Optimizing Your CMS for Performance

Property managers face a persistent challenge that silently erodes profitability: fragmented technology systems that cause duplicative work, delayed decisions, and unnecessary overhead. 

For those managing growing portfolios of 500-5,000+ units, this fragmentation isn't just inefficient—it's financially detrimental. When your team manually transfers data between disconnected platforms, reconciles accounts across multiple systems, and struggles to maintain data consistency, your operational costs increase while your ability to scale diminishes.

With over six years in the PropTech industry, Alex Wodarczyk, Senior Account Executive at Revela, has guided numerous property management companies (PMC) through this exact challenge. He helped them transition from disconnected systems to integrated solutions that eliminate operational inefficiencies and position PMCs to deliver on the needs of institutional grade owners.

The Hidden Costs of Fragmented Tech Stacks

Most property management companies operate with a primary platform supplemented by 5-10 additional software tools.

The entire industry is really fragmented. You've got property managers that sit here. You've got lenders over here. You've got insurance over here, and then you've got banking underneath, and nobody really talks to each other."
_{— alex wodarczyk}

This tech stack fragmentation creates several critical problems.

Mounting Software Costs

• "I just talked to a customer this past week," the veteran account executive notes. "They spend $27 an hour to help audit their accounting books. So that's on top of their software costs that they're already spending right now." These hidden costs accumulate unnoticed until you analyze the full financial impact.

Duplicative Work

• Staff members waste hours transferring the same data between systems. "Manual, duplicative processes happen very frequently,” he adds. “You have to do that multiple times throughout a month with outdated systems."

Delayed Financial Visibility

• Reconciling financial data across systems leads to delayed reporting, limiting your ability to make timely decisions. This lag means key decisions like issuing owner payments are made on stale data that may not reflect new maintenance costs or late chargebacks.

Uncaptured Expenses

• Maintenance costs often fall through the cracks when tracking systems aren't integrated with accounting platforms. Wodarczyk describes a common scenario: "Maintenance happens the second of the month, and the vendor sends them a bill. They pay the vendor, and then they're floating that for the owner... and a lot of times, those are disregarded or forgotten about." These uncaptured expenses directly impact profitability.

Foundation-First Integration Strategy

At Revela, we believe in building from the books out. This isn't just a methodology—it's our core philosophy. While other platforms try to retrofit accounting onto operational tools, we start with bulletproof financial foundations and build everything else around them. 

Wodarczyk recommends taking a step back to identify the foundation of your business. For property managers, it's accounting.

"Our core component is accounting—it's accuracy,” he adds. “It's developing the foundation of how you grow your business, and then from there it's being able to take that and build upon the processes of property management."_{— alex wodarczyk}

We've found that PMCs who fully adopt this foundation-first approach often reduce manual work by 30–50% in the first 90 days.

This model ensures that your financial data—the lifeblood of property management—remains consistent, accurate, and accessible across all functions. When your maintenance tracking, leasing operations, and owner communications all tie back to a single financial source of truth, you eliminate the need for manual reconciliation and data transfer.

The goal isn't simply to add more disconnected point solutions, but to consolidate around a platform that handles core financial operations while seamlessly connecting to necessary operational tools. 

When it comes to data quality control, you have two paths: ensure clean data upstream through proper configuration and a solid foundation, or spend resources downstream filtering and normalizing data from multiple sources into a data lake. The upstream approach—building on the right foundation from the start—eliminates the need for costly data cleanup later.

This is what we mean when we say  “built from the books out.”

Implementing a Cohesive 4-Step Operational Framework

Step 1: Audit Your Current Tech Stack Costs

Begin by documenting all software subscriptions, integration costs, and hidden fees. "It is one of those looked-past things until you start peeling that onion and diving into what their actual net software cost per month is."

Action Items

• List all software platforms currently in use
• Document monthly/annual subscription costs
• Track staff hours spent on manual data transfers and reconciliation
• Calculate the full financial impact of your fragmented systems

Step 2: Identify Integration Pain Points

Map where information flow breaks down between systems, focusing on the most time-consuming manual processes. Wodarczyk highlights a common integration problem: The lack of any great software that tracks vendor communication, connects it to invoicing, and ties it all back to the accounting system.

Action Items

• Document each instance where data must be manually transferred between systems
• Identify which processes require the most duplicative work
• Note where maintenance tracking disconnects from financial systems
• Measure the delay between operational activities and financial reporting

Step 3: Implement a Foundation-First Platform

Start with your most critical system—accounting—and build outward. For example, we’re architected to support accounting-first workflows, integrating all operational processes around the ledger to deliver both critical data accuracy and operational clarity.  "We try to do this in an audit-friendly process. We look to understand how you operate your business and try to mirror that up with how we can do it in Revela."

This architecture strengthens trust with your most important stakeholders—property owners receive accurate statements, you can report confidently on KPIs, and your financial data becomes the single source of truth that drives all operational decisions.

Action Items

• Prioritize accounting accuracy and financial visibility
• Ensure the platform accommodates your existing operational workflows
• Verify that all operational data ties back to financial reporting
• Confirm the platform can support your specific portfolio diversity

Step 4: Eliminate Redundant Systems

Systematically replace disconnected point solutions with integrated functionality, focusing first on systems that create the most duplicative work. The goal is to move from manual, duplicative processes to automated, streamlined workflows.

Operational Efficiency and Cost Reduction

Property management companies that implement this foundation-first approach can experience several key benefits:

• Reduced software costs: By eliminating redundant platforms and their associated integration expenses, companies can significantly reduce their technology spending. As Wodarczyk puts it, when property managers examine their full tech stack costs, "that light bulb starts to go on. But it's a little bit more of an education piece versus a known factor."
  
  
• Time recovery: Staff hours previously spent on duplicative data entry and reconciliation can be redirected to higher-value, revenue-generating work. Instead of growing headcount or relying on outsourced accounting support just to keep up, teams can scale more efficiently with the staff they already have.
  
  
• Improved financial accuracy: With elimination of data transfer errors and real-time financial visibility, companies gain confidence in their reporting. 

The most significant transformation often happens in maintenance management. When maintenance requests, vendor communications, and invoicing integrate directly with accounting, property managers eliminate the "floating expenses" that Wodarczyk describes as being frequently "disregarded" or "forgotten about."

For property managers looking to break free from the cycle of duplicative work, the message is clear: Start with a solid financial foundation, then build integrated operational processes that eliminate silos. The result isn't just operational efficiency—it's a fundamental shift that enables sustainable growth without proportional increases in administrative overhead.