Workflow Examples in Detail

Intro to Actions shows you the screens. This article shows you the situations. Each example below is something that happens in a real home watch business, and walks through what you would do in Home Watch IT and what the app does for you along the way.

You do not need to read every example. Skim the headings and jump to the one that matches your day.

The one idea to remember

Record the problem once as an Action. Then use Related Work to track whatever Tasks or Reports it takes to fix it.

That is the whole model. An Action is the problem. Tasks and Reports are the work. One problem might need no work at all, one visit, or half a dozen visits by different people. Either way there is one Action, and everything about that problem stays attached to it.

A few words you will see

Word	What it means
Action	Something that needs attention. A loose railing, a dead battery, a pool heater that will not start.
Task	A piece of scheduled work that does not need a report template.
Report	Scheduled work that uses one of your report templates.
Related Work	The Tasks and Reports attached to an Action.
Asset	A physical item at the property, such as a dishwasher or water heater, with its own details and history. See Introduction to Home Assets.
Urgent	A flag that means this cannot wait.
Target	When an Action needs to be dealt with by.
Booking	A guest stay at a rental property.

You will not see the words work order or project anywhere in Home Watch IT. You do not need them. The Action already does that job.

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Everyday situations

1. Your technician spots a problem during a visit

A technician is walking through a home and notices the railing on the rear deck is loose.

They do not stop the report to fill out a form. They add an Action:

1. Tap Add Action.
2. Type a short description: Loose railing on rear deck.
3. Snap a photo if it helps.
4. Tap Save.

That is it. The Action exists right away, on its own, whether or not the report has been finished or sent. The technician carries on with the visit.

Everything else, such as assigning it, adding details, or scheduling someone to fix it, can happen later from the office. Nothing about the quick capture is lost.

2. The problem needs someone to go and fix it

Back at the office, someone opens Loose railing on rear deck.

The Action is still just the record of the problem. Under Related Work it says there is none yet. So the office adds one:

• Click Add Task (or Add Report if you want a report template used).
• The property and the Action are already filled in.
• Pick the date, choose a staff member or vendor, and set billing if it applies.

Now the Action shows that Task under Related Work, with its date, who it is assigned to, and whether it is done. The Task itself appears on the calendar, on routes, and in the vendor portal just like any other Task. There is nothing new to learn.

3. One problem, several visits

Action: Dishwasher not draining.

This one is not a single visit. It might go like this:

Task: technician goes out to diagnose
Task: appliance vendor makes the repair
Task: your team goes back to confirm it is fixed

All three sit under the same Action as Related Work. You can see the whole story in one place: who went, when, and what happened.

The Action stays open until the problem is actually solved. Finishing a Task does not close the Action on its own. Here is why: if the diagnosis visit closed the Action, you would lose track of the repair that still has to happen.

When the last open piece of Related Work is completed, Home Watch IT asks:

All related work is complete. Resolve this Action?

You can choose Resolve or Keep Open. If the technician came back and said “it still leaks”, you keep it open and add another Task. Nothing is closed by accident.

4. Something urgent

A technician finds water actively leaking under the kitchen sink.

They add the Action the same way as always, but tick Urgent:

Water leaking under kitchen sink
Urgent
Photo
Save

Urgent makes the Action stand out and immediately sends a mobile push notification to the assignee and the company’s Admin users. This is an alert through the staff Home Watch IT mobile app—not an email or text message. If the Action is unassigned, the Admins still receive the alert.

It does not schedule anything by itself. You stay in control of who goes and when. The Urgent flag is about attention, not automatic scheduling.

5. Tying the problem to the equipment

Back to Dishwasher not draining.

If you use Home Assets, you can link the Action to the Bosch dishwasher in that home. The Asset keeps its own facts (model, serial number, warranty). The Action keeps the problem.

Once linked, the Asset’s history shows the Action and every Task or Report done about it. The next time that dishwasher acts up, you open the Asset and see it is the third call in two years. That is often all you need to have a sensible conversation with the owner about replacing it.

Linking is optional. If the technician is in a hurry, they can skip it and the office can link it later.

6. Getting the owner’s OK

Action: Pool heater requires new control board.

A diagnostic Task is done. The repair estimate comes back at $875. The property’s standing authorization (the amount you can spend without asking) is $300, so you need the owner to say yes.

From the Action, click Request Approval and enter a Client-safe description of the work and the Amount ($875). Then click Send Request.

What happens next:

1. Each property owner contact with an email address gets an email with the description, the amount, and a button to answer.
2. Owners who use the Customer App also receive a push notification there. No approval text message is sent.
3. They click the email button or open the approval in the Customer App and choose Approve or Decline. They can add a comment.
4. Their answer appears on the Action straight away, and the Action’s assignee and company Admins receive a staff mobile push notification.

The email goes to contacts marked as a property owner that have an email address. If none do, nothing is emailed, so add one first. The link works for 30 days.

Tip

If the owner answers you another way, such as a phone call, use Record Decision to record their answer yourself.

Say the owner declines. The Action stays open, because the heater still is not working. A week later the vendor offers a $425 repair instead of a full replacement. You use Revise to send the owner the new amount, and they answer again the same way.

The Action keeps both answers in its history:

$875 replacement  ->  declined
$425 repair       ->  approved

Approvals are part of the Action’s story. They are not the Action’s status. An Action waiting on an owner is still simply an open Action.

7. Wrapping up: resolved, or closed without being resolved

There are two ways an Action ends, and they mean different things.

Resolve is for when the problem is fixed. It is quick:

Resolve Action
-> resolution note (optional)
-> completion photo (optional)
-> Resolve

Close without resolution is for when the problem will not be fixed, at least not by you. You pick a reason, such as:

• Owner declined
• No action required
• Duplicate
• Unable to resolve
• Other

Why two options? Because six months from now, you want to know the difference between “we fixed the gate latch” and “the owner said leave it”. Home Watch IT never records declined or unperformed work as if it were completed.

Either way, if it turns out you were wrong, you can reopen the Action.

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Actions at a rental property

8. Before the next guest arrives

Everything above works exactly the same at a rental property. The only difference is that Home Watch IT also knows who is arriving and when, and an Action can use that.

At a rental-enabled property, a technician creates Pool heater not operating.

The Action is the same simple record as always. But because Home Watch IT knows about the upcoming Booking, the Action can show:

Next guest: Friday 4:00 PM

You can set the target to Before next guest. The app works out the actual deadline from the Booking. If that Booking later moves to Saturday, the target moves with it. If you would rather pin a specific date and time, you can do that instead, and the app will leave it alone.

This is why Before next guest is a target and not a priority. It is a moving deadline that the app keeps track of for you.

Setting a property up for Rentals, turnover plans, and Bookings are covered in Intro to Rentals.

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Frequently asked questions

Does finishing a Task close the Action? No. The Action stays open until you resolve it. When the last piece of Related Work is completed, Home Watch IT asks whether you want to resolve the Action, and you choose. This protects you from closing a problem that still needs another visit.

Do I have to create a Task for every Action? No. Plenty of Actions are just notes for the file: Owner mentioned they may replace the fence next year. An Action with no Related Work is perfectly normal.

Can one Action have more than one Task or Report? Yes, as many as you need. That is the point of Related Work. Diagnosis, repair, and follow-up can all hang off one Action.

What is the difference between Resolve and Close without resolution? Resolve means the problem was fixed. Close without resolution means it was not, and you record why (owner declined, duplicate, no action needed, and so on). Keeping them separate means your history tells the truth later.

I resolved an Action by mistake. Can I reopen it? Yes. Reopen it and it goes back to Open.

Do I have to link an Action to a Home Asset? No. It is optional and can be done later by the office. It is worth doing for equipment that keeps coming up, because the Asset’s history will show every Action and every visit about it.

What does Urgent actually do? It makes the Action stand out and immediately sends a mobile push notification to the assignee and company Admins. It does not send an email or text, and it does not schedule or assign work by itself.

What happens when an Action reaches its due date? If the Action is open, has a due date and is assigned to a user, that person receives a mobile push at about 7:00 AM company time on the due date. If it remains open after that date, they receive one Action overdue push. The overdue alert is sent once, not every day. These alerts are not emails or text messages. See Notifications and reminders.

What does the owner see? Owners using the Customer App see the Actions you have chosen to share. When you request an approval, they get an email and, in the Customer App, a notification, and they can approve or decline from either. They cannot add or change Actions themselves. If they want to raise something, they message you through the app and it arrives in Communications, where you can turn it into an Action.

What is a standing authorization? An amount, set per property, that you are allowed to spend on repairs without asking the owner first. Anything above it should go to the owner as an approval request.

If the owner declines, is the Action closed? Not automatically. The problem still exists, so the Action stays open. You might send a cheaper option later, or close it without resolution with the reason Owner declined. Both answers stay in the Action’s history.

What is “Before next guest”? A target that follows the property’s next confirmed guest Booking. An owner’s own stay, recorded as In Residence, does not count. If the Booking moves, the target moves. If you set a fixed date and time yourself instead, the app leaves your choice alone.