In the real estate property development industry, risk mitigation is a never-ending project, and finance teams are often the first to take the fall if something goes wrong. Whether a duplicate invoice was paid or a draw request is taking too long, many teams shift the blame to accounting.

Of course, the finance team isn’t to blame—the legacy systems keeping the real estate development industry trapped in the past are the main culprits for these issues. With construction teams stuck using Excel, controllers have to manually enter project information into their AP and accounting systems. Development managers are essentially blind to what’s siloed in these accounting systems, making it difficult for them to take accountability for project budgets. The lack of unified data causes causes the draw process to drag on even longer, increasing the risk of project delays and budget overruns.

How To Solve Issues That Arise From Legacy Systems

Utilizing automation significantly reduces these tiresome processes. Within platforms like Rabbet, development managers are responsible for uploading documentation into the system to be automatically organized. This eliminates a step in the process; rather than a controller comparing a development manager’s spreadsheet to a stack of invoices, software can read documentation and compare it to budget line-items. Instead of looking at six different systems for reporting data, automation can connect and synchronize data for easy reporting. Development managers can see budget updates in real-time without controllers needing to compile data to pull a report. Automation can even help accountants close the books faster by ensuring that the most up-to-date information is available for use. 

Automation in CRE software is a way to remove the redundancy of data-entry, provide more checks and balances, and keep every department accountable for the information they provide. Finance teams who rely on automation to tackle these manual tasks report improved efficiency and productivity. More CRE controllers are using software to automate tasks and drastically reduce the risk of errors. Download the State of Construction Finance Report to learn more about how development firms are using automation to streamline their daily tasks.