CLIENT SUCCESS STORY
J&L Real Properties
Asset manager J&L Real Properties consolidates multiple assets and ownership entities in a single database for property financials in the near term and to be used as the central operating database in the long term.

The Company

J&L Real Properties is a private real estate investment company founded by Paul Johnson and Vimal Lala in 2010. J&L was initially formed as a holding vehicle for the acquisition of three CVS pharmacies in a sale lease back transaction. The company continued to invest in assets in Texas, Oklahoma, New York, New Jersey and California. J&L’s holdings have expanded to over 1 million square feet to date, comprised of predominantly industrial space worth over $225 million in asset value.

The Challenge

J&L Real Properties had grown substantially, now having 42 assets and financial entities to manage. It needed a robust asset management software platform that would allow them accurately and securely manage the asset while lending itself to being the central operating database for its property managers. The asset manager had previously been using QuickBooks and relying on outside systems for financial information from its property management firms. As J&L grew, QuickBooks quickly became obsolete for the volume of capital and transactions and well as the consolidated financial data they had to track for both the asset management and operations of J&L’s portfolio. J&L selected Yardi Voyager to be their asset management platform and moved to migrate into the new software with the help of Eng Flanders Group. J&L and EFG worked together to address the key challenges of this migration:

  • 42 Properties and Financial Entities required migration from QuickBooks to Yardi Voyager.
  • J&L was faced with accomplishing the migration over a short time period with limited staff resources.
  • Migration from QuickBooks presented some complex obstacles:

    • All J&L’s assets and ownerships had been set up as separate companies in QuickBooks.

    • Multiple, disparate QuickBooks Charts of Accounts had to be mapped to a single global Chart of Accounts in Voyager.

    • J&L needed to migrate the entire Trial Balance history for each of its assets and financial entities over to Voyager.

  • Voyager had to be set up to enable ownership entities to be consolidated in a single database while facilitating intercompany transactions.
  • The new asset management platform would also be used as the central property management database in which its operators would manage J&L’s properties.
  • In the short term, while its property operators still used 3rd party software, J&L needed a monthly financial import from their operators to consolidate financials.
“QuickBooks was not designed to accommodate a complex real estate investment portfolio. We contacted Eng Flanders Group because we realized we needed experts to help us pull out our QuickBooks data so that it could be properly formatted and set up in Voyager, which was something we did not know how to do on our own.”
— Sylvie Yang,
chief financial officer

The EFG Solution

  • EFG dedicated a project manager and multiple consultants to function as an extension of J&L’s staff to ensure Client has enough resources and would be able to achieve their implementation goal and timeline.
  • EFG consultants carefully studied J&L’s QuickBooks data to understand how it had been set up so they could properly extract and format it for import into the Voyager data schema.
  • A detailed project plan with a collaborative, flexible support model was key so that J&L could choose whether to perform certain tasks or ask EFG to step in and assist.
  • EFG created mapping to consolidate 19 QuickBooks Charts of Accounts into a single global Chart of Accounts in Voyager.
  • EFG used GL mapping and a code system to enable automation of monthly import of 3rd party operating financials coming from the property managers’ multiple disparate property management software systems. 
  • EFG built a specialized custom function to calculate net change from ending balance to allow J&L to easily build Trial Balance history backward from the opening balance after J&L went live in Voyager.
  • Voyager was implemented not just for asset management, but it was also set up for property management so that it would be ready for the property managers to log in and begin operations in J&L’s database.

The Outcome

J&L and EFG worked together to accomplish a considerable migration and implementation of a complex asset management portfolio within the required timeframe and under budget. For J&L, this resulted in:

  • An asset management platform that will also be able to consolidate property operations into a single database.
  • A custom function that enables J&L to backfill Trial Balance history after going live on Yardi Voyager at a pace that is comfortable for J&L’s staff. 
  • Import automation for the financials sent by property managers using 3rd party software.
  • Efficiencies resulting in time savings that enables J&L to minimize data management and focus on its investment business.

“Yardi Voyager is an important part of our growth strategy as the foundation for managing the operations and finances of investments as we continue to acquire assets. Eng Flanders Group was key in ensuring that our Voyager platform was properly implemented so that it would support our growth.”
— Paul Johnson,
founder