Projects: Renovations, Replacements and Capital Work

Plan and run work bigger than one repair — phases and tasks, work orders on the maintenance board, a budget line by line, actual cost from the Expense Center, change orders, capital versus repair, alerts and templates.

A project is work bigger than one repair: a kitchen remodel, a roof or a boiler replacement, a façade cycle, a lobby refresh, an energy retrofit. It holds the phases and tasks, who is doing each one, the budget line by line, what has actually been spent, any change orders, the photos and documents, and a full history. Projects are under The building → Projects on the website, in the Projects section of the iPhone and Android apps, and on the calendar.

Starting a project

Press New project and choose the property. Starting from a template brings its phases, tasks and a typical budget with it; everything can be changed afterwards. Give it a unit if the work is in one apartment, a start and target date, and who runs it. A project can also be linked to a piece of equipment from the asset register, so finishing it is written into that equipment’s history.

Seayora’s own templates are read-only — start a project from one and save it as your own template to change it. A budget amount in a template is a typical figure for planning, never a quote.

Status and health

A project’s status is what you set it to. Its health is worked out by Seayora from what has actually happened, and every screen shows the reasons beside it.

• Off track: over budget, or past its target date.
• At risk: spending has reached your budget warning, a task is overdue or blocked, or the work is well behind the calendar.
• Not started: planning, with the start date still to come.
• On track: none of the above.

Putting a project on hold or cancelling it needs a reason, which is shown on the project. Only the account owner, a manager or the person running the project can finish, cancel or reopen it. A project with open tasks is not completed until you finish them or confirm they are not needed.

Phases and tasks

Tasks are grouped into phases — by default Plan, Bid & procure, Work, Punch list and Close out — and you can rename, add and reorder phases on the website. Drag a task between phases on the board, or edit its phase on the phone. A project holds up to 400 tasks.

A work-order task goes on the maintenance board through the same path as any other request, so your response targets, technicians and contractors apply, and its state follows that work order: it is finished when the work order is completed, not by ticking it on the project — ticking it would claim a repair nobody finished. A planned project can never use an emergency category, so a paint job never pages an on-call technician at night. When work orders are raised is your choice:

You can require a photo before a task is marked done. A task can be marked blocked with what it is waiting on, and the person it is assigned to is told when it is given to them and when it is overdue.

The budget and what has been spent

The budget is a list of lines, each with a category and a treatment. While a project is planning, the lines are the budget. Once work has started, the budget moves through change orders instead, so the original figure is never quietly rewritten.

Whether a cost is a capital improvement or a repair decides how it is deducted. Seayora records what you choose; your accountant makes the call.

What has actually been spent is never typed into a line. It is the total of the expenses you link from the Expense Center plus any cost you record on the project for money spent elsewhere. A linked expense is not copied: if it is deleted or voided in the Expense Center it stops counting here at once, so the project and the books cannot disagree. A cost can be put on a budget line or left on none; either way it counts toward the project.

Change orders

A change order is how the scope, the cost or the schedule changes once work has started — a rotted subfloor found under a cabinet, a material that went up in price. It has a title, a reason, an amount (a saving is a negative amount) and optionally a number of days added to the schedule. Each is numbered on the project.

Change orders under an amount you set can be approved automatically, and you can require a reason on every one. A team member cannot approve their own change order.

Linking records

A project can link the work orders, expenses and inspections that belong to it, so everything about the job is in one place. Linking never copies or changes the record itself, and unlinking only takes it off the project.

Alerts, the weekly summary and the calendar

Seayora tells whoever runs a project when a task goes overdue and when spending reaches your budget warning — each once, not every day. A weekly summary of the open projects can be emailed on the day you choose. Every dated task and milestone appears on the calendar under Project tasks.

Settings

• Budget warning: the percentage of the budget at which a project is flagged at risk.
• Automatic approval: the change-order amount below which a change is approved without waiting.
• Require a reason on every change order.
• When work orders are raised, and how many days before they are due.
• Overdue alerts and the weekly summary, and its day.
• Require a photo before a task is marked done.
• Finish a project by itself when its last task is done.
• The amount from which Seayora suggests capital treatment (a hint, never a decision), the default contingency added to a project from a template, and the prefix on project references.

Only the account owner or a manager can change settings and templates. On a management company account, team members need access to Maintenance to see projects.

On your phone and with an assistant

The iPhone and Android apps carry every project write: start one, edit it, change its status, add tasks and budget lines, record costs, link records, request and decide change orders, move the schedule, raise work orders and attach photos. A project’s tasks, change orders, costs, budgets, files and templates each have their own list.

A connected assistant can list your projects, read one in full and propose a task. On most accounts the proposal waits in Approvals for you; starting, finishing or cancelling a project, deciding a change order and recording money stay with you in Seayora.

Related features and guides

• Unit Turns: the Make-Ready Board — Documentation. Follow every unit from the day the tenant gives notice to the day the next lease starts — move-out inspection, make-ready checklist, work orders, ready to rent, listed and leased — with days vacant and an estimated vacancy cost.
• Maintenance Requests & Work Orders — Feature. Tenants submit work orders with photos and video from their phone. Landlords triage, dispatch, and track every request to completion in one place.
• In-App Video Calls — Feature. Start a video call from any Seayora conversation, or upgrade a voice call to video mid-conversation. Run remote showings, walk a contractor through a repair, and schedule video meetings on the shared calendar — no personal number, no third-party meeting app.
• Job Costing — Feature. Track labor, materials, and vendor costs against each work order or capital project, so you know real margin per job instead of guessing.
• Before you file: the checks Seayora runs, and why some of them are our fault — Documentation. Seayora refuses to open an eviction case while something would sink it — an unanswered payment plan, money still settling, a grace period that has not run, open repairs, a subsidized tenancy. Several of the blockers are Seayora’s own problem rather than the resident’s, and each is cheaper to find here than in a courtroom.
• Using the Seayora app as a landlord or property manager — Documentation. Approving sign-ins, answering repair requests from a notification, raising work orders with photos, inspections and receipts on site, and what waits for signal.

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