Clarion Partners completes bookings faster with MRI Investment Accounting

Clarion Partners is a leading New York-based real estate investment management firm with offices around the world. Its nearly 1,500 properties and $81.6 billion in AUM span a variety of real estate risk/return strategies supporting multiple open- and closed-end funds. 

Business challenge 

Clarion Partners manages a variety of real estate equity and debt strategies across multiple portfolio structures and property types, including industrial, multifamily, office, retail, and life science. 

Clarion’s multiple products and continuous growth requires its accounting teams to manage sophisticated fund structures efficiently. Clarion’s open-end funds contain a diverse mix of asset classes and revenue streams, and reporting structures are complex.  

In the real estate market, success depends on making good choices quickly. That’s why Clarion’s solution implementation team is responsible for investment reporting accuracy and efficiency, internal controls and risk management, and portfolio reporting processes for its open-end funds. 

Solution 

Clarion Partners has been an MRI Software client since 1997, relying on the MRI Property Management X solution for functions such as general ledger and accounts payable, as well as MRI Information Exchange and MRI Job Cost. 

Because of Clarion’s long history of using MRI’s property management and account solution across nearly all its products, the implementation team knew MRI would deliver on its promises to add value to Clarion’s accounting processes. The team also knew that, as early adopters of MRI Investment Accounting, Clarion and MRI would collaborate closely to ensure all Clarion’s needs were met. 

Business impact 

Since 2018, Clarion Partners has used MRI to automate management of its two largest open-end funds – each worth over $17 billion. 

Faster, more efficient booking 

MRI Investment Accounting reduced the time needed for quarterly consolidations to a matter of hours. What’s more, these teams find it easier to resolve elimination issues because they occur so infrequently. 

Increased data reliability 

The solution also standardized booking processes, increasing the consistency of multi-level transactions (MLTs) and journal entries to enhance data for stakeholders. MRI Investment Accounting also brings structure to MLTs and simplified cashflow tracking. 

Enhanced analysis and reporting 

The benefits don’t stop with Clarion’s accounting group. By standardizing multiple accounting procedures, the solution has made data aggregation more accurate and equipped the organization with additional performance analysis perspectives.  

With MRI Investment Accounting, Clarion Partners spends more time creating value for investors. The collaboration continues, refining the investment accounting solution and helping investment clients worldwide do more in less time and deliver increased value to their investors. 

The [MRI Investment Accounting] solution leads to more standardized procedures and more automation. It not only improves productivity and reduces frustration, but also leads to better data governance – which leads to improved data analytics. 

John Wanamaker, CTO, Clarion Partners