Scheduling Routine Inspections (Auto Scheduling)

  • Last updated on October 6, 2023 at 4:52 AM

Summary

The scheduling of routine inspections and notifications to owners and tenants can be automated. Notices are sent at multiple points in the life-cycle of an inspection, and are sent by email, letter and SMS with content that can be customised.

Covered in this article:

Automatically Schedule Routine Inspections 

At the company level you can configure inspections to be automatically created for your tenancies. These settings can then be overridden on individual tenancies, including to exclude certain tenancies from inspection scheduling.

To setup the company level automatic scheduling have your Administrator user go to:

  • Configuration > Management Tasks > Inspections
  • Select the Default Inspection Status
The Default Inspection Status selected will determine the Default Inspection Type on the Tenancy, for automated inspections or when creating inspections manually.
  • Click the tick box to Enable automatic routine inspection scheduling

There are three areas to configure, Time, First Routine Inspection and Subsequent Routine Inspections.

  • If you typically conduct inspections in the first half of the day then you can configure the default Between time as 9:00am – 1:00pm. As each inspection approaches, you can then customise that time to suit your needs
  • If you inspect tenancies 3 months after lease start, then set the First Routine Inspection to 13 weeks or 3 months after lease start date
  • If you then move to inspecting the tenancy every 26 weeks (~ 6 months and keeps the inspections on the same day of the week), you can set Subsequent Routine Inspection to 26 weeks. Each time you close an inspection, a new one will automatically be scheduled for you 26 weeks from the current one's inspection date

If you select number of weeks instead of monthly, it will keep the inspections on the same day of the week and not schedule inspections on the weekend.

Note: This automated process will not schedule your Ingoing or Outgoing Inspections. These will need to be manually entered by going to the Tenancy Profile > Inspections Tab and click on the + Icon.

Automatically Send Inspection Notices

As an inspection goes through the scheduling process, you can set up Property Tree to automatically send notices to the Tenancy and Ownership. Once the feature is switched on, inspection notices will be sent triggered by the following events:

  • Tentative
  • Proposed
  • Confirmed

For Tenancy inspection notices go to:

  •  Configuration > Automated Communications > Property Management > Inspection Notice: Residential Tenancies then set up or edit the template

For Owner inspection notices go to:

  •  Configuration > Automated Communications > Property Management > Residential Inspection Notification: Ownership then set up or edit the template

Note: For instructions on Configuring Inspections Auto Communications click HERE.

Understanding the Routine Inspection Workflow 

When using automated inspection scheduling Property Tree assigns an inspection status and in some situations the inspection status will auto update. In others you will need to manually update the status to ensure the inspection meets the trigger for the relevant notice to send based on what you have set up.

  • Tentative indicates that the inspection is scheduled but not confirmed, it will automatically move to the proposed stage based on the trigger set in automated communications 
  • Proposed will allow Tenancies using the portals to confirm the inspection date and time or propose a new schedule.
  • The inspection will automatically move to Confirmed when a tenant confirms in their portal, otherwise, you will need to manually update the status from Proposed to Confirmed.

Note: If the Default Inspection Status is set to Confirmed in Configuration > Management Tasks > Inspections, this process will be bypassed and inspections will automatically be set as Confirmed on the Tenancy Profile. In this scenario, only Automated Communications that are set with the inspection status of Confirmed will trigger the communication.

  • The inspection will automatically move to the Conducted status once the scheduled time and date has passed if you have synced an inspection into Property Tree from an inspection application. Otherwise, you will need to manually update the status to conducted once you have completed the inspection.
  • Once the report has been sent, you will need to manually update the inspection to the Closed status. When an inspection is moved to the Closed status it will trigger any Event Driven Fees to charge. If you are using automated inspection scheduling your next inspection will be scheduled against the property and tenancy profile. 

Automatically prompt to charge Inspection Fees

You can automatically charge a fee when you close an inspection. The inspection close confirmation process will provide you with the opportunity to modify the fee amount or to opt-out from charging it on a per inspection basis.

To setup the fee:

  • Go to Configuration > Fees
  • In the Property Flat Fees pane click Add  
  • Create a new fee using the event Close Inspection and add it to your existing and new properties. Below is an example of the details you could use:
Applies toResidential
Fee NameInspection Fee
EventClose Inspection
AccountInspection Fee
Amount0.00
Apply to Existing PropertiesSelect the Property you need to charge the fee to as required
Apply to New PropertiesYes
Effective DateToday's Date


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