933 Hours Back in Two Months with HOAi

The timing of the HOA Accounting’s switch to Vantaca lined up with a bigger transition at the company. Bartel was in the process of buying HOA Accounting Services from its previous owner, who was preparing to retire. "In order to set me up for success, he suggested that we change software platforms at the same time," Bartel said. "That way he could be there through the process, so that we could be more efficient."

Their previous platform wasn't giving them much reason to stay, either. "It stopped making improvements. It just seemed like it was on its way out," said Bartel. It was also becoming harder to use day-to-day. "It was definitely antiquated. It was hard to get on. You had to use the VPN to access it. You couldn't just go on to the cloud and log in, and it was hard for training purposes because it just had a lot going on.”

When it came time to evaluate replacements, HOA Accounting Services looked at several vendors and sat through the demos. Two things set Vantaca apart.

First, fully online capabilities. "We have a remote team, so we rely on people to have that access," Bartel said.

Second, customization. "The ability to make anything work the way that our team works. With most software, it's like you have to do this or you have to do that, and Vantaca wasn't that. You get to make your own path."

Since making the switch, HOA Accounting Services has grown about 70% without having to significantly expand their team. "When we started the transition, I think we were at 17,000 units, and now we have about 29,000," Bartel said. "We've been able to keep our team the same while almost doubling the number of units that we serve." 

That extra capacity also allowed the company to take on more complex associations, the kind with special assessments, extra funds, and petty cash accounts that don't fit a cookie-cutter model. "It's not just simple financials. There are extra funds, special assessments, petty cash accounts, and it has a lot of different ways to address those needs," said Bartel. 

The team has also saved significant time. "We have saved 40% of our time when we moved over to Vantaca, with different workflows and efficiencies. We're still working on that every day,” said Bartel. “We're always creating new action items and ways to make everything faster." 

Vantaca Pay gave the company HOA Accounting the opportunity to have its own branded app, something the team was particularly excited about. "Vantaca has this ability to do a custom app. We were super excited about that because it gives you this feeling of being a big company. We wouldn't have been able to do it on our own," she said. "When we rolled out the app, Vantaca Pay allowed you to log in and just make the payment right away, whereas with the portal and the arrangements with the bank before, you had to do the single sign-on."

That mattered most for residents who found the old process confusing. "One of our biggest complaints from homeowners, especially in senior communities, was how complicated it was to make a payment. Now it's simpler for people to make payments," she said. "Our collections are great. I think we're at approximately 98%."

Before adopting HOAi, Bartel didn't make the call on her own. She surveyed her team first, the same way she does for every major decision at the company. "Anytime we do anything, I like to survey the team so I can get their buy-in to what we're doing," Bartel said. "That way, anything we're doing is on behalf of them, and they're just as excited as I am."

The team's answer was clear. "The team was, without a doubt, ready to move forward with HOAi," she said. "From watching the demos and being part of these Vantaca events, we are confident HOAi is going to save us time like several people, and then we'll be able to reallocate people to new clients or to other departments that may need more assistance."

That freed-up time has changed what the job looks like day to day. "Nobody likes to do portal registrations, give password resets, and all that stuff. You don't come to work going, yay, I'm so excited to do this," Bartel said. "So, I think more meaningful work is work that makes employees happy, keeping them challenged and excited about coming in. It's about real issues or challenges, and getting involved with the client to resolve those challenges. Critical thinking, bonding, and sharing communications with the client directly, instead of emails that can be handled without a person."

Change wasn't a hard sell at HOA Accounting Services to begin with. "Our team is used to change. Ever since I've started, we've changed different things, made improvements," Bartel said, pointing to earlier moves like switching HR and payroll platforms. If she could do the HOAi rollout again, she'd only change the timing. "I do wish that when we rolled out HOAi, we had done it a little bit sooner and shared information with the team more," she said. "I think we had this excitement ourselves that we thought was relayed to others, but you can't truly relay it without having them experience it."

The clearest results have come from HOAi's work on accounts payable, something Bartel wishes they had started sooner. "AP has the greatest impact on any of our businesses because it's just huge. There is so much time and manual effort often required by team members to upload invoice information, code it, and enter the amounts," Bartel said. "We delayed that a little bit because we had an outside provider and a contract that wasn't coming due until recently. I wish we still would have done it despite that, because it's made the biggest impact."

The team started small, running January's new client starts, about eight associations, through HOAi's AP workflow before moving the rest of the portfolio over in February. By the time Bartel checked the numbers, even she was surprised. "We've saved, just this year, in two months, 933 hours, which I calculated last night, and which equates to three full-time people," she said. "I feel like we've barely scratched the surface."