Maintenance workflow audit
Prepared for Situs Group  ·  2026-10-22

Where a maintenance request
spends its time, and who carries it

How a request moves today across your team, AppFolio and your techs,
and where Propflow can take the routine work off your plate.
AUDIT  ·  RECOMMENDATIONS  ·  ROLLOUT
Read-only review of your AppFolio dataPROPFLOW · MAINTENANCE
02 / SUMMARY
The short version

Work gets assigned at once.
Residents are the ones left waiting to hear.

We read 90 days of your work orders and three weeks of your AppFolio texts. Orders are assigned the moment they are created and your in-house team does most of the work. What is thin is the conversation: AppFolio only confirms portal requests, and residents' maintenance texts wait hours for a reply.

Work orders
854
last 90 days · about 9 a day
From your PM Assistant
46%
of orders, about half from inspections
To work done
3.0days
median, request to work done
Got a "received" text
12%
18 of 146 orders, Oct 1 to 21
The opportunity is keeping residents informed, not speeding up intake. Confirming every request, answering "when is someone coming?", and checking the repair worked are routine and repetitive. That is the work Propflow is built to do.
Work orders Jul 24 to Oct 22, 2026 (n=854) · work-done time from AppFolio activity logs (n=135) · texts Oct 1 to 21 · read-only02
03 / TODAY
How a request moves today

Your team and techs move the work.
The resident hears very little of it.

1 · Request
2 · Work order
3 · Assign
4 · Schedule
5 · Work done
6 · Close
Residenttenant
Portal request (21%), or calls and texts the office
Learns the visit time from your team, if at all
Texts to ask what is happening
Rarely asked if it is actually fixed
AppFolioautomatic
Call center takes 20% of orders
Texts "request submitted" for portal orders only
Texts the tech or vendor "new work order"
"Scheduled" text sent twice in three weeks
"Completed" text sent once
Your officeby hand
PM Assistant 46%, mostly inspections; staff type in 14%
Assigns at once, usually as the order is created
Agrees a time by text or call
Answers residents' texts: about 8 hours
Closes the order
Tech / vendorin-house 55%
Picks up the order
Arranges the visit
Does the work: 3.0 days median
AppFolio does it automaticallyYour team does it by handWhere the resident loses the thread
Work orders Jul 24 to Oct 22, 2026 (n=854) · AppFolio activity logs (n=250) · AppFolio texts Oct 1 to 2103
04 / TODAY
What AppFolio sends on its own

AppFolio barely texts your residents
about maintenance.

Request submitted
18
"Your maintenance request has been submitted…"
Scheduled
2
"…has been scheduled for <date>"
Reminder
1
"A tech is scheduled to come…"
Completed
1
"…has been completed."

22 automatic maintenance texts to residents in three weeks, while 146 work orders were opened. AppFolio also sent 21 "new work order" texts to your techs and vendors, and its virtual maintenance coordinator sent 12 follow-ups to vendors.

All 18 "submitted" texts were for portal requests. None of the 113 orders that came from AppFolio's call center, your PM Assistant or your staff got one. Those residents hear back only if someone on your team writes to them.
AppFolio system texts, Oct 1 to 21, 2026 · matched to work orders by number (39 of 40 matched) · wording shortened04
05 / TODAY
What your team does by hand

Your team fills the gaps by hand,
one text at a time.

Texts typed by hand
336
texts from 6 staff in 21 days, 165 of them to residents. 81 are about maintenance: 54 pest-treatment notices sent one by one, and the rest individual updates and replies.
Where orders come from
854
orders in 90 days. Your PM Assistant account created 389, about half from inspections. The portal brought in 177, AppFolio's call center 170, and staff typed in 118.
"We wanted to let you know that we have received your work order request. Our maintenance team is currently working through a high volume of requests… Your request has been assigned and placed in our queue."A hand-typed confirmation: the message AppFolio only sends on its own for portal requests
AppFolio intake field, Jul 24 to Oct 22, 2026 (n=854) · staff texts Oct 1 to 21, 2026 · names removed05
06 / TODAY
Where the time goes

Assigning is instant. The days go
between assigned and done.

Request to assigned
6min
median · often at creation · 3 in 4 within 48 min
Request to work done
3.0days
median · 3 in 4 within 8.2 days
Over 12 months
4.9days
median, request to work done
No tech recorded
27%
of orders in the last 90 days
Visit times are agreed outside AppFolio. Only 11 of 250 logged orders used AppFolio's "scheduled" step, so the wait for a visit time cannot be measured from the record. Residents gave preferred times on 33 of them; matching those to a tech's day is routine work.
AppFolio activity logs, Jul 24 to Oct 22, 2026: 250 of 854 orders have one, so these are samples (assigned n=162, done n=135) · vendor field n=85406
07 / TODAY
What residents write about

Residents write every day.
Their questions can wait overnight.

Resident texts
203
in 21 days · about 10 a day
Maintenance
27
repairs, pests, keys, appliances
Need a person
37
rent, bills, deposits, neighbors
"Ok" / "thanks"
19
no reply needed

Staff replied to 18 of 27 maintenance texts, in about 8 hours (median, counting nights); 9 had no text reply in the thread. Of 18 resident questions, 8 had no reply within a day; 1 of 10 still had none after a week.

The other 120 are parking, photos and community matters. Rent, money and neighbor issues always stay with your team.
Resident texts Oct 1 to 21, 2026 · sorted by keyword, so treat as approximate · replies read through Oct 2207
08 / TODAY
What already works

The foundations are in place.
We build on them, not around them.

01 · SPEED

Work is assigned the moment it is created

Median request to assigned is 6 minutes, often stamped at creation.
02 · IN-HOUSE

Your own team does most of the work

55% of orders go to your in-house team; outside vendors take 17%.
03 · INSPECTIONS

Inspections turn straight into work orders

Your PM Assistant account creates 46% of orders, about half of them from inspections.
04 · EMERGENCIES

Emergency alerts are set up

Propflow's emergency chain was switched on October 14. Since October 17 it rings your AppFolio on-call tech first, then your backups.
05 · CLARA

Clara's maintenance line is on; her confirmations are drafted

Clara's maintenance line was attached October 19. Since then she drafts a "we got it" text for each new work order, held in supervised mode until you approve them.
Work orders Jul 24 to Oct 22, 2026 (n=854) · activity logs (n=250) · Propflow settings for Situs08
09 / FUTURE
Where Propflow plugs in

Clara keeps the resident in the loop.
Your team keeps every judgment call.

1 · Request
2 · Work order
3 · Assign
4 · Schedule
5 · Work done
6 · Close
Residenttenant
Portal, call or text, any hour
Hears "we got it", however they asked
Picks a time with Clara; can reschedule
Questions answered right away
Asked: is it fixed?
PropflowClara
Answers the maintenance line; emergencies ring on-call
Confirms every new order to the resident
Suggests the tech you usually send
Coordinates a time with tech and resident
Answers status questions from the order
Checks the repair worked; flags anything not fixed
Your officeby hand
Inspections and PM Assistant orders, as today
Assigns, as today
Anything off-script comes to you
Morning list of questions nobody answered
Tech / vendorin-house or outside
Picks up the order
Confirms the window
Does the work
Automatic (AppFolio or Clara)Your team decides
Proposed future state · nothing changes without your sign-off09
10 / RECOMMEND
What we recommend, in order

Start where it saves the most and risks the least.

01 · NOW

Every resident hears "we got it"

Turn on Clara's drafted confirmations for the orders AppFolio skips: 113 call-center, PM Assistant and staff orders in three weeks got none.
02 · NOW

Clara answers routine maintenance texts

27 in three weeks, answered in about 8 hours today · shadow first.
03 · NEXT

No question waits overnight

A morning list of resident questions nobody answered · 8 of 18 waited more than a day.
04 · NEXT

Clara agrees the visit time

Matches the resident's preferred times to the tech's day and confirms both · AppFolio's "scheduled" text went out twice in three weeks.
05 · NEXT

Close the loop: "is it fixed?"

After the work is done, Clara checks with the resident and reopens if not.
06 · LATER

Every order names who does the work

Clara suggests the tech you usually send · 27% of orders have none recorded today.
ALWAYS

Judgment calls stay with your team

Rent, bills, deposits, neighbor disputes and anything sensitive: 37 in three weeks, never answered by Clara.
Ordered by time saved for your team, lowest risk first · figures from slides 04 to 0710
11 / ROLLOUT
How we turn it on safely

Nothing reaches a resident until
you have seen it be right.

1 · Shadow: Clara drafts, your team sends
→
2 · Review: you approve each type
→
3 · On: routine types send on their own
Shadow

See what Clara would say

Every reply Clara would have sent is shown next to what your team actually sent. Nothing goes out.
Review

Turn on one message type at a time

Each type, like "request received", is switched on only after it has been right in shadow.
Always

One switch turns it off

Rent, lease or legal questions are never answered by Clara. One switch stops all maintenance messages at once.
Same staged rollout used for leasing replies11
12 / NEXT STEPS

Which piece should
Clara start with?

Pick one from the recommendations. It runs in shadow first,
and nothing reaches a resident until you have seen it be right.
Propflow · Situs Group · 2026-10-22PROPFLOW · MAINTENANCE

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