We’ve heard from all our customers who left their previous property management systems to start using STRATAFOLIO that the initial onboarding process was painful. At STRATAFOLIO, we have learned from other companies’ mistakes, and we have set up processes to avoid recurring pitfalls that are common in the industry.
At STRATAFOLIO, we understand every real estate business out there runs at maximum capacity, so during the onboarding process, we have three main goals.
STRATAFOLIO’s Three Goals for You
- We understand every organization has unique goals and needs. During the onboarding kickoff meeting, it is our job to understand what those are, so everyone in your organization can take full advantage of STRATAFOLIO.
- Second, it is our job to help you through the onboarding process to make it painless.
- Lastly, we understand that every day you are not fully using STRATAFOLIO, your organization loses money, so our goal is to get you up and running as soon as possible. This way, you can start saving and taking full advantage of your new software solution.
What to Expect During Onboarding
Expect a series of 45-minute weekly meetings and emails until all your data has been updated in STRATAFOLIO and we have completed your audit and training. The number of meetings is predetermined and will vary based on your unique company size and needs. We are an agile company, so we will perform an iterative process as we go through the onboarding. This will ensure that if we encounter issues, we catch them early and address them promptly.
The onboarding will contain multiple activities:
- Initial introductions
- Adding users
- Understanding the ownership breakdown for each legal entity (If applicable)
- Connecting to your QuickBooks Accounts
- Building out your Hierarchy (Legal Entities, Assets, Buildings, Units)
- Mapping your QuickBooks Accounts
- Enter all your loans and lenders (If applicable)
- Review and add your leases
- Review and add your CAM (If applicable)
- Add Investors and their ownership percentages (If applicable)
- Upload all your related documents (Legal Entities, Assets, Buildings, Units, Leases, and Loans)
- Completing an audit of the financial data to ensure STRAFOLIO is reading your QuickBooks accounts correctly.
- Training your team on how to use STRATAFOLIO
What to Expect During the Initial Meeting
During our initial kickoff meeting, we will discuss multiple things:
- We’ll review your current organizational structure to help us understand how to set up your account. If you do not currently have an organization chart, a handwritten one will suffice.
- We’ll discuss what your organization’s goals and objectives are in more detail so we can set up your software to help you achieve your company’s goals and objectives faster by taking full advantage of STRATAFOLIO.
- We will also set up a weekly meeting, milestones, and action items.
- We share with you your own secure share drive where you will be able to place your documents and other deliverables.
- You will be required to provide all the Properties listed below that are marked with an (R). This is the data that is required in order to set up your organization. The items marked with an (O) are optional, and they are not required in order to complete your setup.
- Your first task will be to provide a list of all the users along with their access levels that will have access to your organization.
How to Add Users
By our second meeting, we will have your organization set up in STRATAFOLIO along with all the users in your organization. This will allow you to log into your organization, monitor our progress, and provide instant feedback as we complete the onboarding. This will be an iterative process.
We do not limit the number of users that can be added to the system, so you are welcome to add your entire staff, investors, and accountants if you desire. Below are the roles that you can choose from.
Access Roles
- Administrator – A user with the Administrator role can manage other users. They can also add/view/update/delete anything across the entire organization.
- Manager – A user with a Manager role cannot add/view/update/delete other users’ roles or any organization-specific information. They are also able to add/view/update anything else within the organization, but do not have delete capabilities.
- Reader – A user with a Reader role is not able to add/view/update/delete other user roles or any organization-specific information. They can only view other items within the organization; they cannot add/update/delete.
- Property Manager – A user with a Property Manager role is able to add/edit/view the organization’s hierarchy, which includes assets, buildings, and units. Additionally, they can add/edit/view all work orders, tenants, and leases in the Organization. They are not able to add/edit/view any financial dashboards or investors within the organization.
- Maintenance – A user with a Maintenance role can add/edit/view all work orders in the Organization. They are not able to view any financial data across the Organization or edit anything else in the organization that is not a work order.
- Investor – A user with an Investor role can view information only for the legal entities the investor invested in within the Organization, but cannot add/update/delete.
- Tenant – A user with a Tenant role is able to view limited lease information from the leases where the user is a tenant within the Organization. The Tenant can upload documents, schedule recurring ACH payments, and make one-time ACH payments if the landlord has that option enabled.
Ownership Breakdown for Each Legal Entity (If Applicable)
During this phase, we will ensure your investor ownership structure is updated. STRATAFOLIO can handle multiple types of ownership structures. Some of the most complex ownership structures involve multiple legal entities that own other legal entities, with a mix of individual investors and cascading legal entities. Or, if you have a simpler ownership structure, we can handle that as well.
Connecting to Your QuickBooks Accounts
During this phase, we will need to ensure your organization’s QuickBooks administrator is present in the meeting. This will help us sync with all the QuickBooks accounts that will connect to STRATAFOLIO.
Building Out Your Hierarchy
During this phase, we will start building your STRATAFOLIO Hierarchy data for all your:
- Assets
- Buildings
- Units
- Loans
- Contacts
- Tenants
- Leases
Mapping your Chart Of Accounts
During this phase, the STRATAFOLIO onboarding team will start mapping each one of your QuickBooks chart of accounts to the STRATAFOLIO standardized chart of accounts and each account to the corresponding hierarchy location. During this process, each one of your QuickBooks accounts will start coming to life on your Owner’s Dashboard. STRATAFOLIO is able to map your chart of accounts if you use any of the account types below:
- Accounts
- Classes
- Locations
- Business
- Department
- Division
- Location
- Property
- Store
- Territory
Complete Audit
During this phase, our team of experts will request Balance Sheets and Profit and Loss statements from you in order to audit the data in STRATAFOLIO to make sure the data in STRATAFOLIO matches the data in your QuickBooks accounts. We will sign off once this process is complete.
Train Your Team on How to Use STRATAFOLIO
During this phase, our STRATAFOLIO onboarding professional will teach your team how to use STRATAFOLIO and make the most of its features. This will help your team become familiar with the software.
After the initial training meeting, we will check in the following week to answer questions and make suggestions regarding features and functionality. We will also teach you how to access additional support materials.
Once onboarding is complete, if you need additional services, you can reach out through the application to request support. Many clients appreciate the focused efforts of our team to onboard new assets to existing portfolios. Our team is available to support this work at an hourly rate.
