With the pandemic unfortunately still impacting daily business, there has been a consistent rise in the need for technology and more automated services. Paperless and contactless transactions are the safest way to not only avoid physical interaction, but also avoid the potential for human error and time-consuming manual effort.
The Yardi Procure to Pay solution is comprised of five products which combine to support each step of the procurement workflow:
- Yardi PayScan offers automated invoice processing, taking the burden off clients as invoices are scanned and keyed by Yardi.
- Yardi Bill Pay allows clients to automate the vendor payment process by using Yardi Card, a virtual credit card option.
- Yardi VendorCafe is a free solution which allows clients and vendors to self-service their accounts, including invoicing, payment statuses, managing purchase orders and work orders.
- Yardi VendorShield works alongside VendorCafe for a complete vendor management system to reduce risk and help automate credentialing and compliance.
- Yardi Marketplace offers a web-based purchasing platform with access to millions of MRO products and detailed reporting functionalities.
In the last 10 months, we’ve seen over 40% growth of our PayScan solution. Clients are leveraging the benefits of workflow oversight and invoice approvals on-the-go with a mobile app. With so much of the workforce still working remotely, mobile access to data is critical.
We’re now also up to over 200,000 vendors on our VendorCafe portal. Use of the vendor portal is up 48% with clients and 125% with vendors over the last 12 months. As Gary Shaw, president of Arcadia Management, mentioned in a recent ICSC webinar, the push for vendors into the portal is beneficial to all parties. “We reached out to vendors to register for electronic payments and explained the benefits of the portal. We hadn’t taken a hardline approach with the portal before…but we expressed that if you want to get paid faster, you need to sign up. It’s going to streamline everything,” he said. Shaw highlighted the significant difference in getting one payment a month if they want a paper check, versus daily or weekly payments if he’s processing it electronically.
Additionally, VendorShield has seen a remarkable 179% growth in usage over the same time frame. It is evident that businesses are replacing the traditional Excel spreadsheet with a less time-consuming and more accurate, automated procedure.
The most accelerated process across Yardi’s client base was the elimination of paper checks. Transactions through Yardi Bill Pay grew 260% as clients moved from manually cutting checks to Yardi Card or other forms of electronic payments. Currently, over 10,000 vendors accept the virtual credit card, achieving faster payments and increased transparency.
For many organizations, ensuring business continuity became an unexpected focus when teams were sent home in March. Integration of Yardi’s product lines is a major step in achieving that goal, as automated solutions facilitate continued accounts payable processing regardless of where your workforce is located. Yardi Kube, the workspace management platform which is widely adopted by coworking space operators, integrates seamlessly with the Yardi Procure to Pay product line. Yardi Kube is the only coworking solution which offers a comprehensive procurement product native to its environment. Shift Workspaces, a Yardi Kube client with three unique locations in the Denver area, recently switched from a third-party billing and invoicing software to the Procure to Pay solution, adding it onto their platform of Yardi products.
While smaller workspaces may not need the depth and expansive capabilities of joining these two products, for operators who intend to grow and scale their business efficiently, a pairing of Kube with Procure to Pay can save time, money and manual effort.
As society tries to return to a normal work structure, the adoption of automated technologies will continue to play a key role in user safety, convenience and timeliness of transactions. Traditional office space is being repurposed and private offices, common areas and shared desks are all being reimagined. Combining Yardi Kube and Yardi Procure to Pay allows operators to manage an evolving workspace while ensuring business continuity and streamlining operations.