Maintenance Requests Done Right: From Tenant Report to Contractor Quote to Invoice
A leaking tap is a small job. Losing track of it is not. A maintenance request is a case with a beginning, a contractor and an end.
The tenant texts at 9pm. You reply that you'll sort it. You message the plumber. The plumber calls the tenant. Someone lets him in on Thursday. He sends a quote by WhatsApp and an invoice by email a fortnight later. In November the tenant's deposit deduction is disputed and you cannot find any of it.
A maintenance request as a sub-case
Under the tenancy (or the unit, in a building), a maintenance sub-case. The template gives it the shape: reported date, reported by (the Tenant role, pre-filled from the parent), category, urgency, description, photos. Contractor as a role. A quotes table: contractor, amount, date, accepted yes/no. A visits table: date, outcome. An invoice field with the file attached. Status: Reported → Quoted → Approved → Scheduled → Done → Invoiced.
The tenant's photo goes on the case from the file-request link you sent them. The contractor's quote is filed from Mail. The invoice is attached when it arrives, and — if the accounting integration is connected — posted to the books as a bill against the property.
Nested quotes
For a bigger job, several quotes arrive and one is chosen. The quotes table holds them side by side; an "accepted" tick on one row drives a rule that sets the case's approved amount and moves the status on. The rejected quotes stay on the record — the owner's question "did you get three quotes?" is answered by looking.
Roll-ups on the building
Every maintenance sub-case rolls up to the unit and the building: open requests by category, spend this year, average days from report to done. The building case's Insights tile shows which unit is costing the most. The owner statement includes the maintenance spend with the invoices behind it.
Notifying the right people
A status change to Scheduled emails the tenant the visit date. Done emails them to confirm it is resolved. The point of contact on the case — you, or the property manager for that block — gets the bell; nobody else does.
The dispute, revisited
In November, the sub-case has the 9pm report with its photo, the quote, the visit, the invoice and the tenant's "thanks, all fixed" — filed from Mail with the date. The deduction is either justified by that record or it is not, and either way you are not searching WhatsApp.
