As a community association manager, you want to provide your communities with the most reliable, efficient, and transparent financial services possible. So you might have a tool like AvidXchange for accounts payable (AP) automation on your radar—especially if you want to eliminate checks for fewer manual tasks, faster payments, and cleaner financial data for your communities.
But there’s a big question before you add a tool like this to your tech stack: How will this affect your board relationships? Strong board relationships are core to your company’s success, so it makes sense to be cautious. You don’t want to disrupt what’s working or risk making board members feel uncertain about how financial tasks will be handled.
The good news is that the right AP automation solution doesn’t weaken board relationships—it actually strengthens them. By giving boards near real-time visibility into financials, helping ensure suppliers are paid accurately and on time, and tightening controls around approvals and payments, automation helps you deliver a better experience to the people who oversee each community.
In this article, we’ll walk through how AP automation from AvidXchange can reinforce the trust you’ve already built with your boards—making it easier to share up-to-date information, answer tough questions with confidence, and show that every dollar is being managed with care.
Automating AP for Near Real-Time Financial Visibility
One of the trickiest parts of managing a community is keeping everyone aligned on the numbers. Board members need timely, accurate information.
But when invoices, approvals, and payments are stuck in paper files and scattered across inboxes and multiple communities, board members can feel out of the loop. Community association managers can be caught off guard by questions they can’t easily answer.
With AvidXchange’s cloud-based AP solution, purpose-built for the unique needs of community association management, board members don’t have to chase information or wait for official reports to land on their desk. They gain real-time visibility into a community’s financial data, giving them confidence in the way you’re managing the business. Easy, 24/7 online access saves them the time and the hassle of phone calls and emails to get answers and updates.
Here’s what that looks like in practice:
Near real-time financial visibility anytime, from any place
With AvidXchange, information and payment status is available online whenever it’s needed—not just during meetings or month-end reports. Whenever a question or concern arises, you can log in and see every invoice, every approval step, and the payment status in real time, from anywhere, via your portal login. This transparency eliminates surprises and allows board members and management associations to answer homeowner questions more confidently.
Quicker approvals
AvidXchange’s AP solution syncs with many existing accounting systems and processes, so everything is integrated and seamless. It also allows for mobile approvals, so board members can review and approve invoices no matter where they are. This allows them to stay informed and responsive, even when they’re on-the-go, which helps to keep projects on track.
Full transparency and accountability
With real-time access to financial information and digital audit trails, there’s no confusion about who approved what or when. With AvidXchange, the system tracks every step and user with a timestamp, creating a transparent, auditable record that protects both the board and the management company.
AP Automation Enhances Supplier Satisfaction
Lack of transparency and access to important financial information aren’t the only things that can hurt board relationships. Unhappy suppliers can create ripple effects throughout your communities—from delayed property maintenance and postponed repairs to frustrated residents. And your board members are counting on you to keep suppliers happy.
AvidXchange’s AP automation can prevent these issues by helping with getting suppliers paid promptly and accurately.
Automating payments can remove human barriers that delay payments: things like misplacing a paper check or labeling an envelope with a wrong address. With ePayments, suppliers get paid faster and more predictably. AvidXchange’s solution also allows suppliers to choose the payment method they prefer, whether it’s via a secure ACH, virtual card, or check.
When suppliers feel well taken care of and confident that they’ll receive quick payment, it strengthens the relationship and leads to better service and reliability. They’re more likely to prioritize your projects and give you fair negotiations at contract renewals, which reflects well on you to your board members.
Digital AP Solutions Can Safe-Guard Financial Information
Boards want assurance that community funds are safe. But it’s tough to assure them of security when you’re dealing with manual processes and paper. Invoices and payments handled manually are easy to lose and can be vulnerable to fraud and security threats. Paper files get stuck in a filing cabinet, emails get lost in inboxes, and disconnected spreadsheets make tracking difficult. Not to mention the risk of a check getting washed.
AP automation can keep everything centralized, secure, and fully traceable. With AvidXchange, payments go through a dedicated clearing account so the association’s own account is never at risk. Encrypted digital payment options add additional layers of protection and control, helping boards feel more secure about how funds are managed.
Here’s a closer look at the protections provided by automated AP systems:
- Multi-factor authentication and the ability to secure payment portals control access to sensitive financial information, minimizing the risk of fraud and the likelihood of unauthorized users tampering with funds.
- Every transaction is automatically logged, creating a clear audit trail. This makes it easy to spot suspicious activity and stop it before it’s too late.
- Automation also reduces the likelihood of human error that can happen in manual processes. By automating, you eliminate data entry mistakes, duplicate checks and misplaced invoices.
It’s important to know that not every AP provider offers the same level of protection. Once you move your financial data online, look for providers that offer bank-grade security, encrypted storage, and active fraud monitoring. For instance, AvidXchange is a licensed money transmitter, which helps ensure financial regulations are met when sending funds.
Reduce Workloads and Improve Communication
As a community manager, you have a lot on your plate. Manual invoice routing and paper processing creates unnecessary bottlenecks that stand in your way of quickly responding to board requests.
What if instead of focusing on paperwork, your community association management company could use automation to spend more time focusing on board communication and community priorities?
Freeing yourself from manual AP work could give you more time to focus on:
- Proactively updating the board on finances, projects and community initiatives.
- Monitoring supplier performance and strengthening partnerships with maintenance crews, landscapers and others relied upon for ongoing upkeep.
- Forecasting and planning for future projects and improvements.
- Identifying cost saving opportunities across communities.
Earn Your Board’s Confidence
Strong board relationships are built on transparency, consistency, and confidence in how community funds are managed. AP automation from AvidXchange helps deliver all three, making it easy for community association management companies to earn their board’s trust, improve financial oversight, and help protect every dollar flowing through their communities.
Ready to take your board relationships to the next level? Download AvidXchange’s latest eBook, Get Started with AP Automation for Community Association Management, and see how automation can transform your finances and more.