Property Management Maintenance Software Explained + Top 4 Solutions

Property managers must ensure electrical, plumbing, and HVAC systems remain in working order 24/7. In addition to overseeing preventive maintenance programs, they’re also responsible for marketing available units, drafting lease agreements, and responding to maintenance requests.

Whether maintaining a handful of duplexes or a 30-story, downtown, high-rise building, the juggling act is real! The secret to rarely dropping the ball? Automate every task.

Using property management maintenance software is one of the easiest ways for landlords and property managers to control their maintenance to-do lists. Unfortunately, finding user-friendly software—that actually delivers on its promises—can be daunting.

For this reason, we’re discussing features to prioritize property management work order software options. We’ll also provide our top recommendations to try with your team before making a decision.

What Is Property Management Maintenance Software?

Property management maintenance software refers to digital platforms used to automate work orders, track asset information, and develop cost-optimized maintenance budgets.

It’s sometimes referred to as building maintenance, facility maintenance, and property management software. Though folks use the terms interchangeably, significant differences exist between property management software and management maintenance software.

The former is an application that allows property owners and managers to oversee their rental properties, renter information, and financial accounts. In addition, a robust property management platform helps streamline tenant applications, tenant screening, electronic funds transfers, and other day-to-day operational tasks.

Conversely, property management maintenance software, also referred to as computerized maintenance management system (CMMS) software, exclusively focuses on streamlining maintenance-related processes.

Who Uses Property Management Maintenance Software?

The following roles often benefit from using property management work order systems:

• Landlords and Property Managers: This duo can save significant time by automating maintenance management processes. Commercial spaces, office buildings, residential spaces, student housing, gated communities, and apartments all contain numerous assets that require time-consuming upkeep to continue running smoothly. Case in point: MaintainX clients save a reported 20 maintenance-management hours per week after switching to the mobile maintenance management software from analog scheduling methods.  
• Renters: Facility occupants submit work requests via requestor portals integrated with maintenance management software. They can also use it to conveniently discuss incoming shipments, facility announcements, and time-sensitive questions with management.
• Real Estate Asset Managers: Real estate asset managers are responsible for overseeing property-level investment portfolios. Historical maintenance information yields insight into the estimated useful life of assets used to increase financial assessments.

Top 4 Property Management Maintenance Software Picks

Below are our top four recommendations for property maintenance management software. We chose each option based on core capabilities, user experience, and online consumer reviews.

Each provider offers scalable, monthly price plans based on user numbers. They also each have freemium plans with varying levels of functionality.

1. MaintainX

We made our CMMS system with mobile users in mind. Translation: it’s agile, elegant, and highly user-friendly. The app’s native mobile interface includes streamlined color schemes, large fonts, and toggle settings for clean user dashboards.

Beyond providing basic capabilities—work order management, asset management, inventory management—the application delivers “the wow factor” with its business messaging and advanced reporting features. MaintainX allows property managers and maintenance technicians to communicate in real time via individual and group messages from their desktops and mobile devices.  

In addition to work-order commenting, real-time messaging is the most frequently cited “favorite feature” by product users. Offline mode, digital checklists, purchase orders, requestor portals, and time and cost tracking features are also favorites. MaintainX has everything property managers need to digitize standard operating procedures (SOPs), oversee workflow audits/inspections, and manage equipment maintenance.

Prominent Features:

• Maintenance activity tracking
• Automated alerts and notifications
• Purchase orders
• Global procedure library
• Maintenance workflow automation
• Work order photo and PDF uploading
• Meter-based maintenance
• Parts inventory
• Barcode generator
• CSV exports
• Vendors

Potential Drawback:

MaintainX limits the number of procedural checklists non-paying users can attach to their unlimited work orders.

2. Hippo

Hippo provides users with a flexible, comprehensive, and user-friendly CMMS experience. Property managers can enjoy the basics for tracking property maintenance initiatives, managing PM schedules, organizing asset data, and managing equipment supplies.

Maintenance managers on Capterra appreciate how the digitized work request system has helped them classify expenses, justify budgetary requests, and increase schedule compliance. Hippo is compatible with both iOS and Android devices, thus allowing for real-time updates from technicians on the job.

Prominent Features:

• Maintenance activity tracking
• Interactive floor plans & maps
• Bar code generator
• Parts inventory
• API access

Potential Drawback:

As mentioned by Jennifer M., facilities coordinator, Hippo’s inventory aspect could be improved by adding “inventory below minimum” settings. It’s also worth emphasizing that Hippo doesn’t support predictive maintenance (PdM) programs at this time, nor does it facilitate team messaging.

3. FMX

FMX is unique because it combines both facility management and CMMS capabilities into a single software product. The hybrid functionality enables property managers to streamline operational processes, track maintenance tasks within broader facility initiatives, and make data-driven decisions that boost efficiency.  

K-12 educational providers appreciate how the one software program accommodates various departments—technology, maintenance, transportation, grounds, and athletics—with one login portal to enter work requests. Furthermore, FMX has a reputation for providing its customers with 24/7 support with LIVE representatives.

Prominent Features:

• Maintenance activity tracking
• Customer database
• Contract and licensing management
• Inventory management and control
• Dispatch management
• Vendors
• Routes

Potential Drawback:

Capterra reviewers voiced dissatisfaction over FMX’s reporting capabilities. One user said that, though he hadn’t had any issues with the product, the training for it “was a bit ridiculous.” Additionally, FMX is not mobile compatible and does not include team messaging.

4. Fiix

Fiix is another property management software option worth considering. It allows users to organize assets, optimize maintenance tasks, and integrate other property management functions.

Similar to the other providers mentioned, Fiix comes with a range of capabilities necessary for facility maintenance programs. It’s compatible with iOS, Android, and desktop devices to suit the needs of both desk workers and field technicians.

Recently, Fiix began to take data analysis a step further with Fiix Foresight—an AI-powered system designed to spot equipment behavioral trends. Managers can use the information to address unknown bottlenecks in operational workflows  

Prominent Features:

• Maintenance activity tracking
• Maintenance workflow automation
• Work order photo and PDF uploading
• Multi-asset work orders and rounds
• Out-of-box and custom ERP integrations
• AI-powered insights (only on premium plans)

Property Management Features to Prioritize

The real value of work order software for property management is centralized organization. The right platform houses a variety of O&M management activities all in one place. Instead of jumping between multiple spreadsheets, calendars, work order booklets, and paper work orders, managers can quickly access everything they need to oversee numerous projects and corresponding data points.

Beyond standard work order management, property maintenance software applications often support several valuable features. Of course, the ones most worth acquiring depend on a maintenance team’s specific needs. However, we recommend prioritizing the following:

1. Preventive Maintenance Scheduling

Work order generation is the core capability of a maintenance software platform. It allows management to create, assign, and monitor preventive maintenance tasks with ease. This proactive maintenance approach, in turn, increases reliability, enhances client experiences, and improves response times to emergency maintenance requests when they do arise.

The best work order systems also include task-prioritization labels; multiple calendar views; asset, location, and parts details; and PDF uploading for maintenance manual attachments.

Property management solutions are essential to running effective preventive maintenance programs to reduce the frequency of inconvenient, unplanned breakdowns.

2. Work Request Integration

Speedy communication between tenants and management can improve resident loyalty, enhance property reputation, and reduce disputes due to miscommunication. The best software options include API integrations that allow users to merge data from other applications. API stands for Application Programming Intermediary. Essentially, APIs help programs “talk to” each other.

Work request APIs allow managers to connect maintenance software to online tenant portals where tenants can submit work requests. The software generates automated work requests that maintenance managers can either approve or reject. Management then assigns approved assignments to maintenance technicians or third-party contractors as scheduled work orders. On this point, note that MaintainX features its own requestor portal, so there is no need to integrate third-party software on this front.

3. Maintenance Inventory Management

Maintaining optimized levels of parts is essential to successful maintenance management. Tenants expect malfunctioning property assets to be restored in a timely fashion. Thus, critical parts must be available at all times.

Not only is rush ordering parts inconvenient—management may have to wait on supply-chain delays—but expedited shipping fees are expensive. However, tying up capital on overstocked supply closets is also problematic. The right software will help solve this dilemma by providing low-inventory alert settings. This way, management neither overstocks nor understocks parts.

4. Asset Management

Property maintenance management software should also include an indexed asset database. Management should be able to tag asset entries when creating digital work orders.

This feature allows technicians to maintain easy access to maintenance records at their fingertips. For example, a comprehensive asset entry should detail previous work on an asset, the parts involved, the time spent, and the total costs spent on maintenance.

5. Advanced Reporting

Tracking the long-term performance of assets, their associated maintenance expenses, and technician hours is crucial to resource optimization. Choose a platform capable of compiling data points into user-friendly reports that support budgetary decision-making.

The right software can help management track maintenance metrics like mean time to repair (MTTR), planned maintenance percentage (PMP), and schedule compliance to reveal O&M program health. Most importantly, it shouldn’t require time-consuming training to navigate! Here’s a look at what you can do with advanced reporting:

6. Secure Cloud Storage

No modern property management software is complete without cloud storage capabilities. Cloud storage mechanisms store organizational data on the Internet via third-party storage providers. If you’ve ever used services like Google Business, Facebook Messenger, or Dropbox, you’re familiar with cloud storage. It allows for real-time data access, sharing, and holding “in the cloud.”

This feature makes it possible for CMMS software users to access work orders and asset data anywhere via their mobile devices. Besides providing the advantage of enhanced agility, cloud-based software solutions allow property managers to pay per monthly user and scale as they grow.

7. Mobile App

Finally, we recommend prioritizing software options with mobile applications, specifically “mobile-first” platforms. Mobile-first means the application was specifically designed for tablet and smartphone usage from conception.

Unlike software programs that engineers later revise for mobile compatibility, mobile-first platforms are “cleaner” code-wise and designed with the mobile interface in mind. This means they’re sometimes more reliable, more user-friendly, and faster than their hybrid counterparts. In addition, with mobile-first MaintainX, managers can create work orders from a property management work order template, reducing the need to reinvent the wheel each time maintenance is needed.

Shopping Tip: you may have to ask providers if their applications are native mobile or hybrid applications. It’s not something they typically advertise.

Which Property Management CMMS Is Right for You?

Keeping tenants happy is no small feat. Dozens of important details are integral to providing consistent customer experiences every day. Landlords, property managers, and maintenance technicians can all benefit from the convenience of user-friendly work order software.

While features are important, functionality is critical. The most valuable software—the option that will deliver the highest ROI—is the one your team will actually use. With that said, always sample several options before making the final decision for your property management company.

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