Workgroup PDM and Configuration Specific Properties

I have read in multiple locations that Workgroup PDM doesn't work well with configuration specific properties. At our company we use the configuration specific properties for every part and assembly, as well as for every property (date, drawn by, checked by, material etc). We enter no values in the custom property tab under Summary Information. Is there a way to change the configuration properties of a part/assembly when it is checked into or out of the vault? If not is there a way that the configuration specific properties can be automatically populated into the custom properties tab? Doing this manually for each file would take some time.