If the contents of this post are a outside of your wheelhouse, don’t worry, this is why I started CREXchange.io! We have free Commercial Real Estate Power BI Reports to help clients get up and off the ground with Yardi Data Integration and Advanced Power BI Custom Reports to help run your CRE business. Contact us there for more details or a demo!

1.     Export and Restore your Yardi Database backup locally

The first step to be able to analyze your data is going to involve getting access to your data. Most SaaS platforms including Yardi do not allow direct access to the database or data model but most do allow for you to export this data to your local instance to do as you please. You will need to build a process that imports and restores the back up database copy to a local SQL Server. This process can be tricky, but it can be done. See our whitepapers below to get more informational on this step. You will require a SQL server license and a virtual machine to host the back up.

2.     Transform the Yardi data into a usable data model

There are thousands of tables in the database, most which you will never need. Extract the handful of tables you need for your data that pertain to occupancy, revenue, properties, tenants, units and accounting and others you may need and organize this data into a data model that can be easily sliced and diced. The model can be complex so be sure to use the right ID and ensure you have similar rules and logic tied to the type id’s and param to be sure you are getting the right data for the right timeline. If you need help with this piece, reach out for more help to get access to our proprietary real estate data model.

3.     Connect Power BI do your Data Model

Once you have your data model created and a process to refresh and reload this data nightly, you are ready to connect your visualization tools to being building cool new reports, analytics, and visualizations. Using Power BI’s default SQL server connector, you can connect to your database weather it is on the cloud or on-prem and import the data into Power BI. Your data model should have the foreign keys establish so that it is inherited and be able to create reports and dashboards. Here is an example of one of our Reports that enables tenant and leasing data.

4.     Connect Power BI to other data sources and combine to your Yardi real estate data

Having Yardi or Real Estate data is never enough. Now with Power BI, you can connect to numerous data sources in your business to begin to combine data too create analytics across all your business units and lifecycle of the real estate business.

Step 1 and 2 are the more technical heavy steps of the process. In previous post I have written white papers about getting data from Yardi nightly or even hourly using transaction log shipping, both available for download.

If the contents of this post are a outside of your wheelhouse, don’t worry, this is why I started CREXchange.io to help clients get up and off the ground with Yardi Data Integration and Advanced Power BI Custom Reports to help run your CRE business. Our reports are free with integration! Contact us there for more details or a demo!

Modules such as investment manager, rentcafe, or just basic task as setting up an account tree should be done correctly so that your real estate business can run effectively and efficiently.

Yardi consultants can be very expensive so it is important you get what you are paying for. There are some key skills and questions you should ask for.

1. Do they have experience with accounting in Yardi

Accounting is the bread and butter for Yardi’s functionality. From a book keeping perspective it cannot be beat in the multifamily space and is the industry standard. Whether it is reversing journal transactions or month end close processes, a good consultinat must understand how to work with ahd edit accounting processes in Yardi.

2. Have they been involved in a Yardi 6 to 7S upgrade

Now that most users have upgraded, most consultants at some point were probably involved in an upgrade. As we have documented in the past, this was not an easy task and required a lot of coordination and updates. Consultants would have learned the ins and outs of the 7S system in the process. See our Yardi 6 to 7S checklist if you are still one of the few looking to upgrade.

3. Have they been involved in bulk uploading properties

Properties are not always bought one at a time. When you purchase a portfolio it comes with many properties, tenants, and general ledger and bank details that will need to be uploaded at once and correctly.

4. Have the configured fund and investment manager

If you are an asset manager, than this is a critical tool for operations and reporting. Being sure this is set up correctly can make life significantly easier to manage your assets.

5. Are they familiar with custom reports and task runner

If you do not know, Yardi offers the the ability to add custom reports, automate processes and auto run jobs via a tool called Task Runner. Any good consultant will be able to help you set up processes that help you run your business while you sleep!

6. Do they have experience in the “Cafe’s”

Yardi’s offering is expanded by many tools like RentCafe and VendorCafe. Each of these tools must be configured and setup correctly to run smoothly. Be sure to have a subject matter expert that understands these tools before purchasing.

How to find the best Yardi Consultant

An Upgrade may seem straight forward, there are some key critical considerations organizations must make to ensure the upgrade to this newest, feature-filled version runs smoothly so that business operations are not affected.

Why Upgrade?

In addition to the fact that 90 percent of Yardi’s clients have now upgraded to 7S (and that you may be the last few left behind), there are several reasons why it’s time to pull the trigger and upgrade to 7S. The tool is now completely a Software as a Service (SaaS) offering, meaning that Yardi now takes on the responsibilities of hosting all infrastructure and hardware. This allows them to patch and upgrade the software on their own, reducing the dependency on any on-site resources on your team, thus freeing up valuable time for other tasks.

Things to Know Before/During an Upgrade

• If you are using Yardi 6.0 self-hosted on premise, you will be required to migrate to 6.0 Cloud (SaaS) before you can upgrade to 7S. Plan for additional time for the exercise, as it will require a database migration, testing, and overnight deployment to complete. A Yardi specialist team will be assigned to you to help facilitate the entire process from beginning to end.
• Once you are ready for the 7S upgrade, you will need to sign up for a 7S Upgrade webinar (which occurs every few days). After you register with your organization name and complete the short webinar, you can officially request to be added to the 7S upgrade process. At this point, Yardi will assign you an upgrade team which will assist in seeing you through the upgrade and completion of testing to go live.
• There is no cost associated with the upgrade from the Yardi side.
• Custom objects and scripts will need to be ported and updated before moving to the new environment. It is recommended that you leverage a Yardi partner to assist in getting all necessary development items converted and moved to the new environment
• Menus that you use in version 6 (standard or custom) cannot be brought over to 7S. All new menus are required – and this is where you can expect to spend the bulk of your time prior to testing.
• There are a series of complexities in the upgrade, such as security, roles, workflow, testing, etc., that are not included in the Yardi support for the upgrade. It is recommended you work with a knowledgeable Yardi partner to help guide you through the process. The Saxony team can help broker the conversations between your staff and Yardi to ensure the upgrade goes smoothly and in time all the while not disrupting operations.
• The most important part of an upgrade is testing. Be sure to allocate ample time for detailed testing of each section, as well as full system testing at major milestones of the upgrade. It is not uncommon to find an item or two that does not work exactly as intended. Catching these issues early will give you the opportunity to remediate them before users get in the system to do their day-to-day jobs.

Yardi Voyager 7S also comes with better navigation, fixes to old outstanding bugs, and adds a large set of new tools and functionality to help run your real estate business.

Upgrading the software from 6 to 7 is not as simple as flipping a switch and changing the version number. There are many moving parts and small details that require configuration and set up.

Yardi 6 to 7S Upgrade Checklist

In this situation, owners must employ a team of analyst’s whose job is to collect the different exported file formats from each manager, clean and consolidate into one central source, usually a massive Excel spreadsheet. This leads to a few common issues.

• Data is provided in different formats and a manual mapping exercise must take place every month end.
• All the manual steps and consolidation of data sheets introduce risk of dirty data and data errors.
• The manpower required could be spent elsewhere had the process been streamlined and automated.
• Data history is now preserved in a series of Excel sheets on a shared drive
• Files sent from managers to owners are usually sent via email. This introduces a security risk as well as a data retention problem.

The solution to this problem is not specific to the real estate space rather building safeguards and efficiencies into this process is a data transfer solution that can be implemented across industries that have to deal with disparate flat file data sources coming from out of the network. In a more common solution you have the following architecture.

• The property managers would be instructed to use easy to use and inexpensive encryption software like PGP, once their file processing is complete at month end.
• The files would then be saved to an SFTP such as ShareFile, ensuring secure file transfers. This process usually can be automated based on the source tools capabilities, but manual loads are not uncommon either.
• This is where the true automation is built. A process on the owner’s side using simple high-level data transfer languages can be used to download, decrypt and and archive the files from the SFTP automatically. This will allow raw files to be stored for future reference.
• Once the file is decrypted, the process would have a set of mapping and translation rules to convert and conform the data into a standard and clean format. This removes the risk of human related data errors that could be introduced.
• Data is stored to a database rather then an Excel document. This allows for larger datasets to be stored and queried by the analyst team. Data from the database can be extracted to Excel or a reporting tool for future analysis but the primary source of data remains the database, eliminating multiple copies of excel documents floating around the organization.

SSRS reports in Yardi require two files – a text file containing your SQL, and an RDLC containing the report definition.

If the contents of this post are outside of your wheelhouse, don’t worry, this is why I started CREXchange.io to help clients get up and off the ground with Yardi Data Integration and Advanced Power BI Custom Reports to help run your CRE business. Contact us there for more details or a demo!

The SQL File

The SQL file will contain most of the necessary primary elements and logic. It’s where you will define the title, the filters, the columns and most importantly the SQL statement.

In the filters section (marked //Filter), you can specify the parameter type, data type, caption, values and other attributes for the report. This section is what the Yardi SSRS module uses to create the parameter section before you run a report, not what is in the RDLC. Note: Creating a parameter in the RDLC can cause the report to run into errors.

The SQL is written as regular T-SQL and users must have a working understanding of the tables and data elements to be sure they are writing accurate queries. In the “Where” clause, the filters set up in the previous section can be referenced using hashmarks. (Example: Where Property = #Property#). The filter in the hashmarks will be replaced with the correct value at run time.

Once created, save the file as SampleReport.SSRS.txt – the naming convention is needed for the tool to know how to render the report.

The RDLC File

The second file you’ll need is the RDLC, which can be created in Visual Studio 2012. (The version is important, as later versions of Visual Studio may create rendering errors. I’ve had issues with filters working correctly.)

From new projects, you will want to create a VB Reporting Application project. This is usually included in the default installation.

Once created, skip or cancel all the wizards that pop up. We will be creating all items manually, as it is fairly simple. Once the project is created, you will see the solution on the right-hand side.

Right-click the solution and click “add new Item.” We will be adding a DataSet first. Be sure to the name matches the name on the report. Although not critical, it helps later with tracking your SQL.

Once created, you will find tool box on the left side of the page. Grab “Table Adapter” and drag it into the work space. Then, create a SQL Connection. This will give you a local database to write and test your queries against. Do not worry about the connection string, this does not get used at run time when you deploy. (NOTE: If you are not on a VPN or network where you can connect to a Yardi database, then you will need to follow the steps from our previous blog posts on getting your data out of Yardi.)

On the next step of the Wizard, select “Use SQL Statement”. Add your SQL here, but do leave off any non SQL formatting such as the Hash tag filters. Just the Raw SQL that returns the columns needed should be placed here so the report can create the metadata needed for the report render. We just used two test columns here for the example.

Once the Table Adapter is created, it will appear in the “Solutions” section. Add another “New Item.” Select “Report” – also giving it the same name as the data connector and the SQL text file, just to keep things clean.

Once you have the RDLC file created, you can create the report using typical SSRS development skills (those instructions can be found in basic Microsoft training material online). There’s no need to add parameters or filters, since that’s handled via the text file. Only the table data and layout items need to be defined at this stage.

Once both files are created, they need to be uploaded to the server using Client Central. This is done by an administrator with access to the front-end. The folder and location will be specific to your file system. Be sure the files are added to the correct section and to the correct environment test or production, based on your goals.

That is it! Once uploaded, your report should be searchable via the SQL Reports menu item. Complex reports can be created as long as you have a good power user. The limit of what you can do is only limited to the skill of the report writer.

When running your Real Estate business, it helps to not have to think about the small things. This is where process automation can help free up time for your resources and eliminate the risk of missing tasks or checklist items when certain actions occur.

Need help with getting this solution up and running for your business? Email me at bettermentstudio5@gmail.com to discuss a low cost solution to host your reporting, analytics and integration needs!

If the contents of this post are outside of your wheelhouse, don’t worry, this is why I started CREXchange.io to help clients get up and off the ground with Yardi Data Integration and Advanced Power BI Custom Reports to help run your CRE business. Contact us there for more details or a demo!

For example, most of your Property ERP like Yardi will automatically book transactions to the ledger and to the tenant at the beginning of the month for rent, or automatically trigger an email notification when the lease is nearing sixty days to completion. But there are many tasks that are unique to your business that need to occur without thought based on the rules you have defined, and some of these tasks will not be readily available in your tools automation drop downs.

Supplementing your tools automation can be completed with smart SQL stored procedures. When using tools like Yardi, there are data flows that can be created using the Task Runner Tool. This tool can be used to kick off steps like property list rebuilds or refreshing of occupancy. But when combined with called to custom stored procedures, you can use it to automate property onboarding from 3^rd party systems.

Another clever way to utilize stored procedures is to auto trigger payments and charges. For example, as a tenant moves through the eviction process, you can check for status changes to certain fields to trigger charges directly to the tenant. A high-level screenshot is shown below.

Overall, if you have database access to your core system you can be as creative as you like with making sure processes are followed by elimination humans from the steps and making sure the data drives your business instead.

Automate your Real Estate Software – Yardi ETL and Automation

The answer can be any one of those or a multitude of other scenarios. The trick is to get a good understanding of your customer, and in this case your customer is your tenant. The retail industry has been doing this for many years under the name Customer Analytics. They are engaging their customers via marketing promotions, collecting data via loyalty cards or simply capturing and storing demographic information to make better decisions around their customer base. All this to be sure they are selling the right items to the right people, ensuring the cross-sell is always in play.

Similar strategies can be leveraged when looking at your tenants, which we I call tenant analytics. Whether you’re using a large platform like Yardi, another smaller software as a service offering or just plain old Excel, you are already gathering a large amount of valuable information organically. You may not be gathering demographics and other slightly more abstract details on your tenants, but we will revisit how to close that gap in a later post. Let’s focus on what you should already have in place and how to do this once you have your Yardi data extracted into your data warehouse.

Let’s start with some basics for this post:

• How profitable is a current tenant?
• How much revenue do they generate over the lives of all their leases vs. how much do they cost you over that same time period?

Every month you record revenue and expenses at the unit level for a single lease. As the years pass this data accumulates but most people only look at the current month or the current year, not the whole picture.

First let’s start by pulling data from Accounting. This data comes primarily from the tables Total, GLTotal, Trans and Detail. This is a great way to obtain all financial information needed for the first part of the picture at the unit level. Remember, it is valuable to look at marketing cost and turn cost leading up to the lease, as that initial investment really can help provide the baseline for your investment at the unit level.

Next, by extracting the lease, tenant and collection information you now have the more “human” side of the equation. Most systems like Yardi, will capture specific work order information, as well. This will allow you to deep dive what items were basic wear and tear maintenance vs. what could have been prevented with some planning or better tenant placement.

Simple analysis of just these data elements will give you a base understanding of a tenant. Does it make sense to cut a quiet tenant lose if you can recoup the vacancy cost with a rent maximized tenant in place. Maybe you have a tenant that always pays just a few days late. They aren’t a risk for non-payment leading to eviction and net you a few hundred dollars in late charges. How do they compare to the tenant that always pays on time, but complains about everything and hassles you for endless minor repair items. Although reviewing each tenant on a case by case basis can be difficult and time consuming, it’s a good start and significantly better than flying in the dark.

In your data warehouse, you can use these metrics, as well as others, to derive a Tenant score. The score itself gets smarter and more accurate with every passing day as it continues to collect, store and analyze the information coming out of the aforementioned data points. This score can be used to sort, scan and make decisions very quickly on how you want to proceed with your tenants.

Let’s say you have a unit that cost $100,000 with a monthly rent of $1000. For the sake of simplicity we will assume there are no expenses. Having a forgetful tenant continue to pay $50 of late fees every month on a lease increases the cap rate from 12% to 12.6%. Although this may not seem like a lot, the changes at the micro will drive the changes at the macro level of the property or investment which you start multiplying this value add out across a portfolio.

Of course, all of this is only doable if you’re capturing your data! For more information on some of the best practices, check out our blog post from the previous series; “Getting your data from Yardi”. In the next post we will deep dive some more cool analytics around your custom…I mean tenants.

If the contents of this post are outside of your wheelhouse, don’t worry, this is why I started CREXchange.io to help clients get up and off the ground with Yardi Data Integration and Advanced Power BI Custom Reports to help run your CRE business. Contact us there for more details or a demo!

Need help with getting this solution up and running for your business? Email me at bettermentstudio5@gmail.com to discuss a low cost solution to host your reporting, analytics and integration needs!

Below is a high level guide which should assist in the selection.

If the contents of this post are a outside of your wheelhouse, don’t worry, this is why I started CREXchange.io to help clients get up and off the ground with Yardi Data Integration and Advanced Power BI Custom Reports to help run your CRE business. Contact us there for more details or a demo!

Software as a Service (Saas Select)

What is it?

Yardi’s default set up is a classic Software as a Service model. Behind the scenes you’re sharing some of your servers with other Yardi clients, however you do get your own protected database as well as a protected front end client surfaced through the internet.

How do I get it?

This is your entry level instance of Yardi that most people use usually charges on a dollar per asset license.

Pros

Going Saas Select is the most common and cost effective set up if you are small to medium sized client. It offers a stable platform with standard support. It provides the lowest barrier to entry and also the best cost for smaller or growing businesses. There are no risk of performance or resource sharing as this is handled quite well with dedicated resourcing and databases.

Cons

The biggest downside of going Software as a Service is that you are limited to only nightly backups of the data. For more real time access, more complex extracts leveraging Task Runner and FTP are needed and do not scale well.

Hosted Private Cloud

What is it?

Hosted private cloud is your own personal server spun up to host your individual instance of the Yardi application and database. It provides better performance, security and control over the server where your Yardi instance lives.

How do I get it?

This is offered at an increased annual cost, but also is included free once you reach a certain level of spend against your AUM.

Pros

This offering comes with a dedicated server, database and environment and with all the support of SaaS select. This set up will allow for more real time data access and facilitate inbound data (such as property onboarding) as simpler process. Dedicated resourcing will also give flexibility into adding to the database structure to host any additional data points your business requires.

Cons

The largest downside to Private Cloud is that it can cost more than SaaS select, especially for smaller to mid-size companies. Outside of cost, all functionally, support and actions are available of the Software as a Service model.

In conclusion, no matter which version of Yardi you go with the tool will help you run your business. The ultimate decision point should be based on what your organization requires to be successful and most of all efficient.

If the contents of this post are outside of your wheelhouse, don’t worry, this is why I started CREXchange.io to help clients get up and off the ground with Yardi Data Integration and Advanced Power BI Custom Reports to help run your CRE business. Contact us there for more details or a demo!

Getting Data from Yardi Log Shipping

The nightly back up process would allow you to only refresh your data environment once a night with the previous days data. As an organizations reporting and analytics requirements evolve into needing faster more real time updates, having day old data sometimes hinder those requirements. In addition to this draw back, as the database size grows, the entire process of pulling the database from the FTP server, unzipping and restoring can take multiple hours and possibly bleed into early morning reporting if the database is very large.

The second method of direct SQL query solved a lot of the issues previously mentioned. Data could be queried ad hoc and change capture logic could be built in directly into this layer. Efficient load logic could be used to identity and load only new records but even this could be very cumbersome on the server’s memory as look ups comparing hundreds of millions of rows just to determine the deltas in the data can be quite intensive. In addition to this, many Yardi clients are not using private cloud which would mean this option is not available at all.

The third option is SQL Server Log shipping. In this method, we are able to refresh a replica of the database by resorting the change logs of a database to a restored copy (after our initial restore of the full database). This means smaller files are needed to only catch the replica up from the most recent set of changes that occurred in the database.

Download the free whitepaper on Getting Your Data Out of Yardi Part 2 Log Shipping Here

All of this will allow you to have a truly replicated instance locally to be used for reporting and analytics that will have up to date data for powerful insights and more instant reactionary reporting. If you have any questions on the process, email us at the address in the contact us section!

Getting data back from any software as a service platform can be tricky especially due to proprietary rules.  Unfortunately, out of the box reporting is never robust enough to meet your specific needs and the data you need is stuck behind their servers. Fortunately, there are two efficient ways to get your data from Yardi based on if you are using their service as their primary software as a service or if you choose their hosted private cloud option. To see which one is right for you, please reference this post.

How to get your data from Yardi

There are two primary options you can use. First, Yardi provides a mechanism to download your database backups from an SFTP they will configure for you. You can script a job using Python or Command line to do this for you and restore the SQL database locally. Second, if you hit a high enough property threshold and pay extra, they can grant you direct VPN access to your data.

Download the free whitepaper below to see get more details on how to download and access your data from Yardi Voyager. This white paper will show you the step by step process on how to set up the Yardi data refresh process.

Get the Free CRE Data Whitepaper on Getting Data from Yardi Here

If the contents of this post are outside of your wheelhouse, don’t worry, this is why we started CREXchange.io. We even have free out-of-the-box Power BI Reports to help you get off the ground with Yardi Data Integration and help run your CRE business. Contact us there for more details or a demo!

Update!

There is a new method available which allows you to accomplish this same task more efficiently as well as more frequently. Please see the respective post on Getting Data from Yardi via Logshipping!

Get your data via SQL Logshipping!