The Maintenance section in Revela serves as the central hub for managing work orders from creation to completion, and is designed to support the full maintenance lifecycle in your business. From assigning vendors and tracking labor and material costs, to billing property owners for completed work, maintenance in Revela is built to help management companies operate more efficiently, maintain accurate financial records, and deliver exemplary service to their customers.
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Understanding Maintenance Billing Configurations
Before diving into the day-to-day maintenance workflow, it is important to understand the two billing configurations available in Revela. This setting is configured at the portfolio level and determines how completed maintenance work is billed back to the property owner.
Billed Individually is the most common choice for property managers operating in trust account models, particularly in single-family residential management. When a portfolio configuration is set to Billed Individually, Revela expects each work order to be billed to the owner as a separate receivable invoice once the work is complete. This gives property managers granular control over what is charged, including the ability to apply markups to labor and materials and to pay the generated invoice directly from the owner’s balance. The work order must be resolved and billed before it can be fully closed.
Not Billed is typically used when each company or entity maintains its own bank account and budget. Under this configuration, vendor invoices and labor costs are tracked on the work order for reference, but Revela does not generate a separate receivable invoice to the owner when the work order is closed. Expenses are managed through the standard payables process rather than the maintenance billback workflow. This is the simpler of the two options and is appropriate when there is no need to pass maintenance costs through to an owner’s balance.
The billing configuration can be reviewed and updated within Configuration settings. Navigate to Setup > Configurations > Select Configuration > Maintenance to view or change the maintenance billing settings. Any changes should be made before generating bills so the correct workflow applies.
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Creating a Maintenance Ticket
To create a new maintenance ticket, navigate to Maintenance > Work Orders and click the button to add a new work order. The creation form collects the key information Revela needs to route and track the request.
- Regarding - This field is the starting point. This searchable dropdown lets you select a property, unit, or tenant. When you make a selection, Revela automatically populates the associated property, unit, and tenant information. If you select a tenant, the system pulls in their current lease and unit details. If you select a unit, the associated property is filled in automatically. A sidebar panel appears showing the service area details, the entity’s contact information and balance, occupant information, and links to any recent work orders on that property.
- Subject - This field should contain a brief, one-sentence summary of the issue, such as “Leaking kitchen faucet” or “HVAC not cooling.”
- Description - This field provides space for a more detailed explanation of the problem, including any relevant context the vendor or employee will need.
- Pro Tip - When tenants submit work orders via their portal, ticket descriptions can be inconsistent and unclear. Revela AI can mass update work order descriptions for clarity and concise within a single prompt.
- Urgency - This dropdown lets you classify the request as Minor, Normal, or Critical. This defaults to Normal and helps prioritize work across your portfolio.
- Optional Fields - You can optionally assign an Employee to the ticket at creation time using the assignment dropdown. Similarly, you can add Tags to categorize the work order for easier filtering later, and add an Entry Code if a lockbox or door keycode is needed for property access.
After submitting the form, the work order is created and you are taken to the ticket detail page where you can begin assigning vendors, tracking progress, and managing the billing process.
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Assigning Vendors and Employees
Once a work order has been created, the next step is typically to assign the people who will perform the work. Revela supports assigning both external vendors and internal employees to a ticket.
Assigning a Vendor
To assign a vendor, open the work order and look for the Assign Vendor option in the sidebar. Clicking this opens a modal where you can search for and select from your vendor list. Only vendors with an email address on file are available for assignment, since Revela sends the assignment notification by email.
The modal includes a Message field where you can write instructions or context for the vendor. You also have the option to Include Tenant Information so the vendor knows who to contact at the property, and for single-family management accounts, an option to Include Owner Information as well. If your configuration requires proof of completed work, you can check the Require Vendor to Submit Photo Proof of Work Completed checkbox.
When you click Invite, Revela sends the vendor an email notification with the work order details and a secure link to their vendor portal or a one-time use landing page depending on their vendor portal confirmation status. From there, the vendor can view ticket details, check in and check out of the property, and submit invoices once the work is complete. You can assign multiple vendors to the same work order if needed, and you can remove a vendor assignment from the sidebar at any time.
Assigning an Employee
Internal employees can be assigned directly from the Assigned Employee dropdown in the sidebar of the work order detail page. Selecting an employee assigns them to the ticket and creates an assignment event in the work order timeline. Employees can also be assigned during ticket creation or changed later as needed.
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How Maintenance Billing Works
Maintenance billing in Revela is designed around two core cost categories: labor and materials. Understanding how each is tracked gives you full visibility into the total cost of a work order before billing the owner.
Labor is tracked through employee time on the work order. When employees check in and check out of a job, Revela records their time automatically. Labor items capture the employee, hours worked, and their billing rate. The hourly billing rate can be set on the work order itself, and a default rate can be configured on specific employee profiles. Hours are rounded up to the nearest fifteen-minute increment when calculating the labor fee. Mark ups for labor can be configured on the management contract.
Materials and expenses are tracked through receipts or vendor invoices that are linked to the work order. When a vendor submits an invoice for parts, supplies, or services, that invoice is linked to the ticket and its line items appear in the billing panel. A materials markup rate can be applied to these costs, allowing the management company to add a percentage on top of the vendor’s charges. The default markup percentage is pulled from the management contract when the ticket is created, but it can be adjusted on a per-ticket basis from the sidebar. In addition, employees can link receipts to work orders as well for materials that were purchased to complete the work. A materials markup rate can also be applied to receipt amounts.
The total fee for a work order is the sum of the labor fee and the materials fee (including any markup). This total is what gets billed to the property owner when you use the Bill Ticket Now functionality.
Billing a Work Order with “Bill Ticket Now”
For properties configured with the Billed Individually maintenance billing type, the billing panel appears on the work order detail page. This panel is where you review costs, adjust markups, and generate the receivable invoice to the property owner.
The billing panel is divided into two main sections:
- Labor - This section lists all labor items associated with the work order. Items that have already been billed appear in a read-only “Already Billed” area with links to the generated invoices. Items that still need billing appear with checkboxes, and you can edit the hours and rate for each item before submitting. A select-all checkbox is available to quickly include or exclude all labor items.
- Expenses - This section shows all vendor invoices or employee receipts linked to the work order, broken down by individual line items. Similar to the labor section, previously billed items are displayed separately from items awaiting billing. For each unbilled line item, you can select whether to include it and configure the markup. The markup can be set as either a percentage or a flat dollar amount by toggling the markup type. Revela calculates the subtotals in real time as you adjust these values, so you can see exactly what will be billed before submitting.
Below the labor and expenses sections, a Payment section provides the option to Pay generated invoice with owner balance immediately. When this checkbox is selected, Revela creates the receivable invoice and immediately marks it as paid using the owner’s balance. This is particularly useful for trust account management where the owner’s funds are already held by the property manager. Rather than creating an invoice and paying it separately, the entire process happens in one step.
When you are ready, click Bill Work Order Now to generate the invoice. Revela creates a receivable invoice from the management company to the property, with line items reflecting the selected labor and expenses at the configured markups. A billing event is recorded in the work order timeline for audit purposes.
If you are ready to both bill and close the work order at the same time, you can use the close workflow. When closing a billable work order, Revela presents the same billing panel with a Close and Bill Work Order button that generates the invoice and closes the ticket in a single step.
Invoice Forwarding
Invoice forwarding is a separate workflow used to pass vendor invoice costs through to a property. Rather than billing through the work order’s billing panel, forwarding operates directly on vendor invoices in the payables system for expenses such as utilities, taxes, or other non-work order related charges.
When editing a payable invoice in Accounting > Payables, each line item includes a Forward option. Clicking this reveals a search field where you can select the destination property or entity that should be billed for that line item. You can also specify a markup, either as a percentage or a flat dollar amount, to recoup handling costs.
When the invoice is saved, Revela automatically generates a new receivable invoice from the management company to the selected property. The forwarded invoice includes the original line item amounts plus any configured markup. Each forwarded line item maintains a link back to the original vendor invoice for full traceability.
Forwarding is especially useful when a single vendor invoice covers work across multiple properties. Each line item can be forwarded to a different property, and Revela groups them into separate receivable invoices per property. For most account configurations, forwarded invoices are automatically paid using the property owner’s balance, streamlining the entire process.
The key distinction between forwarding and the Bill Ticket Now workflow is scope. Bill Ticket Now is tied to a specific work order and consolidates all labor and material costs into one billing action. Forwarding operates at the invoice level and is ideal for passing through vendor costs that may or may not be associated with a specific work order.
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Tips & Best Practices
Before generating any maintenance bills, confirm that the property’s management contract has the correct billing configuration and default markup rates set. Updating these settings after work orders have been created will not retroactively change tickets that already have their defaults applied.
When using the Billed Individually configuration, resolve the work order before attempting to bill. The billing panel requires the ticket to be in the appropriate status before the Bill Work Order Now option becomes available. If the ticket is already closed, billing cannot be performed.
Take advantage of the Pay generated invoice with owner balance immediately option when working with trust accounts. This eliminates the extra step of navigating to payables to pay the generated invoice and keeps the owner’s ledger current in real time.
For vendor assignments, ensure your vendors have a valid email address on file in Revela. Vendors without email addresses will not appear in the assignment dropdown, since the system relies on email to deliver the secure portal link and work order details.
Lastly, when forwarding vendor invoices not associated with a work order, review the markup configuration on each line item before saving. Once the forwarded invoice is generated, the markup is applied and a separate receivable is created. Keeping markups consistent with your management contract terms ensures accurate and defensible billing.