Understanding Screening Status

The Screening Status on your Applicants board gives you an at-a-glance view of where every household's rental application sits in the screening pipeline — from the moment an applicant starts filling out their form to the final approval or denial decision.

This matters because a typical household application involves multiple moving parts: each adult applicant has to pay their fee, give consent, submit income info, and complete their portion of the application. Without a clear status, it's easy to lose track of which household is waiting on what. Statuses solve that by automatically grouping applications based on real-time progress, so your leasing team always knows what to action next.

Screening Statuses connect directly to the Applicants board and reflect activity happening across the household record, the applicant records, and your screening provider integration.

Before you start working in the list view, it helps to understand a few things about how statuses behave:

Statuses are automatic, not manual. Aptly assigns a Screening Status based on what's actually happening with the application. You don't pick the status from a dropdown — the system calculates it based on whether applicants have paid, consented, finished their portion, been screened, etc.

Statuses are calculated at the household level. A "household application" can contain multiple individual applicants (for example, two co-applicants and a guarantor). The status reflects the state of the whole household, not just one person.

Some statuses override others. Statuses like Approved, Denied, Closed, and Canceled are "final" decisions and will replace any in-progress status, even if other applicants in the household are still mid-process.

Statuses only appear if an application qualifies for them. When you first install the Applicants board, it will look empty. That's expected — statuses populate as soon as your first applications come in.

If you ever want to look at applications a different way, you can switch the view from Group By: Status to Group By: Stage, which is a separate, company-customizable field (more on that below).

Here's what each status means and what's happening behind the scenes:

All Applications Incomplete No one in the household has finished their application yet. An application is considered "complete" once the applicant has paid (if a fee applies), provided consent, entered income details, and submitted their portion. To see exactly where each applicant stands, open the household record and check the Applicants table.

Partially Completed Applications At least one applicant in the household has finished their portion, but others haven't. Common in co-applicant or guarantor scenarios.

Pending Screening Every applicant in the household has completed their application (and paid if applicable). The household is ready for your team to kick off screening.

Screening Incomplete Screening has been started on the household, but at least one applicant is still waiting for their screening results to come back.

Pending Decision All applicants have been screened. Results are in, and the household is ready for your team to review and make a leasing decision.

Application Approved A team member has manually marked the application as approved. This overrides any other status.

Application Denied A team member has manually marked the application as denied. This overrides any other status.

Application Closed A team member has closed the application (typically when the applicant withdrew or the unit is no longer available). This overrides any other status. Closed applications should be archived afterward to keep your board clean.

Application Canceled The applicant canceled their own application from their applicant portal. This overrides ALL other statuses, including final decisions.

Override statuses are sticky and powerful. Once you mark an application as Approved, Denied, or Closed, that status replaces whatever in-progress status was there before. For example, if a household had a partially completed application, and one completed applicant got screened and denied, the entire household would shift to Application Denied — even though another applicant hadn't finished their portion. This is by design, but it can be confusing the first time you see it. The takeaway: don't mark a decision until you actually mean it.

Canceled trumps everything. If an applicant cancels from their portal, the household moves to Application Canceled, even if you previously marked it Approved or Denied. If you see a canceled application that shouldn't be canceled, talk to the applicant directly — only they can cancel from their side.

Closed applications should be archived. Closing is a status; archiving removes the record from your active board. Build a habit of archiving closed applications so your list view stays focused on real work.

Statuses aren't the same as Stages. Screening Statuses are hardwired by Aptly based on application activity. Stages (visible when you switch to Group By: Stage) are a separate, company-specific field that your team can manually edit. Use Stages if you want a custom workflow on top of the automatic Screening Status. For help configuring Stages, contact your dedicated account team.

Use Group By: Status as your daily work view. It naturally surfaces what needs your attention: Pending Screening tells you what to send to screening, Pending Decision tells you what's waiting on a leasing decision, and Partially Completed Applications tells you who needs a nudge to finish.

Set up reminders or automations around stuck statuses. If a household sits in All Applications Incomplete or Partially Completed Applications for several days, that's usually a sign the applicant needs follow-up. Consider building an automation or task reminder to prompt your team to reach out.

Archive aggressively after closing. Once you've closed an application and recorded any necessary notes, archive it. This keeps your board clean and your status groups meaningful.

If you manage multiple properties or portfolios, use views to filter further. Combine the status grouping with filters by property or assigned team member so each leasing agent only sees their own workload.

Train your team on override behavior. Especially for newer leasing agents, the way Approved/Denied/Canceled override in-progress statuses can be surprising. A 5-minute walkthrough during onboarding saves a lot of "where did this application go?" questions later.

"I don't see any statuses on my board." This usually means you don't have any active applications yet, or your view isn't set to Group By: Status. Check the grouping option at the top of your list view. If applications exist but no groups appear, switch the group-by selector.

"An application shows as Denied, but one of the applicants hasn't even finished their part." This is the override behavior working as designed. If any applicant in the household has been marked Denied (or Approved, or Closed), the whole household reflects that decision. If the denial was a mistake, you'll need to update the applicant's decision on their record to clear the override.

"An application I approved is suddenly showing as Canceled." The applicant canceled it themselves from their portal. Application Canceled overrides every other status, including Approved. Reach out to the applicant if you need to understand why.

"A household has been in Pending Screening for days — why isn't it screening?" Pending Screening means the application is ready to screen, but screening doesn't start automatically. A team member needs to kick it off. Open the household and run the screening manually. (See the related article: How to Run a Screening on an Applicant.)

"An application is stuck in Screening Incomplete." At least one applicant's screening report hasn't come back yet. This usually resolves on its own as your screening provider returns results, but if it's been more than 24–48 hours, check the individual applicant records to see if any reports errored out. You may need to re-trigger screening for that specific applicant or contact your dedicated account team.

"I marked an application as Closed but it's still cluttering my board." Closing sets the status, but doesn't remove the record. Archive the application from the household record to take it off your active view.