WS1569: Helping Operators Automate their Accounts Payable Process | Braedon Hebert

The effect of things might be atomic but once it’s compounds, it can affect someone greatly. And invoicing might be a “basic” thing to do but producing it multiple times affects your time and priorities greatly. In this episode, Braedon Hebert tells us how he helps management companies and how he helps their operators to automate their Accounts Payable (AP) process and their invoices.

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He talks about how you can elevate the way you make your invoice and exit from the way it was 20 or 30 years ago so you can focus on things that have the highest impact on you. Listen as he also talks about the four main parts of the AP cycle and why is technology one of the trends people should be prepared for. Tune in now and get into automation too!

Key Points From This Episode:  

  • Braedon talks about what Condo Works is, an Accounts Payable Automation Platform, and what it does.
  • What Accounts Payable and automation are, and the core components of financial operations?
  • The four main parts of the Accounts Payable cycle.
  • Braedon shares the most up-to-date process of operations without automating and the amount of time people spent on it.
  • Where do operators house the invoicing and where does the process take place?
  • How can automation save you so much time and can give you more time to advance your business and investments?
  • The ways operators can measure the time and money they’re spending on the invoicing process.
  • The Condo Works’ ideal clients and who are the best-fit people for it.
  • The difference that Condo Works provides from other software solutions.
  • Why is the adoption of technology one of the trends that people should be prepared for in the next years?
  • The biggest challenge Braedon is facing for his business right now.
  • The most important personal and professional metrics that Braedon track.
  • The habits that produced the highest returns for Braedon and how he likes to give back.

Tweet This! 

Oftentimes we see it’s [invoicing] ]an area that they know is old, but it still works. So they’re kind of making do but there’s a lot of benefits that can be added from automating and applying efficiencies. – Braedon Hebert

Operations aren’t necessarily complex from an accounting guidelines standpoint, but they’re operationally complex because you have high invoice volume, but also oftentimes the need to keep discrete financial records across the different properties. – Braedon Hebert

If we can relieve a portion of that time that’s being spent handling invoices and bookkeeping, that’s one of those force multiplier things that the owner-operator can really make good use of that extra time. – Braedon Hebert

Think about the time spent now that you’re spending on bookkeeping when you could be spending those hours every week looking for the next properties or figuring out other ways to make your business operate more efficiently. – Whitney Sewell

Accounts Payable is kind of one of those things, and it’s not as widely adopted, but we see it as one of the next open frontiers that will become just part of everyone’s tech stack. – Braedon Hebert

Links Mentioned in Today’s Episode:

Condo Works Website

Condo Works on LinkedIn

About Braedon Hebert

Braedon spent the first part of his career at a “Big 4” accounting firm and in finance at Canada’s 2nd largest telecom & media company. He left the safe path to pursue his passions for technology and entrepreneurship to become an operations & finance leader in the Toronto tech/startup world! CondoWorks is his latest adventure, combining his knowledge of finance with the growing real estate market to help property management companies automate their processes! CondoWorks services clients all across Canada and the United States!

Full Transcript

Episode 1569

[INTRODUCTION]

Braedon Hebert (BH): One of the challenge areas that we always see was relating to utility invoices. So that’s gas, power, phone, internet that can be a challenge in following that from the end-to-end. So how are you getting those invoices? Are you waiting for them to come two weeks later in the mail? Or do you have to go and log in to an online portal and spend minutes downloading an invoice? And that on its own may not be that bad. But what if you have 100, 500,000 of those types of invoices? How long does that taking your team?

[INTERVIEW]

Whitney Sewell (WS): This is your daily real estate syndication show. I’m your host, Whitney Sewell. Our guest today, Braedon Hebert has been in the first part of his career at a big four accounting firm, and in finance at Canada’s second largest telecom and media company. He left the safe path to pursue his passions for technology and entrepreneurship to become an operations and finance leader in the Toronto tech startup world. And he in a co-founder created condo works, an adventure of their own now but combining his knowledge of finance and growing a real estate market, you’re helping management companies and helping operators to automate the AP process, right and the invoicing process. And you’re gonna hear a lot of a lot about what is AP accounts payable? And why should you care about that, but you know, as operators, and you’re going to hear he and I talked about this in the show. He didn’t you need to find these places in your business or your processes that are not as efficient as they could be, right? Or in this is often one of those parts of our business in many real estate businesses, that they’re still operating like they were 20 years ago. And it’s hard to believe that but it’s true.

WS: I oftentimes this part of the process or the bookkeeping, part of the process of business, you know, accounts payable invoicing, you know, what’s coming in and out is still operating like it was 20-30 years ago, he’s going to talk through that process a little bit today and how the software can help but also just some things for you to think about whether you use a software like this or not, you should really consider and how much time is our team spending on this? Right? Because are they still operating like they were 20 years ago? I guess? No, me personally, I’m not involved in that process. Thank the Lord, you know, every day, but it made me think about what how is our team doing that? Right? And I may ask them questions next time, we’re together as a team about, you know, how are these things done? Now that I’ve heard this on the show, and I’m hoping you will as well, and it will help you to improve these processes and an intern create more time for you. So, you can focus you know, as that leader, that operator or past investor, you can focus on the things that are, you know, highest impact for you. Right? 

WS: And oftentimes, it’s not invoicing, but you could still be looking, you know, looking at those things, or doing those things I know numerous operators that have grown their portfolio over many years, and they’re still doing those things. But no, you are gonna learn a lot from Braedon and our conversation today. Braedon, welcome to the show, I’m looking forward to diving into this thing that you’ve created that’s helping operators in our space and automating, right part of the process. It’s so important in managing any, any business, really, but it’s specifically ours as well. Let the listeners know a little bit more about who you are. And you know, what condo works is? 

BH: Sure, yeah, thanks. Thanks. Thanks a lot for having me. My name’s Braedon Hebert. I’m one of the cofounders of condo works, which is an accounts payable automation platform that’s built specifically for property management companies. So, it’s designed to help take the pain out of what can be oftentimes a painful process of receiving, processing, recording and paying invoices. 

WS: Yeah, no doubt can be a painful process as we brought management in house, you know, over this past year, you know, it’s we’ve had to change that process in a big, big way. I feel like our old management company are still doing it often. The way they were probably doing it 20 years ago.

I would we brought it all in house and you know, and applied a bunch of techs to it, man, you know, it changed how we do things in a big way and improved them. And this is definitely something that, you know, if somebody doesn’t have it automated to some degree, there’s probably wasting a lot of time that could be spent on other things, but dive into just that right. And you know, a little bit about accounts payable and even the automation piece. What is accounts payable? Why should we care about that? 

BH: Sure. Yes, yeah, to break it down. There’s a few core components of any financial operations. There’s the accounting and bookkeeping aspect of it that two main inputs are the accounts receivable and the accounts payable, so accounts receivable being the receipt of cash, whether it’s monthly, HOA fees or rental payments, and then the accounts payable is the outflow of cash and the paying of bills and, and invoices. 

WS: Yeah. 

BH: And so, like you said, a lot of companies are still in the mid-90s in terms of how they are doing that part of their back-office operations. So, I like to measure how many fax numbers I still see an email signatures. And it’s still hot, especially in this in this industry. And so, the I think a lot of this works, oftentimes we see it’s, it’s an area that they know is old, but it still works. So, they’re kind of making do. But there’s a lot of benefit that can be add from automating and applying efficiencies to that. And so, we break down the AP cycle into four main parts of it, there’s the receiving of invoices, there’s the coding and approval of those invoices, there’s the posting or recording into the accounting or ERP software, and then the payment of those invoices, that’s the what we call the end to end cycle or the life of an invoice. And there’s ways to apply technology throughout that and our software looks to apply cutting edge technology and automation throughout that sprinkled throughout that whole end to end flow to make the process much more efficient, less time less and less hassle less dollar spent on that whole operation.

WS: Speak to you maybe some of the ways that you see people doing this now that are not automated, right? Kind of, you know, how, what’s the hassle factor here of this whole process? You know, for most management companies or you know, even think about people who are, maybe we can get into this a little bit, but who self-manage and man, you know, and then are having to manage all this for a number of units and the timespan just own that blows my mind a little bit. But how have people I guess what’s the most up to date version of this process without automating, you know, maybe that you see, and maybe the typical amount of time, you know, people are having to spend on this show. 

BH: That’s actually the genesis of condo works on my co-founder. He’s the technical guy who built the product. But he was the treasurer on his HOA board or condo board in Ontario, which is where we’re based out of and he observed, there a very old school way of the receiving a paper invoice on site, mailing it to the head office, someone stamping it, someone signing off approval, someone entering it by hand into the accounting system. And then every other week, the check run takes place, stack of checks gets printed. And then he as the treasurer on his board had to be the one to sign that. So those checks got sent back to him on site, the property, he signed the big stack of checks, sent back to the head office, and then finally mailed out to the vendor. The average cycle time we bear was it can be up to eight, eight weeks for an invoice to be paid. And, and studies show that the internal costs can be 10 to $15 per invoice. So, imagine if you, you get a $10 invoice to pay, it’s going to cost a company like that more in the paper and stamps and internal costs than it is to actually pay that invoice. 

BH: And one of the things that we see that is unique to property management compared to any business is can be things like those that can be high invoice volume, there’s a distributed the businesses distributed via multiple sites, typically within a certain geographic area. But you’ll have your head office, which is separate from all the building sites, as well as multiple stakeholders, whether it’s board owners or boards, tenants, owners, vendors, and then the counting of bookkeeping. Operations aren’t necessarily complex from an accounting guidelines standpoint, but they’re operationally complex, because you have high invoice volume, but also oftentimes the need to keep discrete financial records across the different properties. If you’re managing hundreds of properties that may require the need to have hundreds of different sets of books. And so not only are you dealing with a high volume with multiple stakeholders, you need to accuracy is of the utmost important to make sure that invoices recorded properly, but also to the right entity in your accounting system. 

WS: Yeah. 

BH: In spite of all that a lot of these management companies are still stuck in the mid-90s, for how they are doing that. 

WS: Yeah, I’ll give you a story a negative and of not having a great process for this. When we took over property management, there was a couple of properties that all of a sudden, we received some bills for that for things that were done like six, eight months prior, maybe even longer, and a couple instances. And so, all of a sudden we’re like wait a minute, you know, where are these things actually done? Right? You know, or is someone just trying to trying to steal some money here? All right, you know, they see an opportunity here to bill somebody where maybe they don’t know if this stuff was done or not. And so you know, we had to dive into that right. And that took quite a bit of time to figure out hey, well, were these things actually done or not because they were some of them were kind of bigger ticket items are expensive, I should say. So, it wasn’t like a $10 charge. 

WS: You know where some of those be it’d be more simple just to pay that than to spend the time on it, right? However, these were, you know, a few $1,000. And so, it was like, okay, it took time, like I said, from numerous team members, then to dive in and figure out, you know, was this actually done? When was this done? How can we prove that it was done? Or was it not, you know, pretty, that it wasn’t done one way or the other, before we actually pay this, because we weren’t the ones managing it, you know, when this work was completed? We didn’t own the property, though. So anyway, you know, I just, I can’t agree with you more about having a great process for, you know, invoicing and understanding that process. And but, you know, speak to the team members that need to know this process, or where are you typically see it work best? As far as is it done at the property level? Is it done in the in the main office is, you know, how do you see most management companies or operators, you know, where do they how’s this, this process? I’ve seen it done a few different ways. 

BH: Yeah, we typically see at head office, and the involvement across the management companies’ team can vary, sometimes it’s all done in head office, the accounting and or accounts payable team does everything. But oftentimes, the managers are also pretty heavily involved in that, because they’re the ones who are oftentimes have the vendor relationship, they’re there knowing if repairs need to be made, or certain expenses need to be made. And so, they’re oftentimes involved, either in procuring the goods or services, the approval, or oftentimes we see them take it right out to the point before entering it into the accounting system. So, they’re doing, they’re handling the invoices, they’re, they’re handling all of the utility invoices. So there, those are two of the key people. But I think any, depending on the size of the company, oftentimes, you’ll see we see, like owners, oftentimes, pretty hands on, they may be the bookkeeper as well. 

BH: And so what we see is, with our customer base, it ranges from companies that may have just a dozen properties that they managed to hundreds and the benefits can vary on a bigger team, you’re gonna have efficiencies you can you have a higher capacity you can handle if someone’s sick, but in the smaller companies, if it’s the owner who’s doing playing a part in that, that bookkeeping, that time is supremely valuable, and so that if we can leave, relieve a portion of that time that’s being spent handling invoices and bookkeeping, that’s one of those force multiplier things that the owner, owner operator can really make good use of that extra time.

WS: It is a change of mindset, isn’t it? You know, for most owners, especially if you’ve grown from doing, I say, if you smaller properties yourself, and you’re doing all those things, and as you grow and grow and grow, you know, then all of a sudden, you find yourself often are I know people, you know, you’re still doing the bookkeeping, for, you know, 50 properties now or 50 rentals. And, man, it’s what you just said, think about, its time spent, you know, now that you’re spending on bookkeeping, when you could be spending those hours, every week looking for the next properties, right? Or figuring out other ways to make your business operate more efficiently. I love automation, like this, it is a change of mindset. And oftentimes when we when we grow, our businesses grow, and hopefully we’re growing personally, right? It’s hard to change. 

And so how about how do you see people approaching this change? You know, or what’s the most, you know, is it scary for most? Is it like, Man, I’m ready to dive into this? Or and maybe you all have, like, created this process where it’s easy to implement. Maybe we can chat about that a little bit, too. 

BH: Yeah, I think what we see is, as an industry, it’s not very well known for being on the cutting edge of new things and new technology. It’s not necessarily unique in that sense. But I think that there is it’s different. So, Mike my background has been in in more technology and selling tech software to tech software companies. And there’s is there’s a different mindset in that, you know, this is all this, this will help me okay, that guy, I’m open to it. In any growing business, you reach that tipping point, sometimes where it’s like this has now become a thorn in my side that I can’t ignore. And it’s time to change. That’s great when we speak to people who are at that point, that are looking for a solution. And, of course, then in any sort of sales process, you’ll have people who are, you know, oh, this sounds interesting, but I’m not fully, fully convinced. 

And so, with those folks, it’s about being able to talk through how they’re doing things today, and whether there’s, there’s enough value there in automating that’s worth the attention. So, any company is going to have competing priorities. And so that, yeah, and so what do they tackle next? And so, what we see oftentimes in the world of technology supporting this industry is that a lot of other errors have been solved. And so, you know, everyone has their typically in an accounting system, but often have a solution on that on accounts receivable sides. So, they have a way of easily collecting, collecting the rent payments. They may have a tenant or owner facing portal that they’ll use and that solves communication challenges. So, we see oftentimes that Accounts Payable is kind of one of those things and is not as widely adopted but we see it as one of the next, the next open frontiers that will become just part of the part of everyone’s tech stack. And people are kind of at different stages along. 

WS: I want to jump into, like, what kinda works is a little bit who is for some of those things. But just before we do that, is there a good way that you found for operators to measure the time or money spent on that invoicing process? Now, I feel like that would be helpful like for, for us to think through, right? Before we invest in even a project like this or a relay to help them, I was thinking about this people too, who just difficult to make the change, right? You just don’t you want to do it the way you’ve always done it. But man, once you can, if you can measure that process to say, okay, it’s taken this many hours a week, or I know, it’s, you know, you can just write down how many hours you personally are doing it. But I was even thinking about larger teams, you know, thinking about the investment or, you know, spent on a weekly basis by your team, you know, may help somebody to make that mind shift faster to you know, what this is, this is gonna save us that much time or that much money. 

BH: Yeah, yes, it can be difficult to catalog everything if you’re, if you’re not doing it yourself, and you may not have time to shadow the team just to get to get a feel for it. If you’re if you’re now further removed, then you may have started doing it yourself. And then he handed it off. And all of a sudden, you have a team of three people that 10 people on the on that team he may not have, you may have lost that touch just to know what’s really, really happening, what I find helpful is to if you can shadow at least at least walk through in granular steps, what it takes. And so, like one of the challenge areas that we always see was relating to utility invoices. So that’s gas, power, phone, internet, that can be a challenge in following that from the end to end. So how are you getting those invoices? Are you waiting for them to come two weeks later in the mail? Or do you have to go and log in to an online portal and spend minutes downloading an invoice? And that on its own may not be that bad? But what if you have 100, 500, 1000 of those types of invoices? How long is that taking your team? 

BH: You know, from there, you know, how many touches does it have? Who else is handling it, is it a property manager, is the accounting? And is there an owner who’s touching it? And then how long does it take to get to get paid? So, from start to finish? And so, you don’t necessarily need to like follow one in real time. But you can you can recreate those steps. And we find asking the detailed question, you can describe that sometimes quickly. And you say, oh, yeah, we get the invoice. We record it and we pay it easy, because you know, how do you get it? What happens? What happens next? How does it get recorded? And then how does it get paid? And asking you know those detailed questions. But yeah, and it can be hard like. We like, we’ve monitored for studies. And I think I mentioned the internal cost of $10 to $15 per invoice. So, you know that that can be kind of a proxy, how many invoices do you have times 10 to $15? And if you can, if you can reduce that by 75%? How valuable is that? 

WS: Yeah, reduced by 75%. That’s, like that’s drastic, right? I mean, that’s so valuable, right that time for you and your team, if you figuring some of that out man can help you make the switch faster. I think once you if you knew you could say that kind of time. So, you know, speak to condo work specifically, you know, who is this for exactly? Who’s your ideal client? You know, who’s the smallest guy to, you know, the largest guy this would work for and some of those things.

BH: Caught our works is our name. So, we were giving away a couple of things. One is where we got to start which is in condos. And I usually get given away between process versus process as my Canadian roots and so in Canada, condos kind of the catch all term for any sort of HOA or community. And that’s where we got our start, that’s was the genesis my co-founder being on his condo board. But our goal has grown to be more broadly for property management companies more holistically. So, whether that’s HOA, residential or commercial management companies, we find that within residential multifamily is oftentimes a strong fit just in terms of the volume and consistency of invoicing. Same with commercial. 

So that’s we’re building a solution for those types of companies that’s focused on the accounts payable process specifically. And so, we are a we are a complement, and we integrate with the existing accounting or ERP platform. So, we’re not looking to replace that. But to enhance that and as well as the team’s operations to be able to make to make specifically the accounts payable process more efficient. And that’s done with what we call it a tech first or a true automation, which is looks to leverage modern technology throughout that whole flow. 

WS: So, users should already have some type of site property management software they’re using and that this would integrate with? 

BH: Yes, yeah. We integrate with, so I mean, nine different property management platforms. And we’re adding integrations as, as they come up. So, it’s definitely a complement to the existing platform. 

WS: You know, what’s different about condo works versus, you know, other software solutions? Maybe you can provide a few details there that, you know, would be valuable to listeners? 

BH: Sure, yes, I think so going back to that, that tech first mindset that manifests itself throughout that whole flow. So, a core component is using AI tools to extract data off of an invoice automatically. So, we, we take a digital copy of an invoice and it will, our system will recognize key data points, such as the invoice number, date and amount, automatically within minutes. And so, some other platforms, they’ll offer automation, but they’re really kind of more of an outsourced solution where they have a team that will look at each invoice and it may take a day or two for that for that other platform to be able to have an invoice versus most of ours will get will get processed within two minutes. Another key component, I spoke earlier about the pain of utility invoices. So, on the invoice ingestion side, we’ve built integrations now with over 250 different e billing portals, and we will automatically download any new invoices that get that get posted to the billing portal. 

So not only is that saving a ton of time, especially if you’re getting, say those invoices today on paper, and you’re even on auto pay a lot of times that can result in getting those images rushed and expedited, so that you’re not getting shut off notices, or late fees on those invoices. So, by having that automatically downloaded, not only like those invoices, so speed, the platform, no one likes dealing with utility companies or utility invoices. And so that’s a big, big, big pain that we can relieve using leveraging technology. And that’s like that’s a key feature for us is how we handle utility invoices specifically. 

WS: That’s interesting that it can scan it and pull that data out that fast. Right, that’s definitely saves a ton of time. I just love to the promptness, you know, I just think it says a lot about paying bills on time and early and those things. I love that, you know, speeding that process up and accuracy as well. But what about some trends that maybe listeners should be prepared for over the next year that that you can help with? 

BH: I think there is a general a gradual adoption of technology worldwide that’s happening. But I think in the world of property management and real estate become an area of focus, I think for a lot of companies as well as providers and new entrants to the market, a lot of new technology, new companies being funded a lot of acquisition happening in this space. So, I think it’s become, I think people see that there’s a lot of a lot of potential value that can be brought to this industry through technology. So, I think that’s something that’s, that’s been kind of happening, but will continue to accelerate over the next couple of years. And the other trend is related, but moving more so to electronic paperless everything. So, we, the staff that we quote is that 42% of payments in the US are still made by cheque, which is quite high. The advantages of moving that to electronic forms of payment, not only are you paying faster, it’s also way more secure. 

And I was just talking to a client of ours, they had a situation where their checks were intercepted, and they had fraud. And they had someone had recreated one of their clients checks. Luckily, their accounting team caught it very quickly through their month in bank reconciliation process. But that’s, yes, some people like to feel the cold hard paper in their hand. And my signature is safer and more secure. But it’s actually quite less secure than other forms of electronic payment. So, I’m gonna stay there. 

WS: Yeah, so let me get that get this straight, kinda work. So, you’re gonna scan that, that invoice, it’s going to see those things it’s going to, but it’s us paying it through that platform as well as that right?

BH: Payment can be approved and issued via our platform as well. And that form of payment can take can take different forms. So, we will that can be ACH or direct deposit. If a vendor accepts credit card that can be the payment can be issued via card. And then we also still do, if a vendor requires a check through in our setup will capture the electronic signature of those who have signing authority. And those checks. A check can be printed and mailed to those vendors. So that is still option for those vendors that aren’t quite there yet. 

WS: Right, in a few questions. Just final questions for you that I love getting to and hearing from different people but what about the biggest challenge you’re facing in your business right now? 

BH: Our biggest challenge has been and probably will always be on the implementation part of our operations. So, we will go through a sales process customers will be the there’ll be bought in, but then in order to properly implement a solution like ours, it takes time and attention of our customers to be able to implement it. So, we aim to do as much as we possibly can. But it will still take certain prioritization amongst our customers that to implement this across the portfolio products that they have, as well as the functionality of our software. And so, this is, there is real-time and cost savings that come from a solution like ours, it can sometimes just be hard to prioritize that, given everyone’s juggling so many other things. And so, we like I said, we aim to do as much as we can, and we’re constantly refining our supporting materials and project plans. But that is, like I said, has been and will probably always be operationally one of our number one challenges is, is the implementation and onboarding side of things. 

WS: I believe that and that’s one reason to ask about how you measure, someone can measure the, how this is gonna benefit them, because when I can see how much it’s gonna benefit us, then I can get motivated about putting that time in right now. Right to make that happen. But what about Braedon, what’s some of the most important metrics that you track could be personally or professionally? 

BH: So, relate to that, what that implementation side, we track as a percentage, how implemented are we amongst our customers. And so that’s a function of you know, how many properties they have where we rolled out to, as well as functionality. So that’s key, it’s tied to revenue for us. So, it’s important, but also time to value amongst our customers. Another really important aspect to it, even though we’re a tech solution and software, the customer support and service is we see as a key differentiator for us. And so, we measure that we actually have that built into our software, where we’re constantly getting feedback from our users as to whether they like us or don’t like us. And so that’s monitoring that is important. But I’ll also following up and actioning any feedback that we that we do receive is something that we, that’s been a more recent change, but it’s been one that we said, Man, I wish we did this two years ago, just to be.

WS: How are you collecting that? 

BH: We built it into our software. So as a, once a user does a defined set of actions, a modal will pop up and says, do you like condo works? And then depending on their on a scale of 1 to 10. And so then depending on their response that may use a great, leave us a review, or ouch, you know, can I give you a call? So yeah, I’ve had a couple of calls this week from people that gave us, you know, harsh but fair, fair feedback. And so that’s it. So that’s really important, because that’s, you may or may not have heard that if we hadn’t put that into ours. So luckily, we have a team that can just whip that up and put that into our software. But I think it’s an important thing, regardless of whether you’re a software solution or any business, getting that feedback. There’s losses or losses solutions out there that can make that easy to capture. And it’s super, super valuable information. 

WS: That is super valuable. You know, I’ve been reading lately and learning about the Net Promoter Score. Have you ever heard of this? What it is? 

BH: Yeah, yeah.

WS: Exactly what I thought I thought that’s what it sounded like. So, it’s interesting to hear how valuable you all found it to be trying to figure out how to implement that in our business as well. Because it is great feedback, right? Even if it’s poor be like you need to hear it. So, you can make corrections, fix and fix. 

BH: Yeah. So yeah, you’re asking a customer on a scale of 1 to 10? How likely would you recommend condo works to a to a friend or colleague and yeah, and a scoring system that is standard is it’s a tough scoring system? If you if you get an iron 10 You get points. But if you get, I think seven and below, you lose points. 

BH: It’s a tough metric. But it really does motivate you as the person providing that service to aim for those nines and 10s. Which Yeah, yeah, I think that’s that has to be the goal that you’re aiming for a seven or a six here, you’re aiming for a 10. 

WS: That’s right.

Yeah, I think they consider seven nights passing and like zero or one through fives are our detractors. So you know, think about that, you know, those are people who are actually doing you harm. Right. And so they do have a way to calculate that. I mean, do you so you all actually calculate the score? That like it tells you I think you take the percentage of the one two fives and the percentages of the nine and tens subtract the one in five somehow, you know, you get that score at percentage. Is that how you all measure that? 

BH: Yeah, we have a dashboard that that has a real time tally of that score and then the by user details, so that when if we do see somebody that is critical that who are they, where are they coming from? We can see what they did more recently, and sometimes they’ll leave they’ll leave additional feedback, but sometimes not. That’s a way that we can then reach out to gather some more information if needed. 

WS: Yeah, that’s awesome. I’m glad you brought that up. What about some habits, Braedon that you have that you are disciplined about that it produced the highest return for you?

BH: So, personally, I have found the benefits of exercise, I try to do that every morning during the week, especially that I find that has, I don’t notice it when I’m doing it. But if I skip a day, or skip a couple of days that I say, Oh, wow, I’m more sluggish today, or I’m not as sharp. So, I have found that that has, has personally helped me. And I also think that nothing’s a greater forcing function on prioritization than children. And so that’s, I don’t know, if that’s a hack. It’s that anti hack, but that has definitely helped focus as well as time box. Work versus non work. Yeah, sometimes it’s feels like for better or for worse, but it’s definitely helped at least to be able to, to set up okay, this is school get ready time, this is bed time. And I have to get everything else done in these fixed, nice fixed time period. So, there’s nothing like constraints to help to help focus you. 

WS: Yeah, for sure. But how do you like to give back?

BH: Personally, there’s things that I do in different organizations, that the I do, like youth and adolescent mental health, it’s a focus of mine, at least, you know, personally on that, you know, as a company, like we’re young in terms of our company, I so we’re what we’re trying to do is what is our mission? And how do we best articulate that to focus on something that will get us to where we want to go. And so, as a company, what we are, our goal is to reduce the pain of accounts payable, that’s sort of our product, but I think we also see as an industry, property management, it’s tough, yeah, you’re, you’re dealing with people, and that inevitably leads to challenges and complicated situations. And so if we’re able to help our customers and make a part of their operations more efficient, they don’t need to worry about that as much. And they can focus on more important things to them, which is dealing with their clients, and all of the other the messy situations that can happen in the world of property management, that’s you know, what we’re gonna try and articulate you know, kind of to elevate, our company’s perspective beyond just hey, we can make you save time and money on your accounts payable. 

It’s about being able to make everything more efficient, so that you can then provide better service to your clients. 

WS: Awesome. Right? And, and pleasure to meet you and have you on the show and to dive into accounts payable, right? What is that? But ultimately, you know, instead of seeing something like that I like, you know, listeners to think through, hey, how much time are you spending on this? How much time is your team or your management company spending on this thing on invoicing and thinking through that process, oftentimes, the owner I feel like to we can, it can be pretty removed from that process. And even something like this could help, like helped me to think about, hey, maybe I need to go figure out how this process is even done, ensuring we are doing it like as efficiently as possible or thinking about something like condo works, and maybe that can save us 50% of our time spent on that or 75 million think about that, right? 

WS: How many hours a week don’t have any property somebody has, it could be massive savings in time or time, you know, obviously, that can be focused on something else, right? And so grateful to just really bringing that to our attention thinking through that. Even your heart’s desire, I love things like this that come up to you unexpected, you know, hey, get feedback, right? And the importance of that feedback. I love that, you know, you all have that desire to continue to improve like that. No, that’s the type of businesses and software or tech that we want to use right and just like other operators that I want to invest with, I want to know that they care about feedback from investors just like we do, and that they’re continually improving right based on that feedback. And that’s something I appreciate you sharing also write in how can the listeners get in touch with you and learn more about you and condo works? 

BH: Yes, we are. So our website’s condoworks.co not.com but condoworks.co. That’s our website. And our other presence we’re also talking about is on LinkedIn. Feel free to reach out to me, Braedon Hebert and then condo works, our company pages there as well. 

[END OF INTERVIEW]

[OUTRO]

WS: Thank you for being with us again today. I hope that you have learned a lot from the show. Don’t forget to like and subscribe. I hope you’re telling your friends about The Real Estate Syndication Show and how they can also build wealth in real estate. You can also go to LifeBridgeCapital.com and start investing today.

[END]

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