The Official AppFolio Blog

AppFolio includes functionality that helps you keep track of  work orders so you can keep track of the details and ensure that everything is done in a timely manner and you don’t end up losing or wasting money.  Use the work order system the right way, and you’ll find that it will benefit your efficiency to an even greater degree. Certainly, you could also use an external calendar, but that is not going to come with the same level of automation that you will get with work orders that are attached to a real estate property management software.

So, take note of these useful tips for using the work order tool to your advantage:

Set up work orders on a recurring basis.
Have different times when you need to do maintenance on a property? For example, mowing the lawn or taking care of landscaping? You don’t need to worry about remembering that, because you can set up a recurring work order for each individual property. This is also a great feature to use with the standard set of actions that occur when a resident moves in or moves out.

Keep track of work orders and invoices together.
The AppFolio work order system allows you to connect both a work order and invoice together, which can also help you to keep track of who paid for what in the future. You can also keep tabs on invoices paid as well as provide enough documentation for your owners.

Record other important dates.
If you’ve got a property or equipment in a property that’s under warranty, you can use work orders to keep track of that as well.  This helps you stay compliant and avoid wasted money.  AppFolio Property Manager will also show you a warning if you try to schedule a work order for a unit or property already under warranty.

How fast can you turn around your vacancy and move in a new resident? Quick turn around for apartments and houses is so important in our industry. You will always need a few days in between move-out and move-in to clean and inspect but the shorter you can make that window, the more money you can make. We’ve made it pretty easy to minimize this window with AppFolio’s work order functionality.

Recurring Work Orders – Set It And Forget It
The nice thing about reccurring work orders is that you can set them up to trigger at certain times. For example, everyone inspects a unit after a move-out to make sure that there are no damages. You can set up a recurring work order for an inspection to occur right after the resident moves out. If you have other standard maintenance tasks like carpet cleaning, or even the monthly gardening service, you can add these too. These work orders will be triggered automatically – saving you the effort of scheduling them and also making this process much faster for you and your staff.

Once the work order is automatically created, you can email your vendor the work order right away, so you get the work done sooner. You can also pay vendors using ACH so you don’t even have to write them a check!

Easily Tie Work Orders to Invoices
When you enter a work order, you can tie it to a bill and generate an invoice. This invoice is always attached to the work order so it is easy to pass on the charges to the resident or property owner. For example, if a resident breaks a window, you can create a work order for the broken window, send it to your vendor, and charge the resident for it with just a couple of clicks.

Warnings That Help With Compliance
One of the things we’ve added recently to work orders helps our property management customers stay compliant. For example, you can enter into AppFolio the date of home warranty expiration – if that property is under a home warranty and you go to put in a work order, AppFolio will warn you. You can avoid the hassle and expense of accidentally spending money to repair an item that is already under warranty!

We also have fields in AppFolio that track the year a home was built. There are many EPA regulations (with expensive fines!) around the notification of lead-based paint in the home. When you generate a work order for a property that was built before 1978, AppFolio will warn you so that you can hand out the appropriate lead-based paint information pamphlets.

In addition, on the Vendors page in AppFolio you can track important details about each vendor:

• Worker’s Compensation Insurance Status
• Liability Insurance Expiration Date
• If the vendor is EPA Certified and if they have taken a special class regarding the lead-based paint laws.

When you create a work order and assign it to a vendor that has expired liability insurance AppFolio will alert you to this issue. This really helps avoid mistakes and provides safeguards that can help protect property managers from lawsuits.

Bottom line – make sure you’re taking advantage of all that AppFolio’s work order functionality has to offer.