Posts Tagged ‘Product Update’

Enhancements to Income & Expense Tracker

Jul 8th, 10 / 0 Comments
Fine Tuned

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

Product Updates

Complaint Tracker Enhanced

Jun 12th, 10 / 0 Comments

Dear ApartmentAdda Users,

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

Here are the list of enhancements that are live now :

Resident's view of Complaint Tracker.

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.

Screenshot-Sharlow Apartments Adda - Mozilla Firefox

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

Product Updates

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

Mar 20th, 10 / 2 Comments

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.

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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!

Product Updates

Search your Adda!

Feb 12th, 10 / 0 Comments

The Internet has spoiled us for choice when it comes to Searching.  In ApartmentAdda, Search was limited to Residents Directory, now ApartmentAdda expands Search to Forum, Document Repository and Vendor Database. Now you will find information in your Adda that Google will not :)

762061_curiosity

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

Product Updates

Notice Manager released!

Feb 9th, 10 / 0 Comments

Dear ApartmentAdda User,

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.

109551_notice_board

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

Product Updates

Complaint Tracker Upgraded

Jan 14th, 10 / 0 Comments

complaint_boxDear Users,

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

ALTER

ITABLE  `adda_complaint_category`

ADD  `cocategory_esc_no1` SMALLINT NOT NULL ,
ADD  `cocategory_owner_id2` MEDIUMINT NOT NULL ,
ADD  `cocategory_esc_no2` SMALLINT NOT NULL ,
ADD  `cocategory_owner_id3` MEDIUMINT NOT NULL ,
ADD  `cocategory_sms1` SMALLINT NOT NULL,
ADD  `cocategory_sms2` SMALLINT NOT NULL ,
ADD  `cocategory_sms3` SMALLINT NOT NULL;
DELETE FROM `adda_watch` WHERE `adda_watch`.`watch_id` = 491 LIMIT 1;
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DELETE FROM `adda_watch` WHERE `adda_watch`.`watch_id` = 590 LIMIT 1;
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DELETE FROM `adda_watch` WHERE `adda_watch`.`watch_id` = 1637 LIMIT 1;
DELETE FROM `adda_watch` WHERE `adda_watch`.`watch_id` = 1639 LIMIT 1;
DELETE FROM `adda_watch` WHERE `adda_watch`.`watch_id` = 1641 LIMIT 1;
DELETE FROM `adda_watch` WHERE `adda_watch`.`watch_id` = 1643 LIMIT 1;
DELETE FROM `adda_watch` WHERE `adda_watch`.`watch_id` = 1647 LIMIT 1;
DELETE FROM `adda_watch` WHERE `adda_watch`.`watch_id` = 1651 LIMIT 1;
DELETE FROM `adda_watch` WHERE `adda_watch`.`watch_id` = 1653 LIMIT 1;
DELETE FROM `adda_watch` WHERE `adda_watch`.`watch_id` = 1655 LIMIT 1;
DELETE FROM `adda_watch` WHERE `adda_watch`.`watch_id` = 1645 LIMIT 1;
DELETE FROM `adda_watch` WHERE `adda_watch`.`watch_id` = 1649 LIMIT 1;
DELETE FROM `adda_watch` WHERE `adda_watch`.`watch_id` = 1947 LIMIT 1;
DELETE FROM `adda_watch` WHERE `adda_watch`.`watch_id` = 1948 LIMIT 1;
DELETE FROM `adda_watch` WHERE `adda_watch`.`watch_id` = 1949 LIMIT 1;
DELETE FROM `adda_watch` WHERE `adda_watch`.`watch_id` = 1950 LIMIT 1;
DELETE FROM `adda_watch` WHERE `adda_watch`.`watch_id` = 1951 LIMIT 1;
DELETE FROM `adda_watch` WHERE `adda_watch`.`watch_id` = 1952 LIMIT 1;
DELETE FROM `adda_watch` WHERE `adda_watch`.`watch_id` = 1953 LIMIT 1;
DELETE FROM `adda_watch` WHERE `adda_watch`.`watch_id` = 5670 LIMIT 1;
DELETE FROM `adda_watch` WHERE `adda_watch`.`watch_id` = 5549 LIMIT 1;
DELETE FROM `adda_watch` WHERE `adda_watch`.`watch_id` = 5663 LIMIT 1;
DELETE FROM `adda_watch` WHERE `adda_watch`.`watch_id` = 5832 LIMIT 1;
Product Updates

Single Sign-on, Masking Names & Advance Realtime Notification

Jan 5th, 10 / 0 Comments

Dear Adda Users,

We wish you a very happy and prosperous 2010.

Here are the new features that are available in your Adda now.

Single Sign-on

If you are a multiple home owner, you may be familiar with this: If you are registered and approved in multiple Addas, you can login once ( single sign-on) and  easily switch between the multiple Addas to which you belong. You used the Adda List drop down box below the Logout Button. However when you login, you will be logged in automatically to the first Adda you had registered in.

Not anymore.

Now you have a setting in My Profile page to select the “default Adda” you want to be logged in first. Later you can switch between the Addas from the DropDown.

Masking Names

You already have the ability to mask your phone numbers and email address. Starting today, you can mask your name also. Once you opt for this setting, your name will not show up on search, nor on the resident’s directory. However if you make any forum posts, notice etc – your name will be displayed.

Please note that the administrators of your Adda will have access to all the masked details ( name, email, phone ).

Advance Realtime Notification Settings

Earlier there was only one “Realtime Notification” checkbox in My Profile page that controlled the alerts for new forum posts, polls, notices or new file uploads.

Now we have separated the Realtime Notification option of Forum from the rest. This means that now you can choose to be instantly notified when a new poll or a notice is created but not get instant notifications when forum discussion happens. Please go to the My Profile page to update your notification settings.

Enjoy!
ApartmentAdda Team

Product Updates

Adda Forums and Notice Board upgraded

Dec 9th, 09 / 0 Comments

Dear Users,

We have upgraded the Adda Forums and Notice Board . Here are the list of changes :

1. Introducing Forum Topic Number

Every forum topic that was created, or you will be creating henceforth will get a unique topic number. The emails you will receive will all carry this unique number. When you reply to the forum emails, Adda mail server will use this unique topic number to match your post to the right topic.

This has other advantages – just by seeing the topic number you will know how new or old a topic is.

Note : During this transition, when you reply to an old email it will get assigned a new topic number – so a few threads might split – inform us and we will join them. This will not happen if you reply directly on the Forum after logging into ApartmentAdda.

2. Introducing reply-to sender option

For users  who are used to google-groups, we are introducing a feature where the reply-to will have the sender’s email address instead of your group’s email address. This will enable one-to-one conversation where required. You can send a request to ApartmentAdda support to enable this feature for your Adda.

3.  Breadcrumbs and Message Numbers

We have introduced breadcrumbs for easy navigation of the forum topics and posts. Also each post now carries the ordering number – like how you receive in the email.

4. Participation poll in Notice Board

For an event, like New Year party, when you create a notice you can enable a Participation Poll right on the Event notice. A resident can now RSVP saying how many are attending from their flat – so you can have a quick count of attendees for effective planning.

5. Comments in Notice Board

Now you can add your comments to a Notice. This will send an email notification to the Notice owner. You can also opt to “Watch this notice”, so any comments posted on the notice will send you an email alert as well.

Cheers!
ApartmentAdda Team



Product Updates

Asset Tracker for Apartment Asset Management

Sep 14th, 09 / 0 Comments

ApartmentAdda is excited to announce the launch of the Asset Tracker! A simple and robust application, it equips the Apartment Association to ensure long life of Apartment Assets, and minimize repair costs by timely preventive maintenance.

Asset Tracker makes it very easy to record and maintain Association Assets such as – Electrical Devices (Transformer, Generator, Submersible Pump), Gym Equipments, Housekeeping Equipments, and any other Capital Asset.

Track Asset Details for preventive maintenance

Track Asset Details for preventive maintenance

All information can be accessed on one page, separated by tabs. Seller’s contact information and AMC provider’s contact information can be stored with Asset, email/sms alerts can be set up for preventive maintenance schedule, service history can be maintained and scanned documents such as warranty/user manual etc. can be stored in the Asset Record!

You can set the service alert emails/sms to go to the Facility Manager, as well as to selected Management Committee members. The alert content automatically includes the service provider’s contact numbers, so you can call them up and confirm the service appointment right after receiving the alert!

No more unpleasant surprises of the Submersible Pump breaking down due to missed servicing dates, or misplaced warranties and purchase invoices!

Asset Tracker is part of the Premium PRO package of ApartmentAdda.

Product Updates

Participate-by-email!

Sep 2nd, 09 / 4 Comments

In almost all Addas (Adda = the private portal of an apartment complex), the Forum and the Admin Forum are the most frequently used applications.

In the beginning, every post made to the Forum sent an email to all users (except those who have opted out), informing them that they could log into ApartmentAdda to participate in the conversation.  Some of our users, especially the blackberry wielding ones, wished to reply to the post right away, by email – a la yahoogroup.

ApartmentAdda was happy to satisfy their urge to participate, at the same time not hamper the ‘Forum’ experience – by releasing the feature “Participate-by-email” .  This feature lets you swap emails – just like yahoogroup, and your emails get posted in the Forums as well!  So, if your laptop is out of juice, stopping you from logging on to ApartmentAdda, but you want to inform everyone that the builder is sitting right next to you on a 3 hour flight (woohoo!)- you could thumb an email from your handheld to ‘forum AT apartmentadda DOT com‘!! This posted a message in your Adda’s Forum, as well as notified neighbours by email.

Since the release of “Participate-by-email”, many valuable suggestions have poured in, and our team has been pounding away at their keyboard to implement the selected ones.

Today, we are very happy to announce the release of a bunch of enhancements to the “Participate-by-email” feature.

Here are the top two:

Personalized email ids

Previously to participate in the forum using email, the user was sending email to ‘forumATapartmentaddaDOTcom‘. ApartmentAdda internally mapped this email to the user’s specific Adda and posted it. While this was elegant, it limited the user of multiple Addas.
Now each Adda has its unique email id. For example, the email id of Sharlow Apartments is sharlow-forum AT apartmentadda DOT com. For the adminforum it is sharlow-adminforum AT apartmentadda DOT com. We have contacted the Moderator of each Adda to ensure they like their email id.

To the user of multiple Addas: Now you can participate in all your Addas with one user-id (your email-id). Just ensure you are writing to the email-id of the right Adda!

Facelift to the email appearance

Now  you can see the forum trail in email – just enough to give you the context, at the same time not overloading your inbox!
Also, Forum posts come color coded Blue’n'white in emails. Admin-Forum posts come in Grey’n'white. No more ‘oops’ moments with writing to the Forum with a message intended for the Admin-Forum.
Here are the screenshots.

Forum post in e-mail

Forum post in email

Admin-Forum post in e-mail

Admin-Forum post in email

There are many other small improvements in this feature, which we’d let our users discover as they use them!

Do let us know if you like what you see! And keep those suggestions coming in!

Love and Cheers!
ApartmentAdda Team

Product Updates