In the traditional AP processes, invoices frequently end up on workstations and in mailboxes while they wait to be picked up and forwarded to their designated location. Most businesses struggle with bulk work. This is especially more because most offices do not hire dedicated expert accountants because their services are expensive. But more than 60% of companies feel that they have very little knowledge of accounting and that is the crux of the matter.  

Workflow technology is crucial in Accounts Payable since the same queuing and scheduling issues might occur at every stage. When you have workflow technology this waiting and scheduling can be automated, and your staff can free up their valuable time to focus on other important matters of business.  

Workflow technology is a system that efficiently and logically distributes the invoice to the appropriate recipient. Once you input the basic data into the system, the system itself will keep sending the invoices on your behalf. Even if you do not remember to initiate the invoice, your system will send you automated notifications to help meet deadlines.  

The secret to having a strong financial system is automating your accounting process, and AP is one of the important components of this system overall. We can help if you feel intimidated by the task of automating your accounting procedures after using manual processes for so long.  

The Assetsoft team is well-versed in offering clients outsourced accounting services and we have worked with an endless number of clients. We can assist in automating your accounting process, we also offer assistance with the newest technology selection and software integration. Our expert accountants can also use a mix of the right tech and expert human resources to give you the best accounting and bookkeeping results.  

Get in touch with our team to know more! Book a one-hour free consultation call to get talk to our team.  

When you manage your business expenses, you can keep track of your business budget, which can help you develop a sound financial system inside the company. This will also help you completely control your finances and never fall prey to unforeseen situations. When you keep track of your business expenses, you also keep up with all regulations and governmental compliances. 

It results in you paying your bills and taxes on time and never overspending necessary cash on fines and penalties. When this happens, both your employees and investors will be confident in your work processes, and your credit scores will also go up and help you get future business loans to plan growth and expansion.  

If you are following a DIY process to keeping track of your business expenses and managing it, here are some easy steps and tricks to get better at it.  

Categorizing these expenses will also help you understand which comes under the deductibles category, and you can benefit from them during tax season.  

Are you struggling on a daily basis to keep track of your business expenses? You can use CRM software to keep track of all business expenses. Or you can also integrate a software like SAP Concur to track your employee expenses. The whole expense record-keeping and data verification, payments, tallying numbers, and more will all be done on the software, and you will not have to sweat over manually conducting these processes. 

Want to integrate a software option to manage expenses? Confused about which is the best suited for your business in your particular industry? We can help you with that decision as well as the integration process. We also provide customized solutions to all of your software needs. Get in touch with our team to get started on this journey.  

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Managing the finances of your business is not an easy task. CPA Practice Advisor reports say more than 61% of small businesses struggle to manage their cash flow. Especially when it comes to small real estate businesses, it can be even more difficult. Why? The topmost reason is that not many real estate professionals have the in-depth financial knowledge and the expertise required to handle this work. They start following a DIY process which can be a major money drainer for the company.  

Furthermore, many small businesses do not have the required budget to hire in-house full-time financial experts to take care of their finances. The first step to handling your small business finances is to plan strategy and leadership. The next step is to make practical and realistic financial plans. The last step is to execute them. If you find it a little too difficult, you can also get outsourced financial services and get them to do the work for you.  

At Assetsoft, our services span a wide range of services and products in the real estate sector. From offering expert financial advice and strategy to helping you make a technology selection to automate tasks like back office accounting and rent collection, we can do it all.  

So, what is holding you back from taking the first step in getting better at handling your finances? Book a free one-hour consultation call with our team to know more. Talk soon! 

Normally most of us end up using AI and Machine Learning as synonymous phrases. But they are vastly different in the way they work. AI helps your system develop human-like thinking and acting capabilities. Whereas Machine Learning helps your system learn from historical data being fed to it without further programming. How do these play any role in the automation of your AP? Here’s how. 

Automation is all about automatically doing the tedious and repetitive work that goes on your system. Which was once done manually can very well be completed with software integration. AI will help mimic the manual tasks, and Machine Learning helps it by finding patterns and predicting future developments from data already present in the system. 

AI can adapt and find solutions to N number of tasks that a human can do, but Machine Learning has a limited capacity of work because it draws insights from past data. This is exactly why you need both of them in your AP automation plans to leverage the best of both. 

Frauds can be of endless types when it comes to Accounts Payable. Inhouse frauds like check tampering, scams in fake bills, overstated expenses, multiple claims on the same statements, and many more. A proper AI-based AP system will flag all such discrepancies in payments the moment it notices. These might very well be ignored by human eyes as gross mistakes. AI will check for patterns in all your payments systems, alert you every time there are high-risk transactions and abnormal payment schemes. 

More than 63% of major financial institutions across the world believe that AI can genuinely help in reducing in-house financial frauds. They are of the belief that AI-based accounting systems can predict frauds even before they take place, and that makes intervention much easier. Machine Learning simultaneously compares these data findings with previous fraudulent transactions to detect patterns and helps identify the source. Saving you from major financial frauds even before they occur. 

Are you getting troubled with all the monotonous accounting work? The Assetsoft team is here to help. Our industry experts and consultants can develop an immaculate automated accounting system with the use of AI, Machine Learning, and more. Our team specializes in back office outsourcing services for all your accounting needs. 

If you are a small business that wants to reap the benefits of AI in automating your AP, you can talk to us. We will guide you on this journey to revamp your manual system with the best technical solutions. No more investing in full-time in-house expert staff; you can just outsource the work and reassign your workforce to other matters of importance.  Contact the Assetsoft team today!

Even if it has no physical presence, every business has a 'front-office' and a 'back office.' These terms are allotted by referring to the roles of the teams or departments. For example, in a real estate business, the teams that work to acquire new clients and implement new campaigns are the 'front office.' 

On the other hand, departments like accounting that crunch numbers and produce statistics to be used by the front office teams are the 'back office.' This group is not part of the core real estate jobs like mergers and acquisitions but is vital. A company's back office shoulders the central business operations and is labor-intensive. 

As a result, businesses in the real estate industry are leasing their labor-heavy, administrative side to third parties. These firms are experts in handling all sorts of property management roles. Functions like rent collection, complaint resolution, and home inspections, which would have weighed down the core business, are handled efficiently. They control even those tedious customer services like end-of-year CAM reconciliation and lease abstractions.  As an industry worth $26 billion, the benefits of the outsourcing business are many. Here are a few notable ones 

Disadvantages of a Back Office in Real Estate Businesses 

The truth of the matter is this- back-office work is tedious and often draining. Not only are processes like document issue resolutions and accounting high volume work, but they are also repetitive. This factor means that a financing worker will input the same data about the same worker's salary month after month during payday.  

The result of such monotonous work is an uninspired workflow. Such conditions lead to stagnation in innovation and can stall the growth of the business.  

How Outsourcing Can Help 

Outsourcing these process-oriented tasks to a third party can be the solution for you; if you feel that your back office is running too many losses, you can choose to focus only on your core 'front office' businesses. Without the hassle of hours of analysis and data entry, you are now free to be more dynamic in your strategies. Knowing that all your HR and accounting tasks are in charge of a reliable firm can help you innovate your business. It will give you more time to focus on those core areas that make the most income. You can finally get to implementing dynamic strategies to your core business without worrying about answering complaints or crunching data. 

Sure, the sum of hiring a third-party management company may seem excessive to you initially. After all, you have been used to having a dedicated back office to fulfill all these tasks. But even so, take a minute and think. Outsourcing back-office processes to a high-rated consultation and service firm is going to benefit you in the long run.  

Saving on In-House Expenses 

For one, you do not have to pay monthly rent for the office space anymore. That saving in itself is a neat sum if calculated as an annual fee. Besides this, expenditures like data charges, energy bills, food/inventory expenses, and repair charges are in the hands of the outsourcing company.  There is even a cut down on minor details like paying parking fees for employee-reserved spaces. You also save from not having to train new hires.  

Redirecting Savings 

Instead, the money saved from these can be redirected into your core business. The amount can get you better equipment in your front office. It can even help you train your core team in more innovative skills. The sharp cut in in-house expenditure also adds bulk to your business's annual budget. As a result, you now have the capital to your property business into the newer ground. 

Saving on Cost of Software 

One of the main reasons you are looking to outsource tasks like HR and inventory management is that you cannot afford to revitalize this part of the business. Software that can enhance the productivity of a back-office can be expensive. But with the back-office process outsourcing, your partner can grant you access to high-grade software that can improve your company's reputation. 

Tools in software like Leverton and MRI help enhance the quality of your back office services. Even for experienced back offices, common area maintenance reconciliation and lease abstraction are complex. They are notoriously tricky to negotiate. Chances are, most of the bad reviews on your business arise from the mismanagement of these two tasks. 

But the technology provided by your collaborating partner can do away with all this fuss. The data provided by management technology software like MRI is accurate and easy to read. It is sure to satisfy your client and improve the overall quality of your services.  Such a third-party service is particularly beneficial for small to medium businesses. Larger companies have bigger budgets. They can quickly get access to management software that would usually be out of the reach of small businesses. 

A primary reason so many back offices fail to reach their goal is that they are often stuck using old technology. In such cases, the workforce cannot keep up with the competition that uses more advanced software. As a result, the business suffers losses. 

Back office process outsourcing gives your business a chance to convert all your data into a digital format. The outsourcing company does more than input your data into a newer system. They also convert them into readable text, get rid of irrelevant junk, and update those areas that need refreshing. As a result, your entire business gets revamping as the system gets updated from the base up. 

Every state has specific rules that serve as guidelines for property accounting.  

For example, most states in the US have set a limit on the security deposit amounts that can be collected from tenants. Keeping up-to-date with the property accounting guidelines of your state can save you, your tenants, and your clients from legal hassles later on.  

If you find administrative guidelines hard to understand, you can seek the help of a professional who specializes in real estate accounting.  

You can’t work with automation software before assessing what tasks you can automate. Luckily, almost anything is automatable these days. You can find dozens of excellent automation candidates. 

Let's start with the basics: What can be your first step? 

Calendar scheduling software lets you organize appointments and set notifications for them. You can offer appointment forms for your contacts, and your software will use that information to schedule it. 

You can turn multiple sources into to-do lists: sent forms, emails, and messages. You can automate workflows from this information and add them to calendars. 

Automation lets you segment your emails into categories. However, you can also automate responses and follow-ups for your email marketing campaigns or regular communications. 

Social media marketing is vital for any company today. It can be as time-consuming as email management, so automating it is an outstanding opportunity. You can schedule posts and automate your live chats easily. 

Filling and creating forms take almost the same time, for they add up quickly. Thankfully, you can automate both tasks with different intuitive solutions. 

Data management is one of the ideal processes for automation. You can streamline data organization, database creation, data analysis, and backups. Every process has branching automation possibilities, and it can make a significant difference in your company. 

Personal interviews are naturally non-automatable for now. However, you can organize application forms from recruiting efforts, prospective buyers, and aspiring tenants. Automation can filter the best prospects for personal interviews. 

Creating proposals takes effort, and organizing them is similarly problematic. Luckily, today's solutions can automatically manage and share your submissions while keeping them in a single database. 

Collecting, sorting, signing, and sending documents can be tedious. Cloud and collaboration solutions allow you to centralize your documents and share them instantly with others. 

Creating invoices and billing requires contact data. That makes them prime for automation. Different solutions can collect this information and create invoices from them. 

After collecting them, you need to keep your leads updated on your offers, developments, and other relevant information. You can draft emails and schedule them—and their follow-ups—seamlessly with the right tools. 

Marketing has seen prominent innovation in multiple manners. You can automate emails, social media, customer journeys, and the sales process. Keeping them posted on their hired services and orders is also straightforward. 

Live chats and other support channels are fantastic for automation. Chatbots and CRM software give you countless possibilities to keep your clients engaged and interested. 

Finally, you can create contact profiles and update them in real-time with current automation solutions. Any changes to the profile’s source will show on their profile within your database. 

After you’ve listed what you wish to automate, you need to find the right tool for every task. The market is filled with fantastic solutions—some more advanced than others. Let's go through the most popular automation solutions for the functions we mentioned. 

Zapier is a typical recommendation if you want versatility and intuitiveness. You can automate and integrate multiple processes with a single solution. 

IFTTT is similar to Zapier, but it offers more specific features. It's better for beginners, but you're sacrificing other solutions' flexibility. However, its free version is stellar for newcomers. 

ActiveCampaign is a staple in CRM software—particularly for email marketing. You can create email campaigns with follow-ups and responses. However, it might lack some features from its more advanced peers. 

The Google Ads dashboard comes with plenty of fundamental features that can get you started for marketing automation. You can automate bidding and reporting, and its API offers more possibilities. 

UiPath is the ideal choice if you want to expand your automation possibilities. It’s more complicated, so working with a professional can be crucial. Nevertheless, these scripts work with virtually every process within your business.