How to Automate Bank Reconciliations in Yardi and MRI
Bank reconciliations are essential to maintaining accurate financial records, but for real estate organizations managing numerous properties and bank accounts, the process can be time-consuming and repetitive.
Accounting teams often spend significant time comparing bank statements against transactions recorded in their property management systems, identifying discrepancies, and resolving exceptions.
Bank reconciliation automation in Yardi and MRI Software helps real estate companies streamline these activities by reducing manual transaction matching and improving the efficiency of their accounting workflows.
With the right automation strategy, organizations can save valuable time, improve consistency, and allow accounting teams to focus on higher-value financial activities.
What Is Bank Reconciliation Automation?
Bank reconciliation automation uses technology to compare financial transactions recorded in an accounting system against corresponding bank activity.
Rather than manually reviewing every transaction, automation solutions can extract relevant data, apply matching rules, identify discrepancies, and help process reconciliations.
For organizations using Yardi or MRI Software, automation may involve robotic process automation (RPA) that interacts with existing accounting workflows.
Common automated activities include:
- Extracting bank and accounting transaction data.
- Comparing transactions using defined matching criteria.
- Identifying unmatched items and exceptions.
- Preparing or posting reconciliation results.
- Producing reconciliation reports for review.
The exact workflow depends on the organization's accounting environment, available integrations, and internal control requirements.
Why Bank Reconciliation Automation Matters for Real Estate
Real estate organizations frequently manage multiple properties, entities, and bank accounts, creating substantial reconciliation workloads.
As portfolios grow, the volume of transactions can increase without a corresponding increase in accounting resources.
Manual reconciliation processes may introduce several challenges:
- Significant time spent matching transactions.
- Repetitive data entry and spreadsheet work.
- Delays during month-end close.
- Inconsistent reconciliation procedures.
- Limited visibility into unresolved exceptions.
- Increased pressure on accounting teams.
Automating repetitive steps can help organizations process higher transaction volumes while maintaining appropriate financial oversight.
How to Automate Bank Reconciliations in Yardi and MRI
1. Evaluate Your Existing Reconciliation Process
Before implementing automation, review how your accounting team currently completes bank reconciliations.
Identify the number of bank accounts, transaction volumes, recurring tasks, and common exceptions.
This assessment helps determine which activities are suitable for automation and where improvements could deliver the greatest value.
Best practice: Start with high-volume, repetitive reconciliation activities that follow consistent rules.
2. Standardize Transaction Data and Matching Rules
Automation depends on reliable data and clearly defined processes.
Organizations should evaluate how transactions are recorded in Yardi or MRI and how corresponding bank activity is received.
Matching criteria may include transaction amounts, dates, reference numbers, and other identifying information.
Standardizing these rules helps improve consistency and reduces unnecessary manual intervention.
Best practice: Establish clear matching criteria and exception-handling procedures before deployment.
3. Implement Automation Within Existing Accounting Workflows
Depending on the environment, automation can use RPA or integrations to retrieve transaction data, perform matching activities, and update reconciliation records.
For example, an automation workflow may compare bank statement activity with transactions recorded in Yardi or MRI, then flag unmatched items for accounting review.
This approach allows organizations to improve existing processes without necessarily replacing their ERP system.
Best practice: Design automation around established accounting controls and supported system capabilities.
4. Establish Exception Management Procedures
Not every transaction can or should be automatically matched.
Timing differences, missing information, unusual amounts, and other discrepancies may require human review.
An effective automation process should clearly identify exceptions and provide employees with the information needed to investigate them.
Best practice: Maintain human oversight for exceptions, approvals, and transactions that fall outside established matching rules.
5. Monitor Performance and Optimize Results
After implementation, organizations should evaluate how effectively automation is performing.
Useful metrics include:
- Percentage of transactions automatically matched.
- Time required to complete reconciliations.
- Number of exceptions requiring manual review.
- Reconciliation completion timelines.
- Hours saved through automation.
Regular monitoring helps identify opportunities to improve matching rules and address recurring exceptions.
Best practice: Establish baseline metrics before automation so improvements can be measured accurately.
Benefits of Automating Bank Reconciliations
Reduced Manual Accounting Work
Automation can eliminate repetitive transaction matching and reduce the time employees spend reviewing routine activity.
Improved Process Consistency
Standardized matching rules help organizations apply reconciliation procedures more consistently across accounts and properties.
Faster Financial Close Processes
Reducing manual reconciliation work can help accounting teams complete important month-end activities more efficiently.
Greater Visibility Into Exceptions
Automation can help identify unmatched transactions and provide a more structured process for investigating discrepancies.
Better Use of Accounting Resources
By reducing repetitive tasks, organizations can redirect employee time toward financial analysis, reporting, and other strategic responsibilities.
How REdirect Consulting Automates Bank Reconciliations
REdirect Consulting provides bank reconciliation automation solutions specifically designed for real estate organizations using accounting platforms such as Yardi and MRI Software.
Using robotic process automation, REdirect helps organizations extract accounting data, match transactions against bank statements, and process reconciliations within their existing property management systems.
REdirect's automation capabilities include:
- Bank reconciliation automation.
- Bank-to-book automation.
- Automated journal entry processing.
- Reporting package delivery automation.
- Business process reviews and automation assessments.
Across its automation operations, REdirect processes more than 900,000 bank transactions annually, demonstrating experience with high-volume real estate accounting workflows.
A typical bank reconciliation automation client saves more than 450 hours annually, although results vary based on transaction volumes, existing processes, and implementation scope.
By combining real estate accounting expertise with automation technology, REdirect helps organizations reduce manual effort while maintaining visibility and control over reconciliation activities.
Frequently Asked Questions About Bank Reconciliation Automation
Can bank reconciliations be automated in Yardi?
Yes. Depending on the organization's environment, bank reconciliation workflows in Yardi can be automated using available system capabilities, integrations, or RPA solutions.
Can MRI Software bank reconciliations be automated?
Yes. Organizations using MRI Software can evaluate automation solutions that retrieve accounting transactions, compare them against bank activity, and support reconciliation processing.
Does bank reconciliation automation require replacing an ERP system?
Not necessarily. Automation can often be implemented alongside existing Yardi or MRI environments, allowing organizations to improve processes without replacing their accounting platform.
What happens when an automated reconciliation identifies a discrepancy?
Transactions that do not meet established matching criteria should be flagged for investigation. Accounting teams remain responsible for reviewing exceptions and resolving discrepancies.
How much time can automated bank reconciliations save?
Time savings depend on transaction volume, existing processes, and automation design. REdirect reports that a typical bank reconciliation automation client saves more than 450 hours annually.
Streamline Bank Reconciliations With REdirect Consulting
Manual bank reconciliations don't have to consume significant amounts of your accounting team's time.
By automating repetitive transaction matching and improving exception management, real estate organizations can streamline reconciliation workflows and increase operational efficiency.
REdirect Consulting helps real estate companies automate bank reconciliations in Yardi and MRI Software without unnecessarily replacing their existing ERP systems.
Contact REdirect Consulting to explore how bank reconciliation automation can support your accounting operations.
