Buildings
A tower of 500 flats is not 500 unrelated properties. Buildings groups your units into the towers and compounds they belong to.
Where to find it: sidebar → Buildings.
What a building shows
- Every building at a glance: its units, the open jobs across them (requests waiting for triage or a work order, plus work orders not yet closed) and the overdue certificates.
- One building, floor by floor: top floor first, each unit with its open jobs and anything overdue. A floor that is not recorded is listed last.
- The common areas: the row that carries the building's own plant, such as the plant room, the lifts and the lobby. The chiller and the lifts recorded there can be linked to any unit's request. So "the lift is stuck" from Apt 1204 counts against Lift 2, and repeat failures of that lift add up.
The Properties list and the Maintenance queue get a Building filter, and each property page says which building and floor the unit is on.
Open any address on a map
Every address in PMFriend has a Map link. It opens the address in Google Maps, or in the Google Maps app on a phone that has it. On an iPhone, iPad or Mac there is also an Apple Maps link next to it.
- On a property page: click the district line under the address, or Map under Full address.
- In the Properties and Buildings lists: click the pin next to the address. The row itself still opens the property or building as before.
- On a building, a request, a compliance task, an inspection and a tenant: next to the address.
The map looks for the building, not the flat number, so "Apt 305, Al Sadd Residence" opens on Al Sadd Residence.
Getting your units into buildings
From a file (the quick way for a whole portfolio). Add these columns to your properties file and upload it again:
| Column | What to put |
|---|---|
building | The tower or compound's name, e.g. Tower 14, Porto Arabia |
floor | A whole number. 0 = ground, -1 = basement. Optional |
common_areas | yes on the one row that carries the building's plant, lifts and certificates |
Units already in PMFriend are grouped, not duplicated. The same building name in the same zone is always the same building, whatever the spelling of spaces and commas.
By hand. On a property page, next to Building, choose Add to a building. Pick the building or add a new one, set the floor, and tick This is the building's common areas for the plant row. You can also add a building on the Buildings page and then place units in it.
From contracts. When you import a lease or sale contract, the review screen now has a Building field filled in from the contract. Confirming it places the unit.
What doesn't change
Certificates, equipment, service charges and documents stay on each property, exactly as before. A tower's QCDD certificate or lift inspection is recorded once, on its common-areas row; units are not given copies. Taking a unit out of a building changes nothing else about it.
Coming next: building-wide compliance (one QCDD, lift and chiller task per building rather than per unit), access for staff by building, and reports by building in the ChatGPT / Claude connector.