Archive for March, 2010

Welcoming April-2010 with Service Tax, Tally Integration and more!

The Tech team of ApartmentAdda has been burning gallons of midnight oil collating the Accounting related inputs from customers,and running through them with reputed Apartment Auditors.

The latest release of ApartmentAdda carries with it many upgrades on all the Accounting applications. Existing customers data have been migrated over the last two days.

Here are the highlights of this Release.

Adda Admin's view of Apartment Management!

Adda Admin's view of Apartment Management.

1. Apartment Categories

Introducing “Apartment Categories” in the Income Tracker. You can create categories e.g., 2BHK, 3BHK, Rented, Penthouse, Service Apartment etc. For each Category you can create an Invoicing rule  – assign different rate per square feet, or flat rate – depending on your setup.

Then you can classify each Apartment into one of the categories.

That’s All! Invoices will be automatically posted against each Apartment, at the beginning of the term ( monthly, quarterly, half-yearly or yearly ) based on the Category rule.

How to configure: Admin Dashboard > Income Tracker > Setup tab.  Populate the Category field, and the Category Rule accordingly.  Go to the ‘Track Flats’ tab and assign the Apartments to the respective Categories.

If you are already using Income Tracker, and need to create Categories, please select a Revision, provide the date from which the revision will be applicable (e.g., 01-04-2010), then populate the Category field. Automatic Invoices posted only from the applicable date will pick up the changes.

Change of Category

Lets say the owner decides to convert his unit into a Service Apartment. Just assign the Apartment to the new Category. Starting from the next Invoicing Term, the automatic invoice which ApartmentAdda will generate will take this into account. It is seamless.

2. Service Tax Calculation

In cases where Service Tax is charged on the Regular Invoice (Maintenance Fee), the Service Tax component gets  automatically generated on the Invoice. An additional line item now shows up for such Apartments which is a % of the maintenance fee posted. It is possible for an Adda to levy Service Tax on certain Category of Apartments only (e.g., Service Apartments).

How to configure: Admin Dashboard > Income Tracker > Setup. Populate the Service Tax percentage for the Apartment Category(s) that Service Tax is applicable to.

If you are already using Income Tracker, and need to populate the Service Tax field, please select a Revision, provide the date from which the revision will be applicable (e.g., 01-04-2010), then populate the Category field. Automatic Invoices posted only from the applicable date will pick up the changes.

3. Flexible Allocation of Incoming Payments

If there are multiple open invoices for an Apartment, and when the resident makes a payment – the amount can be distributed among the open invoices. This is an optional feature. If you don’t opt to use it, just post the payments via ‘Bulk posting’ and ApartmentAdda will automatically distribute the payment starting from the oldest to the latest invoice (FIFO – First-In-First-Out basis).

4. Payment Instrument Number is mandatory

While posting an Incoming Payment, there is a new field – for capturing Cheque Number or NEFT’s reference number – in addition to the Comments field. This will help in automatic reconciliation. Something to make your Auditor happy!

5. Complete provision for Tally Integration

The much awaited gateway is now open! Now all transactions captured in ApartmentAdda can be ported to Tally, and vice-versa!  However, the decision to use or not use Tally along with ApartmentAdda, or the strategy of its use still remains your call!  Please read this post to understand how best to utilize ApartmentAdda Accounting.

Import of Dues and Payments from Excel

Earlier one could import the Dues against the Apartments, but incoming payments had to be posted individually against the Apartments. With this release the Incoming Payment postings can also be uploaded from Excel. Using this feature, the Dues and Collections posted in Tally can be easily imported into ApartmentAdda. This feature enables you to use Income Tracker solely as a Billing interface, in case you wish to continue with Tally as the Point of Origin of transactions.

Export of Dues and Payments to Excel

In Bank & Cash Application an additional tab has been enabled – called “Dues and Payments”. Here you can choose the account heads  from Resident Income, Miscellaneous Income and Expenses, choose the date range – and get all the dues and payment transactions on Excel. This includes Accounts Receivables as well as Payables. This can be exported to excel for further analysis or to be imported into Tally. Also, you can now answer some queries like :

What is the total service tax that has to be collected?
What is the total amount collected under Festival Funds?
What are all the transactions ( both Income and Expense ) pertaining to Project X?

Miscellaneous  Enhancements

Archive “I have paid intimations”: Now after you have posted a transaction based on the intimation from the resident, you can archive them for future reference by either Accepting or Rejecting it – and you have the option of entering comments.

Performance Improvements: The Income tracker pages will now load faster than ever, and any changes to setup, track flats – will also happen much faster.

With this, we hope we have equipped you for the coming Financial year !

Yours sincerely,
ApartmentAdda Team !

PS: Our sincere thanks to Anju Pruthi, Guruprasad Pandit and Prestige Langleigh for helping us raise the bar!

Why use the ApartmentAdda Accounting Package

What are the Financial transactions that Multi Dwelling Units (Apartment/Villa communities) perform?

1. Invoicing Residents

2. Collecting Payments from Residents

3. Receiving Vendor Invoices

4. Making payments to Vendors

5. Investing Funds

6. Collection and payment of Taxes

7. Adjustment Entries – Write-Offs, Depreciation and others.

What does ApartmentAdda Accounting offer?

1. Complete Billing and Collection module, with provision for Service Tax.  Online Invoices and Receipts are interfaced with Residents who are the users of ApartmentAdda. Invoices and Receipts sent via Email and SMS.

2. Complete capture of Vendor Invoices (Payables) and Payments made, by Expense Heads. Expenses can be published to Residents with a single click.

3. Complete Online Cash Position report, reconciliation function with Bank Statement, download to Excel for further analysis, audit or porting to other Accounting Packages.

“This typically takes care of 95% of the Accounting requirements of an MDU.” – Apartment Auditor

These transactions can be exported to Excel with single click, to be converted to the Final Accounting Statements, after adding other derived components such as Asset Depreciation and other Adjustment Entries.

Accounting Apps

Advantage of using ApartmentAdda Accounting for all Invoicing and Collection:

1. Online. Invoices are always accessible to the Residents. Integration with Email and SMS is a tremendous accelerator for quick collection.

2. Automatic Invoice generation for Maintenance Fee – not available in any other Accounting Package.

3. Ease of transaction entry – does not need an Accountant to operate.

The 200th Adda walks in!

South City Kolkata – a 31 Acre mini township becomes the 200th registered-and-activated* Adda!  Southcity

South City is located right in the heart of Kolkata – on Prince Anwar Shah road, and boasts of the tallest residential structure (35+1 storeys) in Eastern india (as of date).

We welcome this residential landmark of Eastern India to ApartmentAdda.

Aside: You bet this is one Adda where there will be complete unanimity regarding the meaning of “Adda” :)

*While many Addas register, ApartmentAdda activates them only after due validation