A unified online reporting system built for Washington State public funders to streamline compliance for affordable multifamily housing. Designed to simplify data reporting for property owners and managers across multiple jurisdictions.
Web Based Annual Reporting System
Client Location
United States
Industry
Public & Non-Profit
Solutions
Web Application
Technologies
React, Redux, Node Express, D3
Client Overview
Washington State public funders, including the Washington State Housing Finance Commission, the State Department of Commerce (Housing Trust Fund), the City of Seattle, King County, Snohomish County, the City of Tacoma, and the City of Bellingham, needed an online reporting system to facilitate compliance for affordable multifamily rental projects. The goal was to provide property owners and managers with a unified, user-friendly portal for data reporting and compliance.
Challenges
The primary challenge was consolidating and cleansing data from multiple public funders and ensuring that property owners and managers could easily report on their affordable multifamily rental projects. Washington State needed a solution that could handle:
Data Integration and Cleansing
Consolidating data from multiple partners while maintaining data accuracy and integrity.
User-Friendly Reporting System
Creating an accessible portal to streamline reporting and compliance requirements for all stakeholders.
Efficient Data Management
Handling data from multiple property management systems, including Yardi, Boston Post, and AppFolio, in a streamlined manner.
Solution
Intellectyx developed and maintained a custom Real-Time Housing Compliance Portal to address the state's requirements using an innovative, value-added approach.
Key Features of the Solution:
- Data Extraction and Integration: Data was extracted from multiple property management systems, including Yardi, Boston Post, and AppFolio, and then deduplicated, matched, and linked to the source registry. This ensured data accuracy and consistency across all records.
- ETL Operations and Data Mastering: Implemented effective data architecture to support the requirements of the portal, including Extract, Transform, Load (ETL) operations that mastered all records, creating a unique identifier for each record for easy identification and querying.
- User-Friendly Portal: Built an easy-to-use web-based portal for stakeholders to access affordable housing project details, perform advanced annual reporting, and track compliance status.
- Automated Calculations and Compliance Monitoring: Automated many calculations that staff previously performed manually, minimizing errors and reducing the need for back-and-forth correspondence between funder staff and management.
- Bulk Data Upload: Developed a bulk upload feature that allowed public funders to upload data into their internal systems and run monitoring and performance reports for their housing portfolios, enabling richer analysis.
- Historical Data Management: The system enabled users to enter data directly into the portal while keeping historical data intact, allowing property owners/managers to easily manage data throughout the year.
- Centralized Reporting: Built a centralized database where property owners could report compliance data regardless of how many funding sources were associated with each project.
Results
- Improved Efficiency and Data Accuracy: The Real-Time Housing Compliance Portal improved data retrieval, reporting, and visualization capabilities with quick turnaround times. It minimized errors that previously occurred with Excel spreadsheet reports and reduced the need for manual calculations.
- Enhanced Focus on Audits and Asset Management: The compliance settings allowed funder staff to focus more on audit and asset management functions rather than manual data entry and verification.
- Streamlined Reporting: The bulk upload feature enabled public funders to seamlessly upload WBARS (Washington State's affordable housing reporting system) data and run comprehensive monitoring and performance reports for their individual housing portfolios.
- Real-Time Compliance Tracking: Users could easily enter data directly into the system, with real-time compliance monitoring available to ensure projects met requirements for all funders participating in WBARS.
- Centralized Reporting Hub: The developed database allowed property owners to report to one centralized platform, regardless of the number of funding sources tied to a project, ensuring consistency and ease of reporting.
- Future Development: Additional reporting and asset management features were developed to meet a wide range of needs, including submarket analysis and performance issue detection.
- Policy Insights: WBARS-generated reports provided valuable insights into affordable housing operations, supporting more effective planning and policy decisions in a period of declining resources.
