Understanding Site information in Arez

How Arez keeps every Site rich, tidy and trustworthy as your portfolio grows

Who it's for: Admins and FM managers Reading time: 7 minutes Where: Clients & Sites, Management Console

IN 30 SECONDS

Every piece of Site information has one natural home. Put it there once and Arez does the rest.

Structure classifies your portfolio. Attributes capture facts. Tags group Sites. Contacts hold people. Live data is calculated for you, never typed in.

Why Sites stay tidy in Arez

In most FM systems, every new request becomes another field on the Site form. A few years later the form is a scroll of half empty boxes, reports disagree with each other, and nobody trusts what they see.

Arez takes a different approach. A Site is made of layers, and each layer has one job. That gives you three things other platforms struggle to offer:

One source of truth. Each fact lives in one place, so filters, reports and Jobs always agree.
Status you don't have to maintain. Open Jobs, overdue certificates and compliance are calculated from live records, so they are never out of date.
Room to grow without clutter. You can add your own Attributes and Tags without changing how Arez works or waiting for a development cycle.

The six layers of a Site

Layer	What it answers	Examples	How Arez treats it
Core Site fields	What site is this?	Name, client, site number, address, postcode, status	Stable fields Arez relies on for Jobs, permissions and reporting
Site Structure	How is it classified?	Site Type, Region, Area, Level 3, Level 4	Controlled lists set once per client, used everywhere
Attributes	What facts describe it?	Security Level, Opening Hours, Access Type, Property Reference	Your own fields, available on every Site for that client
Tags	Which groups is it in?	Flagship, Refurb 2027, London Portfolio	Light labels for grouping and filtering
Ownership & contacts	Who owns it, who do I call?	Site Manager, Primary Site Contact, Directory	One accountable owner, as many contacts as you need
Live operational data	Is it OK right now?	Open Jobs, overdue certificates, next PPM, compliance	Calculated by Arez from live records

Where should new information go?

Ask these questions in order. Stop at the first yes.

Ask	If yes, use	Example
Does Arez need it to run Jobs or workflows?	Core Site field	Site Manager, status, address
Is it a classification shared across the whole portfolio?	Site Structure	Region, Area, Site Type
Is it a fact with a clear type or value?	Attribute	Parking = Yes; Security Level = Restricted
Is it a flexible or temporary grouping?	Tag	Refurb 2027
Is it a person?	Site Manager, Primary Contact or Directory	Sarah Collins
Can Arez work it out from live records?	Nothing to add	Open Jobs, Compliance %

WORKED EXAMPLE

Your client asks you to record three things on their stores: whether there is parking, which stores are in next year's refurb, and the name of each store manager.

Parking is a fact with a Yes or No answer, so create a Yes/No Attribute called Parking.

Next year's refurb is a temporary group, so create a Tag called Refurb 2027 and add it to those stores.

Store manager is a person, so add them to the Directory and set them as Primary Site Contact.

And whether the store is compliant? Nothing to add. Arez already calculates it.

If two places could hold the same information, pick one. Keeping a fact in two places is how records drift apart.

Core Site fields

Core fields are the small set Arez itself understands: Site Name, Client, Site Number or Store Code, address and postcode, status and Site Manager. They power Job creation, assignment, permissions, reporting and integrations, which is why we keep the list short.

Need something extra? An Attribute is almost always the right answer. Your existing Additional Information fields stay exactly as they are.

Site Structure

Site Structure classifies your whole portfolio using controlled lists. You set the values once for a client, then pick from them on each Site. Because everyone chooses from the same list, a filter for Region = North returns every northern Site, with no spelling variations slipping through.

Where: Management Console, in this order: Site Type, Region, Area, Level 3, Level 4.
Site Type describes what the site is, such as Delivery Office, Depot or Retail Store. Use status for Active or Inactive.
Tip: imported data can be messy. Tidy up duplicate or misspelt values in the list rather than working around them.

Attributes

Attributes let you capture the facts that matter to each client without anyone needing to change the product. Arez includes ready made templates to get you started, and you can add your own.

Define once, use everywhere. You create the Attribute in the Management Console and it appears on every Site for that client.
Simple to set up. Give it a name and a field type. For lists, add the allowed options.
Front and centre. Attributes sit near the top of Site Detail because they describe what the site is.

Field types

Type	Good for	Example
Text	Short free text	Property Reference
Number	Counts and measures	Floor Area
List	A fixed set of choices	Security Level = Restricted
Date	Key dates	Lease Expiry
Yes/No	Simple checks	Parking = Yes
Memo	Longer notes	Access Instructions

Use an Attribute when

You want to report or filter on the value consistently
The value has a clear type, such as a date, number or choice
Every Site should have the chance to capture it
There should be one clear answer per Site

Site	Tags on the Site	Match Any: Commercial, High Security	Match All: Commercial, High Security
Store A	Commercial	Shown	Hidden
Store B	High Security	Shown	Hidden
Store C	Commercial, High Security	Shown	Shown

Site Manager, Primary Site Contact and Directory

Arez separates who is accountable for a Site from who you talk to. A Site can have many contacts but only one owner, so nothing falls between two people.

Role	What it means	How it works
Site Manager	Your internal owner for the Site	One per Site; can be added to new Jobs automatically
Primary Site Contact	The main customer or on site contact	Optional; chosen from the Directory
Directory	Everyone connected to the Site	As many as you need; does not imply ownership

Reading Site Detail

Site Detail answers questions in the order an FM manager asks them, so the most urgent answer is always at the top.

	Your question	Where to look
1	Is this site OK?	Open Jobs, Overdue Certificates, Next PPM Due, Compliance
2	What is this site?	Core details, Attributes and Tags
3	Who owns it and who do I contact?	Site Manager and Primary Site Contact
4	Where is it?	Site Location
5	What is happening?	AI overview, certificates, Jobs and financial panels

Honest numbers: zero is not the same as no data

WHAT MAKES AREZ DIFFERENT

Many dashboards show 0% when there is simply nothing to measure. That puts a Site in the red for no reason and sends people chasing problems that don't exist.

0% compliance in Arez means compliance was measured and the result was zero. That needs action.

— or No certificates yet means nothing has been measured. That needs setting up, not escalating.

The same rule applies across Site metrics, KPIs and reports, so a red number in Arez is always a real one.

How Site information helps your Jobs

Sensible defaults. The Site Manager can fill in the Job's Arez Manager automatically. You can still change it on the Job.
Always current. Site Attributes shown on a Job are read live from the Site, so engineers see today's access type or opening hours, not a copy from when the Job was raised.
Kept separate. Job specific Attributes stay on the Job and never overwrite Site information.

Ask FieldIQ about your Sites

Because every fact has one clear home, FieldIQ can answer questions about your portfolio in plain English, including from AI assistants such as Claude and ChatGPT. It is included with FieldIQ at no extra charge.

TRY ASKING

Which London Portfolio sites have overdue certificates?

Show me Restricted security sites with open Jobs this week.

Which Refurb 2027 stores have no compliance data yet?

Answers follow your normal Arez permissions, so people only see the Sites they already have access to.

Good habits

Do	Avoid
Use an Attribute when you need a new field	Asking for a new core field when an Attribute will do
Use Tags for groups and programmes	Using Tags to store facts like Parking or Security Level
Keep each fact in one place	Recording the same fact as both an Attribute and a Tag
Add only the Attributes you will actually use	Setting up fields just in case
Let Arez calculate status from Jobs, PPM and certificates	Typing status or compliance in by hand
Read — as "not measured yet"	Treating a missing value as a failure

Quick reference

CORE

System truth

STRUCTURE

Classification

ATTRIBUTES

Facts

TAGS

Groups

LIVE DATA

Operational truth

Configure Site Structure for a client
Create and manage Site Attributes
Enter Attribute values on a Site
Create and manage Site Tags
Add or remove Tags on a Site
Filter Sites using Tags
Set up the Site Manager, Primary Site Contact and Directory

Understanding Site information in Arez

Learn how site details, structure, attributes, tags, contacts and live operational data are managed in Arez.