What Is Utility Management Solutions Software and How Can It Streamline Your Business?
UTILITY MANAGEMENT SOFTWARE DEFINED
Utility management software automates bill processing and resident billing, while collecting real-time utility data in one convenient place.
The State of Utility Management in the Multifamily Industry
As a whole, the utility management industry suffers from outdated processes and a lack of automation. For many property managers, managing utility bills and resident charges is a time-consuming and frustrating monthly process. Until now, there hasn't really been an easy alternative.
How Technology Can Improve Your Utility Management System
Fortunately, recent advancements in technology make it easier for businesses to manage utilities more efficiently. Repetitive, manual tasks — like bill collecting, entering, and tracking — can now be automated with the use of innovative utility management software.
Ways Utility Management Software Can Streamline Your Business
- Improves efficiency by eliminating manual data entry for invoice processing
- Gives your team more time to focus on building customer relationships
- Makes it easier to gain visibility into costly spikes or leaks
- Provides insights on savings opportunities through analytics
Why You Should Take Advantage of Utility Management Software
Unorganized utility management can cost your business a lot of time and money. If you use multiple spreadsheets or an outdated utility billing system with limited analytics and insights, it can be difficult to get a full picture of where your utility spend goes and where you have opportunities to save.
7 Benefits of Modern Utility Management Software
Saves time
Reduces utility costs & usage
Increases ROI
Improves efficiency
Increases accuracy
Provides data & insights for better decisions
Improves the employee & resident experience
What Is AppFolio Utility Management?
Utility Management is a feature within AppFolio Property Manager that automates utility billing, converges resident billing, and analyzes data, so you can maximize your net operating income, increase efficiency, and discover new opportunities.
How AppFolio Utility Management Helps Your Business:
Enhances the Employee Experience
- Removes the time-consuming process of manually collecting and entering data
- Gives your team back time to focus on what they do best, like building customer relationships
Maximizes Net Operating Income (NOI)
- Converts costs to a source of revenue
- Brings costs down to boost your bottom line
- Can handle costs for both RUBs & submeters
Provides Insights & Opportunities
- Quickly detects abnormal usage spikes and leaks, so you can fix issues fast
- Benchmarks your building's usage against others and identifies savings opportunities
- Measures the potential impact of future retrofit projects
Now that we've started to use AppFolio's Utility Management functionality, we can offload the utility bills to AppFolio without hiring new staff.
Alethea ParkerPresident, Artcraft Management
How AppFolio Utility Management Works
Utility bill is received by AppFolio. It's then entered and a payable is created in AppFolio Property Manager
Utility is paid on your behalf
Charges are assigned to residents based on lease
Rent and utility charges are combined and posted in AppFolio's online portal for resident payment
Utility analytics detects spikes, tracks variances, and identifies opportunities
Is AppFolio Utility Management Right For You?
AppFolio Utility Management could be a great fit for you if:
- Your team is struggling to keep up with manual payments and billing
- Late payments and poor vacant cost recovery are hurting your net operating income
- You don't have any way to detect usage spikes or leaks until it's too late
- Your building already has submetering, but you're not sure it's billing residents correctly
- Your residents are unhappy with the current utility management system you have in place
- You want to stay ahead of the curve when it comes to sustainability and efficiency
Using AppFolio’s Utility Management, we’re already saving nearly a month of work and as we continue to roll this out across our portfolio, our time savings will only continue to grow.
BRANDI BROPHYProperty Manager, Pacific Capital Management
FAQs
Utility management software automates bill processing and resident billing, while collecting real-time utility data in one convenient place.
Utility management software makes it easier for you to manage utilities more efficiently. Repetitive, manual tasks — like bill collecting, entering, and tracking — can be automated with the use of utility management software.
Utility management software is easy-to-use and helps reduce the manual work associated with utilities by automating utility billing and payments, so your team can spend more time growing your existing business.
Utility management software helps you gain greater visibility into costly spikes or leaks early and accurately. In addition, it benchmarks your building's usage against others and identifies savings opportunities in your area, so you can find ways to reduce utility costs and usage.
Utility management software eliminates late fees with on-time billing, and recovers utility costs as a new revenue source, so you can improve your NOI.
It's better for your bottom line and the environment.
Without the right utility management software it can be difficult to get a full picture of where your utility spend goes and where you have opportunities to save. In addition, managing utility bills and invoicing is time intensive, and mistakes can result in late fees, further impacting your net operating income.