Overview

Habitations Jutras was managing between 800 and 1,000 rental units with a property management software, the Avantage accounting software, Excel spreadsheets and paper: tools that did not talk to each other. Voltix Consultation implemented a complete Zoho One solution covering the entire rental cycle, from the first contact with a prospect to accounting, including tenant service.

Key takeaways:

• Rent reconciliation time reduced by about 50%
• Service requests handled about twice as fast
• 4 to 5 tools and systems consolidated into a single platform
• More than 25 employees working from a single source of data

Client Profile

“Since 2014, our mission has been to provide quality living spaces in Drummondville, Sherbrooke and Nicolet. As our portfolio grew, it became essential to equip ourselves with tools that match our ambitions.” Olivia Monfette, Marketing Director, Habitations Jutras

Founded in 2014, Habitations Jutras develops and manages residential buildings in Drummondville, Sherbrooke and Nicolet. Its portfolio includes between 800 and 1,000 units, and 25 to 50 employees work daily in leasing, accounting, maintenance and administration.

The business runs entirely on its data: every unit generates a lease, monthly payments, service requests and communications with tenants. With a portfolio of this size, every instance of re-entered data is multiplied across thousands of transactions each year.

Challenges

Before Zoho, Habitations Jutras’s information was scattered across a property management software, the Avantage accounting software, Excel spreadsheets and paper documents. Each team worked in its own tool, and the same data was entered several times. As the portfolio grew, this manual work took up more and more time.

Five key challenges were holding back operations:

1. Rent collection and reconciliation. Payments were matched by hand, one by one, which required about 30 hours per month and exposed the team to posting errors.
2. Service request tracking. Requests came in by phone and email, with no centralized tracking or prioritization, which lengthened resolution times.
3. Prospect and leasing follow-up. Rental inquiries were not tracked in a single pipeline, making it difficult to follow up on viewings, credit checks and leases.
4. Duplicate data entry. A new tenant had to be entered in several tools, with a risk of inconsistency at every step.
5. Portfolio management and data centralization. No single view connected buildings, units, tenants and owners. Getting an accurate picture of the portfolio meant cross-referencing several sources.

“Our information was spread across several software programs and Excel files. Every new tenant required multiple entries, rent reconciliation took us about thirty hours a month, and a service request could take up to two weeks to resolve. We needed a single source of truth.” Martin Popik, Director of Operational Development, Habitations Jutras

Assessment of the Situation

Voltix began with a kickoff and contextual analysis phase before any configuration. The team inventoried the systems in place, then mapped the current processes for each key workflow: leasing, rent collection, accounting and maintenance.

This analysis highlighted the priority pain points, the non-negotiable systems and one central issue: the organization’s accounting structure, with several entities to manage in parallel. Voltix then defined a custom Zoho One architecture, a prioritized backlog (must-have, should-have, nice-to-have) and a phased rollout plan.

Proposed Solution

Zoho One was the clear choice because it brings together, in a single suite, every function Habitations Jutras needed, with applications that natively share the same data. Each challenge was matched to one or more products:

• Portfolio management and centralization (Zoho CRM): interconnected Buildings, Units, Owners and Tenants modules, plus management dashboards.
• Prospects and leasing (Zoho CRM, Forms, Sign, Marketing Automation): prospect pipeline, online forms, electronically signed leases and automated email sequences.
• Credit checks (Zoho Flow and Eversa): checks launched and results brought back into the prospect’s record, with no re-entry.
• Service requests (Zoho Desk): tenant portal, automatic sorting and assignment, and notifications at every step.
• Rent collection and accounting (Zoho Books and Zefty): bank reconciliation rules, a multi-entity structure and batch vendor payments.
• Communications (Ringover): calls and text messages automatically logged in the tenant’s record.
• Internal management (Zoho People, Zoho Projects): employee records and leave, plus project and task tracking.

The CRM became the single source of truth: a tenant is entered once, and their information then flows through to signing, service and accounting.

Implementation

The implementation took place over 6 to 12 months, in successive phases: the CRM and portfolio management first, followed by leasing, tenant service, accounting and internal tools. Each deliverable came with an explainer video and was formally approved by the Jutras team before moving on to the next step.

The main challenge was adapting the organization’s complex accounting structure to the tools. Several entities had to be managed in parallel, and every transaction had to end up in the right place. Voltix designed a structure in Zoho Books that clearly separates each flow, with dedicated numbering series, tags and bank rules, before connecting Zefty for batch vendor payments.

Two third-party integrations complete the solution: Eversa, connected through Zoho Flow to automate credit checks, and Ringover, for IP telephony and text messaging. A change management plan and role-based training supported adoption by more than 25 users.

Results

Habitations Jutras now manages its entire rental cycle in a single platform.

• Rent reconciliation time: about 30 hours per month before, reduced by about 50% today.
• Service request handling: 7 to 10 business days before, about twice as fast today.
• Tools and systems used: 4 to 5 separate tools before, a single platform today, Zoho One.
• Data entry: duplicate entry across systems before, single entry in the CRM today.

These gains free the team from repetitive tasks so it can focus on serving tenants. Above all, portfolio growth no longer brings a proportional increase in administrative work.

“Pascal always listens, and he quickly understands our needs and our market. He offers us different options to optimize our CRM tools. […] Beyond the expertise and the concrete results achieved, it’s the quality of the human relationship that makes this collaboration unique.” Martin Popik, Director of Operational Development, and Olivia Monfette, Marketing Director, Habitations Jutras

Voltix Consultation

Voltix Consultation inc. pbastien@voltixconsultation.com

Managing a property portfolio and facing a similar situation? Let’s talk