Multifamily · AppFolio · QuickBooks · Power BI
The Work Orders Were in AppFolio. The Costs Were in QuickBooks. Neither Told the Whole Story.
A Chicago owner-operator could see every maintenance ticket and every labor dollar, just never in the same place. Connecting AppFolio and QuickBooks changed how the whole team made decisions.
A multifamily and affordable housing owner-operator in Chicago, IL
- The Problem
- Maintenance costs were uncontrolled and untracked. AppFolio held work order activity. QuickBooks held labor costs. No one could see what a unit turn actually cost.
- Previous Approach
- Leaders reviewed ticket counts and labor figures in isolation, from two separate systems. Expense forecasting relied on estimates. Maintenance teams completed work without any visibility into the cost their labor was generating.
- The Solution
- RentViewer combined scheduled QuickBooks labor cost reports with AppFolio work order data to calculate true cost per work order and per unit turn, surfaced in a Power BI dashboard.
- The Result
- Maintenance teams became cost-aware for the first time. Leaders gained reliable expense data, improved forecasting accuracy, and started making faster decisions about where to prioritize work.
Maintenance Was the Biggest Controllable Cost, and No One Could See It
Maintenance is one of the largest line items an owner-operator can actually influence. For this Chicago operator, the numbers existed but were split across two systems. AppFolio tracked work orders. QuickBooks tracked labor costs. Neither system connected the two into something a leader could act on.
The result was a reporting gap that grew as the portfolio scaled. Ticket volume was visible. Labor spend was visible. What a unit turn actually cost was not. Every expense forecast was built on estimates, and every unit turn completed without anyone knowing the true cost.
When work orders live in your PMS and labor costs live in QuickBooks, you’re not managing maintenance costs. You’re guessing at them.
One View of Every Work Order, Including What It Cost
The operator’s team already ran scheduled QuickBooks reports covering labor costs. RentViewer connected those exports to AppFolio work order data, calculated true cost per ticket and per unit turn, and surfaced everything in a Power BI dashboard. No PMS change required. No new timekeeping system. The data the team was already producing became the foundation for something they could finally use.
For the first time, leadership could see which work orders were driving costs, where labor hours were being overused, and which properties needed a different approach.
Maintenance Teams Started Thinking Differently
The visibility changed behavior at the team level. When staff could see the cost tied to their work (not just the task count), they started prioritizing differently. Expensive repeat tickets got flagged. Unit turns running over on labor became visible before they compounded.
Leadership Got Forecasts They Could Trust
With accurate cost-per-turn data, expense forecasting stopped relying on gut feel. Leaders could compare costs across properties, set benchmarks, and have a factual basis for operational decisions at both the property and portfolio level.
“Once the team could see what their work orders were actually costing, the way they approached the work shifted. It wasn’t just about closing tickets anymore.”
Operations Leadership · Chicago Multifamily Owner-Operator
Questions We Hear from AppFolio Operators
Why couldn’t they see work order costs before?+
AppFolio held the tickets and QuickBooks held the labor costs, and nothing connected the two. Activity was visible in both systems, but financial impact was not. Until those two data sources were combined, true cost per work order was impossible to calculate.
Who benefits most from this kind of visibility?+
The VP of Operations and maintenance leaders responsible for cost control, as well as asset managers who need reliable expense data for portfolio-level decisions. When everyone can see what work actually costs, prioritization and forecasting improve across the board.
Did this require changing their property management software?+
No. AppFolio stayed in place. RentViewer combined the operator’s existing QuickBooks labor exports with AppFolio work order data. No new timekeeping system was needed.
How did cost visibility change day-to-day operations?+
Teams started prioritizing work differently once they understood the cost impact of each ticket. Expensive repeat tickets got flagged. Unit turns running over on labor became visible early, not after the fact.
What maintenance cost metrics should operators track?+
Cost per work order, cost per unit turn, labor cost by property, and repeat ticket rate. Together those four give a clear picture of where maintenance spend is in control and where it is not.
Want to know what your work orders are really costing you?
If your work orders are in AppFolio and your labor costs are in QuickBooks, you already have the data. RentViewer connects the two and puts the combined picture in a dashboard your whole team can use.
Most clients are in a working dashboard within a few weeks. No data team required.
Schedule a Discovery Call30 minutes. No commitment. We’ll show you exactly what’s possible with your AppFolio and QuickBooks data.