How to Build Property Management Workflows That Actually Connect

Four people doing the same task four different ways.

That's what Charlotte Muylaert discovered when she visited a PMC office. The VP of Client Success at Revela watched as team members tackled identical work with completely different approaches—no consistency, no standards, no connection between processes.

This scene plays out in property management companies everywhere because teams are dealing with high-priority issues at properties, and need quick ways to get their work done and solve problems. But working  in reactive mode, bouncing between disconnected systems, lets critical information fall through the cracks. Month-end processes that should take hours stretch into days. Simple tenant move-outs become tangled nightmares because no one follows the same procedure.

Muylaert has spent years advising clients on how to transform chaotic operations into manageable, accurate workflows. Her approach doesn't require massive technology overhauls or complete staff replacements. Instead, she focuses on creating what she calls "operational guardrails"—standardized processes that connect every aspect of the property lifecycle from acquisition through optimization.

The Hidden Cost of Disconnected Operations

The biggest challenge isn't about software or staffing: "Generally, it's the lack of process and workflows and consistency across their business," Muylaert explains. These disconnected, non-standard systems create redundancy, confusion, and headaches. They’re stopping employees from doing their jobs effectively.

The symptoms show up everywhere.

Month-end reconciliations consume entire weeks. Owner payments get miscalculated because accounting entries happen in isolation. Maintenance charges slip through unbilled, eating directly into already-thin margins. Staff members develop their own workarounds, creating new problems while trying to solve old ones.

The human impact runs deeper than spreadsheets and systems. "At the end of the day, this is a roof over somebody's head," she emphasizes. Operational failures don't mean missed metrics—they mean families waiting for home approvals, maintenance issues going unresolved, and property owners questioning their investments.

Build Rails, Not Rules 

Her solution centers on viewing property management as an interconnected lifecycle. Each task has its own focus: leasing requires paperwork and tenant screening, move-in is people management, maintenance demands trade skills and logistics coordination, move-out is about speed and turnaround, and reporting ensures financial accuracy and compliance while providing KPIs to support portfolio optimization. While each requires different skills, they all depend on accurate information flowing between them. To make them flow together naturally, Muylaert asks property managers to look for connectors. 

The key insight: accounting sits at the center of everything. 

"All aspects of [a property manager’s] operations touch accounting, so that at its core is the most important part, and then everything else layers on top of that."_{— Charlotte Muylaert, VP OF CLIENT SUCCESS at revela}

This accounting-first philosophy transforms how teams approach every workflow, from tenant applications to maintenance requests. When you consider accounting first for maintenance, you’re not signing a one-off vendor and paying them out of pocket: it’s all connected to your existing processes. Similarly, when you are coordinating a move-out, you’ll have a much better picture of how long you can afford a vacancy, so you and your staff can focus on filling it. It aligns with our approach at Revela: built from the books out. 

Rather than treating financial reporting as a month-end chore, Muylaert positions it as the operational foundation. Every process—leasing, maintenance, owner communications—connects through this central financial core, ensuring information flows seamlessly between functions.

Four Steps to Operational Lifecycle 

Step 1: Audit and Standardize Current Processes

Start by documenting how each team member handles core tasks. Muylaert discovered situations where "there were four people who were doing the same activity, and they were all doing it differently." Map these variations to identify where inconsistencies create problems.

Non-standard processes mean you lack an overall picture of your business because you don’t have the right data. That’s why, at this stage, it’s crucial to focus on data accuracy. Most systems don’t have a process of checks and balances for inaccuracies or incomplete information in data entry, so the overall data you have is not actionable information. 

"You're looking to clean up their data and say, is this accurate? You're also looking to enrich their data." _{— Charlotte Muylaert}

Missing information—who pays utilities, which maintenance items bill back to owners—creates downstream failures. Take time to capture these details upfront.

Step 2: Design Connected Workflow Systems

Build workflows where information from one activity automatically flows to the next phase. 

Muylaert describes the move-out process as a perfect example: 

"You need to move a tenant out of the building, and you need to turn it and get it rent ready and get it listed so that you can get another tenant in there."_{— Charlotte Muylaert}

Each step should trigger the next automatically. Move-out inspection results flow to maintenance scheduling. Completed repairs update property listings. New tenant applications reference historical property data. 

These connections eliminate manual handoffs where information gets lost.

Step 3: Implement Guardrails and Quality Controls

Muylaert warns that anywhere that your system isn't providing guardrails is breaking down. 

"If you do not have guardrails in place like a defined process for something, somebody is going to go out of process and mess it up."_{— Charlotte Muylaert}

Build systematic checkpoints into each workflow. Require approvals before critical steps. Create forcing functions that prevent skipping essential tasks. For example, maintenance charges can't process without proper owner billing codes. Tenant applications can't advance without complete documentation.

‍Step 4: Measure and Optimize Workflow Performance

Track operational metrics across the complete workflow cycle.

"We're looking at things like occupancy, what percentage of their portfolios occupied? We're looking at turn times, how long is it taking them to actually get a property from a tenant moving out to rent ready?"_{— Charlotte Muylaert}

These metrics reveal bottlenecks and inefficiencies. Muylaert helped one client reduce month-end processes from days to under two hours by connecting previously isolated accounting tasks. Another client discovered they made more money managing fewer properties after standardized workflows revealed which owner relationships actually generated profit.

From Firefighting to Strategic Growth

The transformation extends beyond operational efficiency. Standardized, connected workflows enable property managers to shift from reactive firefighting to proactive asset management.

"Asset management is being able to say, we went out and did an inspection, and you're gonna need these three things in the next five years,” Muylaert explains, citing that property should anticipate how much they’ll cost and “start stashing money aside for that.”_{— Charlotte Muylaert}

Her clients also report dramatic improvements. 

Teams handle larger portfolios without additional overhead. Owner calls decrease because information flows accurately between systems. Perhaps most importantly, property managers can finally answer basic questions about their business.

"Do you know how much you're making this month?" Muylaert asks. "It's kind of mind-blowing" how many can't answer this basic question before implementing connected workflows.

The path from operational chaos to seamless execution doesn't require revolutionary change. 

Start with one critical workflow—move-outs, maintenance requests, owner payments. Document current approaches, design connected processes, implement guardrails, then expand. 

Each connected workflow strengthens the entire operational lifecycle, transforming property management from constant crisis response into sustainable, scalable growth.