Maintenance calls that arrive as work orders.
Most answering services stop at the message, and someone re-types it the next morning. Activ puts the maintenance call into your property management software as a work order, with the resident, the unit, and the full call details already attached.
This page covers how work orders work across every integration: when they are created, what travels with them, what happens when one cannot be created, and who owns them afterward. The fields differ by system, so each integration page shows exactly what lands in yours.
Automatic or manual.
Automatic means no one lifts a finger: the work order exists before anyone reads the message. Manual leaves the decision with your staff, who send each one from the call. You choose per community.
| Automatic | Manual | |
|---|---|---|
| When it is created | As soon as Activ finishes processing the call. Nobody has to touch it. | Whenever your staff reviews the call and sends it. |
| Which calls | Every maintenance message. With conversational AI that includes routine requests; with IVR, routine requests go to the office instead. | Any maintenance or office message your staff picks. |
| Resident and unit | Found by matching the caller’s number to a current resident. Without a match, the office is emailed instead. | Your staff looks up the resident. Some systems also let staff enter a caller who is not a resident. |
| Category | Your property’s default. | Chosen by your staff. In ResMan they pick the category; in Entrata they pick the problem, and the category follows it. |
| Review before sending | No. Speed is the point. | Yes, and details can be edited first. |
How an automatic work order happens.
Five steps, none of which need anyone at the office.
1 · A resident calls
Something in the apartment needs fixing, and Activ answers.
2 · The problem is captured
Activ turns the conversation into a transcript and a short description of what is wrong.
3 · The resident is matched
The number they called from points to a current resident, and so to the right unit.
4 · The order reaches your PMS
It arrives with your property’s default category and the details from the call.
5 · Your team hears about it
Notifications go out exactly as they do today, and the work order shows up on the call in Activ.
Emergencies are dispatched to on-call staff the same way they are without work orders. See maintenance dispatch for the notification cascade.
What travels with the work order.
Enough that the technician and the office can act on it without replaying the call.
On automatic work orders, the resident and unit come straight from your property management software’s records rather than anything typed during the call. The work order also carries when the call came in, the number the caller used, a description of the issue, and the transcript, within whatever space your system allows. Where your system supports it, the detected language and the transcript in the caller’s own language travel too.
Each system stores this differently, so each integration page lists exactly what lands in yours: what lands in Entrata and what lands in ResMan .
When an automatic work order cannot be created.
It happens for one of two reasons: the caller’s number does not belong to a current resident, or your property management software turns the request down. Either way, the call itself is never lost.
The message still goes out
The usual recipients get the message as always, and emergencies reach on-call staff without delay.
The office is told
An action-required email lets the office know the work order was not created, with the message details included.
Someone follows up
Your team creates the work order in your PMS or through its normal maintenance process. Current resident mobile numbers keep automatic matching working.
With Answer Intelligence, a maintenance issue that is not an emergency arrives as its own non-emergency maintenance message, which is never dispatched to on-call staff. It still has to be worked, and a work order in your PMS is often the right place for it. With Answer Automate, every maintenance message is an emergency: callers whose problem can wait are asked to leave a message for the office instead, and your staff can create the work order from that message.
The work order belongs to your PMS.
Activ creates the work order. Everything after that stays where your maintenance team already works.
Open the call in Activ and you see the work order’s current status, but Activ never assigns, changes, or closes it. Automatic creation runs only on maintenance messages, so office messages stay out of your maintenance queue unless your staff chooses to create a work order from one.
Choosing a service for the whole community line? See how work orders fit into our after-hours answering service, or read how to handle after-hours maintenance calls.
Work orders, answered.
Which property management systems can Activ create work orders in?
Today, Entrata and ResMan. With Yardi and RealPage, Activ syncs residents and units, and automatic work order creation is on the roadmap.
Does every maintenance call become a work order?
With automatic creation, every maintenance message becomes one, as long as the caller matches a current resident. What counts as a maintenance message depends on how callers are answered: conversational AI takes routine requests as non-emergency maintenance messages, while IVR sends them to the office as messages, where staff can create the work order manually. With manual creation, your staff decides call by call.
Does creating a work order change how my team is notified?
No. The same people hear about each call as they do today, and on-call dispatch for emergencies works exactly as before. The work order sits alongside your existing process rather than replacing it.
What happens if the caller is not a current resident?
An automatic work order needs a resident match, so none is created. The call is not lost: the message reaches its usual recipients, emergencies reach on-call staff, and the office gets an action-required email saying the work order was not created.
Does Activ assign or close the work order?
No. Once it exists, the work order belongs to your property management software. Activ shows its current status on the call, but assigning, updating, and closing it stays with your team.