Automating Data Extraction from Yardi Voyager
How to get your property data out of Yardi without paying extraction fees. SQL approaches, RPA, and BI dashboard integration.
Property managers have a love-hate relationship with Yardi Voyager. It’s powerful software, but getting data out of it for custom reporting can feel like negotiating a hostage release.
The Data Extraction Problem
Yardi’s business model includes data extraction fees. Want to build a custom investor dashboard? That’ll cost you. Need data for your business intelligence tool? Here’s another invoice.
For multi-property portfolios, these fees add up fast. We’ve seen companies pay $20K+ annually just to access their own data.
Your Options
There are several ways to approach this, depending on your technical capabilities and risk tolerance.
Direct SQL Access
If you have a SQL-backed Yardi installation (most enterprise deployments), you might have database access. This is the cleanest approach—query the tables directly and pipe data wherever you need it.
The catch: Yardi’s schema is complex, and updates can break your queries. You’ll need someone who understands both SQL and Yardi’s data model.
Report Automation
Yardi generates reports. Reports can be automated. Instead of manually running and exporting reports, schedule them to run automatically and process the output files.
This works well for recurring reporting needs—weekly occupancy reports, monthly financials, lease expiration tracking. Set it and forget it.
RPA Screen Scraping
When neither SQL nor reports give you what you need, screen scraping is the fallback. A bot logs into Yardi like a human would, navigates to the right screens, and extracts the visible data.
It’s not elegant, but it works. And it’s often faster than waiting for Yardi to build a custom report for you.
Building Your Data Pipeline
A typical automated extraction setup looks like this:
- Scheduled trigger - Runs nightly or at your preferred frequency
- Data extraction - SQL query, report run, or RPA bot
- Transformation - Clean and format the data for your target system
- Load - Push to your data warehouse, BI tool, or investor portal
What Data to Prioritize
Focus on the data that drives decisions:
- Occupancy and rent rolls - The core of property performance
- Lease expirations - For renewal planning
- A/R aging - Collections management
- Operating expenses - Budget vs. actual tracking
Investment vs. Ongoing Fees
Building automated extraction has an upfront cost, but it typically pays for itself within a year compared to ongoing extraction fees. Plus, you own the solution—no more dependency on vendor pricing changes.
If you’re tired of paying to access your own property data, there are better options. The right approach depends on your Yardi configuration, data needs, and internal capabilities.
