Service Requests
Service Requests — Admin Guide
How to set up and manage maintenance and service requests for your building
What is Service Requests?
Service Requests gives your building team one place to receive, track, and resolve issues reported by tenants. Instead of managing requests over email or phone, everything comes in through the HqO app — organized, assigned, and trackable from the moment it's submitted.
Tenants report problems from their phone or computer in about 30 seconds. Your team handles them from the admin portal. You'll always know what's open, who's working on it, and when it was resolved.
👉 To get started, go to HqO Admin > Operations > Service Requests, or visit http://gohqo.co/admin-work-orders
Setting up for the first time
The quickest way to get your building configured is the built-in setup wizard — it walks you through every step in one place.
Go to Admin Portal > Service Requests > Configure Service Requests to open it.
Step | What you're doing |
|---|---|
1 — Select your building(s) | Configure one building, multiple buildings, or copy settings from an existing building. |
2 — Choose service types | Pick the categories of requests your building handles — Cleaning, Repairs, Temperature, Security, and more. Add your own custom categories and types too. |
3 — Create your teams | Set up the groups of people who will handle requests (e.g. Engineering Team, Property Team). |
4 — Set up routing | Assign each team to the categories they handle so requests go to the right people automatically — no manual sorting needed. |
5 — Configure statuses | Choose which status labels to use. New, Completed, and Cancelled are required — everything else is optional, and you can create your own custom statuses. |
6 — Set approval rules | Decide if any request types need sign-off before work begins. Configurable per service type. |
💡 Tip: Once routing is set up, every new request goes directly to the right team the moment it's submitted. No one on your team needs to triage or sort manually.
Managing incoming requests
All requests appear in the Service Requests list as soon as tenants submit them. Each row shows the tenant's name, what they reported, when they submitted, building and location, who it's assigned to, and its current status.
To work a request:
Click it to open the detail view.
Assign it to a team and an individual owner (if not already auto-assigned).
Update the status as work progresses — you can also do this directly from the list without opening the request.
Use Messages to communicate with the tenant, or Internal Notes for your team only.
To create a request on behalf of a tenant:
Click Add service request from the list.
Select the service type, find the tenant, fill in the location and description, and click Save.
To find a specific request: Use the search bar, or filter by building, status, assignee, category, date range, or tenant company. Click Export to download the filtered list as a CSV.
Communicating with tenants
Every request has two separate communication sections:
Section | Who can see it | When to use it |
|---|---|---|
Messages | Tenant and your team | Asking questions, sharing updates, confirming completion. Tenants get notified and can reply from the HqO app. |
Internal Notes | Your team only | Coordination, context, anything the tenant doesn't need to see. |
Both sections support file attachments.
Approvals
Approval workflows let you require sign-off before work begins on specific request types. This is useful for requests that involve cost, access, or need a second set of eyes before actioning.
When a request requires approval:
The request shows a Pending approval status and the main status is locked.
The approver clicks Approve or Deny in the Approval panel.
Once approved, the assignee can update the status and proceed with the work.
If denied, the tenant is notified automatically.
Approval rules are set per service type — so you can require approval for some request types and not others. Configure this in Settings > Service types.
Status labels
Statuses tell everyone — your team and the tenant — exactly where a request stands.
The default statuses are:
Status | What it means |
|---|---|
New | Submitted and waiting to be picked up. |
In Progress | Assigned and being actively worked on. |
Pending | On hold — waiting on information, approval, or a third party. |
Completed | Resolved and closed. Cannot be edited after this point. |
Cancelled | Withdrawn or no longer needed. |
You can create custom statuses to match your team's workflow — for example, "Waiting on Vendor" or "Scheduled." Go to Settings > Statuses > + Add status.
Customizing service types and categories
You're not limited to the default categories. Service types and categories can be fully tailored to match how your building operates.
The default categories include Cleaning & Waste, Temperature & Air, Repairs & Maintenance, Access & Security, Hospitality & Concierge, Signage & Facilities, and Other Requests — but you can add your own.
To add a custom category or request type: Go to Settings > Service types, then click + Add category or + Add service type.
For each service type, you can configure:
Which team handles it by default
Whether approval is required before work can begin — and which role must approve
Custom statuses specific to that type
Which form tenants see when submitting that type of request
💡 Example: You might configure "Event Setup" under Hospitality & Concierge to require manager approval before the team begins work, and use a custom "Scheduled" status to reflect that it's booked but not yet in progress.
Settings overview
Access all settings via the gear icon ⚙️ on the Service Requests page.
Tab | What you can configure |
|---|---|
Settings | Form fields (location, description, attachments), notification preferences, request ID prefix, admin alerts. |
Request forms | Custom form templates that control what tenants see when submitting — assign different forms to different service types. |
Statuses | Add, edit, or disable status labels. Built-in statuses can be edited; custom ones can be deleted. |
Service types | Manage categories and request types, configure approval rules, assign teams, set custom statuses per type. |
Teams | Create teams, add members, and assign which service categories each team handles. |
Connected accounts | Link external systems (e.g. Salesforce) to sync requests automatically. |
Message suggestions | Save preset reply templates so your team can respond to tenants quickly with consistent messaging. |
After a request is resolved: feedback & sentiment
When a request is closed, tenants automatically receive a short feedback survey. Responses feed into your Sentiment dashboard, giving you a running view of how tenants feel about your building's service.
Go to Admin Portal > Intelligence > Sentiment to see average ratings, response rates, and positive sentiment scores across your portfolio — and spot any service issues early.
Common questions
How do tenants submit requests? Through the HqO mobile app or web experience. They describe the issue in plain language, optionally attach a photo, and tap Submit. It takes about 30 seconds.
Do tenants get notified automatically? Yes — when their request is received, when the status changes, and when you send them a message. You control which notifications are sent in Settings.
Why can't I change the status on a request? Either it's pending approval (approve or deny it first), or it's been marked Completed (terminal state — can't be modified).
Can I assign a request to more than one person? Each request has one assigned team and one designated owner within that team. For complex requests involving multiple teams, route to the primary responsible team and coordinate via internal notes.
Can I change the request ID prefix? Yes — go to Settings and edit the Identifier field. The default is SR, producing IDs like SR-12345678.
Can I manage requests across multiple buildings in one view? Yes. The request list shows all buildings by default. Use the building filter to narrow to a specific property, or use the Company filter to see all open requests from a specific tenant organization.