PlumbingBossPro Blog — Property Managers & Commercial

Equipment Records Per Unit and Per Building for Commercial Plumbing Accounts

A commercial account is a long list of addresses, and each address is a short list of equipment. The water heater in the duplex garage. The backflow preventer by the apartment building's meter. The sewage ejector in the church basement. A plumbing company that knows what is at every address works faster, quotes better and becomes hard to replace.

From Addresses to Equipment

Once the addresses are in, as described in Importing a Property Manager's Address List Into Your Plumbing Software, the next layer is what is at each one. In PlumbingBossPro, every address keeps its own equipment list. The types include:

• Water heaters: tank or tankless, gas or electric
• Water softener and whole-house filtration
• Sump pump, sewage ejector and well pump
• Garbage disposal
• Main water shut-off and sewer cleanout
• Backflow preventer

Each item can carry brand, model number, serial number, year installed, size in gallons or horsepower, fuel or power, location and access notes.

Per Building or Per Unit?

The question every apartment or multi-unit account raises is how fine to go. There is no single right answer, but there is a simple rule: match the way the plumbing is laid out.

• Shared systems, one address. If the building has central water heaters, one backflow preventer and one main shut-off, keep the building as one address and save all of it there. Unit-level calls go on jobs with the unit number in the notes.
• Separate systems, one address per unit. If each unit has its own water heater and shut-off, set each unit up as its own address under the client: “905 Pine Rd Unit 3.” Save that unit's heater on it. Keep a building address too for the shared backflow and cleanout.

Duplexes and fourplexes usually fall in the second camp. Larger buildings with a mechanical room usually fall in the first. Either way, everything stays under the one client.

What the Tech Sees

Equipment records pay off on the job card. When a tech opens a call, the saved equipment shows right on it:

“Water Heater - Tank (Gas) · Rheem XG50T06 · 50 gal · Natural Gas · installed 2014,” with the serial number on the next line and “Garage · Shut-off is in the meter box at the curb” below it.

For a building, that might read “Backflow Preventer · riser room off the lobby · key on the manager's ring.” The tech walks in knowing where to go and what to bring. No call to the office, no hunting through a basement.

Filling It In Over Time

Nobody fills in sixty buildings in a week. The practical approach is to fill in each address on the first visit. Make it part of the routine: before leaving a new address, the tech snaps the water heater label and notes the shut-off and cleanout locations.

When a new job is created at that address, the From House picker fills in the equipment from the saved record. When the tech updates something on the job — a new water heater installed, a softener removed — the change flows back to the address. The record stays current without anyone maintaining a separate spreadsheet.

A turnover between tenants is the easiest time of all. The unit is empty, nothing is stacked in front of the water heater, and the tech can read the label without moving a tenant's boxes. Many shops make filling in the equipment a standard part of every make-ready visit for that reason.

Estimates work the same way. If you quote a water heater replacement, the new unit's details can be filled in on the estimate and carry onto the job when it is approved.

Why Owners Care

Property managers and landlords spend real money on plumbing equipment, and most of them do not know what they have. A manager who can ask you “Which of our water heaters are oldest?” and get an answer from your records has a reason to keep you that has nothing to do with price.

Equipment records also make planned work easier to sell. If the records show twelve water heaters installed around the same year, a yearly flush plan across the portfolio is an easy conversation. That is covered in Yearly Water Heater Flushes Across a Landlord's Rental Portfolio.

Records the Next Plumber Will Not Have

There is a quieter benefit, too. When your records hold every water heater serial, every shut-off location and every cleanout in an account, switching plumbers costs the manager something real. A new company would start from zero. That is not a trap; it is just the value of good work written down.

For more on equipment, recurring work and billing for commercial accounts, visit the commercial plumbing software page.