TOPS Home E-Zine

Issue #5 - July 2002

Inside TOPS Home:

1. TOPS Announcements: New Promotion and More!
2. Never Lose a Customer - We Guarantee It!
3. Lucy Fox Joins the Web Team
4. Spotlight: Field Master Association Mgmt
5. Support: Uploading Reports
6. Support: Login Request Form
7. TOPS Software Supports Relief Efforts

Announcements: New Promotion and More!

Welcome to TOPS Home, the web site e-zine for TOPS Community Web Sites. This month, we are introducing a new promotion to encourage community web site sales. We will also introduce you to the newest member of our web site team, Lucy Fox. In Support, we have some helpful information on uploading reports to your community web site, and clarification on the login request form. Finally, we will tally the results of the relief effort donation to the Red Cross on Independence Day.

As always, enjoy your reading, and if you have any questions or concerns call me, Matt Meiklejohn at 800-760-9966, or email me at websales@topssoft.com. I look forward to speaking with you!

Never Lose a Customer —We Guarantee* It:

At TOPS Software, we understand how difficult managing communities can be. You work hard to get and retain each community you manage. So if we could show you how to retain every community you manage, plus attract new communities to build your business, you would be interested, right? If we also guaranteed* that you would never lose a customer or we pay you for the loss, would you be even more interested? How can you take advantage of this opportunity? With a TOPS Community Web Site.

We believe a TOPS Community Web Site offers you contract security and we're willing to give you our written guarantee* to back that up! But hurry, this guarantee is only available for community web sites that you sign up with us from now through December 31, 2002. If you lose the management contract on that community during the next year after commencing the web site service, we'll refund you the amount you paid for the last month's web site hosting fee for that community.

*Guarantee

This guarantee is good for new TOPS Community Web Sites where service is commenced between July 1, 2002 and December 31, 2002.

If a TOPS Community Web Site customer terminates the management contract with its management company who uses TOPS 2000™ Software to manage that community, we hereby agree to refund the last month's community web hosting fee to the management company subject to the following conditions:

• Management companies and their communities are only eligible if they have a signed web site agreement with TOPS Software.
• The terminating community must have had a web site through TOPS Software for at least 2 consecutive quarters.
• In order to qualify, the management company must do an initial upload of data from TOPS 2000™ to the web site and provide the homeowners with their unique login names and passwords, so that the web site is functional.
• The management company must also perform regular weekly or monthly uploads of live data from TOPS 2000™.
• TOPS Software must have received payment for the last quarterly web hosting fees for the terminating community.

To obtain a refund under this guarantee, the management company must provide a copy of a signed, written notice of termination from the board of directors of the community leaving the management company.

Lucy Fox Joins the Web Site Team

Please join us in welcoming Lucy Fox to the web site team. Lucy brings a wide range of experience to the team, having worked in a number of IT positions, most recently as a software instructor for CompUSA. She is friendly and knowledgeable, and a great asset to our team. Lucy will be supporting the web site administrators via e-mail, and providing some design services as well. You can learn more about Lucy from her bio: http://www.topssoft.com/Corporate/spotlight.htm#Lucy. Welcome, Lucy!

Special Note: Please remember to send your web site support requests to WebSupport@topssoft.com to ensure a prompt response.

Customer in the Spotlight:

Field Master Association Mgmt

Based in Utah, Field Master Association Management provides management services and community web sites to communities across the country. Like their services, the Field Master web site is a pleasant break from the everyday. Field Master's two community web sites, City West and Shadow Oaks, aptly display the varied portfolio that Field Master manages. To experience it for yourself, visit Field Master's site at http://www.FieldMasterUT.com.

Support: Uploading Reports

The new update to the community web sites includes a great new feature called "Reports". This function allows you to upload select reports to your community web sites. Below is a list of instructions for uploading reports to your web site. Remember that this function will not work until your community web sites have been updated.

The following reports may be uploaded to the web in TOPS 2000™ version 3.04: Telephone Directory (Owners), Aged Delinquency and Delinquency Status (A/R), Balance Sheet, Income Statement, Reserve Statement and Yearly Spreadsheet (G/L). Future versions of the software will include additional reports.

1. To upload a report, go to the report screen and prepare the report, as if to print it.
2. Locate the checkbox labeled "Export to Web"*, and check it.
3. Click print. You should receive a message that the export has been completed, and the report file has been saved in the community folder under the WEBRPT folder.
4. Click "Internet", "Web Reports Manger". All of the reports that you have exported for this community will be displayed in the report manager.
5. Check the reports you wish to upload to the community web site. If you wish to remove a report from the web site, uncheck it. Only those reports that have a check in the box on the left will upload to the Internet.
6. You may attach a file to any of the reports. To do so, click the report so it is selected, then click the "Attach" button. Graphic and text files will be appended at the end of the report; other file formats will be displayed as a link to the file at the bottom of the report.
7. Once you have checked the appropriate reports and attached all of the necessary files, click "Upload Reports Now". The designated reports will upload to the community web site.
8. Note: Unchecking reports will remove them from the web site but will not remove them from the Web Reports Manager. To delete reports from the list, highlight the report and click "Delete Report".

This function will be set by default to the "Board Only" section of your web site with a view security setting of 25 (board member security level). You may choose to change the security level if you wish owners to be able to view your reports. Simply let us know by sending an e-mail to websupport@topssoft.com.

*In version 3.04, the Aged Delinquency and Delinquency Status report web export options were inadvertantly labeled "Export to File". Use this option to export these two reports to your community web sites. This error will be corrected in TOPS 2000™ version 3.1. Back to text

Support: The Login Request Form

One of the more common mistakes that new administrators make is to misinterpret the purpose of the Login Request form. It is important to understand that TOPS generates the login names and passwords for all of your owners. Thus, it is not necessary for owners to complete a Login Request form in order to receive a login name and password. However, TOPS will only create these for the primary owners of the properties. Hence, the purpose of the Login Request form is to create login names and passwords (and thus web site access), for community members who are not the primary owners, such as renters, secondary owners, developers, off-site board members, and others.

TOPS Software Supports Relief Efforts

Many of you are aware of TOPS' efforts to contribute to the September 11th relief efforts. On July 4th, we compiled all of the donations received and donated $1,550 to the American Red Cross. TOPS extends a special "Thank You" to all of you who supported the effort.

 

Did you know that TOPS Software will provide you with a free community web site  CD demo?  Follow this link to apply for your free demo today!

 

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About the Authors

Lucy Fox is your Community Web Site Support Representative
Matt Meiklejohn is your TOPS Community Web Site Sales Representative
Andrea Drennen is the Director of Publishing and Standards at TOPS Software

 

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