Are your budgets for 2022 in for each property yet? Don’t worry, it’s not too late! We can help your company get it done within just two weeks—no matter how many properties you have.

We have helped clients of all sizes ranging from, 200 to 7,500 units and two to 28 properties, successfully complete their annual budgets in a timely manner.

Our 2022 Budgeting Boot Camp has quickly become a client favorite because an accurate annual budget is one of the most important documents you can have to correctly monitor the performance of your properties.

“We retained Ascent to help us complete our 2020 budgeting. Their budgeting workshop was focused, timely and professional. Ascent downloaded historical information for each property into a budgeting spreadsheet and then worked with our property managers to help them understand each component of the budget,” said Madeleine Ficaccio, owner of Bella Vista Management in Dallas. “Ascent provided recommendations on changes to our chart of accounts and worked with the managers on better understanding occupancy, loss to lease and vacancy loss. At the end of the three-day budgeting session, they uploaded our final budgets into the property management software. The Ascent process was excellent and working with their people was very enjoyable.”

Throughout our detailed process of establishing your annual budget, we ensure it is done right and on time and that your managers completely understand how to take ownership and manage their own budgets.

Ascent’s budgeting consulting services entail the preparation of individual property budgets and a three-day Budgeting Boot Camp for each member on your team via Zoom videoconferencing. We will provide you with the tools that guarantee each property’s budget is understood and you are prepared to start the new year with a plan to ensure maximum profitability.

“The most important principal our Budget Boot Camp clients obtain through our interaction is teaching their staff how to be better asset managers,” said Scott Seegmiller, managing partner of Ascent Multifamily Accounting. “We teach them how to maximize their role in increasing revenue and controlling costs.”

This year, Ascent has helped 11 of its clients prepare budgets for 2022. They immediately see how it efficiently helped them curate and implement an accurate plan for their businesses to succeed and profit.

“I strongly feel that understanding the budget gives the property managers more ‘ownership.’  We participated in Ascent’s Budget Bootcamp this year with our regionals and property managers,” said Lisa Fisher, owner of Rise Residential. “They learned quite a bit about what goes into the budget and how to maximize the value of the property.  The participants in this budget were excited to better understand the process and now have a much better understanding and ownership of it.”

We begin the process of creating each property’s 2022 budget by having our senior accountants analyze previous year’s budgets, including general ledger coding guidelines to revise the history as needed, to help us create most accurate budgets possible. With over 30 years of accounting and property management experience, our team is unmatched in maximizing the performance of your assets.

During your multi-day boot camp, we will provide your team the opportunity to work through the theory and the functionality of each section of the budget document as a group, then work individually with each property as needed.

Ascent’s budgeting consulting services identify five key indicators including:

• Performance targets
• A baseline for property management reviews
• Income and expense projections based on market drivers and assumptions
• Capital improvements planning and projections
• Problems that need to be resolved

Ascent’s proven success with property budgeting has meant the difference of hundreds of thousands of dollars for our clients. Our hands-on training with property managers, regional managers and owners makes the difference no other partner can provide. Our budgeting services including the following:

Step one

To lay the groundwork for your Budget Boot Camp, your team at Ascent will:

1. Create a template for each property
2. Populate Unit Mix, Current Rents, Loss to Lease
3. Extract 2021 Historical through Sep 30
4. Extract 2020 Historical for the whole year
5. Extract current and Historical Lease Expirations

Step two

Next, we will schedule and host a Zoom Boot Camp, where we will share the first draft of the budget and have group discussions with managers on:

1. Setting market rents
2. Loss to Lease
3. Concessions
4. Renewals
5. Other Income
6. Maintenance costs vs. CapEx
7. Net Operating Income and its effect on property values

Step three

Next, we give each manager the ability to work on their budget. We document the assumptions. We monitor their work the whole time. Owners and regionals can interact with them on Zoom Chat or have an offline call to give them guidance. We talk about expenses, turnover, maintenance, and CapEx.

Step four

Our final step is to review the budget for each property compared to other properties and find the anomalies.

When your two or three-day budget boot camp is complete, you will have a budget that is completed and ready to upload. In addition to experienced property budget consulting, we also offer training on tools and techniques with all major multifamily accounting software platforms including RealPage, Yardi, Resman, Entrata and Appfolio.

You put all your decision makers in a room for a few days and save yourself MONTHS of struggle with your 2022 budgets.

FEES

Our fees for our Budget Boot Camps range from $1,800 to $12,000 depending on the number of properties.

You can also view some of our  Budgeting Tools on our website!

Call or email me to find out if a Budget Boot Camp is right for your properties.

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