Use service requests to collect and process one-off maintenance and other tasks around your building right in the VTS Activate app. For tracking regular work, check out preventive maintenance.
The service requests tab
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 of the work orders module, 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 service requests 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 field at the top, or use filters to find requests by escalation status, or historical status.
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
- 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. |
Service Request Statuses
See below for the available Service Request Statuses and their suggested meanings. Feel free to adopt your own designations as needed for your property.
- Open: The request has been submitted but has not yet been viewed or accepted
- Accepted: The request has been submitted and reviewed by property staff
- In progress: Work has begun on the request, but it is not yet finished
- Closed: The service request has been finished, and no further adjustments can be made.
- Declined: The request has been reviewed and the property staff will not be working on the request
- Cancelled: The request has been reviewed and is no longer necessary
- Complete: The request has been finished, but the property staff still has the ability to edit the request
Bulk Exporting Service Requests
To download multiple service requests at a time, navigate to the Service Requests table. Select the reports using the checkboxes (select up to 50 reports), and then click Download Service Requests (PDF).
The reports will download as a .zip file. After opening, the reports will appear formatted similar to the PDF below.
Who sees requests?
To keep the right people focused on the right tasks, you can use teams in Activate to manage who sees what in the work orders module. To add an existing team to work orders, head to team management, find the team, click the settings icon, and find the work orders section. The 2 most important permissions are:
- This user can access the work orders module
- This user can be assigned to a service request or preventive maintenance task
Admins on the channel will always be able to create work orders, view requests, and edit their settings. If the users aren't admins, they can see work order history in the admin view the same way, but they'll need to submit new entires through the work order form in the member view like anyone else.
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 that user will be able to see it—not anyone else from their team. 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.
Service Configuration
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.
Issue Locations
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 or context and not suite specific—members will choose the exact location, like suite number, separately.
Custom Data
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. |
Billing
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
| 💡 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. |
You learn more about adding charges to work orders in our work order billing guide.
Layout
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.
Use the Service Request Schedule block to allow users to request a specific date and time for the completion of their service request.
On the form, this will appear as a selection where the user can select the desired completion time to be either 'ASAP' or on a specific date and time. Note that the time is in 15-minute increments, and can be edited by Admins.
Targeting and the Info tab are the exact same as they are in the content builder, too.
Schedule Times
In the Schedule Times section, you can define target response and completion times for service requests by issue type. If a request exceeds its target time, it will not meet its target.
Click Create to set a new target time, and a pop-up menu will appear to let you choose a category and issue type before setting an expected hour and minute completion time. (Note that when a Service Request is put On Hold, the target completion clock pauses. When it returns to In Progress, the system recalculates a new target deadline using the remaining buffer time. If the task is delayed, be sure to toggle to On Hold to accurately reflect response and completion times.)
Schedule target times will appear in the Service request table as Target Response Time and Target Completion Time, showing the calculated due date/time for each Service Request based on the configured targets.
Notification Settings
VTS Activate also lets you set up notifications for service requests, which can alert admins, notify users that they have a new task, or when a task is updated. You can use pre-set notifications, or create your own. To locate the Notification settings, click Settings from the Service Requests page.
Once in the Notification settings tab, you can modify existing default notifications to suit your preferences, or create entirely new ones from scratch by clicking Add Notification.
Available Default Notifications:
When a service request is created send an email to the view all admins
When a service request is created send an email to the assigned team or user
When a service request is created send an email to the service request creator
When a service request is assigned send an email to the assigned team or user
When a service request status is updated send an email to the assigned team or user
When a service request status is updated send an email to the service request creator
When a service request is updated send an email to the assigned team or user
When a service request is updated send an email to the service request creator
When a service request is unassigned send and email to the view all admins
When a service request is unassigned send an email to the assigned team or user
Add or Edit Default notifications
Click Edit below a pre-set notification to view and edit the settings, or click Add notification to create an entirely new setting. You will be able to change parts of each condition and outcome, and rename the workflow. Click More actions to either duplicate or delete the workflow. Once you have updated your workflow conditions and outcomes, click Save to finish.
Conditions
All conditions will start with "When a service request".
Select the following from the dropdown: is created, is updated, status is updated, is assigned, is unassigned
Outcome
Use the dropdown to select what will happen when the conditions are met. Use the dropdown to select from: send a push notification, send an email, send an email and a push notification
Select who will receive the notification. Use the dropdown to select from: to the view all admins, to the assigned team or user, to the service request creator, or to a specific team
Name the workflow if desired, and click Save to finish.
Tenant - Admin Service Request Chat
To improve communication and transparency around service requests, admins, engineers, and tenants can easily share service request information and track progress right in the app.
Navigate to the Admin portal, then to Work Orders, then to Service Requests. Locate the specific service request, and then click the ID to open. Navigate to the Tenant chat. Here you can add messages and images, which the tenant can then view when they open the Service request on their end.
To enable alerts for new messages, navigate to the Work Orders Configuration tab, and toggle the alert on. This will send alerts according to the user's notifications preferences. When this feature is disabled, no notifications will be sent from the channel.
Completing a service request
If you're on a team assigned to a specific category or task, you can process work orders right in the admin view—and even submit them yourself. We'll walk through a typical service request—keep in mind that every organization is different, and you'll need to confirm your workflows with your team.
- When someone submits a request, you'll probably get an email or push notification. They'll take you straight to the request in activate. (If not, you can find the request in work orders > service requests).
- You can check the details—what the requester initially submitted.
- If you need, add notes. You can also attach images or PDFs.
- If there isn't already, you can link specific equipment to the task. This will add the request to that equipment's work history.
- As you work, you can change the status depending on the situation—like in progress to indicate it's being handled.
- If your organization has billing, you can submit a charge for the work. In the billing panel of the request, click + add product or service, fill out the form, and click add.
- Once the request is finished, change the status to the appropriate terminal stage, like complete.
If you want to complete a request on the go, check out our guide for work orders on your mobile device.