Fine Tuned

A bunch of enhancements have been released in the Accounting modules. Please share this update with your Office Staff in case they are responsible for Income/Expense Tracker data entry.

CHANGES IN INCOME TRACKER

1. Collection Screen

Path: Admin Dashboard > Income Tracker > Track Fees > Collection button

2 NEW fields have been introduced : Instrument type ( Cheque, NEFT, Cash, DD ) and Instrument Bank. These are mandatory fields and will help in complete data capture and reconciliation.

2. Online Receipt Changes

The Online Receipt will now show the period of  Auto Invoice (Maintenance Fee), against which the Collection has been applied. You dont have to enter the Period manually any more.

The Receipt generally looks more beautiful!

3. Batch Invoice posting screen & Excel Import of Invoices

Path: Admin Dashboard > Income Tracker > Track Fees > Post Invoice in Batch

Till now, while doing batch posting of Invoices or Excel Import of Invoices, you could provide only one posting Date, applicable to all Invoices in that Batch.

Now each Invoice entry can have its specific date. In case of Excel Import, the template now carries the Square Feet, Flat Category and open Dues for all the flats – this will help you in calculating Penalties based on your forumula ( eg. x% of open dues). This excel can then be uploaded to post the penalties.

4. Batch payment posting and Excel Import of payments

Path: Admin Dashboard > Income Tracker > Track Fees > Post Payment in Batch

Instrument Type, Instrument Bank and Instrument Date are the new fields available for each payment. Also, in the Excel template the open Dues, Flat Category and Square Feet is exposed.

Note : Please make sure the final excel you are uploading is in CSV format.

CHANGES IN EXPENSE TRACKER

1. Payment screen changes

Path: Admin Dashboard > Expense Tracker > Post Expense > Make Payment button

1 NEW field have been introduced : Instrument type ( Cheque, NEFT, Cash, DD ). This is a mandatory field and will help in complete data capture and reconciliation.

CHANGES IN INCOME TRACKER & EXPENSE TRACKER

1. Removing Auto-Reconcile from posting screens

The Auto-Reconcile feature has not lived up to its expectation of usefulness. It has been voted down by our Product Mgmt Team and User Focus group, and is being removed. For regular reconciliation, please go to the Bank & Cash application for easy and quick, albeit manual reconciling of transactions.

That’s it for this Release, watch out for more cool enhancements to your favorite Applications.

Wishing you a great second Quarter!

ApartmentAdda Team

We have enhanced one of the most used features in ApartmentAdda – The Complaint Tracker.

Here are the list of enhancements that are live now :

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1. Serviced By

The admin can assign the electrician, plumber working on a complaint. This will enable the admin to generate job report for the technicians and also the resident will know the technician who is to work on the complaint.

2. Assets Involved

The admin can assign the particular asset ( Treadmill, Lift etc..) , the complaint was raised on. This helps in better monitoring of the assets and also helps in planning preventive maintenance for defect prone assets.

3. Feedback Rating

Once the complaint is closed, the resident who raised the complaint now can give a rating on 1 to 5 scale. This helps in monitoring the SLA of the vendors and also to keep the staff motivated.

4. More slicing and dicing

On the Admin side, you can now shortlist the complaints by various parameters and assign them to the right authority.

5. Job Report

The estate manager at the beginning of the day can now print a job report and keep it ready for the utility staff to work.

We are confident that these enhancements will be a hit with our users.

Note : We would like to thank the MC Teams of Purva Riviera, L&T Serene County and SJR Verity for their suggestions which have now been released for all our users.

Yours sincerely,
ApartmentAdda Team

Snapshot of a few Public pages

Dear Adda Users

Starting today, your Apartment Complex gets one more amenity – a well-maintained website! You can now showcase your blog posts about your community events, post photo links, video links – and tell the world how happening a community yours is! The cross-adda notices were earlier visible only within ApartmentAdda Users – now it is available for the world to see ( and Google of course ) – so you have an increased chance of renting out your flat, or selling your Bajaj Pulsar.

Next time you invite visitors, just send the link of your Public Adda Page! No more writing directions in Invites.

Go-ahead, flaunt your Adda to the world!

Dear Adda Admins

You can choose from any of the 20 themes, and upload upto 6 images. These images will show as a slideshow on the homepage of your Adda. Also write a killer pitch on your home page – which will attract potential tenants and buyers. You can always entrust this work to the creative genius in your community by going to Admin’s Dashboard > Manage Users > Access Control – and giving access to “Setup Adda Profile”.

Go ahead – set up your Adda. The world is waiting to see your Adda!

Themes to Choose from

In case none of the 20 themes do justice to your community’s style, or you want an exclusive design to be created, please contact us.

Some Public Adda Pages:

Prestige Shantiniketan: http://apartmentadda.com/adda/prestige-shantiniketan.php

Samhita Square: http://apartmentadda.com/adda/samhita-square.php

Jal Vayu Vihar: http://apartmentadda.com/adda/jal-vayu-vihar.php

Prestige Ozone: http://apartmentadda.com/adda/prestige-ozone.php

Purva Riviera: http://apartmentadda.com/adda/purva-riviera.php

Yours sincerely
ApartmentAdda Team

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.

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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.

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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.

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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).

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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!

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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?

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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.

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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!

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.

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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.

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.

Resident Forum Topic Search

Now you can search among the topics or if you know the topic number, you can search by the topic number to go directly to the topic. This will prevent the same topic from being raised multiple times.

Vendor Search

You can search on the name, service category, part of the phone or email and comments entered by user. E,g., if you search for “emergency” you can get all the emergency contacts in one shot.

Document Search

You can search on the file name, category and description. E.g., if you search for “mom” – all the documents pertaining to Minutes of Meeting will get short listed (assuming Documents with Minutes are named MoM universally!).

On future Roadmap: Search in the Admin Applications and Full Text Search for Forums.

Enjoy!

ApartmentAdda Team

Here is another reason for you to boast of your Adda – we just released another dazzling Add-On that you will not find anywhere else on the web-space!

Every Adda has its own online Ad Space – the online Notice Board. It is also one of the most frequently used Applications. We are happy to announce the release of Notice Manager Add-On which leverages the Notice Board to add value to the Association.

The Notice Manager

The Notice Manager centralizes the Notice Approval procedure, making it systematic and easy. It does so due to its integration with a robust Work-flow, the Residents List and the Income Tracker application.

Configure Categories & Rates

The Admin can configure Notice categories like  Commercial – Sales, Commercial - Rental, and set default rates to each of these categories. Also there can be Non-Commercial categories like General Announcements, Admin Notices which may not have a cost component.

Categorize

When a resident posts a notice, it comes to the Admin for review. He can categorize the notice based on the content.

Invoice

If the notice is a Commercial Notice, an Invoice is automatically posted against the Resident’s account based on the Rate configured for the category.

Collect and Publish

Once the Resident pays, the Notice can be Published after review.  The Notice becomes visible on the Notice Board and is also sent as an email to all the users of that Adda.

If you are an Association Treasurer saying ‘Voila’ at this point, we hear you!

If you are already using the Premium PRO package of  ApartmentAdda, or evaluating it, please contact us at support (at) apartmentadda (dot) com, to try out the Notice Manager Add-On for your Adda.

Bonus Enhancements

Also with this release we have released a bunch of enhancements on the Notice Posting front.

Notice Wizard

This is dedicated to the Perfectionists among us. You can save and preview the Notice multiple times and only when you are satisfied, you can publish the Notice.

File Attachments

You can make your Notices more effective now – by attaching pictures, relevant documents etc. Premium users now have an additional step in the work flow  where they can attach upto 5 documents to a Notice. The Notice with the attachments will be sent by email to all your Adda users once it is published .

Enjoy!
ApartmentAdda Team

Now we bring you a reason to LOVE Online Transfers made by Residents!  We’ve been hearing about your pain of matching inbound Online Transfers with the paying Apartment. The reason often is that the right Narration is either not provided by the Payer or is lost in the Bank Statement format.

We are happy to announce a minor, but highly useful upgrade to ApartmentAdda’s Income Tracker Application.

“I have paid”

Residents can now inform the Management Committee about the payment details like Transaction ID of an Electronic Transfer, Date of Transfer, Bank etc. These messages will show up on “Track Fees” page, under the link “I have paid” Intimations. This will help the Association Treasurer in identifying the Collections parked in the Suspense account easily and post the payments to the appropriate flats.

View on Resident's Dashboard (click to enlarge)

Payment Instructions

The Association can now provide instructions on payments, due dates etc. This is configurable for each Adda according to your needs. Just go to  Admin Dashboard > Income Tracker > Setup > Other, and edit the Payment Instructions. It will be visible to all Residents when they click on ‘Flat Dues’.

Customizable Payment Instructions (click to enlarge)

Enjoy your Adda!

In the current release you will find lot of changes in our Issue Tracker Application.

Issue Tracker is one of the most used applications by the Association members to keep track of the long running projects – like Rain Water Harvesting, Handover from Builder, Exterior Re-painting etc.

Here are the list of changes you will find in our Issue Tracker.

1. UI Improvements

We are introducing a new User Interface Widget – “Issue Card“. This issue card will have the summary details of an issue like its number, category, number of updates, and a pointer if this issue had an update since your last login. Also the bottom of the issue card indicates if you are watching that issue or not.

We have grouped the issues into separate tabs Open, In Progress and Closed and also colour coded the Issue Cards based on their priority levels.

2. Watch an Issue

Once you check the “Watch This” check box, an email alert will be sent whenever an update is made on an issue. As an admin you can keep track of issues that are driven by others.

3. Issue Report

We have introduced 3 new Issue Tracker reports. These are drill down reports so from the summary report, on clicking on an issue number a pop up is shown with all the updates on the issue. This report, like all other ApartmentAdda’s Readymade Reports are dynamic, can be exported to Excel and can be published automatically to the Notice Board in Resident’s Dashboard. This gives the residents visibility into the long running projects of the Association.

Enjoy tracking your issues!
ApartmentAdda Team

We have upgraded one of the most used Applications in ApartmentAdda – The Complaint Tracker.

Here is a brief summary of the upgrades that went in this release.

1. Register “On-behalf of” Complaints

The complaints that are raised by phone, or verbally – can now be registered in ApartmentAdda’s complaint tracking system by the helpdesk operator/estate manager. This enables the association members to track all the complaints online – in one place and get updates of the complaints in their Email Inbox. Also the residents themselves  can track the complaint’s status online and also subscribe to the complaint update emails.

2. Granular SMS control

We have now given more granular mapping of SMS alerts to the complaint category owners. Also the text of complaint alert SMS now includes the flat details including intercom number – this enables the plumber, electricians etc. to attend to the complaints quickly without having to get back to the Maintenance Office.

3. Introducing Complaint Escalation

For each Complaint Category, the Association can set 3 levels of complaint escalation and the transition rules for the Escalation Levels. Complaint Escalation can be used effectively to monitor the efficiency of the staff and also to ensure that all complaints get serviced.

4. UI changes for viewing complaints

Now the Admin can filter complaints based on the category. Also with this release paging has been introduced for viewing closed complaints.

Enjoy!
ApartmentAdda Team