SysDep frequently asked questions

SysDep is an AI-first property management platform for residential rental portfolios, headquartered in California, that runs the entire property management company, not just the properties: trust accounting with California DRE self-audits, time cards and production metrics, built-in email, call recording and transcription, and a company organizer, in one system.

Most property management software manages the properties: units, leases, rent and work orders. SysDep does that and also runs the company around them: the broker's California DRE self-audit, employee time cards and production metrics, the team's email, recorded and transcribed phone calls, and a Company Organizer that gives every person a prioritized daily list. One system replaces the stack of separate tools a property management company usually pays for.

Yes. SysDep was built for residential property managers and is organized around each property and its owner, so every property keeps its lease, owner, trust ledger, maintenance, calls and email on one record. Scattered-site portfolios with a different owner on nearly every door are the work it was built for.

It depends on how much of the business you want in one system. AppFolio, Buildium and Rent Manager are established platforms that cover accounting, leasing, maintenance and portals across many property types. SysDep is built specifically for residential property managers who also want the company itself in the same platform: a California DRE self-audit, employee time cards and production metrics, built-in Microsoft 365 email, and call recording and transcription. Data migration and setup are free.

SysDep is built for property managers and property management companies that manage residential rentals for owners, from single-office firms to multi-office companies. It is especially strong for California firms, because it includes California DRE trust accounting and broker self-audit tools that general-purpose software does not focus on.

Yes. SysDep was developed inside an established California property management firm, where it runs multi-office operations every day. Every capability is used in that live brokerage before it is released to customers, so the software reflects how property management work is actually done rather than a feature checklist.

SysDep LLC is based at 5754 Lonetree Blvd., Rocklin, California 95765.

No. SysDep works for property management companies anywhere in the United States. It includes deep California-specific tools, such as the RE 540-based DRE self-audit, trust accounting supervision under DRE Regulation 2725, and California 592-B and 592-Q withholding forms, because it was built in and is used by a California brokerage.

Yes. SysDep's DRE Compliance module is a 45-item self-audit built on the California DRE's RE 540 Broker Self-Evaluation checklist, plus two items taken from the DRE's list of the most common audit violations. Every item resolves from evidence to compliant, exception, unknown or not applicable, and unknown never counts as passing. Most trust items are computed from live trust accounting data and the rest combine that data with the broker's attestations and evidence, so they cannot simply be ticked off.

A broker self-audit is the responsible broker reviewing their own trust accounts, records, disclosures, licensing and supervision against the same checklist DRE auditors work from, form RE 540, before an audit happens. SysDep turns that review into a live checklist backed by evidence, with an exportable audit packet, so problems are found and fixed early instead of during a DRE audit.

SysDep runs an automated trust integrity sweep every hour that checks trust accounts and beneficiary balances and records a heartbeat each time, so a check that stops running is itself visible. Broker supervision reviews follow DRE Regulation 2725 and Business and Professions Code section 10159.2, and the DRE Compliance checklist reads the same live trust data.

Yes. SysDep trust accounting covers the general ledger and journal entries, receipts and deposits, bills and payables, management fees, security deposits, bank statement import and monthly reconciliation, and the DRE trust records RE 4522 through 4525, including a separate record for each property managed. Tax tools prepare California 592-B and 592-Q withholding forms.

Yes. The DRE module keeps a roster of every licensee the broker is responsible for and what is on file for each one. Evidence can come from completed SysDep E-Sign envelopes, uploads or files already in the E-Cabinet, and it is copied into the compliance store so deleting a file elsewhere cannot delete the evidence.

Start with what DRE auditors check most: a columnar control record with a daily balance for each trust account (RE 4522, Reg 2831), a separate record for each beneficiary (RE 4523, Reg 2831.1), deposits within three business days (Reg 2832), a documented monthly reconciliation (Reg 2831.2), no trust shortage (Reg 2832.1), written supervision policies (Reg 2725) and your license ID on solicitation materials (B&P 10140.6). Then work through DRE form RE 540, the Broker Self-Evaluation. SysDep turns this into a live 45-item self-audit and exports an audit packet that lists every gap first.

A California broker keeps a columnar control record of all trust funds received and paid out for each trust account, with a daily running balance (Reg 2831); a separate record for each beneficiary or transaction (Reg 2831.1); and a record of trust funds received but not placed in the trust account (Reg 2831(a)(6)). DRE publishes sample formats for these records as RE 4522, RE 4523 and RE 4524, plus RE 4525, a separate record for each property managed. Records are reconciled monthly (Reg 2831.2) and kept for three years (B&P 10148). SysDep produces RE 4522 to RE 4525 from its trust ledger.

At least monthly. DRE Regulation 2831.2 requires a broker to reconcile each trust account every month, matching the separate beneficiary records to the control record, and to keep a record of each reconciliation. SysDep imports the bank statement, has a person match it line by line, reconciles to the control record, and also runs an automated trust integrity sweep every hour, so a shortage or mismatch surfaces between month-end reconciliations.

Yes. Team members clock in and out inside SysDep. The time card tracks punches, breaks, overtime, pay periods and pay history, time-off requests and attendance, and staff can request a review when a punch needs correcting. Managers see hours and production for the same people in the same system.

Team Productivity in SysDep shows what each team member actually got done, broken out by area: leasing (tenants, rentals, expiring leases and month-to-month), maintenance, owners and CRM, e-sign, and communication, including late-rent notes, emails sent and phone calls. The numbers roll up overnight, and a custom view lets managers choose which measures matter for each role.

The Company Organizer is the part of SysDep that runs the team's day. The SysDep Assistant builds each person a prioritized daily list from across the system, including CRM, calendar, leasing and renewals, e-sign, maintenance follow-up and late rent, with an optional AI briefing. It sits alongside the office calendar and showing scheduler, team chat, and team roles and permissions.

Yes. SysDep includes a time card for every team member, with clock-in and clock-out punches, breaks, regular hours, overtime at 1.5x and 2.0x, late arrivals, pay periods, pay history and time-off requests. Team Productivity then shows what each person completed across leasing, maintenance, owners and CRM, e-sign and communication. Hours and output live in the same system as the work, so managers do not reconcile a separate time clock.

The SysDep Assistant pulls work from across the system, including calendar events and showings, CRM follow-ups, leasing, renewals and applications, e-sign documents, email, inspections, maintenance follow-ups and owner approval calls, late rent, and social posts awaiting approval, into one ranked list for each person. Managers set how each kind of item is weighted, so the most important work rises to the top, and the list updates in real time as items are completed.

Yes. SysDep includes a full email client connected to Microsoft 365, so staff read and send email inside SysDep next to the property, tenant and owner records. An AI Message Assistant turns rough notes into a polished subject and message, and work-order emails can be filed to the work order they belong to.

Yes. SysDep records office phone calls, transcribes them and makes every call searchable and playable inside SysDep, linked to the right tenant, owner or vendor. Business phone lines themselves can come from SysDep partner Vosy, whose VoIP PBX phone systems connect to SysDep.

Most disputes in property management come down to what was said on the phone: an owner approval, a tenant's notice, a vendor's promised date. With every call recorded, transcribed and attached to the record in SysDep, anyone on the team can search the conversation instead of relying on memory, and managers can review calls for quality and training.

Yes. Any email or attachment in SysDep can be linked to a tenant, lease, work order, owner, rental, vendor or lead, and each of those records shows all of its email in one place. Email is also added to CRM lead, lease and work-order logs.

Yes. An email in SysDep can be turned into a maintenance ticket with a summary, description, priority and the rental it concerns, so a tenant's emailed request does not have to be retyped.

Yes. SysDep connects to Microsoft 365 through Microsoft Graph, so the team reads, searches and sends its Microsoft 365 email inside SysDep and the mailbox stays in sync with Outlook. Messages and attachments can be linked to tenants, leases, work orders, owners, rentals, vendors and leads, shared mailboxes carry per-person permissions, and the AI Message Assistant drafts replies for a person to review and send.

Yes. SysDep transcribes recorded office calls and makes the transcripts searchable, so staff can find a call by a name, an address or a phrase, play it in the browser and read the transcript. Each call is linked to the tenant, owner or vendor on the line and appears on that person’s record. Only team members with the Calls permission can listen.

AI is built into the work itself: AI-written rental listing descriptions, the AI Message Assistant that drafts and summarizes email, newsletter generation, a social media planner and writer, work-order analysis and close-out review, a monthly explanation of CRM lead trends, an optional AI briefing in the SysDep Assistant, and Ask Cato, which answers questions from your own Help Center. The AI provider and model are configured per feature.

Not toward your customers. Nothing SysDep's AI writes reaches a tenant, owner or vendor without a person reviewing and sending it. For example, the social media agent plans and writes posts, but a team member approves them before they publish, and the agent has its own off switch. Some internal checks do run on their own, such as raising a work order's urgency or alerting the maintenance team about a close-out problem.

SysDep works with leading AI providers, including Anthropic's Claude and OpenAI. The provider and model are configured feature by feature, so each job, such as a daily briefing, a listing description or an email, uses a model suited to it.

In SysDep, AI handles the writing and review work that slows a property management team down. It drafts rental listing descriptions, email replies and newsletters, plans and writes social media posts, summarizes incoming email, analyzes work orders and reviews close-outs, explains monthly CRM lead trends, answers questions from the company’s own Help Center through Ask Cato, and can write an optional daily briefing. Staff review and send anything a tenant, owner or vendor will see.

Yes. SysDep covers rental listings and marketing, showings, applications, lease generation, renewals and month-to-month tracking. Tenant application processing and screening is provided by SysDep partner Lotly, and results flow back into the applicant's record in SysDep.

Yes. SysDep includes work orders, a vendor directory and vendor profiles, a vendor portal where vendors claim jobs and submit estimates, owner approvals by secure link, and move-in and tenancy inspections with a planner and reports.

Yes. Tenants complete applications and sign documents in the tenant portal, and vendors claim work orders and send estimates in the vendor portal. Owners approve work through a secure link rather than a separate portal. Documents are signed with SysDep E-Sign and stored in the SysDep E-Cabinet.

Yes, through SysDep partner Lotly. Applicants apply online, and when a manager chooses Screen with Lotly on an application in SysDep, Lotly runs credit, background and income screening and the results come back to the applicant’s record in SysDep. SysDep partner Vosy can add AI voice pre-screening of rental applicants.

SysDep is quoted per company, based on the size of your portfolio and the modules you need, so there is no public price list. Book a live 15-minute demo and SysDep will walk through what fits your company and send a quote. Data migration and setup are included at no cost.

Yes. The SysDep team moves your existing data over and sets up your company for free, bringing across your properties, owners, tenants and records from your current system and configuring SysDep for how your company works.

A SysDep demo is a live 15-minute call. You see the modules that matter to your company, such as DRE self-audits, time cards, email and call recording, and you get answers on migration and setup. Request one on the demo page and the team will contact you to schedule it.

AppFolio, Buildium and Rent Manager are established property management platforms. SysDep covers the same core work, including trust accounting, leasing, maintenance and portals, and adds tools for running the company itself in the same system: California DRE self-audits, employee time cards and production metrics, built-in email, and call recording with transcription. SysDep's comparison pages cover each one in detail.

Common AppFolio alternatives include Buildium, Rent Manager and SysDep. Buildium and Rent Manager are established platforms that also serve other property types. SysDep is built for residential property managers and adds tools for running the company itself: a California DRE RE 540 self-audit, employee time cards and production metrics, built-in Microsoft 365 email, and office call recording and transcription. SysDep’s comparison pages compare each one using the vendor’s own published information.

SysDep works with two partners. Lotly (lotly.ai) handles all of SysDep's tenant application processing and screening. Vosy (vosy.ai) provides SysDep's AI voice assistants and the VoIP PBX phone systems that connect to SysDep.

Vosy provides AI voice assistants that answer calls for property management offices and pre-screen rental applicants by voice, and VoIP PBX business phone systems that connect to SysDep.