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HFH manages premier office building with Sage Timberline Office

Not just once, but twice HFH Limited's Allied Plaza has won a "Toby Award," or Building of the Year, from the Building Owners and Management Association (BOMA). HFH owns and manages the County of San Diego high-rise, along with other commercial properties in California, focusing on long-term ownership and professional management strategies.

Mary Youngman, RPA, property manager for Allied Plaza, learned about Sage Timberline Office at BOMA trade shows. "When I compared Sage Timberline Office with our existing software solution, I realized how horrible our system was," she says. "It was unfriendly, and didn't let us make any changes or create reports. I'm always looking for ways to make my life easier. So I compared accounting systems at shows. What sold me on Sage Timberline Office was that it was so easy to learn and use."

Switching to Sage Timberline Office
HFH adopted Sage Timberline Office in 1999 on a limited basis, and has been expanding its usage ever since. It now uses the software to perform all accounting processes involved in property management, including general ledger, billing, check writing, bank reconciliation, and financial statements. Its most recent acquisition has been the Job Costing module.

"No one likes to do data entry and search through paper files," explains Youngman. "Sage Timberline Office eliminates data entry by automating everything. Now it's easy to find out where a project stands—how expenses compare with other properties, for example—with a snapshot report. Anyone can access this data, too. This is great for the property manager, as we receive fewer requests for information."

Complete Integration
"The integration of Sage Timberline Office modules is wonderful," says Youngman. "It is surprisingly easy to get back and forth between modules. Also, I've been able to customize the software quickly to meet our specific needs, without having to go through weeks of training. This is exactly what I'd hoped for when making the purchase decision."

Integration has not compromised data integrity, however. "As we've added users, we increased security and began creating read-only files. People can access information but not change it. Now we can open up data for viewing without fearing that it will be corrupted," says Youngman.

Rapid Reporting
Integration leads to convenient report writing, too. "All of the various aspects of Sage Timberline Office filter very well, for concise and accurate reports. We can produce five-year overview reports, or other historical analyses, without having to recreate all of the data like before. Also, we can segregate data by project or owner, which management really likes," she notes.

"I used to spend at least half of every week working on reports," Youngman continues. "With Sage Timberline Office, I can create a report in minutes. This has freed up an enormous amount of time previously spent in front of spreadsheets, which I can use for more important activities like interacting with tenants and maintaining 100 percent occupancy. This gift of time is invaluable."

Accounting for Checks
HFH uses Sage Timberline Office for check writing and bank reconciliation. "When a check is written, the information goes immediately to the general ledger. We no longer have to do manual postings or journal entries into separate systems.

Automated check-cutting has reduced our payment process by 80 percent, as we can print hundreds of checks in a short time," Youngman says.

"Bank reconciliation is also a piece of cake with Sage Timberline Office," she adds. "I used to hate sitting with a check book and calculator. Now we just tick off checks in the software, which tells us whether the balance is right or wrong, and prompts us regarding possible errors. This has cut our bank reconciliation time in half."

Future Efficiencies
HFH recently implemented the Job Costing module in Sage Timberline Office, primarily to manage a large three-year project in Emeryville, California. "We're still learning the module, but expect to experience real efficiencies with it soon," says Youngman. "It will be invaluable to project managers in the field. The module will tell us where our funds went, so we can make changes before anything gets out of kilter. When you have 40 million pieces of paper on your desk, it's almost impossible to get a real-time picture of where the project is. Job Costing will give us the control we need for better management."

Youngman has a great relationship with her Sage Software business partner. "I'm a huge fan of our business partner and the Sage Timberline Office people in general," she says. "They provide excellent support over the phone to keep me on track. In fact, the reason we've been willing to adopt new modules they recommend is because we've had such success with previous modules. We look forward to continuing our relationship with both our Sage Software business partner and Sage Timberline Office for a long time in the future."

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