Document workflow software is built for companies that create documents: contracts drafted, reviewed, signed, filed. A small office has a different document problem. Its documents arrive. A vendor's insurance certificate, a contractor's W-9, a tenant's signed addendum, a client's completed intake form: they come in by email, they get an "attached, thanks", and three months later nobody can say which vendors are current.
Here is the tracker that answers that, the two emails that go with it, and how Tensor Autonomous keeps the tracker and drafts the chase.
The tracker
One Google Sheet, one row per document you need from someone:
| Who | Document | Needed by | Requested | Received | Expires | Status | Last chased |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Ortega Plumbing | Certificate of insurance | Oct 15 | Oct 1 | Oct 1, 2027 | Requested | Oct 8 | |
| Harbor HVAC | W-9 | Oct 15 | Oct 1 | Oct 3 | Received |
"Expires" is the column people forget and the one that matters for insurance: a certificate received last year is not a certificate now. "Last chased" is what lets you be polite; you know exactly how many times you have asked.
The request
Subject: Certificate of insurance for Maple Ridge
Hi Luis, before we schedule the next job at Maple Ridge, could you send over your current certificate of insurance naming Maple Ridge Property Group as additional insured? A PDF by reply is perfect. Thanks for keeping us current.
Say what you need, in what form, and why now. Do not attach a form unless one is required.
The chase
Subject: Still need your certificate of insurance
Hi Luis, a reminder that we are still missing your certificate of insurance for Maple Ridge, requested October 1. We cannot schedule work without it after the 15th, so if it is easier, have your broker email it straight to this address.
One consequence, one date, one easier path.
Tensor keeps the tracker and drafts the chase
There is no Library starter for document tracking yet, so this is two small responsibilities you describe in your own words, which is how any job without a starter begins:
- "When a vendor's reply arrives with a document we asked for, mark that row received with today's date." Turn on Start from new email for it, with a Gmail search such as
has:attachmentfrom your vendors, and each reply starts it within about a minute. - "Draft the chase for rows still outstanding past their requested date, in my words, with the document and the request date filled in, and note today's date in Last chased." Put it on a schedule: Mondays at 8am, in your time zone.
Each run proposes its change for your OK until you set limits: the row marked received, or the chase drafted. Nothing is sent by Tensor; you read and send. Every run leaves a receipt: what it read, the cells it wrote and read back, the drafts it made.
Checking that the certificate says what it should (the dates, the named insured) stays with you; Tensor keeps the record and the chasing from slipping. Tensor works in Gmail and Google Sheets today; Microsoft 365 comes later.
The documents Tensor itself produces
Every run of every responsibility leaves a receipt: what was asked, what it read, what it proposed, who approved it, what it wrote and the read-back. For the document work above that means the trail of every request and chase is kept without anyone filing it. The receipt is the one document in this workflow nobody has to remember.
Where to start
- Tensor for property management, where vendor paperwork is a weekly job, and how to describe your own responsibility.
- Try it live on sample data. Plans from $149 a month.
Related reading
- A maintenance request log that keeps tenants and vendors moving
- Google Sheets automation for CRM and records
- The receipt: what Tensor records about every run
See it in a demo
Watch Tensor do a sample task (log an order, book an appointment or answer a rental inquiry), wait for your approval and hand you the receipt.