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Step 5: Customize your Checklists

This article details how you can create and customize your checklists for your team.

Zach Heine avatar
Written by Zach Heine
Updated over a month ago

The next step in your account setup involves the creation and customization of your checklists. These will be the dynamic and smart templates that you'll use across all your properties to complete varying tasks.

This detailed walkthrough will cover the basics on how you can modify the templates to fit your own business operations.


Overview

Templates are digital checklists that apply globally to all properties. They are fully customizable and can be based off Housekeeping or Inspection checklists that your staff currently use while completing tasks at properties.

Before building a template, it's important to think about your goal for the task. Are you looking to provide your field staff with specific requirements as they move through the property? Are you looking to provide gentle reminders of what's most important for them to complete? Should the requirements be associated with the inventory at the property?


Anatomy of a Template

Templates can be organized into three levels, with requirements within each level.

  • Sections: Sections are usually general area designations, and used primarily to organize a property into... you guessed it, sections! Examples include: Interior, Exterior, Mechanical, Safety. These are fully customizable.

  • Rooms: Rooms are specific areas within the property. These are chosen from pre-loaded options such as: Kitchen, Bathroom, Bedroom, Patio, Laundry Room, etc.

  • Item: Specific items at the property, which can be added to either a section or a room. Examples include: Dishwasher, bed, sofa bed, ceiling fan, coffee maker, etc.

Templates are global and will apply to all properties where they assigned. They should be as comprehensive as possible and cover the vast majority of actions that should be taken in all your properties.

When your team carries out tasks at a properties for the first time, the template will allow your staff to log information about what is or isn't present at each property. This will cause the template to customize to each property.

For example: If you included 'Hot Tub' as an item in your general inspection template, and a property does not have a hot tub, the first time someone inspects this property they will see the option to select 'Not applicable' and then 'Does Not Exist'. This is will eliminate the hot tub from displaying in that inspection template for that property in the future. We'll cover this more in depth in a bit.


Where to Customize or Add New Templates

You can create Cleaning, Inspection, and Maintenance templates. The process to set up templates is the same across all three departments.

1. Go to the Tasks page and select the department you want to create a template for.

2. Click on the Templates button on the right.

This will bring you to the Department Template Page, which will house all the templates associated with that department.

You'll see some default templates we've already added to your account. Feel free to customize, delete, or tweak these templates to accommodate your business practices.

To customize an existing template, click on the template in question. This should then launch you to the Individual Template Page, where you can edit the content of the checklist.


Adding New Templates

To add a new template, click on the New Template button in the top-right corner of the screen.

This should then launch you into the New Template Creation Page.

  • Department - This allows you to determine which department this template belongs to. This is a required field to fill out.

  • Subdepartment - If you're using our Subdepartment feature, here is where you select which subdepartment should be attached to the template.

  • Priority Level - You can also select a default priority level to be associated with the template. Whatever priority level is selected here will reflect by default on the task with which the template is associated.

  • Template title - Here is where you can give the Template a title. This is a required field to fill out.

  • Template description - Here is where you can include some more information about the template, such as what it'll be used for, etc.

  • Task Tags - This field allows you to apply Task Tags to the template by default.

  • In-progress status - You can apply an in-progress status to your template. For more information on what this means, see this article on Property Statuses.

  • Due on time - This allows you set a default time for when this template should be due. Whatever time is selected here will also reflect by default on the task with which the template is associated.


Customizing the Template

To start customizing either your new template or a pre-existing one, click on the template in question. This will launch you directly into the Individual Template Page.

Step 1: Edit Sections

We recommend first ensuring all of the sections on the pre-existing template will work for you - "Interior," "Exterior," etc.

You can also leverage sections for non-room/item specific tasks. For example, creating a "Before you leave" section enables you to record generic tasks such as "Locking all windows or doors before leaving the property."

Clicking on the pencil icon next to the section will allow you to edit the name of the section.

Adding a new section can be done at the bottom of the template page by clicking on the + Add Section button.

A common mistake is to use sections to record your rooms. This is a mistake and will cause problems with how the template interacts with the property.

Step 2: Editing Rooms

The next level in the template will be rooms. Rooms can be added to the section.

To add a new room, locate the section in which you want to place the room and click on the button, + Add room or item to [Section name].

This will then produce a drop-down menu from which you'll select the room you'd like to add. It's important to note here that you'll need to select an option from the list in order to add it to the template.

If you need to remove a room from the template, you'll need to delete first any items + requirements associated with that room. After those have been removed, you should see the option to delete the room.

Additionally, you can only add 1 bedroom or bathroom to the template. When the template is used at a property, it'll multiply the amount of bedrooms or bathrooms based on the property information.

Step 3: Editing Items

The third level to the template is items, which are the specific objects existing inside the room or section in question. Items can be added at either the section or room level as demonstrated below,


Here, you will use the drop-down menu to select the item you wish to add to the template.

Step 4: Adding Requirements

Requirements are the individual tasks associated with the section/room/item. These are designed to be directives that your staff will be asked to complete. There are seven different requirement options you can select from:

  • Condition: allows the user to select between Good, Dirty, Damaged, Not Working.

  • Checklist: requires the user to acknowledge they've completed the task. You can add multiple checklist actions to allow users to confirm multiple actions once instead of each individually.

  • Photo: requires the user to take a photo and show completion.

  • Count: allows the user to include a count of a particular item.

  • Text: allows you to ask an open-ended question.

  • Yes/No: enables the user to answer a yes/no question.

  • Rating: will display a 5-star rating for your team to select from.

    Additionally, you have the option to require the user to take a photo at each of the requirements in addition to answering the question.

    Users will not be able to Complete a task until every requirement has been satisfied.

There's also the option to Upload a reference photo. This can be useful for users for reference while they are in the field. Keep in mind, however, that references photos added here should apply to all properties.


To add a reference photo:

  1. Select the requirement you want to add a reference photo of

  2. Click on 'Upload reference photo +'

Users will be able to click on the photo to enlarge it.

Step 5: Organizing the Template

You can organize a template once it has been built. On the left side of the page, simply click 'organize' and then drag and drop to move items as needed.


Approaches to the Template

There are different ways to approach building out the template, but what's important is for you to design a checklist that'll serve you and your business. This means that the template can be as detailed and substantial or as sparse and minimal as you'd like.

Regardless of the approach, you will want to add more in this general template than might be applicable at a particular property. If there is an item or a requirement that is very specific to one or just a few properties, you also have the option to add it as a Property Specific Requirements instead.

Adding items and rooms to the templates will help you build property inventory and remove unnecessary requirements simultaneously!

  1. As you go through the templates and complete the requirements at a property, you are telling the system that once you service the 'Hot Tub' at Condo 1, there is in fact a hot tub at the unit. Breezeway then knows to add a hot tub in Condo 1's Property Details.

  2. If you are completing the same template for the first time at Condo 2, which does not have a hot tub, you can click the "Not Applicable" box and then "Does Not Exist." This tells the system that there is not a hot tub at the house, and it will no longer be included in this or other templates assigned at Condo 2.


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