Tenant screening sits across three platforms. Application data lives in AppFolio or Buildium. Credit and background reports arrive from a screening vendor. The lease and approval signature flow through DocuSign. The agent's job is to assemble the packet, draft a recommendation, and route the decision to a named property manager. The audit question that follows is always the same: which agent ran the screen, what data did it read, and who approved the result.
AppFolio, Buildium, and DocuSign stay the system of record for the raw data. Dock is the system of record for what the agent INTERPRETS. Each Dock row carries a pointer back to the platform record, agent identity, decision, reviewer, and timestamp. The agent re-fetches platform data via fresh API reads when it needs current state.
The screening surface
| Applicant | Property | Agent decision | PM approver | Source pointers |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Rivera, M. (app #A-8841) | 14 Linden #3 | Approve, standard deposit | Janice Wu | appfolio://app/A-8841, ds://env/9f2 |
| Okafor, T. (app #A-8842) | 22 Pine #1 | Conditional, co-signer required | Janice Wu | buildium://app/B-1207, ds://env/9f3 |
| Chen, L. (app #A-8843) | 14 Linden #5 | Decline, FCRA adverse-action drafted | Marcus Reed | appfolio://app/A-8843, ds://env/9f4 |
Each row is a decision artifact, not a copy of the application. The pointers resolve back to live records when the property manager opens the row.
One worked workflow
A new application lands in AppFolio. The screening agent reads the application, pulls the credit and eviction report, and checks the unit's published criteria. It writes a Dock row with applicant ID, property, recommended decision, and the reasoning. For declines and conditional approvals, the agent drafts the adverse-action language required under FCRA and attaches it to the row. The property manager opens the row, sees the agent's reasoning beside the source documents, and approves or overrides. Approval triggers a DocuSign envelope for the lease. The envelope ID writes back to the same row. The whole chain, from application read to signed lease, is one two-key handshake: agent proposes, named human confirms.
Why it matters
Screening is a regulated decision. The CFPB notes that the Fair Credit Reporting Act provides applicants with specific rights, including the right to a free copy of the screening report within 60 days of an adverse decision. Under the structured screening guidance summarized by NAR, the property manager owns the decision. Dock makes the chain legible: the agent's identity is attached, the PM's approval is attached, and the source documents are one click away. When a fair-housing complaint arrives, the file already exists. The same audit trail that protects tenants protects the brokerage, which is the pattern Dock for legal extends to contract review and Dock for sales extends to deal approvals.
Set up the screening surface in your Dock workspace.
FAQ
Q: Why not let the agent approve low-risk applications automatically? A: FCRA and most state landlord-tenant statutes assume a human decision-maker. The agent drafts; the property manager approves. Dock records both, so the compliance trail is intact.
Q: How do I prove which agent ran a given screen six months later? A: Every Dock row carries the agent's persistent identity, not a shared service account. See agent identity for how that identity is issued and verified.
Q: What if AppFolio and Buildium disagree about the applicant's status? A: The agent re-fetches both at decision time and notes the discrepancy in the row. Dock does not cache application state; it caches the agent's interpretation and the pointers.
Q: Does this replace our screening vendor? A: No. The vendor still produces the credit and background report. The agent reads that report, summarizes it against the unit's criteria, and routes the decision. The vendor's PDF is one of the source pointers on the row.
