When your team needs to perform Common Area inspections on a per-building basis (for example, inspecting building exteriors separately for Building 1, Building 2, Building 3, etc.) adding dedicated Common Area "units" for each building helps keep your inspections organized and your reporting clear.

This article walks through how to set up Common Area building units via the Units Import in Manage. The same concept can be applied for other common areas where there may be multiples. 

When to Use This

By default, every Due Diligence property is set up with a Common Area "unit" that any of your Common Area templates (Pet Park, Fitness Center, Building Exterior, etc.) can be applied to. This works well for properties with a single building or a small number of shared spaces.

If your property has multiple buildings, and you want each building's inspection to be tied to its own building in reporting, we recommend creating dedicated Common Area units for each building.

Before You Start

• You'll need Admin access in Manage.
• Have a spreadsheet program (Excel, Google Sheets, etc.) ready as you'll be editing a CSV file.

How to Set Up Common Area Building Units

Follow these steps in Manage on the web:

1. Log into the Due Diligence platform at manage.happyco.com.
2. Select the property from the dropdown in the upper-left corner of the page.
3. In the left navigation, click Units under the Overview menu.

4. On the Units page, click the blue Import Units button on the right side.

   

5. In the Import Units window, under section 1. Download, click the link "Click here to download our optimized Units CSV" to download the unit template file.

   

6. Open the downloaded CSV file in Excel or your preferred spreadsheet program.
7. Fill in the file as follows:
   • Column A (ExternalID): Enter your building identifiers (e.g., Building 1, Building 2, Building 3, ...). Add one row per building.
   • Column C (floorplan): Enter common area for each building row. This is what tells the system to treat these as Common Area units rather than residential units.
   • Column F (line2): Copy your building identifiers from Column A into this column.

   • Leave the other columns blank.

     

8. Save the file as a CSV (not as an Excel file — the system needs CSV format to import it).
9. Return to the Import Units window in Manage and upload your completed file.
10. Once the import is complete, your new building units will appear in your Units list, ready for Common Area inspections to be scheduled against them.

Important — Column C must be common area. This is what tells the reporting engine to treat these units as community/common areas rather than residential units. If the floorplan value is anything else (or left blank), the building units will show up in your residential unit reports instead of your community reports.

Next Steps: Scheduling Inspections Against Your Building Units

Now that you have building-specific Common Area units in place, you can schedule Common Area template inspections against each one (for example, applying a "Building Exterior" template to Building 1, Building 2, and Building 3 separately, so each building has its own dedicated inspection).

For step-by-step instructions on scheduling these inspections (in the Due Diligence mobile app or in Manage on the web), see our companion article: https://support.happy.co/hc/en-us/articles/4404620502676-Unit-Walk-Performing-Common-Area-Inspections

Need Help?

If you have questions about setting up Common Area units or run into any issues, the Due Diligence team is happy to assist:

• Submit a Service Request
• Email us at dd@happy.co
• For emergency, day-of support, give us a call at 447-427-7926 x2