About Our Property Management Software Consultants
The Jacobs Group provides pro-active project management, implementation, training, property onboarding, custom programming, and day-to-day support for companies throughout the US and Canada. Whether you are newly implementing your property management software or are already using it, our experienced consultants assist you with:
- Conventional / Market Residential
- Affordable – Section 8, Tax Credit, HOME, Rural Development, PHAs
- Commercial – Office, Retail, Industrial
- Condo / HOA / Co-Op
- Construction / Job Cost / Maintenance
- Budgeting and Forecasting
- Resident / Commercial / Condo Portals / ACH / Payment Processing
- Correspondence / FillDocs
- ETL Data Imports
- Upgrades
- P2P / BillPay
- Elevate Products
- Positive Pay / Auto Bank Rec
- Tax / Insurance / Mortgages / Intercompany
- Interfaces
Our Core Competencies
Our team of experts provide in-depth project management to ensure your project is completed on time and within budget.
We offer specialized support for Yardi property management software, ensuring that your systems run smoothly and effectively.
Our professionals manage the entire process of implementing Yardi software, from initial setup to full deployment.
We provide comprehensive Yardi software training to ensure your team can utilize the software to its fullest potential.
Post-implementation, we offer continuous support and maintenance to address any issues and keep your systems up-to-date.
Optimize Your Property MANAGEMENT SOFTWARE INVESTMENT
Let The Jacobs Group help you streamline operations with expert Yardi software implementation.
Contact us today to get started on a more efficient, hassle-free management experience.
Project Management
A successful Property Management Software project requires proper planning and on-going project management. We utilize an on-line project management system called Autotask. We begin a new project by having an on-site or remote kick off meeting. This allows us to better understand your company, its property portfolio, expectations and timeline. From this meeting, we prepare the project plan in our Autotask system.
We also believe in weekly status meetings, along with your Yardi account manager, to ensure we are on track and on budget at all times. We prepare an agenda sent prior to the meeting and after these meetings, we create both a weekly project status report and a weekly to-do list so you, the client, and all other parties, knows what is expected to be completed the following week. These weekly project status reports are ideal to forward to upper management or the Board of Directors to confirm that their approved budget is on track and everyone is working hard to move the project forward. We also work with clients to draft the conversion/implementation/go-live timeline and coordinate any data conversion which may be required.
Implementation
After an initial kick-off meeting to understand the client’s needs, we move into the implementation phase. We review all aspects of Yardi in detail with your implementation team. Managing your property management software project is a complex task and this phase allows the project team to decide how much of the software to implement in Phase I and what to rollout down the road. Furthermore, we work with clients to provide best practices on policies and procedures using your new Yardi program or version upgrade.
Training
Our experienced trainers can provide training on the Yardi software and any ancillary modules that are perfect for your company. We can provide either on-site or Zoom remote training. Unlike some other consultants, we do not charge travel time for on-site training. We prepare a training agenda and can provide a customized policies and procedures manual in MS Word or PDF format. We either provide a train-the-trainer style approach where we train someone on the project team or training department, and they will then train the end-users or we can train all the end users.
Data Conversion
The Jacobs Group utilizes several different methods to electronically convert property and financial data. For property, unit and resident types of data, we can use our SQL import scripts or utilize the ETL import capability within the software. For trial balance, transactions and budget data, we can import data or train clients to import themselves (along with using a chart of account mapping file, if necessary). We can also assist clients with the import and proper setup of new properties they acquire after they are fully up and running.
Custom Reporting
There are several different custom reporting options and technologies. Our programmers can create practically any report you wish. With an initial custom report request, we first advise you if there is a similar report within your system which you may not be aware of. If not, we try to leverage our extensive custom reports library to keep the cost as low as possible.
Software Support
The Jacobs Group provides fast, experienced technical support – and this sets us apart from others. If we can provide a quick answer in 5 minutes because we know the answer right away based on our many years of experience, we feel it’s better than other sources who need to ‘look-into-it’, ‘check-with-their-manager’, and get back to you days later. Our experience and proactive support service results in cost savings for clients in addition to getting results much faster.
Yardi Database Reviews
A service The Jacobs Group has provided over the last few years is a full software database review. We look at all aspects of the software setup including most areas of the system admin menu, the Chart of Accounts, security, charge codes and a detailed review of a couple of properties. This extensive software review results in a detailed report (approximately 7 pages long) with recommended changes to the setup. It also identifies areas of your program you are not utilizing (and may not be aware of) to make your software more efficient. Once the report is sent to you, we schedule a call to review the report in detail, answer any questions and help establish a plan to prioritize the changes needed.
Business Process Review:
- The Jacobs Group also provides full property management business process reviews. These reviews are provided by the Principal, Chris Jacobs, as he has over 30 years of experience working in the property management business. He interviews employees at each level of your company’s structure, gets honest feedback of time consuming and poor business processes, then provides industry and best practices/recommendations. Chris has worked with hundreds of property management companies and has learned what works and what doesn’t.