Wheeler Real Estate Investment Trust

Automating AP Saves Real Estate Business $47,000 Annually

Industry

Real Estate

Company Size

52 Accounting System

MRI

About the Company

Wheeler Real Estate Investment Trust is a commercial real estate business managing more than 70 shopping center properties across the Eastern United States. Its mission is to help tenants and investors succeed by providing expert market analysis and service driven by the latest technologies.

Samantha Day has been with the company for eight years, currently serving as the Accounting Systems Administrator. Day also oversees compliance, audits, and process improvements in the accounting department.

The Challenge

When Day joined Wheeler, the company relied on outdated and highly manual accounts payable processes. Invoices were mailed, opened, sorted, scanned, and coded by hand—an error-prone process for handling 14,000 invoices annually. Disputes often stalled approvals, requiring manual intervention, while frequent inaccuracies disrupted integration with Wheeler’s MRI accounting software. Weekly check runs consumed an entire workday, involving printing, double signing, and mailing, which burdened both the AP team and executives. The inefficiencies even led to a case of check fraud, forcing a full bank account reset and systemwide updates.

The Solution

When Wheeler acquired Cedar Realty Trust, Day was tasked with integrating the two companies’ accounting systems. After seeing the benefits of Cedar’s AP automation solution—MRI Vendor Pay powered by AvidXchange— she knew it was the right choice to move Wheeler forward. The system automates invoice entry and extraction with 99.2% accuracy, significantly reducing manual work and ensuring smooth workflow integration with MRI. Day also values its enhanced security, especially after a check fraud incident, and appreciates features like digital payments, automated reporting, and responsive Live Chat support. These improvements have saved time, boosted efficiency, and strengthened financial oversight.

The Results

A major factor in Wheeler’s decision to adopt AvidXchange was its seamless application programming interface (API) integration with MRI, which eliminated manual invoice data entry and indexing. The AP team now focuses on higher-value tasks, and check runs that once took a full day are completed in just a few hours. Most payments are issued electronically, reducing fraud risk and improving efficiency. Since implementing AvidXchange, Wheeler has saved approximately $47,000 annually through reduced labor and executive time. Day is confident the system can scale with the company, noting she won’t need to hire additional staff even if they acquire more properties.

“I used to feel like I was constantly having to research things, fix things, and push things. Now, I have that time back to focus on bigger projects, like our recent chart of accounts conversion.”

Samantha Day, Accounting Systems Administrator

Automating AP Saves Real Estate Business $47,000 Annually

Industry

Real Estate

Company Size

52

Accounting System

MRI

About the Company

The Challenge

The Solution

The Results

Automating your AP is within reach

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