Turn time tracking is the practice of recording events in an appraisal assignment as timestamps and measuring the intervals between them. Most firms report a single figure, order to delivery, and cannot explain it when a client disputes it. A tracking system defines each event precisely, records what set it, and holds legitimate pause periods separately, so the elapsed total and the working time are both reportable from one file.
Why nobody's turn time numbers agree
Their clock started before yours did
The order was placed late on a Friday and accepted first thing Monday. The client’s scorecard counts the weekend. Your file counts from acceptance. Neither party is lying, and no shared record reconciles the two.
Delivered is not a single moment
Review cleared at two, the upload finished at three, the portal marked it received at four, and the client logged acceptance next morning. Ask four people when the report was delivered and you get four defensible answers.
Hold time is remembered, not recorded
The occupant went dark for over a week. Everyone in the office knows it happened. Nothing in the file says so, so when the assignment shows as running long, the only response available is a story told from memory.
Inspection date and effective date get used interchangeably
On a typical as-is assignment the inspection date is the effective date, and the two end up meaning the same thing in conversation. A retrospective assignment or a 1004D completion report breaks that equivalence, and any measurement built on it breaks too.
Revisions count against everything and belong to nothing
A revision request arrives well after delivery. Whether it belongs to the original assignment, to a separate revision clock, or to neither gets decided differently by whoever is running the report that month.
Timestamp definitions and the conditions that pause each clock
Every interval needs a start event, a stop event, and an explicit list of what pauses it. This is the definition set we build to, and it is worth arguing about internally before anything is measured.
| Interval | Clock starts at | Clock stops at | Pauses when |
|---|---|---|---|
| Acceptance | Order received by feed, portal entry, or engagement request | Assignment accepted or declined | A fee or scope question is open with the client |
| Assignment | Order accepted | Attached to a named appraiser with credential and coverage confirmed | No qualified appraiser available and the client has been told |
| First contact | Assignment attached to an appraiser | First documented contact attempt to the property contact | The client has not supplied usable contact details |
| Scheduling | First contact attempt logged | Inspection date and time confirmed | Attempts documented with no response; occupant declines access |
| Inspection | Appointment confirmed | Inspection completed, the effective date on a typical as-is assignment | Property inaccessible; construction incomplete on a 1004D; weather |
| Development | Inspection completed | Draft submitted to internal review | Awaiting a document the assignment depends on: contract, survey, rent roll, HOA budget, plans |
| Review | Draft submitted to internal review | Reviewer clears the file | Returned for correction, if round trips are counted separately |
| Delivery | Reviewer clears the file | Report and data file uploaded and receipt confirmed | Client portal outage recorded as it happened |
| Client acceptance | Report delivered | Client accepts the file or the window closes | Not measured against the appraiser; recorded because clients ask |
| Revision | Revision request received and logged | Revised report delivered | Awaiting a clarification the requester has not answered |
| Total assignment | The client’s stated order date, not your acceptance | Report delivered | Reported gross, with recorded pauses shown alongside |
Building the measurement layer
Events are captured where the work happens
A timestamp that depends on someone remembering to press a button will be wrong. Events record as a side effect of the action: inspection marked complete on a phone at the property, review cleared when the reviewer signs off, delivery stamped when the upload confirms.
Hold is a real state with a required reason
Placing an assignment on hold asks for a reason code and a sentence. That is the entire friction. In exchange the hold has a start, an end, an owner, and a category, which is what makes it reportable rather than merely recalled.
Two totals, always shown together
Gross elapsed is what the client sees on their own scorecard. Net working time is gross minus recorded holds. Both get reported, in that order, because leading with the net number and explaining the gross afterwards reads as an excuse even when it is accurate.
Day counting defined per client agreement
Some agreements count calendar days and some count business days, and the two give different answers on the same file. The counting rule is a client setting, so an assignment is measured the way that client measures it.
Reports built for the conversation you actually have
The useful views are by client, by product, and by appraiser, with hold reasons broken out. When an AMC raises a scorecard question, the file-level timeline is one click from the summary with the hold notes attached.
Systems this reads from and writes to
- workflow automation across the assignment lifecycle — State changes on the assignment produce the timestamps, so the workflow and the measurement are one build.
- custom app development for field capture — Inspection completion is marked at the property rather than typed that evening, which makes the timestamp true.
- document workflow automation — Delivery receipts and revision documents carry their own timestamps into the same timeline.
Is this a fit for your business?
A good fit when
- Clients send scorecards you cannot reconcile against your own records
- You carry several appraisers and want one set of definitions for all of them
- Hold reasons are explained in email threads rather than recorded on the file
- You are negotiating a service level and need to know what you actually do
Probably not a fit when
- You are a sole practitioner with a handful of files you can hold in your head
- You want a system that ranks appraisers publicly on speed
- You need someone to dispute an AMC scorecard on your behalf
What to have ready
- Service level language from your two or three largest client agreements
- The hold reasons that actually occur in your office, in plain words
- Three recent files that ran long, with whatever explanation exists
Questions we get asked
Which start date should we report, theirs or ours?
Report theirs as the headline and keep yours beside it. The client will measure from their order date whatever you do, so a report starting anywhere else invites an argument before the substance is reached. Recording both lets you show the acceptance gap when it matters instead of asserting it.
Does recording hold time change how an AMC scores us?
That is entirely their call and we would not suggest otherwise. What recorded holds give you is a specific, dated account of what happened on a file instead of a recollection. Some clients will adjust, some will not, and some only want to see that you track it.
How do you handle assignments where the inspection date is not the effective date?
They are separate fields, always. Retrospective assignments, desktop products, and completion reports all break the assumption that the two are the same. Intervals run against the inspection or observation event, and the effective date is carried as a fact about the assignment rather than a milestone.
Can appraisers game the timestamps?
Some events are self-reported and always will be. Where evidence exists we tie the timestamp to it: upload confirmations, portal receipts, and the completion action recorded at the property. The purpose is not policing. It is that a number nobody trusts internally will not survive a client conversation either.
Related
- inspection scheduling and appointment coordination
- appraisal report delivery and client submission
- workflow automation services for professional firms
- workflow automation for appraisal firms
Tell us what the process looks like now and we will map what a system would need to do. No obligation, and you keep the map either way.