Beyond Compliance: Turning Tax and Accounting Integration into a Competitive Edge 

The Yardi Investment Suite team sponsors the “Capital Stack” thought leadership series that shares strategies helpful to real estate investment professionals navigating capital markets. 

Key takeaway: Integrating tax preparation and accounting systems enables seamless tax reporting. 

Guest panelists Scott Helberg and Tom Silversmith from Chicago-based accounting, tax and consulting firm RSM US LLP—a Yardi Business Process Outsourcing client and member of the Yardi Independent Consulting Network—focused on the value of combining tax preparation and accounting systems. They emphasized how this integration improves accuracy, speed and satisfaction for both investors and tax preparers.

Why Tax and Accounting Integration Matters

Traditional processes involve exporting accounting data and sending it to certified public accountants (CPAs). This often leads to rounds of questions and time-consuming data retrieval. The result? A stressful, inefficient tax season—a challenge faced year-round, not just during filing.

Accounting systems are essential for ensuring that real estate investment funds operate smoothly and align with fund manager goals and investor satisfaction metrics. Panelists agreed that integration with tax systems is no longer “nice to have.” It’s fast becoming a standard across industries, including property management. 

Improved Total Business Efficiency

Integrating tax preparation systems with a platform like Yardi Investment Accounting enables a free flow of tax data, eliminates the need for manual reworking, accommodates any real estate ownership structure and automatically updates the general ledger, thus reducing manual errors. 

The result is high-quality financial data that helps firms like RSM US prepare tax returns faster and at a lower cost for their clients. 

Enabling Hassle-Free Financial Management

“With Investment Accounting, we can roll up the multiple sets of books in an investment fund’s financial information, accruals, eliminations, properties and holding companies, all the way up to the fund, into a clear, concise consolidated report. We can also drill into the report to see an investor’s structural hierarchy and the accounts they’re associated with down to a particular deal, fund or partnership,” Silversmith said. 

The result is hassle-free financial management that saves time on tax data entry, eliminates human errors and keeps information consistent to one source of truth.

Tom Silversmith, Tax Technology Senior Manager, RSM US LLP

Seamless Accounting and Tax Alignment 

Other benefits of integrating Investment Accounting with tax technology include:

• Enhanced transparency that supports compliance and investor satisfaction. 
• Automation of routine tasks to boost efficiency and control costs. 
• Coverage of all tax obligations, federal, state, local, and international. 
• Consistent data across platforms builds trust among stakeholders. 
• Better risk management through improved metrics tracking. 

Integrated systems do not replace staff, they help firms: 

• Expand portfolios without growing headcount
• Meet tax deadlines with fewer delays and penalties 

The tax compliance function becomes a breeze.

Scott Helberg, Partner, RSM US LLP

With accounting and tax systems working together firms can: 

Stick to what they do best and make the most of their resources, save on compliance costs and boost productivity. 

Tom Silversmith, Tax Technology Senior Manager, RSM US LLP

Watch the full episode and learn more about how Yardi Investment Accounting supports automated consolidations, ownership-level transactions and portfolio-wide visibility.