The first multifamily account changes how you use Jobber. A homeowner is one client with one property and one invoice. A property management company is one client with twelve properties, three regional managers, per-building pricing, monthly recurring visits, and an accounts payable department that wants one invoice per month with a PO number on it.

Most contractors set this up wrong on day one. They enter each building as its own client, name it after the community, and move on. Six months later they cannot tell what the management company is worth to them, they are sending 12 invoices to the same AP inbox, and the regional manager is asking for a report they cannot pull.

This article covers how to structure it correctly, what to put in custom fields, how to handle pricing and recurring visits, and what reports a property manager will actually ask for.

The parent client and properties structure

Jobber’s model is a client that can have many properties. That maps directly to how property management works. The management company is the client. Each community or building is a property under that client.

Set it up like this.

  • Client: the management company. Use the legal name that appears on their vendor paperwork, because that is what AP matches against. Example: “Summit Residential Management, LLC.”
  • Client contacts: the regional manager, the community managers, the maintenance supervisor, and the AP contact. Add all of them with roles in the notes.
  • Properties: one per community or building, with the full service address. Name the property with the community name so techs recognize it. “The Reserve at Oak Creek, 4400 Oak Creek Blvd.”
  • Billing address on the client, service addresses on each property.

Now every job, quote, and invoice for any of those buildings rolls up to the management company. You can see total revenue by client, filter jobs by property, and invoice the way AP wants.

When the owner and the manager are different

Sometimes the management company runs the building but the owner pays the bill, or a management company gets replaced mid-contract. Keep the management company as the client and note the ownership entity in a custom field. If management changes, you can move properties to a new client and keep the job history with the property.

One client, many properties, different contacts

The person who approves the work is usually not the person who pays for it. A community manager approves a $1,800 dryer vent cleaning. A regional manager approves anything over $5,000. AP pays everything, from a different email, on a different schedule.

Handle it with contacts and communication settings.

  • Put the community manager as the primary contact on the property so job notifications and on-the-way texts go to the person on site.
  • Put AP as the billing contact on the client so invoices go there.
  • Note approval limits in the client notes: “CM approves under $2,500. RM approves over. Anything over $10,000 needs owner sign-off.”

If your Jobber plan supports multiple contacts per client and per-property notification preferences, use them. If not, put the routing rules in the client notes and follow them by hand.

Per-property pricing

Two buildings under the same management company will not pay the same price. Unit count, building age, access, distance, and what was negotiated when. You need pricing that lives with the property, not in your memory.

Options, from simplest to most complete.

  1. Line items with per-unit pricing. Set up “Dryer vent cleaning, multifamily, per unit” at your standard per-door rate. On each property, the quantity is the unit count. Adjust the unit price on the quote if that property negotiated a different rate.
  2. Property custom fields for the negotiated rate. Add a custom field like “Contract rate per unit” on the property and reference it when quoting. This is manual but visible.
  3. Recurring job templates per property. Once a property has a set scope and price, build the recurring job with the right line items and quantities. The price is then locked into the job and repeats.

We use all three together. Standard line items for consistency, custom fields so the negotiated rate is visible, and recurring jobs so the price does not drift. Pricing multifamily work per door covers how to set the rates in the first place.

Recurring jobs and visit schedules

Multifamily work is recurring by nature. Quarterly pressure washing, annual dryer vent cleaning, semi-annual gutter cleaning, monthly common-area service. Set it up as a recurring job with scheduled visits, not as a series of one-off jobs you remember to create.

  • Create the recurring job on the property with the contract line items and quantities.
  • Set the frequency and the first visit date. Annual, quarterly, monthly, whatever the contract says.
  • Set the invoice timing. Per visit, or monthly, depending on the contract and what AP wants.
  • Add the visit instructions in the job notes: how many units per day, which buildings first, where to check in, who signs off.

A 300-unit dryer vent job is not a one-day visit. Schedule it as multiple visits on the same job, with a target unit count per day, so the tech knows the plan and the office can see progress.

Batch invoicing per management company

AP departments want fewer invoices, not more. If you service six properties for the same management company in a month, they want one invoice, or at most one per property, with the PO number and the property name on each line.

  • Set the invoicing to consolidate visits into a single invoice per job or per billing period, depending on what the client asks for.
  • Put the PO number in a job custom field and make sure it prints on the invoice. No PO, no payment. This is the single most common reason a commercial invoice goes unpaid for 90 days.
  • Include the property name and address on every invoice line so AP can match it to the right building.
  • Set payment terms to whatever the contract says, usually net 30, and turn on automatic reminders at day 30 and day 45.
  • Ask for ACH. Card fees on a $12,000 invoice add up.

Then confirm with AP before the first invoice goes out. Ask them exactly what they need on it. Ten minutes on that call saves months of chasing payment.

Custom fields you actually need

Custom fields are what turn Jobber from a scheduling tool into an account management tool for this kind of work. Here is what we set up on every multifamily implementation.

Property level:

  • Unit count
  • Number of buildings
  • Number of dryers, or number of stories, or square footage, depending on the trade
  • Gate code and access instructions
  • Where to check in on arrival
  • On-site contact and phone
  • Contract rate and contract renewal date
  • Last service date

Client level:

  • Vendor ID or approved vendor number
  • COI expiration date and certificate holder wording
  • W-9 on file, yes or no
  • Approval limits by role
  • AP contact and invoicing requirements

Job level:

  • PO number
  • Approved by and date
  • Units completed and units skipped, with reasons
  • Photos required, yes or no

The compliance fields matter. A lapsed COI stops payment as reliably as a missing PO. The vendor compliance checklist covers what the management company will require and when.

Reports a property manager wants

A homeowner wants to know the job is done. A property manager wants proof, because they report up to the owner. Set up Jobber so you can produce these without a scramble.

  • Completion report per property: units serviced, units skipped with reasons, date, tech name, photos. Export from the job with photos attached.
  • Year-to-date spend per property and per management company. Pull from client and property reporting.
  • Upcoming visit schedule for the next quarter, by property. Regional managers use this to budget and to tell community managers what is coming.
  • Issues found: anything the tech flagged that needs follow-up, like a crushed duct, a damaged downspout, or a code violation. This is also your upsell list.

Build a simple template for the completion report and send it within 48 hours of finishing each property. Regional managers remember vendors who make their job easier.

The mistake: every building as its own client

Here is what happens when each community is a separate client.

  • You cannot see what the management company is worth. Twelve clients at $4,000 each looks like twelve small accounts, not one $48,000 account that deserves a quarterly review.
  • Invoices go to twelve places, or to the same AP inbox twelve times, and nothing is consolidated.
  • Contacts are duplicated. The regional manager exists in twelve records with three different spellings.
  • When management changes, you have to touch every record.
  • Reports by management company are impossible.

If you already did it this way, fix it. Create the management company as a client, then move each building in as a property under it. It takes an afternoon for a mid-sized account and it is worth it. Merge duplicate contacts while you are in there.

The other common mistake is the reverse: putting a management company’s 40 properties as 40 addresses on a single client without naming them clearly. Techs cannot tell which is which and the office quotes the wrong building. Name every property with the community name.

A quick setup order

  1. Create the management company as the client with legal name and AP billing address.
  2. Add contacts with roles and approval limits.
  3. Add each community as a property, named clearly, with full address.
  4. Fill in property custom fields, especially unit count and access.
  5. Build the recurring job per property with contract line items and pricing.
  6. Set invoice consolidation, PO field, and payment terms.
  7. Send a test invoice to yourself and check it against what AP asked for.

If you are still working on landing the account, how to get into property management accounts covers the sales side.

Where Intrepid fits

Intrepid sets up Jobber for companies that sell into property management, and we have sold into that market ourselves, so we know what the regional manager and the AP department are going to ask for. We structure the accounts, build the recurring jobs, and set up the reports before the first invoice goes out. See the Jobber page or book a call if you have a multifamily account that is not set up right.