Kilroy Realty Corp., a real estate investment trust with a portfolio of more than 12 million square feet of commercial, office and industrial space, was spending three to four weeks re-keying data from its accounting software into its tool for forecasting future revenues.
To solve this problem, the company began looking for a forecasting solution to minimize the need to manually input data from one program to another. Because it was already using Timberline accounting software, Timberline's Forecasting software made sense.
Efficient data updates
"Our initial forecasting tool required a lot of manual re-keying and a lot of redundancy," Manager Tim Schoen says. "So we kept searching for a forecasting tool that would build on the data the company already had."
Schoen also points out that Timberline's Forecasting was able to cut the amount of time to update data for forecasting to about a week from its previous three to four weeks.
"And just as important as saving us time, the accuracy of the data is much better because there's less manual typing — we actually just take the data that's already in the system and audit it," he says.
Forecasts lead to growth
Since making the switch over a year ago, the So. Calif.-based company has been able to run forecasts and various sensitivities as needed.
"Our portfolio has grown to 12.7 million sq. feet with over 400 tenants, so forecasting has become a time-consuming task," Schoen says. "Being able to forecast with more frequency makes a big difference. The data for the upcoming year is more reliable, which is crucial for a public company." By mid-year, Schoen adds, the investment community is less interested in the current year than the coming year. "So being able to do additional forecasts means we can provide up-to-date forecasts."
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