Yardi business intelligence, explained before your next sales call
Yardi sells two different paths to a BI dashboard: Data Connect and the Elevate Suite. Here's what's actually in each one, sourced and cited, plus where AI-driven self-service fits in.
If you run on Yardi Voyager, you've probably had a rep pitch you on a business intelligence add-on. The two real options are Yardi Data Connect, which feeds Voyager data into your own Power BI environment, and the Yardi Elevate Suite, which bundles Asset IQ, Forecast IQ, and Revenue IQ into one licensed product. They are not interchangeable, and Yardi's own marketing doesn't always make that structure clear.
If you're still working out what Yardi Elevate even is, our Yardi Elevate explainer covers that ground. This page is for the next question: once you know what's on offer, which one actually fits how your team wants to work with the data?
Yardi Data Connect
Data Connect is a Voyager add-on, not part of Elevate. It's a secured feed from Voyager into your own Microsoft Power BI environment: a “starter pack” of pre-built dimensions and measures, automated refresh schedules, and the ability to blend in third-party data. Two real constraints are easy to miss in the marketing: it requires you to already have, and license, your own Azure and Power BI environment, and it only works with Power BI, no Tableau or other tool.
Yardi doesn't publish pricing for Data Connect, and it has little independent review coverage of its own, separate from Voyager itself.
The Yardi Elevate Suite
Elevate is the umbrella product. For multifamily portfolios it bundles three modules: Asset IQ (portfolio performance benchmarked against Yardi Matrix market data, covering 136 markets, 85,000 properties, and 16 million units), Forecast IQ (budgeting and revenue/expense forecasting), and Revenue IQ(lease pricing). Yardi's own product pages list Asset IQ under the Elevate navigation, not as a separately purchasable product, though neither Yardi nor the consultants we checked state outright whether it can ever be licensed on its own.
Pricing is quote-based and per user. Yardi doesn't publish a number; one third-party estimator puts the range around $10–$100 per user per month, but that's their estimate, not Yardi's figure. The review sample is thin, since Elevate isn't widely reviewed on its own, but what's there is specific: one reviewer said you need “a STEM degree” to navigate it, another pointed to an “illogical tab layout” just to find a rent roll, and a few mentioned lag or unexpected logouts during peak usage. It's also built for portfolio-level management, not property-level, which may not fit a smaller operator.
If you want AI-driven, self-service dashboards
Every criterion below assumes that's the goal, since neither Yardi product offers it today.
| Criterion | Yardi Data Connect | Yardi Elevate | RentViewer BOS |
|---|---|---|---|
| Ask a question in plain English | No, build a report, then read it | No, pre-built dashboards only | Yes, through Claude or ChatGPT |
| Who builds the dashboards | Your team, from a starter pack of measures | Yardi, pre-built per module | You can build dashboards with prompts. Or in Power BI or a tool of your choice. |
| Includes a data warehouse containing snapshots of your rent rolls, P&L, general ledger, occupancy and more | No, it's a live feed, not a historical snapshot warehouse | Not described in Yardi's own materials | Yes, that's the foundation everything else is built on |
| Proactively scans KPIs out of range and sends alerts | Not described in Yardi's own materials | Not described in Yardi's own materials | Yes |
| Includes executive and department KPI scorecards | No, you would build your own in Power BI | Not described in Yardi's own materials | Yes, built in |
| One place to define KPI calculations and measures | No, measures are defined per Power BI report | No, each module (Asset IQ, Forecast IQ, Revenue IQ) has its own model | Yes, one governed definition used everywhere |
| Works with your own BI tool | Power BI only | No, Yardi's own interface only | Power BI, Tableau, Excel, or none at all |
| Combine data from other systems and files (pro formas, loans, CRM, showings etc.) | Possible, but you build that integration yourself | Yardi Voyager data only | Yes, pro formas, loans, CRM, showings, QuickBooks, or any other source |
| Pricing model | Quote-based, plus your own Azure/Power BI license | Quote-based, per user | Priced to your portfolio, not per seat |
| Governed for investor/board reporting | You own the reconciliation | Yardi's own data model | Yes, one governed data warehouse behind every answer |
Two ways RentViewer gets your Yardi data
Query the backup database
Extract data from a backup of the Yardi SQL database and feed it into dashboards, Excel, or your own Power BI or Tableau setup. This requires deep knowledge of the Yardi data model and careful reconciliation of financials (accrual vs. cash, charge types, debits vs. credits), expertise RentViewer has built over years.
Scheduled report exports
Schedule a custom Yardi report, email the Excel export to a dedicated inbox, and have the dashboard refresh automatically from the latest file. Because you're using native Yardi reports, there's high confidence the data is accurate.
Frequently asked
Sources
- Yardi Data Connect, product page
- Yardi Asset IQ, product page
- Yardi Elevate Suite for Multifamily, product page
- Yardi Elevate, pricing and reviews (SelectHub)
- Yardi Elevate, pricing and reviews (Capterra)
Yardi does not publish pricing for Data Connect or Elevate. Figures and feedback cited above come from third-party estimators and user reviews, not from Yardi directly, and are noted as such.
Want to see what AI-driven dashboards look like on a Yardi Voyager portfolio like yours?
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