Likelihood to Recommend I believe Accruent is well suited for companies with a large amount of leased assets that need to be accounted for under the new accounting standard. Companies with fewer leases would not need an intricate tool of this size. It is suited for both real estate and equipment leases, which makes up the entirety of our portfolio.
Read full review We have 6 apartment buildings that we manage. Every month we were having to drive to each location to collect rent checks. Since using appfolio, we only have a couple of renters that still send in a paper check, the rest pay online, so we are ensuring that our renters are paying on time. Once we have an applicant apply, the old way was to take their scanned application, review, and then pay to have a background check conducted. Now, with appfolio, we are able to have them apply, sign off on the background check, and pay their deposit all in one shot. It has allowed our property managers to focus on other property items rather than conducting background checks.
Read full review Pros Lucernex does an excellent job of listening to its customers to continue enhancing the product to make it the best in the industry and to continue to partner with their customers on this endeavor. Lucernex's product is an intuitive product that allows its end users to customize and manager their own fields and pages to tailor individual company's needs. Read full review Prior to purchasing AppFolio Property Manager we used a texting app so we could mass text tenants. AppFolio allows us to text them by their unit along with their guarantors (if needed.) We use this feature daily. It is so convenient when we need to reach out residents quickly. The online payment system makes it easy for our commercial and residential tenants to make rental payments. The system has also lessened the work of out Account's manager since it's all in once place now and we do not have to enter payments into a separate system. Navigating AppFolio Property Manager is extremely easy. When we have new hire, it does take any time for them to become comfortable with the system. The main page dashboard makes it simple to get from point A to point B and beyond. The Search engine on AppFolio Property Manager is so efficient. You can search almost anything- phone number, first names, last names, addressed, license plate numbers to successfully find what you are needing. Read full review Cons The sales person we worked with seemed to have some communication gaps when passing off to the implementation team. The implementation start was rocky due to enduring disconnect on our needs versus what was included in the SOW. As a client, we were not clear on what was fundamentally included in our SOW and how that would impact the end-product. Read full review Customer support is horrendous. It can take weeks to get a live person on the phone and once you get someone, they typically will need to escalate your issue. If you have multiple bank accounts at different banks, the bill-paying feature has trouble properly defaulting to the right bank account. Multiple bank accounts also have issues tying incorrectly to the Cash section of the balance sheet. Read full review Usability The system is so intuitive and easy to use. There’s almost nothing in the system that can’t be undone if you make a mistake. Important things also have their own tabs. It’s also easy to use from the resident side which is helpful for in a world where everyone is not tech-savvy.
Read full review Support Rating The few times that we have had training with AppFolio, they were SO helpful and quick to answer any questions we may have. Because of their promptness, it shows what a great product they have. If they were not able to figure something out, they would follow up with us within a few days or so, which is so important in a software program!
Read full review In-Person Training The trainers were knowledgeable and engaging in presenting the materials, and their emphasis on important concepts was helpful (I would rate the trainers themselves a 9!). However, I do not believe there's anything we learned in the in-person training that could not have been taught via live web-classroom. Traveling a significant distance (in our case) to Austin, TX for only approx. 12 hours in the classroom was (in my opinion) not necessary, since the same material could have been presented via live web-classroom and saved us the expense and travel-time. I would encourage Lucernex to consider moving to a live web-classroom format in the future; an online live format would still allow for participation and questions from the participants while saving clients' time and money
Read full review Alternatives Considered I cannot recall exactly what other products we reviewed before choosing Lucernex, but one of the leading factors was how highly customizable the software was. We had previously been using Retail Lease which was an older program with buckets of data stored everywhere. During the data mapping process, we were able to easily find a home for all of this "random" data
Read full review This was our old program and it was not user friendly and very inefficient to use. We was never able to answer a question for an owner or a tenant very easily and many times we had to ask for them to let us call them back while we research their question because it was so difficult to maneuver in the program.
Read full review Return on Investment Lucernex was able to complete our business objective to manage and process all of our Lease Accounting entries within the software. Lucernex has enabled all of our departments to become better connected, work together to create synergies and transparency to better meet business objectives. Read full review As far as positive impact, we are much more organized as a company as far as accounting, maintenance, and managing tenant issues. We are all on the same page and know where to find notes, emails, letters, information, etc... and can be more self-sufficient and self-directed. I think this is a major plus as far as business goes, as time is money. The more efficient you can be, the more time that is saved, the more money that's saved, period. I don't work in Accounting and I haven't had any discussions regarding negative impacts in regards to this program. However, we've been using this since 2013 and we're on our 6th year as a business and I've heard others in our organization saying how much AppFolio has improved over that short time and how it keeps getting more intuitive and better with time. At no point have our leaders considered getting rid of the program or implementing a different program. Read full review ScreenShots AppFolio Property Manager Screenshots