Understanding Workflow Automation for Property Management Companies: When it Works and When it Fails

Michael Lushington, the COO of Fourandhalf, joins Brittany and Marie on this week’s episode of The Property Management Show podcast. The guest is Will Gunadi of nextCoder, and the subject is workflow automation for property management companies.

You might have read or watched Michael’s blogs about workflow and how to use it as a business owner when you’re growing your property management company. If you haven’t seen them yet, be sure to check them out:

* Workflows Part 1: Get in Touch with Your Property Management Company Through Workflows

* Workflows Part 2: Elements of a Good Workflow for Property Managers

* Workflows Part 3: Implementing Property Management Workflows without Being a Micro Manager

Will is an expert on workflow automation, and we asked him to explain in simple terms what it is, and how it works.

Understanding Workflow Automation

Workflows are a series of steps. Those steps are repeated again and again. That’s why this particular process is so relevant to property management. If you think about it, your whole property management operation is full of workflows. Things are repeated. For example, tenants are always moving out. Each time that happens, you have to repeat the same steps. So, it makes sense for property managers to put an effort into automating the workflow. It’s natural.

You might have heard about business process management or even robotic process automation. Those are big terms, and they’re related, but workflow management is a discipline in itself.

Workflow automation is a combination of business process management and robotic process automation. There are smaller programs that are written to contribute to the overall automation process. Will jokingly calls those programs “minions.” So, with a robotic process automation, the “minions” are executing and overseeing the workflow steps. The diagram is what ties business process management into the whole scheme. If you search online for business process management, you’ll see a workflow diagram.

The diagram is a big part of automation. Workflows are not useful to you as a company owner if you cannot see them visually. So, combining business process management with robotic process automation is really what we’re talking about when we discuss workflows.

Automation: What it Is and What it Isn’t

There’s work that cannot be automated. Sometimes, people will have a vision of automating everything. They imagine they’ll just be able to press play and that’s it.

But, this isn’t the real purpose or function of automation.

Automation does not mean hitting play and sitting back. That might work when you’re listening to music, but when you’re managing 400 houses or even 1,000 houses; it’s not going to work. There are two types of automation:

* Automate the steps of your workflow where it makes sense.

* Automate the notifications and alerts. You can broadcast steps to people executing.

Forget the idea that automation means computerized. That makes no sense. For property management companies, the workflow has some steps that have to be done by a real human. That’s how you think about automation – it’s still a human function.

In property management, you can automate triggers to remind you to execute things. You can automate the steps of your workflow and the orchestration of the teams involved.

Is Your Property Management Company Ready for Automation?

If implemented correctly,