Close Periods Faster and Simplify Reporting with Automated Consolidations 

For many investment managers, financial consolidations remain one of the most challenging tasks, especially when navigating the complex ownership structures common in real estate. 

Traditionally, consolidations are handled manually in Excel spreadsheets or across multiple disconnected systems. This approach increases the likelihood of data quality issues, errors, inconsistencies and inaccurate reporting, slowing book close cycles and limiting access to timely, reliable insights for managers and investors. 

Close Books Without Headaches 

In recent years, the industry has been shifting away from endless spreadsheets toward dedicated platforms that streamline accounting workflows. Such a platform is Yardi Investment Accounting. Backed by more than 20 years of expertise in real estate ownership structures, the system automates financial processes so companies can manage complex consolidations with ease, close books faster and streamline reporting. 

Here’s a dive on how Yardi Investment Accounting helps you simplify consolidations, no matter how intricate your ownership structures or reporting requirements might be. 

1. Reduce Manual Work and Error Risk 

Consolidations don’t have to mean hours of manual work and error-prone reconciliations. Yardi Investment Accounting automates the entire workflow, seamlessly moving general ledger (GL) activity through your ownership structure based on rules assigned to each relationship. 

We cut our quarterly distribution process from seven weeks to less than two weeks, saving hundreds of staff hours annually thanks to automated consolidation and distribution in Yardi Investment Accounting.

Joe Anfuso, CFO, MG Properties Group 

The platform supports multiple consolidation methods so you can handle any ownership structure with ease: 

1. Full Consolidation – Automatically roll up 100% of activity from fully owned entities or properties to the next ownership level, with eliminations handled as needed. 
2. Minority/Noncontrolling Interest (NCI) – Account for the portion you don’t own when ownership is less than 100%. 
3. Equity Pickup – When ownership exceeds 20%, consolidate only your share of activity. 

By automating all these steps with Investment Accounting, you can close periods faster, with reduced risk of error and greater confidence in the accuracy of your consolidated financials.  

2. Ensure Consistent Roll-Up Rules  

As every ownership structure is different, consolidation rules can’t be one-size-fits-all. With Investment Accounting, you can design custom roll-up rules to fit specific accounting needs, ensuring accuracy and consistency across all consolidations. 

Key capabilities include:  

• Custom Account Trees – In our platform, Account Trees define how financial data is organized and rolled up for reporting. They allow you to map accounts in flexible hierarchies that reflect ownership structures and reporting needs. Use standard account trees for full consolidations or build custom ones for equity pickup or NCI.  
• Ownership-Based Calculations – Consolidate using configurable business rules to apply ownership percentages across structures, use a fixed percentage or let the platform automatically calculate minority interest.
• Multiple Book Support – Create and assign special books (accrual, fair market value, tax) to separate native activity at the entity level from consolidated entries. Choose different ‘from’ and ‘to’ books to produce multiple versions of financial statements.
• Elimination Entries – Set up advanced elimination rules, including options to apply original source, immediate source or intercompany segments to show where consolidated data originates from.

By providing you with full control over how financial data rolls up, Yardi Investment Accounting ensures your consolidation process aligns with the complexity of your ownership structures. This results in a consistent, accurate and simplified consolidation process. 

Want to See Yardi Investment Accounting in Action? Watch the On-Demand Webinar to Learn More.

3. Connect Property and Investment Accounting in One Platform 

The greatest value of an investment accounting solution comes when it is fully connected to your property management system. What sets Yardi Investment Accounting apart is that it is purpose-built for real estate and stands as the only investment accounting system fully integrated with Yardi Voyager, the industry’s leading property management platform. 

The integration enables you to:  

• Access financial data from operating properties in Voyager directly in Investment Accounting, allowing GL activity at the property level to flow effortlessly into consolidation structures. 
• Leverage commitment records from Voyager to capture ownership percentages, start and end dates and consolidation rules for entities at every level to determine how data rolls up across the structure. 

Investment Accounting’s seamless integration with Yardi Voyager means we don’t have to worry about mistakes from manually entering data into spreadsheets. 

Matt Berlin, CFO, Paragon Real Estate Investments

This integration eliminates manual data imports, external tools and disconnected systems, giving managers a single source of truth for both property management and investment accounting. The result is a faster, more accurate consolidation process than other platforms can provide, fully integrated from the property through the investment level. 

4. Gain Real-Time Visibility and Control 

Efficient consolidations require transparency and control. When data is pulled from multiple spreadsheets, emailed across teams or manually moved between systems, it becomes difficult to trace where the numbers originated or whether they’re up to date.   

Yardi Investment Accounting replaces those manual workflows with built-in automation and real-time visibility, giving you confidence at every step of the process through: 

• Auditability – Clearly see where consolidated results originated and trace activity back to its property or entity. 
• Consolidation Status Dashboard – Track real-time roll-up statuses for each entity directly in the main dashboard and instantly spot when reconsolidations are needed. 
• Background Processing – Run consolidation in the background or schedule them and receive email notifications once completed, so you can continue navigating in the platform without interruption. 
• Results Review – Leverage reports to validate consolidated results and confirm accuracy before closing. 

Together, these capabilities transform consolidations from a slow, error-prone task into an automated, transparent and reliable process. 

Conclusion 

Managing consolidations across complex ownership structures should bring clarity rather than create bottlenecks. Yardi Investment Accounting standardizes this process by automating roll-ups, centralizing ownership details and integrating directly with property-level data. The result is a seamless workflow that helps investment managers close periods faster and approach reporting cycles with greater confidence. 

Book a live demo to see Investment Accounting in action