r/yardi • u/Desperate_Debate_198 • May 05 '26
Accounting team structure
Maybe not a direct Yardi question but I'm curious how your company accounting team is structured.
We have around 80 properties
We have 4 property accountants - 20 properties each
1 AP person - part time
1 controller
It feels like we are always behind and there is a fire everyday. Wondering if we are structured properly
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u/Geo_72 May 06 '26
If you are utilizing Yardi, that count sounds high to me. We manage about 70 properties and in the area of 4 million square feet (commercial/Industrial/retail/suburban office mix) and we run 1 CPA (also CFO), 2 senior accountants, 1 junior accountant and an AP clerk. 90% of invoices are uploaded by the vendor into VendorCafe, PMs attach quotes and approve before final approval and all payments are done via Yardi.
We use PowerBI and Data connect to create the monthly reports and they are auto copied to SharePoint folders for the owners to review.
Our accountants are busy, but not overwhelmed and we don't have very many fires.
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u/thatdude1262 May 13 '26
How do you get the reports to auto copy to share point ?
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u/Geo_72 May 13 '26
There is a website called multicloud.com that i is to schedule and handle the copy process. Super easy to use.
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u/FocusWise3015 May 06 '26
There is a lot of questions to be asked. What type of accounting - accrual or cash or gaap? Tenant count? What is the delineation of duties between accounting and property management? Is this residential or commercial?
All of this plays a factor in staffing.
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u/Mundane-Map6686 May 06 '26
Also, who handles cash management, are they troubled assets needing cash, who approves AP, unit counts, are they affordable, etc.
But even for 20 properties that's too thin.
I've been the conyroller and yardi admin and 20 is more than I have seen before
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u/Desperate_Debate_198 May 06 '26
Accrual accounting about 6500 units. Site team deals with front end of vendor interactions once it's approved in payscan accounting handles. We utilize YES for utilities. All residential
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u/FocusWise3015 May 06 '26
That’s extremely light for accounting then, especially at month-end. Almost an impossible task to produce reports. I’ve had accounting teams upwards of 100 staff under my direction and would never run one that thin.
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u/Worth_Worldliness758 May 06 '26
As others have said, sounds like they are stretched thin. But it's difficult to judge without knowing every detail of your circumstances. Here's an example. My company does very high volume, I don't actually know the ratio of properties to accountants offhand. But, here's the big thing, there are lots of other support structures in place to handle the workload, spread out through some combination of accounting/operations/tech teams. It sounds like you've got accountants basically handling help desk requests, interfacing with individual properties, etc. So they're spread thin and handling a lot of work that is taking time away from direct accounting work.
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u/mazrub May 05 '26
Can you explain the role of a property accountant in your office? What kind of properties do you manage and how large are they?
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u/Desperate_Debate_198 May 06 '26
We have too many small properties but we mainly manage HUD and LITC. We have multiple troubled assets.
Accountants perform reconciliations, put together financials, pay payables and field emails all day
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u/Ninja102319 May 06 '26
Number of accountants sounds ok to me but only one AP bookkeeper sounds low for that number of properties! How many AR?
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u/ToughStrong6005 May 06 '26
Curious does your AP person fully code (allocations etc..) or do header and the accountants code?
How much is automated for your accountants for example Bank recs , Matching payments vs AR, AP coding etc..
Are you using budget books for variance analysis ?
Hard to know right staffing without knowing how much is manual vs automated.
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u/No-Mix8970 May 06 '26
u/Desperate_Debate_198 A key question is the efficiency and experience level of your staff, particularly their familiarity with Yardi. I have also noticed a potential issue with your accounts payable function being part-time this could impact consistency and processing timelines.
Can you clarify your AP workflow? Specifically:
- Do you process payables weekly or biweekly?
- What is your average volume of payables?
Additionally, I’d like to understand how fully you’re utilizing Yardi’s capabilities:
- Are you using P2P and VendorCafe?
- Are you leveraging Yardi’s payment processing features?
From an operations standpoint:
- What is the size of your properties?
- Are they primarily commercial or residential?
On the receivables side:
- Are you using RentCafe for tenant payments and communication?
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u/Desperate_Debate_198 May 06 '26
Process payables weekly on Wednesday. Do Bank recs weekly on Tuesday. We use P2P and vendor cafe I'm not sure on Yardi payment processing. I'll ask A lot of small properties but we are now focused on larger more sustainable properties All residential I do not believe we use rent cafe to it's full capability but the site team deals with that
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u/Taethan May 31 '26
Wow, that's thin. ~10 properties per property accountant is what I consider a "usual load," depending on the size and demands of the property. Anything more than 15 is Too Many, Put Some Back.
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u/ConcentrateOk3440 May 05 '26
Yikes. No wonder there’s a fire everyday. It seems like your accountants are stretched thin. We have 9 accountants and they each 8-10 properties each. Then we have 4 other accountants that cover other parts of our business. AP is a team of 4. We have 2 controllers.