Trello-based maintenance management system
At Pentillion Construction, I implemented a Trello-based maintenance management and documentation system for recurring work across a dozen commercial properties. The work involved routine inspections, seasonal tasks, urgent repairs, subcontractor follow-up, site-specific knowledge, safe work practices, and a lot of small details that needed to be available when someone was actually on site.
I had previously worked in the maintenance technician role myself, so I understood how quickly the work could become difficult to track when the system depended on phone calls, personal notes, memory, and individual site knowledge. A technician might visit several properties in a day, deal with routine checks, unexpected issues, tenant concerns, small repairs, and subcontractor coordination, then still need to remember what should happen next week, next month, or next season.
The problem was not that people were not trying. The problem was that too much important information lived in separate places. If a task, photo, decision, manual, contact, or site detail only lived in one person’s memory or text messages, it was too easy for context to be lost, the same questions to be asked repeatedly, or follow-up work to become invisible.
Building the boards around the real maintenance workflow
I structured the system with dedicated Trello boards for each site and a general knowledge board for shared procedures, sourcing information, contacts, safe work practices, and recurring references. Each site board was organized to track active tasks, completed work, projects, recurring templates, and site information.
Cards became the working record for each issue or task. They could hold checklists, photos, comments, links to manuals, storage locations, water shutoff information, sourcing notes, and other details that are easy to lose but important when someone is standing in the building trying to solve the problem.
The system was designed around how maintenance actually happens. Weekly, monthly, and seasonal template cards could be copied into the active task list with due dates, keeping recurring work visible before it became urgent. The recurring work included items such as filter changes, bird checks, vacancy checks, janitorial reviews, fire and generator tests, exterior lighting checks, pest inspections, equipment servicing, salting preparation, annual fire and pump checks, anchor inspections, painting reviews, and pressure washing reviews.
Making responsibility and follow-up visible
I also built the workflow around accountability. Cards are assigned to the person responsible for seeing the task through. Priority labels help show what needs attention first, and subcontractor labels identify work that requires outside follow-up.
That structure matters because maintenance work often fails at the handoff. Someone notices an issue, someone else talks to a subcontractor, another person waits for a quote, and then the original context disappears. Keeping comments, photos, due dates, labels, and assignments on the same card makes the work easier to pick back up without needing a separate explanation.
The photo history became another important part of the system. Photos could document problems, site conditions, completed work, recurring issues, and past repairs. That created a practical historical record for planning, liability, trend review, and training.
Extending Trello with n8n reporting
Trello’s built-in automation handled some recurring task creation, but it had limits when the system had to scale across multiple users and sites. To extend it, I connected Trello to n8n and used API queries and filtering to build custom reporting.
The system can send HTML email reports with direct links back to the relevant Trello cards. Reports can summarize completed work, upcoming tasks, overdue items, assigned responsibilities, due dates, labels, subcontractor follow-up, and other filtered information across all sites.
A weekly report gives a snapshot of what was completed and what still needs attention. Upcoming-task emails help keep maintenance visible before it becomes urgent, making it easier for the technician to plan ahead, pick up materials, or coordinate subcontractors before arriving on site. Reports can also be tailored for different people depending on their role, including the maintenance technician, me acting as maintenance manager, and ownership.
Creating a company knowledge base
The maintenance system also became a knowledge base. It gave the company a practical place to store manuals, procedures, site-specific details, photos, sourcing notes, contacts, and institutional knowledge that would otherwise stay with whichever person happened to know it.
That made the system useful beyond daily task tracking. It helped new people learn the sites faster, gave management better visibility into maintenance activity, and created a stronger record of what was done, when it was done, and why.
Handoff and refinement
This project combined my experience in the maintenance role with process improvement, workflow design, documentation, automation, training, and hands-on implementation. I designed the board structure, templates, labels, due-date logic, automations, reporting, documentation, and training materials, then continued checking in with users to refine the system around how the work actually gets done.
Information needs a home
The result was a maintenance workflow that captured more site knowledge, made responsibilities clearer, improved follow-up, reduced reliance on individual memory, and helped recurring work stay visible.
This is one of the clearest examples of the kind of system I like building. The system is useful because it gives people an operating structure: less lost context, better handoff, clearer accountability, and enough automation that important work is harder to forget.
Maintenance performance dashboard
At Pentillion Construction, the property maintenance role covers a wide range of responsibilities across roughly a dozen commercial properties, including outdoor malls, tenant spaces, and mixed-use sites. The work includes routine inspections, garbage removal, cleaning, minor repairs, contractor coordination, task tracking, and responding to issues raised by tenants, property managers, and owners.
Although the role is important, the expectations were not always easy to define. Good maintenance often goes unnoticed. When the work is done well, tenants and customers simply experience a clean, functional, well-managed property. That can make the role feel thankless, but it also makes clear expectations more important.
Small visible issues, such as mud on a front door, overflowing garbage, or damaged finishes, can quickly create complaints and reduce confidence in the maintenance team. I identified a need to better define what successful performance looked like for the maintenance role, especially because the job required more than simply completing assigned tasks.
Technicians needed to take ownership of their sites, understand priority and billing boundaries, use Trello consistently, communicate clearly, and know when work should be escalated or subcontracted rather than handled in-house.
To address that, I created a job dashboard for the Property Maintenance Technician role. The dashboard condensed the role into four key performance areas: Site Ownership & Accountability, Task Management & Prioritization, Communication & Coordination, and Professionalism & Tenant Interaction.
Each category included a plain-language summary, detailed expectations, measurable indicators, and reflection prompts that could be used for onboarding, coaching, and performance discussions. The idea was to make the role easier to understand without reducing it to a checklist of disconnected tasks.
The dashboard helped translate informal feedback into a shared standard. Instead of expectations being passed along through phone calls or individual training styles, the technician had a clear reference point for what mattered most: keeping sites visibly cared for, tracking tasks properly, spending time on approved work, communicating before problems escalated, and identifying work that should be handled by outside contractors.
The result was clearer role definition for new hires and existing technicians. It reduced billing mistakes, encouraged more consistent use of Trello, and helped management evaluate performance more fairly. It also reinforced the larger operational goal: maintenance should create confidence. Property managers, owners, tenants, and customers should be able to see that the site is being looked after, even when the best result is that nothing appears to be wrong.
Strata governance and building management
My mixed-use strata corporation had been operating with informal systems that were difficult to sustain as maintenance, communication, financial oversight, and governance needs grew. The building includes residential units and commercial units, which meant decisions had to balance owner, tenant, contractor, business, resident, council, and budget considerations.
Over multiple terms as Strata President, and later as the building’s on-site Building Manager, I helped bring more structure, transparency, and accountability to the way the strata operated. The work combined governance leadership with hands-on building operations: council coordination, owner communication, contractor management, budget planning, maintenance scheduling, legal and bylaw review, and practical troubleshooting.
Taking over a mixed-use strata with informal systems
When I first became president, the building was self-managed and did not have enough repeatable structure to support clear decision-making, consistent maintenance, and owner confidence. Information was difficult to access, processes were informal, and council responsibilities depended too heavily on individual memory.
The challenge was to improve the way the strata operated without overbuilding the system. A small strata has limited funds, volunteer council members, and a mix of residential and commercial stakeholders, so the solution had to be organized enough to be useful and simple enough to maintain.
Building clearer governance and communication
I helped standardize the way council handled communication, records, contractors, budgets, meetings, and owner-facing decisions. That included clearer processes for monthly council work, AGM and SGM preparation, maintenance planning, contractor coordination, and owner communication.
To improve transparency during the self-managed period, I set up a dedicated email system and an owner-only website for notices, documents, updates, and communication. That became less necessary after the strata later transitioned to professional management, but it helped establish a more organized operating culture when the strata needed it.
I also created AGM and SGM packages and helped establish fairer, more transparent voting processes for building-wide decisions. The goal was to make council work easier to understand, easier to document, and less dependent on one person holding all the context.
Improving financial and maintenance planning
I rebuilt and managed financial tracking spreadsheets, supported annual budgeting, and used the depreciation report to inform short- and long-term maintenance planning. That helped connect governance decisions to building reality: what needed attention, what could wait, what should be budgeted, and what risks needed to be planned for.
I also developed digital filing systems, owner communication templates, contractor records, maintenance schedules, and procedural references. Much of the operational information was organized in Trello so recurring tasks, contractor follow-up, and building knowledge had a clearer place to live.
During the self-managed period, I renegotiated waste management and elevator maintenance contracts, saving over $8,200 annually. I also initiated a lighting retrofit that saved approximately $600 annually and paid back in less than four years.
Coordinating contractors and building operations
On the operational side, I coordinated and supported a wide range of building issues, including plumbing failures, minor repairs, contractor access, maintenance follow-up, owner concerns, and general troubleshooting. I evaluated and coordinated contractors for building maintenance and capital work, while helping council understand what needed to be handled internally, what needed a contractor, and what needed professional review.
I reviewed bylaws, contracts, depreciation reports, insurance documents, legal correspondence, and Strata Property Act requirements to help council make more informed decisions and reduce risk. Where needed, I used CHOA and legal counsel as resources to support more reliable governance decisions.
Transitioning to professional management
After roughly three years of self-management, I helped transition the strata to a professional strata management company. The goal was not simply to hand off the work, but to leave behind clearer records, improved procedures, and a more financially disciplined operating structure so the transition would not erase the context that had been built.
Since returning to council, I have also taken on the practical role of on-site Building Manager. Because I am in the building and understand its history, owners, contractors, and recurring issues, I can often identify problems earlier, coordinate responses more efficiently, and help keep both contractors and the strata management company accountable.
Bringing it home
The result is a building operation with clearer records, better maintenance planning, stronger communication, more useful financial tools, and a closer connection between governance decisions and site reality.
The work took long-term stewardship rather than a one-time fix: bringing structure to a messy system, managing competing owner and tenant interests, improving accountability, and combining practical technical judgment with steady communication over time.
