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September 14, 2020 10:00AM

Why You Should Do a Business Process Review Before Setting Next Year's Budget

You have to be able to see the total picture of your operations in order to identify both the positives and negatives that can affect future bottom lines and ROI. This process goes beyond forecasting, and this is where a Business Process Review (BPR) will help you set next year’'s budget.

In the real estate investment world, a BPR will evaluate different elements of your business, including property management, leasing, accounting, reporting, and investment management—basically, all aspects of your business. This important tool can analyze your processes, uncover any pain points, and ensure you’re operating as efficiently as possible—especially where automation, software utilization, and present business practices are concerned, increasing the potential for future growth and success.

Here are three reasons why you should do a BPR before setting next year’s budget

Find Streamlining Opportunities.

The wasted and inefficient use of resources, even in small increments, can add up year after year, costing you time and money. Conducting a BPR will help you find new ways to streamline your processes and procedures. This will help ensure all of your resources are being used in the most profitable and efficient ways possible. Understanding this will allow you to better forecast where to prioritize your budget.

One popular method for streamlining is through using Robotic Process Automation (RPA), which allows businesses to turn over monotonous and repetitive tasks, like email and data interpretation and manipulation, to virtual bots. This lets employees take on more complex, higher-value work.

To learn more about RPA and how it could benefit your portfolio, click here.

Discover Efficiencies + Inefficiencies In Your Systems.

In addition to streamlining opportunities, you’ll also want to look for other efficiencies and inefficiencies in all of your systems. Understanding that your inefficiencies will require some expense to fix makes it an important aspect of budget setting. Here are some things to ask yourself while conducting your BPR that will help you uncover these issues:

  • What in the process is broken?
  • Which steps in the process create roadblocks?
  • Which step requires the most time to complete?
  • Which step causes the most delays?

Understanding and then utilizing the answers to each of these questions will allow you to review ways to reduce your overhead for the upcoming year and put an effective plan in place moving forward for not only the upcoming year’s budget, but for years to come as well. Anytime you improve your systems, you’re taking bold moves toward improving your ROI and overall success year over year. It can be as simple as that.

Ensure Accurate Reporting Procedures.

Reporting procedures, in general, can be a difficult pain point for many businesses, and if reports aren’t used effectively, or if the necessary reports don’t exist, the lack of accurate or necessary information can make this pain point even more uncomfortable. So, when you’re doing your annual BPR, here are some focus areas to ensure your reports are as useful as possible:

  • Formatting of reports
  • Distribution of reports
  • In-house communications, especially where responsibilities are concerned
  • Accessing data
  • Combining data

Once you’ve completed the evaluation process, you’ll be able to see where new customizations and/or tools might be beneficial as well as the need for any operational responsibility changes.

Performing an annual BPR can uncover efficiencies and waste in all aspects of your portfolio, which can lead to higher ROIs, a better use of one of your most valuable assets—your employees—better tenant retention, and greater overall success. For more information about BPRs, contact us—we’re happy to help.