Property Management Add-on: Work Orders, Loans and Imports

Once your properties are set up (see Property Management Add-on: Setup), the Property Management add-on handles the running of them: work orders for repairs and maintenance, and the loans held against each property. Job budgets can also be loaded from a spreadsheet.

Requirements

The Property Management add-on. Work orders live in one company, chosen under Admin, System Settings, Property Management Work Orders Go To Company; until that setting is made, or in any other company, the page only shows "Please switch your company to use work orders:" followed by the chosen company's name as a link. Users without Property Management portal access (or portal admin) see only the work orders assigned to their own employee record, whatever their other rights; give portal access to everyone who works with work orders. Approving work orders requires the work order approval rights. The job budget import belongs to the Construction feature.

Work orders

Where: Property Management, Work Orders, Work Orders Add/Update

1) The page opens on the filter form. Filter by Property, Unit, Tenant, Assigned To, Status (Current Only is the default; choose blank for all, or Pending, Submitted for Approval, Denied, Active, Completed or Terminated), Work Type, Charge To (choosing Other Company adds a company dropdown), Begin and End Entry Date or Begin and End Estimated End Date, then click Next. The Current Work Orders list shows each work order's number, status, priority, work type, location, description, assignee, staff hours, resolution, dates, Days Open and total charges; "No Work Orders Found" appears when nothing matches. Click Edit on a row to open it, or the Add link for a new one.

2) On the new work order, choose the Property (required) and Unit (the unit list fills once a property is chosen), the Tenant (a customer flagged as a tenant), the Tenant Availability, the Description, the Priority (Low, Moderate, High or Urgent), the Work Type, Charge To (Tenant, Client, Other Company with its company, or No One) with the Markup Percentage, who to Assign To, and the Start Date, Estimated End Date and End Date; the Resolution is filled in later. Click Save ("Work Order Added Successfully"); the users under Work Order Notifications receive a "Maintenance Request" email. The saved record also shows the tenant's phone and email under the Tenant field.

3) On a saved work order, move it through its Status: Pending, Submitted for Approval, Denied (with a Denied Reason), Active, Completed or Terminated. Setting it Active is the approval: it needs a start date and estimated end date and a user allowed to approve ("You Cannot Approve This Work Order" otherwise), creates a job named after the work order, and emails the notification users, the assigned employee and the tenant ("Work Order Active").

4) Once active, the Details tab opens ("Work Order Must be Approved Before Details Can be Added" until then). Employee Time lists the hours logged against the work order's job on the time clock (employee, date, hours, rate, total); Equipment for This Work tracks equipment signed out and back in (Date Out, Sign In, Date In); Add PO raises a purchase order for parts and Add Materials and Other Charges opens the service order that carries the charges. Edit Job opens the job.

5) The Amount to Invoice is calculated as the purchase orders plus time, marked up by the Markup Percentage, plus the materials and other charges. Set the customer to invoice ("Customer to Invoice Must be Set" otherwise) and use Move to copy the open purchase order totals and time lines (with markup) onto the service order, once only ("This Work Order Has Already Been Moved"); when the service order has been invoiced a Print Invoice link appears. Finish by setting the status to Completed with its End Date.

Loans

Where: Property Management, Reports, Loan Add and Loan Update & Pay

1) On Loan Add, enter the Loan Number, the Property it finances (the active company's properties are listed), the Vendor Name - ID of the lender, the Loan Origination Date, Original Loan Balance, Net Carrying Balance, Loan to Value (LTV) and Service Coverage Dsc, and any Loan Details and free-text Terms Details.

2) Set the Interest Type (Fixed or Floating), the Interest % Per Month, Interest Days per Year (365 or 360), Amortization Periods, Payment Day of Month, the Monthly Interest Amount, Monthly Principal Amount and Monthly Real Estate Tax. Set the Status to Under Construction (Interest Only) or In Service (Interest and Principal) and pick the General Ledger accounts for principal and for interest in each status. Click Add ("Loan Added Successfully"). A loan number that already exists is rejected with "Loan Already Exists". The amount and number fields (balances, monthly amounts, LTV, Service Coverage, Interest %, Amortization Periods and Payment Day) accept formatted amounts in the company's number format, for example $1,250,000.00. Text that is not a number is rejected with "<field> '<value>' - Number Expected"; nothing is saved and the form comes back with what was typed.

3) On Loan Update & Pay, find the loan in the Loan Number - ID box and click Edit (Add beside it opens Loan Add). The General tab holds the same fields as Loan Add (with the same number-format rule), a Loan Documents upload section and Save ("Updated Successfully!"), Back and Delete ("Loan Deleted Successfully"; Delete is offered only while the loan has no payments). Terms Details is saved exactly as typed. A Loan Payments tab lists the vendor bills for the loan (vendor, Invoice Date (Click to Edit), invoice number, interest, tax escrow amount, principal, total, paid, date paid and Bill Status Paid or Pending) with an Add Payments button, and a Sales tab records the sale of the property with Add Sale (Sale Date, Write-off Amount, Loan Curtailment Amount, Sales Detail). These two tabs and their buttons appear only when the matching payment or sale entry page is installed, or when the loan already has payment or sale records; otherwise the loan shows only the General tab.

Importing job budgets

Where: Tools, Import, Import Job Budgets

1) Import Job Budget Data loads budget lines for construction jobs from a CSV or Excel (xls or xlsx) file with the columns Job Code, Budget Type (Vendor Bills, Items or Labor), Cost Code and GL Category (only when those features are on), Amount and Notes (optional); the File Format panel beside the form lists the columns and the job codes and budget types it accepts. Amount can be a plain number or a formatted amount in the company's number format ("$1,250.00"; "(75.00)" imports as a negative amount). Anything else, such as "abc" or "1500,00" on an install that uses a period as the decimal separator, is listed as a problem line ("Amount '<value>' - Number Expected") and is not imported. Click Download Template for the layout, choose the file, optionally switch on Use Quick Match to match codes loosely, and click Import. The result reads "Import Completed" or "Import Completed With Errors" with the counts, and problem lines are listed so the sheet can be corrected and imported again. The page needs the Billing, Jobs, Job Budgets right.

Notes

• Users and groups ticked under Work Order Notifications are emailed when a work order is added and when it is set active.
• Employee time reaches a work order through the time clock, logged against the job created when the work order became active; nothing is typed on the work order itself.
• A work order's purchase orders and time are moved to its service order for billing with Move; the job created for the work order can be opened with Edit Job.