Situs Group — Onboarding Intake DRAFT
Prepared by PropFlow for Eileen O'Malley and the Situs operations team. Everything we need from you to start, in one place, grouped by phase.
How to use this. Phase 1 items are what we need to begin. Phases 2 and 3 can wait until we schedule those working sessions. Where an item says send, an email or a shared folder is perfect. Where it says decide, a one-line answer is enough and we will confirm it back in writing so it becomes the rule Clara follows.
Our commitment. During setup PropFlow works read-only in your systems. Nothing is created, edited, sent, or scheduled in AppFolio on your behalf until you approve it in writing, phase by phase.
Phase 1 — Maintenance line: Clara takes over what the call center does today
Goal: residents reach Clara 24/7 for maintenance requests, every request is logged in AppFolio, and residents can ask for a status update at any time. Nothing beyond that in Phase 1.
People
- Day-to-day contact for the rollout, and a backup. Name, mobile, email.
- Who approves policy answers. When Clara meets a situation without a rule, one person answers once and the answer becomes the rule. Who is that person for maintenance?
- Staff list for the maintenance side: name, role, which properties, working hours, languages spoken.
AppFolio
- Reports API credentials. Your plan includes it. Please request API access from AppFolio support for the PropFlow user and send us the client ID and secret. This is how Clara sees units, residents, and work orders.
- One test property created inside your AppFolio, with two or three fake units and residents. We rehearse every phase there before it touches a real building.
- Confirm the property list. We will send you the list of properties and unit counts we see, and ask you to mark which are residential and in scope, and which are commercial, sold, office, or placeholders to exclude.
- Work-order conventions. Which categories and priorities you use today, who gets assigned by default per property, and how the call center enters a request now, so Clara enters them the same way.
Phone
- The maintenance line today. The number residents call, what happens step by step when they call during business hours, after hours, and on weekends, and what the call center currently does and does not do.
- Your phone system. Which Crexendo plan you are on, and an export or screenshot of the current call tree. We need to know whether the system can send a call to an outside number on no-answer, switch routing by time of day, turn voicemail off per line, and pass the caller's number through on a forward.
- Decide: how Clara sits in the tree. Option A: your tree answers first during business hours and Clara takes overflow and after hours. Option B: the maintenance number forwards to us permanently, we ring your staff during business hours, and Clara answers if nobody picks up. We will walk you through the trade-offs.
- Cutover order. Which property or line goes first, and when the call center contract can be retired.
Emergencies
- What counts as an emergency for you: the list. Fire, flood, no heat below a temperature, lockout at night, gas smell, and anything else.
- On-call rotation. Who is on call each night and weekend, how the schedule is kept, the weekend emergency number, and how fast you expect an acknowledgement.
- Emergency vendors by trade and by property: plumbing, electrical, HVAC, locksmith, restoration. Name, number, after-hours availability.
- Decide: what Clara says when it is an emergency. Connect the caller to the on-call person, take the details and page the on-call person, or both.
Residents and language
- Spanish. Which properties have Spanish-speaking residents, and whether Spanish should be offered on every call.
- Status updates. What a resident should hear when they ask "what happened to my request," and what Clara should say when a request is waiting on a part or a vendor.
- Notices. How you want residents told that the line is now answered by Clara, and whether you want us to draft that notice for your review.
Phase 2 — Leasing: nights and weekends later
Goal: Clara answers the leasing line and works new inquiries after hours and on weekends, which today wait until Monday. Business hours stay with your team.
- Google Workspace administrator contact, to approve the PropFlow connection for the leasing mailbox and the calendars used for tours.
- Leasing mailbox and lead sources. Which address receives inquiries, and which sites feed it: Zillow, Apartments.com, your website, AppFolio guest cards, others.
- Tours. Who shows units, which buildings each person covers, how showings are booked today, and whose calendar a booking should land on.
- Availability, the source of truth. Where the real list of what is available lives today, and who updates it.
- Specials and concessions. Who approves a special, how long it lasts, and whether it differs by property.
- Screening criteria and fees. Income requirement, application fee, deposits, pet policy and pet fees, parking, utilities. If these live in a spreadsheet, send the spreadsheet.
- Application process. Which tool applicants use and what happens between application and lease.
Phase 3 — Renewals later
Goal: Clara runs renewal outreach on your policy. Preceded by a renewal-policy working session.
- Renewal policy working session to decide: how far ahead offers go out, how the increase is set, how transfers work, how negotiations and special cases are handled, and which lease lengths you prefer so leases end in your best months.
- Data cleanup. Rent and lease dates in AppFolio must be right before any offer goes out. Who owns that cleanup on your side, and by when.
- Policies outside AppFolio. Any spreadsheets or documents where renewal rules live today.
Timeline
| Step | Who | When |
|---|
| Agreement signed | Situs, PropFlow | this week |
| Phase 1 items above sent | Situs | week of Sep 8 |
| Test property rehearsal with your team | both | as soon as access lands |
| First property live on the maintenance line | both, with your written go | to be set together |
| Phase 2 working session scheduled | both | after Phase 1 is stable |
Questions or anything unclear: reply to the email this came with, or call Fede directly.