Process service requests, track equipment and assets around your spaces, and schedule regular work all in one place—right in VTS Activate. This guide will walk you through VTS’ CMMS module, front to back. If you don’t have access to work orders yet, reach out to your partner at VTS for more information on getting set up. And if you've got historical data you want to add, check out our data import.

1. Service requests
2. Work Order Activity Logs
3. Service request settings
4. Escalation Rules
5. Equipment
6. Meter readings
7. Preventive maintenance
8. Work order notifications

 

 

 

Service requests

 

With Activate, you can keep track of all of the day-to-day work that goes in and out of a property or space. Whenever someone sends a work request to your staff through the Activate app, it’ll roll up here under the service requests tab, in real-time.

 

Any members that can see the related content—through targeting—can submit a work order for review. Once they do, you’ll find everything in the services request table, where you can check out crucial information or change the status of a work order.

 

 

 

 

 

To find specific work orders, you can use the search at the top to find them by ID.

 

If you need to narrow your view to a group, time, or category, you can:

• Sort by status with the dropdown
• Choose which filters to use, including submission date
• Click the edit columns button to change what shows on the table

 

To see the details of a request, just click the request ID. Here you can:

• Change the status
• Edit the assignment
• Cancel the request
• Edit the original request
• Add attachments, like pictures
• View the order activity log 
• Add notes, or Export the details as a PDF.

 

💡 The Request ID is formatted as SR for Service Request, then the chronological number of the request, ie SR-1, SR-2...SR-167, SR-168.

 

 

 

 

 

Work Order Activity Logs

 

After clicking into the work order, navigate to the Activity tab. Here you can review the historical changes including status updates, team assignments, and assignee changes. 

(Note that if the work order was just created, the activity log will contain only one item, creation of the ticket.)

 

 

 

To export a Work Order's activity, click Actions and then Export, and then click Export again on the pop-up menu to confirm. The PDF will download automatically. The last section of the PDF file will contain the activity logs, while the previous pages will contain details of that work order.

 

 

 

 

 

💡 To add a team to work orders, head to Teams management in the Users Management section, find the team, and under the settings icon, check this user is a property staff user under the work order section.   Non-admin team members can view work order history in the Admin view, but submitting entries via the work order form must be done in the Member view.

 

 

If a category’s assigned to a team, everyone in that team will see the request. If you assign the request to a single person, only they’ll be able to see it. If they unassign themselves, though, it’ll kick back to the team again—it’s a good way to process requests as a group.

 

 

⚠️ If a request isn’t assigned to a team or a person, only workplace admins will be able to see it.

 

 

 

 

 

Service request settings

 

Work orders come with some default issues and locations set up, but to get the most out of your system, click the settings button.

 

 

 

 

On the service configuration panel, set up every type of service issue your property regularly deals with. Click Expand to edit an existing category or use the + Add Category button to make a new one. For each category, you can edit the name, add issue types—like subcategories—and automatically assign the category to a person or team. Everything you edit here will show up on the submission form for members to choose.

 

If you ever need to delete a category, click Expand, then Delete.

 

 

 

 

On the issue locations panel, configure basic areas around your property to help pinpoint the issue. They’ll show up on the submission form too, so make sure they’re relative to the building and not suite specific—members will choose the exact location, like suite number, separately.

 

 

 

 

In custom data, add unique questions you want to include on the form. You can configure the answers to be open responses, a dropdown selection, or a checkbox. The reporting display text is what shows up on your reports and exports, and the submission form display text is what your members will see in the app.

 

 

💡 Any question you add to a category will show up on any submission form of that category type.

 

 

If you're using VTS Activate's Billing and Payments module, you can create and manage your products and services for work orders here too—just click the billing panel. Here, you can:

• Create products and services
• Add categories
• Create price exceptions
• Make charge codes
• Submit and void charges

 

 

 

 

The layout panel is a simplified version of the content builder—you’ll only see elements that are relevant to work order requests. Everything from the submission form will automatically show up in the builder, but you can add whatever else you need, edit the header, and customize the look and feel of your content.

 

 

 

 

Targeting and the Info tab are the exact same as they are in the content builder, too.

 

 

💡 Billable hours for service requests are part of the billings and payments module. If you want to track hours without any financial information, you can always make a service called "hours" and set the cost to 0. Either way, staff can add the "hours" service to the request in the billing tab and enter their hours there.

 

 

When you’re done, don’t forget to Save changes.

 

 

 

Escalation rules

 

Service Requests should be completed promptly, but sometimes they can slip through the cracks. With Escalation Rules, you can configure notifications to be sent out when a Service Request is in a particular status for a certain amount of time. You can find them under Service Request Settings.

 

There's no limit to how many Escalation Rules you can create—select the plus sign to add more. These Notifications are sent to Workplace Admins, assigned Staff, and assigned Teams. If there isn't a Staff member or Team assigned to a Service Request, the escalation notification is only sent to Workplace Admins.

 

Configure the Escalation Rule by selecting the amount of time (from minutes to weeks) after the status of a service request is in a specified status. When finished, select Done and Save Changes. This locks in the Escalation Rule.

 

 

 

 

 

Equipment

 

Use this tab to keep a record of all of the major assets around your building. You can search by name or category or use the filters to narrow down your view to specific equipment. You can also export as a .csv whenever you need.

 

 

 

 

In settings, you can add categories and locations, just like service requests. It’s a good way to keep your equipment organized.

 

 

 

 

To add a new piece of equipment, use the Add equipment button.

 

 

 

 

Enter a name, category, location, and status. You can also add equipment-specific information, install and warranty dates, notes, and any attachments, like photos or documents.

 

An important setting is meter readings. Click + add meter reading to choose the units for the reading and set up an escalation notification—you can create automatic push notifications or emails for readings that are greater, less than, or outside the accepted range.

 

 

 

 

Once you’re done, click Submit.

 

When you click on a piece of equipment, you’ll see a history of regularly scheduled tasks and a list of service requests related to the equipment. It’s a great way to check open and pending work, but also to see a record of all the maintenance that’s been performed over time.

 

 

 

Meter readings

 

You can view and record meter readings for your equipment in Activate. Meter readings can be a part of a preventive maintenance schedule or performed ad hoc—both will show up on the equipment profile as a historical record. 

 

To see meter readings for a piece of equipment, click into the equipment and choose the meter readings panel. Expand a reading to see a history of readings for that category. You can export the log, or you can edit or archive specific readings by clicking the actions dropdown.

 

 

 

 

To record a new reading, just click + record meter reading at the top.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Preventive maintenance

 

For all those recurring activities that keep your property healthy and humming, use preventive maintenance to schedule your work and keep you on task.

 

Preventative maintenance is broken into tasks and schedules. Tasks are automatically generated from your schedules—these are the action items you need to do regularly, according to the schedule.

 

To make a schedule, click the add schedule button. Fill out your details, assign the task to a team or person, add the estimated completion time, and link the relevant equipment, if you have any. You can also add notes or information about a meter reading.

 

 

💡 You can set recurring tasks for things without equipment, too, like building inspections.

 

 

Next, set your schedule. Choose how often the task repeats and enter a first due date.

 

 

 

 

Choose when you want the schedule to end, and then enter in the amount of days you want your automatic tasks to be created prior to the due date.

 

You can also link specific equipment to the schedule, if it's relevant. Select link equipment, then click the + add equipment button. Make your selections—all of your task information will now go that equipment profile as a historical record.

 

 

 

 

Lastly, you can add interactive steps for tasks with multiple action items. Just click + add steps, then create a to-do list out of the items you need:

• Instruction: Use this open text field to add explicit instructions or reminders for tasks that aren't completed as often.
• Acknowledge: Add a specific task or reminder with a checkmark to make sure important items aren't missed or forgotten.
• Open response: pose quick questions for people to answer or review on the spot. You can make responses, short, long, or numerical.
• Multiple choice: create multiple choice questions or prompts—the response can be single or multiple.
• Meter reading: have someone complete a meter reading based on parameters for the linked equipment.

 

 

 

 

You can add as many steps as you like—drag and drop at the left to rearrange the order or click the trashcan icon to delete steps you don't need.

 

Once your schedule’s done, Activate will automatically create the tasks based on your settings. Anyone assigned to the task can click into the details page, find the information they need, leave notes, add attachments, and change the status of the task. You can export any task as a PDF.

 

 

 

 

Tasks aggregate on the tasks panel in preventive maintenance and, when you link them, they show up on equipment profiles too.

 

 

 

Work order notifications

 

When someone submits a request or creates a preventative maintenance task, Activate automatically sends email notifications to the right people. The email contains all the basic information of the request or action and gives you a link straight to Activate. Here's everything that triggers a notification right now:

• Someone creates a request or task
• Someone is assigned to a request or task
• Someone adds an update to a request or task
• Someone edits the info on a request or task
• A request or task is unassigned 

 

You can choose who receives these notifications in team management under property settings. Here are the two key permissions to use:

• This user can view all service requests
• This user can view all preventative maintenance tasks

 

If these are checked, then those users will get notifications for all of the above. If they're unchecked, those users will only get a notification that they've been assigned to something.