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Beginning in 2013, Illinois-based Providence Real Estate started using AvidXchange to automate AP processes and payments. By doing so, the company improved payment speed and reduced costs associated with paper checks, envelopes, and postage.
As the company grew, Providence Real Estate consolidated systems within its ERP, leading Kelly Shoemake, Accounting Operations Manager, to implement Yardi Bill Pay. However, after experiencing challenges with payment processing and reconciliation, Providence Real Estate returned to AvidXchange for payments while continuing to use Yardi as its ERP.
An All-in-One Approach That Fell Short
Before returning to AvidXchange, Providence Real Estate used Yardi Bill Pay in an effort to manage payments within a single platform. While the idea of consolidating tools was appealing, the reality created new challenges for the finance team.
The payment process became more manual and time-consuming, particularly when it came to reconciliation. Instead of seeing individual payment-level detail, the team had to look at lump sum payments and then manually confirm payment status, adding significant effort to an already busy process.
“There were an excessive number of inefficiencies with our payment system that caused a lot of mistakes and wasted too much of our finance team’s valuable time,” said Kelly Shoemake, Accounting Operations Manager. “The overall performance of the software was sub-par, and we had to make a change.”
Returning to AvidXchange for Payments and Scale
Providence Real Estate made the decision to return to AvidXchange for payment processing while maintaining Yardi as its system of record. The transition back was completed quickly, without interrupting invoice and payment workflows.
Implementation took less than six weeks and required minimal internal lift, enabling the team to quickly establish consistent payment workflows. “Switching back was really seamless,” Shoemake said. “We already knew the process, so it was just a matter of getting everything reconnected.”
Today, the integration between Yardi and AvidXchange allows the team to process payments directly within their existing workflow. Payments created in Yardi automatically sync to AvidXchange for processing without requiring a separate submission step.
“That has been huge,” Shoemake said. “I’m in Yardi, I process the payments, and within seconds it’s sent to AvidXchange and out the door.”
Rather than relying on Yardi for everything, Providence Real Estate found that using Yardi alongside AvidXchange’s payment solution provided a more efficient and reliable approach. While adding another system can seem like extra effort upfront, the team found the long-term efficiency gains far outweighed the initial transition.
Faster Payments, Streamlined Reconciliation, and Improved Supplier Experience
Since returning to AvidXchange, Providence Real Estate has saved an estimated 15 hours per month, or 180 hours annually, significantly reducing manual workload and improving operational efficiency. Reconciliation time has been reduced by 50%, from approximately two hours per week to just one.
What was once a manual, time-intensive process is now streamlined and automated. By moving from lump-sum disbursements to individually debited payments, the team can reconcile transactions faster, with greater accuracy and visibility. Payments are submitted in seconds, supplier notifications are delivered instantly, and reconciliation has shifted from line-by-line work to a one-click process.
“Our vendors [suppliers] are definitely much happier,” Shoemake said. “We used to receive daily calls and emails about payment status, but now that’s dropped to just one to two calls a week. They get notifications almost instantly. I was on the phone with one recently, and before we even hung up, she had already received confirmation. Now I don’t have to think about it. I know payments go through, and our vendors [suppliers] are taken care of.”
Shoemake also notes AvidXchange’s support is easily accessible: “Nine times out of ten, I use the AvidXchange help site’s chat, but when I’ve needed to call, the experience is just as responsive and helpful. I’ve never had a negative experience—the support has always been exceptional.”
As Providence Real Estate continues to grow, the combined use of Yardi and AvidXchange enables the team to scale efficiently without adding complexity.
“We’re able to process payments faster with fewer mistakes, and that’s great for controlling our spending and strengthening our business relationships. We’re so glad and relieved to again be gaining efficiency and integration benefits of AvidXchange."
