Realm: smart collection means money in the bank.

Let's say you manage an expensive co-op. You get a call from a tenant. He wants to know why he's incurred a late fee. You tell him that you never received his payment. He insists that he sent it. Upon further research, you find that his payment was received two weeks ago; but it's still being processed.

Martin Astrof, CFQ of Charles H. Greenthal, works hard to ensure that his people avoid the scenario above. It's a big job. Greenthal is one of the New York metropolitan area's largest residential management firms, with a portfolio that includes over 20,000 units--many in Manhattan's most illustrious co-op, condo and rental buildings. According to Astrof, such a portfolio requires a complex receivables process. "Before we'll, accept a payment," he says, "a number of criteria need to be met, chiefly for our clients' benefit." Indeed, Greenthal's close attention to financial details has been a hallmark of its reputation throughout its forty-year history, as well as a major ingredient in its continued success.

Until recently, however, that same attention to detail was also causing a big problem for Astrof. "The more business rules you have," he says, "the more rejected checks you'll end up with." For Greenthal that can be a hefty number; but the bank lockbox system they were using to process tenant payments couldn't handle rejections. All rejected checks had to be processed manually, resulting in turn-around periods that could take days and, in some cases, weeks. Not a good state of affairs in a business where ready cash is a constant necessity. Says Astrof: "Coops and condos don't run at a surplus. We need available funds to pay mortgages, payroll, taxes, utilities, If we're not receiving maintenance we're handicapped. You can't have a system where there are delays."

In search of a system that would solve problems rather than create them, Astrof turned to REALM Business Solutions. He'd been using REALM's BJ Murray property management software since 1982 and admired its consistent performance and the quality of its support staff. REALM had recently introduced an intelligent lockbox service called REALMCash, a cash management system it claimed would automate the receivables process based on the actual requirements of the real estate business.

REALMCash requires that all tenant payments be mailed or sent electronically to REALM's processing center in Long Island. Before Astrof would agree to turn over responsibility for all 20,000 units worth of Greenthal's receivables--a big step for any company--he and several colleagues toured the facility. He liked what he saw. "We brought our IT people with us and some of the people who manage our receivables system. The IT people were satisfied with the equipment. The managers were satisfied with the system and with the people who worked there."

Astrof considered other more conventional lockbox solutions during this time but was unable to find one that fit their needs. He says that several factors set REALM's service apart. First is the fact that the system accepts both paper and electronic transactions, offering tenants more flexibility in their payment options. For maximum efficiency, high speed imaging equipment at the REALMCash facility converts all checks into electronic transactions as they come in. Second is security. REALMCash automatically identifies tenants by matching them to checking or credit card accounts. Any payment not associated with a known tenant is earmarked immediately.

For Astrof, however, the system's most important quality is the level of control it offers without sacrificing speed. REALMCash applies Greenthal's business rules as it identifies each tenant. All payment data, including images of the front and back of every check, is immediately made accessible for online review and point-and-click exception processing. This allows for same day deposits for most payments and next day deposits for exceptions. Greenthal's previous lockbox sent data only at the end of the day, meaning that all exceptions were rejected out of hand and relegated to ponderous manual processing. Finally, REALMCash integrates with Greenthal's property management software to automatically update all records.

So far, Astrof has not been disappointed. Since implementing REALMCash in October of 2001, he's seen improvements in overall processing time of around 80%. Clients are happier thanks to the reductions in processing delays and their accompanying late fees. Greenthal's managers in the field are happier because they can offer better service to tenants and have more time to improve the properties.

As in the past, Astrof is especially impressed with REALM's people. He claims that a common misapprehension about lockboxes is that they are simply pieces of equipment. "That's not only it," he says. "It's the people who manage the lockbox for you. That's very important. Something that REALM did that was very smart was to bring in experienced people, people who had a lot of knowledge of lockboxes. That's worth a lot."