Spotlight on Advisory Services: Business Process Outsourcing

Citrin Cooperman’s Business Process Outsourcing Practice can elevate your finance and accounting and IT functions to provide timely and meaningful information — helping simplify your decision-making process. It’s like building high-performing, sophisticated finance, accounting, and IT departments in-house for less than the cost of a full-time team. In this edition of Spotlight on Advisory Services, Jessica Garber, partner in Citrin Cooperman's Real Estate Industry Practice, sits down with Ryan Moore, managing director in the Business Process Outsourcing Practice, to discuss the accounting and financial reporting challenges facing real estate companies today.

Jessica: What are the most common financial statement reporting issues you see real estate companies facing?

Ryan: Three issues come up again and again, regardless of asset class or size:

• Quality of Management Company Reporting: Inconsistent, late, or incomplete reports that don’t clearly reflect true operating performance.
• Limited Technical Accounting Beyond Cash Basis: Many owners and property managers lack the technical, real estate specific accounting required as portfolios grow, including calculating straight line rent, lease accounting, accruing expenses in the proper period, and purchase/sale accounting. Property managers typically have limited knowledge on complex debt and equity structures and are unable to provide investor level reporting.
• Ongoing Accounting Staff Shortages: Difficulty hiring and retaining real estate savvy accountants leads to delayed month-end closes, key person risk, and scalability challenges, compounded by the steep learning curve of real estate specific systems and software.

Jessica: What are the most common outsourcing solutions that Citrin Cooperman provides to real estate companies?

Ryan: Our services depend on the client’s needs; however, the month-end close is the most common service our outsourcing team provides to all industries, not just real estate.

• Month End Close: The most common starting point. A disciplined close process gives clients confidence that the data they’re reviewing is accurate, timely, and decision ready, not just for the property level, but across the full ownership structure.
• Flexible, A La Carte Support: Services scale based on need and often include accounts payable, payroll, common area maintenance (CAM), and other tenant chargeback calculations, as well as maintaining books and records for upper tier entities such as holding companies and joint ventures. These entities frequently fall outside the scope of property managers and can otherwise go untouched throughout the year.

Jessica: What differentiates our real estate outsourcing services from other solutions in the market?

Ryan: Our team brings deep industry knowledge (technical accounting and software) and knowledge of best practices to every engagement.

• Standardization Without Losing Judgment: We bring consistent, repeatable processes to the month-end close, financial reporting, and internal controls, while still applying experienced judgment since real estate structures and transactions are rarely one size fits all.
• Depth of Real Estate Expertise: Our team understands real estate at both the industry and transaction level, from property operations to upper tier entities, joint ventures, and investor reporting. This reduces rework, improves close timelines, and improves confidence in the numbers.
• Fluency Across Real Estate Systems and Software: We work daily in real estate specific accounting and property management platforms, which shortens onboarding, reduces learning curves, and allows us to integrate seamlessly with property managers, lenders, and investors.

Jessica: What differentiates our outsourcing services from a real estate company hiring in-house accounting support?

Ryan: There are several reasons that clients prefer the outsourcing model compared to hiring an in-house accounting team.

• Continuity of Service: Clients are not dependent on a single individual. We provide consistent coverage through vacations, turnover, and growth, reducing key person risk and disruption.
• Access to a Deep Bench of Specialists: Our clients can tap into real estate, technical accounting, tax, and advisory expertise across the firm as needs arise, without having to hire those skill sets full time.
• Right Sized Accounting Support: We often see controllers and CFOs spending time on staff level tasks like A/P coding or bank reconciliations. Our model allows senior talent to focus on oversight and decision making, while appropriately leveraging staff level resources for execution.
• Proven Best Practices from Across the Market: Because we work with many real estate companies, we know what works and what doesn’t, and we apply those lessons from day one instead of learning through trial and error.

Jessica: What are the specific technologies or software solutions that our Business Process Outsourcing Practice uses to support real estate companies?

Ryan: Software is an important part of operations and accounting.

• We Work Within the Client’s Existing Systems: Most often, we operate directly inside the client’s own licenses, such as Yardi, RealPage, AppFolio, and similar real estate platforms, rather than forcing a system change.
• Experience Across Customizations and Integrations: Many clients have unique configurations, reporting layers, or integrations built around their core systems. Because we have worked across a wide range of setups, we are able to navigate that complexity efficiently.
• Practical, Operator Level Insight: We’re embedded in the day to day accounting operations, not advising from the sidelines. That hands on experience gives us an intimate understanding of how the systems are utilized, allowing us to provide informed recommendations on best practices for clients as they grow.

Jessica: Many real estate companies rely on third-party property managers to perform the day-to-day management of their properties and to provide accounting services. How would companies that rely on third-party property managers benefit from our services?

Ryan: Many real estate companies rely on third-party property managers who excel at tenant relations, maintenance, and day-to-day operations, but accounting is often not their core strength. Without regular accounting oversight, errors and inconsistencies in the books can go unnoticed and compound over time. This frequently results in financials that require significant cleanup before they can be used for tax preparation, audits, or lender and investor reporting.

Our outsourcing services provide a layer of monthly accounting oversight as part of the close process. By reviewing and reconciling the books each month, we help identify and resolve issues early, strengthen internal controls, and ensure financial statements are accurate and reliable. This proactive approach reduces costly cleanup work, supports smoother tax and audit processes, and gives stakeholders confidence in the financial information being shared.

Jessica: Is there a specific sector of the real estate industry that is the best fit for our outsourcing services?

Ryan:

• We Work Across all Sectors of Real Estate: Our BPO services support owners, operators, developers, and management companies across asset classes, including residential, commercial, mixed use, and investment structures.
• The Common Thread Is Volume and/or Complexity, not Asset Type: The best fit is not defined by sector, but by the need for accurate reporting, disciplined processes, and scalable accounting as portfolios grow and requirements become more sophisticated.
• Experience Across Ownership Structures and Reporting Needs: We work with a wide range of ownership structures, from single asset entities to complex joint ventures and fund structures, each with distinct investor, lender, and management reporting requirements.

Jessica: How do you approach scoping the outsourcing services required for a prospective real estate client?

Ryan: This is broken into three parts: scoping to define the engagement, onboarding, and monthly recurring work.

• Scoping the Engagement to Define Scope and Lift: We start by scoping the engagement to clearly define responsibilities, expected level of effort, and the processes that we are taking off the client’s plate. This ensures alignment on what we’re responsible for and what success looks like from day one.
• One Time Onboarding Fee: A one time onboarding fee allows our team to get fully ramped, transition and assume responsibility for agreed upon tasks, and establish processes, controls, and reporting tailored to the client’s structure.
• Predictable Monthly Fixed Fee:Ongoing services are delivered under a fixed monthly fee based on the defined scope, providing transparency, consistency, and no surprises as the engagement progresses.

Jessica: What type of team structure should prospective real estate clients expect when working with our Business Process Outsourcing Practice?

Ryan: We provide our clients with a full team and a project lead, not just a single person.

• A Dedicated Team with a Project Lead: Clients are assigned a team of accountants guided by a project lead who serves as the primary point of contact and oversees delivery, communication, and accountability.
• Team Size Aligned to the Engagement: The size and composition of the team are tailored to the scope and complexity of the engagement, allowing support to scale as the client’s portfolio and reporting needs evolve.

Jessica: Finally, what excites you most about the future of our Business Process Outsourcing Practice at Citrin Cooperman?

Ryan: Technology and AI. I’m excited to see how AI continues to evolve and change the role of the accounting department for our clients, particularly around automation, efficiency, and data insights. While AI is advancing quickly, it’s not yet ready to fully replace the human oversight required to ensure processes are working as intended, and financial data is accurate and reliable. That human touch remains critical today. As new tools enter the market, we’re well positioned to help clients evaluate and implement solutions that fit their business, rather than chasing technology for technology’s sake.