WEBINAR Q&A: Best Practices for Operational Audits using SiteLink

Below is the list of Answers to the Questions asked during the November 14, 2018 Support Webinar with Sue Haviland of Haviland Storage Services and James Renouf of SiteLink. If you missed the webinar you may watch it on-demand from the SiteLink website.

Q. How long should an audit take?
A. A typical, straightforward operational audit lasts about one day. However, if it is a very large facility or if you begin to find issues and need to dig deeper, then the audit can last longer or even 2 days. Some can go several days depending on how far back you need to go with the audit.

Q. Which column is Calls and Notes under in SiteLink?
A. It’s under Tenant Reports.

Q. Can we have an exception reports emailed to us?
A. Yes! In Corporate Control, there is a Report Scheduler where you can have a report set up to be automatically sent to you every day, week, month, etc. You can also set up a group with a number of mails and send the report to that group.

Q. Where do file audits come in? Do you randomly check a file or should you require an annual on site review by the manager?
A. Operators should perform file audits annually to make sure that nothing is missing. Also, when someone is new for the first 2-3 months check all of their leases to ensure they are properly executed. Auditors randomly choose files from the move in reports and ledgers to view to ensure compliance. For example, a 500 unit site will involve looking at at least 30-40 new lease files and about 100 ledgers.

Q. Should an area manager who does an audit monthly change it to doing it weekly? Is this a better option?
A. No, doing a monthly audit is a good system to have in place. Depending on how many site visits needed per month, pick one item to check on each visit.