New and Improved — June 2, 2020

A significant update has been released to give you many more options when syncing AppFolio tenant contact data as well as to accommodate variations situations, such as an early lease termination.

Please see the information below on what has changed and various options available.

• Move In and Move Out dates now sync in addition to Lease Start and Lease End dates.
• Move In and/or Lease Start dates:
  • Now a Move In or Lease Start date is sufficient to sync from AppFolio. Previously, a Lease Start date was required.
  • The zInspector Lease Status will be set to “Moving In” if the Move In date is in the future; if there is no Move In date, then the Lease Start date will be used to determine this status instead.
• No Email Address:
  • AppFolio tenant records lacking an email address will now show on the Tenants page.  We create a temporary email address for that tenant with format ________@noemail.com.
  • If you subsequently add a valid email address in AppFolio it will automatically update in zInspector during the next sync.
  • In order to invite tenants to perform their own inspection or remotely sign an inspection you have performed, they still must have a valid email address on file. Our view remains that the best practice is to email the tenant a copy of a completed inspection report as a PDF attachment. Inspection invitations  and report sending via text message to a mobile phone number is not an option at this time.
• Properties Not in Sync:
  • AppFolio properties lacking a Property Name will not show up in zInspector. If you subsequently add a Property Name to a property record in AppFolio it will automatically update in zInspector during the next sync. 
  • On the Accounting Integration page, you can easily search in the Log to confirm if a property has not synced for this reason.  Simply click “Log” and search for “Not imported” to see a list of properties in AppFolio that are not currently syncing with zInspector.

Understanding Lease Status Values

zInspector “Leases” are designed to relate tenants to a property.  In this approach, a “Lease” or tenancy goes through a series of steps over time such as:  Moving In —> Current —> Moving Out —> Moved Out SD Pending —> SD Returned. (SD = Security Deposit)

Under the Accounting Integration page —> Options —> Change button, multiple options are available.  They are shown in the screenshot below.

Please evaluate each of these three options to determine the appropriate settings for your business.

• Set zInspector Status for Inactive Leases to
  • If you want to use zInspector to keep track of which leases / tenants still need a security deposit returned, then you should change the default status to Moved Out – SD Pending.
• zInspector Leases are Set to Inactive when
  • By default, if either the Move Out or Lease End date has passed, then the lease status will be set to Inactive in zInspector.  If, however, you frequently let leases go month-to-month and rely exclusively on the Move Out date to determine tenant residency, you should change this value to “Move Out date has passed”.
• Set zInspector Status to Moving Out
  • zInspector will automatically set the Lease Status to “Moving Out.”  This can be used to see, in a single view, all tenants who are moving out.  The default setting is for tenants to have a “Moving Out” status if the Move Out date condition falls within 90 days.

Questions? Email us at support@zinspector.com.