these groups, are manually searching these reports for errors and reconciling the data between how the different PMSs label line items, which is a tremendous waste of man- and brain-power. We believe there is an opportunity to build a system of record of data that sits on top of these various PMS products. Given the increased transparency and interoperability of data that would be a byproduct of this product, we believe this would be a catalyst for increased innovation in the industry. The primary risk in this category is that it can be challenging to deliver an immediate return on investment (ROI) from day one, making it difficult to justify gathering this level of data in the first place.**

Is this a problem for most funds especially multifamily? I was thinking that given so many firms/REITs outsource property management function and each of their outsourced companies might be using a different property management software, at the end of the month somebody has to reconcile these reports across all properties (from different property management softwares like buildium, appfolio, yardi etc) into a single report.

I would be so thankful and appreciate the opportunity to connect with someone from the industry and learn from their experience. In exchange, i can help you with anything technical.
[{"id": "j120f34", "text": "I work for a REPE firm that works with a variety of different management companies across our portfolio. We use Yardi to do exactly what you are describing. Essentially, we do a one-time \u201cmapping\u201d of each management company\u2019s chart of accounts (revenue/expense line items) to our internal list of standardized line items and then all monthly financials get automatically translated/reshuffled into the appropriate line items in our approved internal financial statement categorization.", "replies": [{"id": "j128z6l", "text": "hi u/buhrt thank you so much for sharing your insights. Some follow-up questions -\n\n1. are you able to validate and translate chart of accounts from all PM softwares including buildium and appfolio in yardi?\n2. How much time and effort does it take to make a reconciled report from chart of accounts to property level and fund level? calculate NOI? Does argus come into play here?\n3. Any opportunity you see where a tech solution can help streamline reporting for funds? Would love to work with you or your team to see if we can help automate any reporting or manual tasks", "replies": [{"id": "j12a62a", "text": "1. Not sure, to be honest. Our management companies aren\u2019t using appfolio or buildium for reporting, but 100% of our management companies (we work with probably 30-40+) are integrated in our Yardi system without issue.\n\n2. Running the reports is very quick. Like, a minute at most. The time-consuming part is setting up the initial chart of accounts.\n\n3. Sure, there are lots of opportunities like this there are also quite a few solutions that already exist. We\u2019ve got our needs covered via existing programs.", "replies": [], "depth": 3}], "depth": 2}], "depth": 1}, {"id": "j12b0uk", "text": "You can either a) create a chart of accounts and mandate the property accountants to use them or b) use their chart of accounts and than map them to yours, but mapping can be time consuming even if you can put a macro together to automate as much as possible.  Choice A is better but takes time to get the accountants up to speed on how you want it done.  Some companies I worked for went with A while others went with B.  You have to be a pretty large client to use choice B.  Choice A works if you are a buy and hold.  Otherwise, it's a waste of time.\n\nEither way, you can import actuals into Argus at the property level if needed and roll it up to portfolio level.  Companies I worked at used 'analysts' to map or off shore resources (send it to them before you go home and it's ready when you come in next morning).  Of course, nothing beats doing it yourself to really understand the how the numbers are flowing, which helps you in writing up narratives...", "replies": [{"id": "j12cbgb", "text": "thanks u/SK10504 for sharing your experience. For funds big enough to go with choice B, do you think there might be a big enough opportunity to build a tool to automate the mapping process? Like if we could pull out all the chart of accounts/reports from different PM softwares (appfolio, buildium, yardi etc) via api and create an easy way to map and validate?\n\nalso, curious to learn if PE firms evaluate their Property Manager firms and if they consider replacing them to improve NOI?", "replies": [], "depth": 2}], "depth": 1}, {"id": "j13pt37", "text": "In my experience, usually owner will just give the PM access to their software and limit to just that buikding(s). Boom. No issues with COA. \n\nIn the event that owner can\u2019t do this, then i think it\u2019s likely that they are not running a sophisticated enough chart to warrant any expensive or complicated solution.", "replies": [], "depth": 1}]