PestBossPro Blog — Commercial Accounts

Apartment Pest Control for Property Managers: Buildings, Units and One Monthly Bill

Apartment work comes in two layers. There is the scheduled part: exterior perimeter service around the buildings, common areas, the laundry room and the trash enclosures. Then there is the request part: a tenant in 214 reports roaches, the manager calls you, and you treat that unit and maybe the units around it. A good apartment account handles both without turning the office into a switchboard.

From Restaurants to Rentals

Restaurant records were the subject of Restaurant Pest Control Service Records the Manager Can Ask For Any Day. Apartments ask for records too, but the bigger challenge is structure: many buildings, many units, and one person paying the bill.

Property managers are worth the effort. One manager can bring you a complex this year and two more next year. Many manage properties for several owners, and a manager who trusts you takes you with them.

Setting Up the Account

In PestBossPro, the property management company or the complex is the client. Each property is an address under that client. If a complex has separate buildings with their own street addresses, and you want to track them separately, add each building as its own address.

A manager with three complexes might look like this:

• Client: the management company, with the manager as the main contact and a monthly statement.
• Address 1: the first complex, exterior and common areas on monthly service.
• Address 2: the second complex, exterior on bi-monthly service.
• Address 3: the third complex, exterior on quarterly service plus units by request.

Each address carries its own plan, access notes and history. Measurements from the satellite map, like the perimeter linear feet of each building, help you price the exterior work.

Scheduled Exterior and Common Areas

The scheduled part works like any recurring service. Set the minimum days between visits, 30 for monthly, 60 for bi-monthly or 90 for quarterly, and each property comes due on the Waiting List on its own. Pins are colored by status, so an overdue complex stands out.

Access notes do a lot of work on apartment accounts:

• “Check in at leasing office first. Pool gate key on the ring at the desk.”
• “Laundry rooms in buildings B and D. Trash enclosures behind C.”
• “Maintenance supervisor carries the master key for mechanical rooms.”

The tech sees these on the card every visit, so any tech can service the property, not just the one who has been there before.

Tags help when a manager's portfolio grows. Tag every property Apartment, and add a tag for the management company or the side of town, so you can filter the client list and pull reports for just those accounts. Custom fields can hold the details you look up most, like the property's unit count or the maintenance supervisor's direct line.

Units by Request

Interior units are usually not on a fixed schedule. A tenant complains, the manager decides to treat, and they let you know which units. That might come by text, by email, or through a service request in the customer app.

Schedule it as a one-time job at that property, and write the unit numbers in the job notes so the tech knows exactly where to go: “Units 214, 215 and 314. German roaches in 214, adjacent units inspect and treat as needed. Maintenance will meet you with keys.” Add each unit as a line item if you bill per unit.

The details of handling those requests are in Treating Apartment Units by Request Without Losing Track of the Building.

Notice to Tenants

Interior service in apartments means entering someone's home. Most property managers handle the notice to tenants themselves, under their lease and local rules. Your job is to make sure the manager knows when you are coming so they can give that notice.

Two-way texting helps here. Text the manager the day you have scheduled, they confirm, and the conversation is saved. Automatic on-the-way and arrived alerts can go to the manager or the maintenance supervisor so someone is ready with keys.

Post-treatment instruction emails can go to the manager too, with notes like keeping kids and pets out of treated areas until they are dry. The manager can pass those on to tenants.

One Monthly Bill

Property managers do not want a separate invoice for every visit at every property. Set the client to Monthly and they get one statement each month covering every location you serviced: the scheduled exterior work at all three complexes, plus every unit treated by request.

Invoices carry line items and sales tax, and the manager can pay online or keep a card on file. If the owner of each property pays separately, you can set each one up as its own client instead.

To see how apartment accounts fit with restaurants, offices and warehouses, visit the PestBossPro commercial pest control software page.