TOPS Home E-Zine
Issue #26 - April 2004
April 2004: Inside TOPS Home
1)
Welcome to TOPS Home!
2)
Bi-Annual Summit
3)
Online Payment Application
4)
Coming Soon to a Web Site Near You!
5)
New Features on Your Web Sites
6)
HOAMCO, Prescott, AZ
7)
Message Board, Your Community Link
8)
eRent Payer Online Payments
9)
Spring Cleaning: Purge Expired Events
Read this issue and archived issues of the TOPS Home E-Zine online at:
http://www.topshome.com/topshome/Administrators/TOPS_Home_ezine.htm
Welcome back to TOPS Home, the web site e-mail magazine (e-zine) for the TOPS Community Web Site Service. We have a lot of great content for you this month! The two big focuses this month are the Online Payments Feature, and the Bi-Annual Development Summit. For Online payments, we have the download of the month, with a link to the online payment application, and we also have a great Feature Teacher article by Brandon on how the Online Payments work!
Susan sends out a big thank you to all who submitted suggestions. They were all carefully considered in our recent development summit. In Newsworthy, Andrea shares a quick list of the features that are slated to be added to the service in the coming months.
In addition to all of this, we have still more great reading for you this month - a new article on the message board that you can copy into your own community newsletter or send out via email bulletin, a spotlight on HOAMCO, a management company in Prescott, Arizona, and a spring cleaning article from Andrea on clearing out expired events. As always, enjoy your reading, and if you have any questions or concerns, feel free to contact us. We look forward to speaking with you!
TOPS Web Sales: (800) 556-7852 WebSales@topssoft.com.
TOPS Web Support (800) 899-5689 WebSupport@topssoft.com.Bi-Annual Summit
These are exciting times in the TOPS Web Department! Our Sales, Support and Development teams met for their bi-annual summit to discuss additional integration between TOPS 2000™ and the association web sites, new web site functionality and how to continue to provide top-notch support! We send a big thank you out to those clients who have forwarded their suggestions! You'll be seeing many of your requests implemented within the next few calendar quarters!
If you're a TOPS client not currently using the association web site service, you're missing out! Our clients tell us that they have better retention of communities where they are able to provide this type of tight integration between their software and the web sites. Giving residents and Board Members access to information is the key cog in the communication wheel! Call us today at 1-800-556-7852 if you're interested in receiving information about the TOPS Association Web Site Service.Online Payment Application
Our online payment interface has been successfully implemented with over 100 associations. These communities are allowing residents to make payments online via credit card or e-checks.
Homeowners are happy with the interface because it allows them to make their payments when it is convenient to them. They can even set up scheduled automatic payments that will charge their credit card or write an e-check automatically each time dues are assessed. The server through which owners make payments is completely secure, and owners define their own login name and password that is completely separate from the login info on your community web site.
TOPS users love the online payment interface too! Payments are automatically listed on the site, and are available for download in a lockbox format. You may define several different ways of receiving payment notification, from an email every time an owner pays online, to a batch report emailed to you when a group of payments hit the bank account. You can even run date specific reports online to see what payments were made in that time frame. The online lockbox file is available with a simply click of the mouse, and pulling the data into TOPS is as easy as changing a radio button in TOPS 2000™. One user commented that this feature was even easier than the old way of doing lockbox, and said she wished this had been available years ago.
In addition to the benefits listed above, management company owners and accountants love the online payment interface because it is free! Neither your management company or your association is charged one penny for this service. All costs are passed to the homeowner in the form of a $2 transaction fee, plus 3% processing fee for credit card payments. And did you know you can even use this service for those communities that have not yet signed up for a web site? Yes, you can offer the online payment interface right through your TOPS Management Company site.
If you have not taken advantage of this incredible new feature, what are you waiting for? It doesn't get any better than this! Go to our web site at www.topshome.com, click on Downloads, and print out the 'Application for Online Payments' under the Contracts and Schedules category.
Coming Soon to a web site near you!
Twice a year, TOPS Software's web site developers, sales staff, and support staff get together to assess where the TOPS Community Web Site service is, and where it will be going. These 'summits' are where we discuss potential new features and customer requests, and decide on a development schedule for the next six months. Our most recent summit was held this month, and we have a great list of new features that will be coming your way over the course of the year. Here are a few of the planned changes:
- Add A Page feature for custom, one level pages.
- Add New 'Attached Residents' to allow multiple resident records to be tied to one property. (Only primary owner will be able to view account info)
- "Add to Favorites" and "Make my home page" links will be added to web sites
- Add detailed descriptions for CCRs, ACC, Work Orders and Service Requests
- Post documents in events calendar
- Add pop up option on Account Info page for past due owners
- Include a person's title in their USER ID field that would show up when they post in the message boards.
- Add ability to include attachments in auto responders
- Create a report in TOPS of who has the web interface disabled
- Create a report in TOPS of web names, login name, and password.
- "Add place in TOPS where user can see an owner's upload name, and change it, if necessary.
- Add a option to include developers in TOPS upload if no primary owner exists.
- Add Attorney access that allows them to see account info, but not contribute to the sites.
- Improve Photo Gallery to go from one picture to the next without having to go back and forth from the Photo Gallery page.
New Features on Your Community Web Sites
A number of changes were made this month to the TOPS 2000™ programs that feed the web sites.
- Rearranged the 'Internet' menu in TOPS 2000™ to make navigation more user friendly.
- Renamed 'Update Current Community' to 'Upload Current Community', and moved the menu item into the Web Sites submenu.
- Renamed 'Update All Communities' to 'Upload All Communities', and moved the menu item into the 'Web Sites' submenu
- Renamed 'Update Previously Selected Communities' to 'Advanced Upload Options' (This is the only location through which you may choose 'Update All Records', 'Re-Do Passwords', or 'Reinitialize Records'.
- Renamed 'Upload Options' to 'Configure Community Uploads'.
- Added 'eRentPayer' submenu to the 'Internet' menu.
- 'Community Management' allows one to select which communities to upload data to eRentPayer for online payments. (Only communities that have completed a payment application and been approved are eligible to upload to eRentPayer.)
- 'Upload Now' uploads the owner account information from the selected communities to eRentPayer's secure server.
- Added 'eRentPayer' task type to Scheduler to allow automatic updates of owner account information to online payment interface.
- Added eRentPayer functionality to Lockbox program to allow processing of online payments.
- Added new upload log display to TOPS 2000™ desktop. In the upper right hand corner of your TOPS 2000™ desktop, you will now see the date and time of the last successful upload for the selected community.
- Added a better routine to handle proxy servers for connection purposes.
- Added new utility to replace 'Rebuild Owner Access Data' routine. The new submenu, Rebuild Access Data, is available from the Utilities menu in TOPS 2000™.
- 'Community List' option will allow one to recreate the community list. This is helpful if certain communities are not printing correctly in certain reports (such as CC&R or Work Order reports)
- 'Current Community' option is the same as the original feature, and will rebuild the owner access data. This is helpful if you are missing owners from your web site, or unable to select/view owner information in Work Order, CC&R, Gate Security, or Pool Pass modules. All web site login names and passwords are now retained during this operation.
- 'All Communities' option will allow one to rebuild the owner access data for every community in TOPS 2000™. This can be very useful when files get corrupted on a large scale basis, from a power surge, for example. All web site login names and passwords are retained during this operation.
- Corrected reports screen so web report options correctly say 'Export to Web' instead of 'Export to File'.
HOAMCO, Prescott Arizona
In 1991, Homeowners Association Management Company ("HOAMCO") was established to provide unsurpassed community association management services.
Since our inception, we have focused 100% of our efforts on the community association industry. We have made a commitment to do one thing and do it well! HOAMCO is known for quality not quantity.
Our focus has been to develop management services that promote the quality of life for community association members. One of the most vital services we are able to provide to our clients is access to their community web site. The journey begins at our own web site, www.hoamco.com, where our customers can view the many benefits of having a community web site via the “Community Demo Site.” Here they can see first hand how to build a better sense of community through communication with such features as:
- Committee and board member listings
- Board meeting minutes
- Community newsletters and calendars
- Voting and surveys
- E-mail bulletins
- Privately-accessed owner accounts
And, perhaps, best of all:- Interactive service requests.
From the privacy of one’s own home at whatever time is convenient to our customers, they can request information regarding their accounts, architectural guidelines, or association rules and regulations.
This feature is equally valuable to HOAMCO as it allows our staff to manage their time more effectively. E-mail responses can be allocated to a certain period of the day, allowing each staff member to do the proper research and devote the proper attention to our customer’s inquiry, whereas an impromptu phone call or visit from a customer forms the basis for a hurried, and not always completely thought out, response.
This is only one example of the many ways in which our partnership with TOPS Software has proved beneficial to both our customers and our company.
Would you like your web site to be spotlighted in the TOPS Home E-Zine? Send us a two or three paragraph email. Be sure to include a description of your community, tell us what led you to getting a Community Web Site, and let us know what features you like best. Send your spotlight to websupport@topssoft.com.
Keep Them Coming Back!
Many associations publish a community newsletter for their residents on a regular basis. In this section of the TOPS Home Ezine, we'll provide an article each month that you can publish in your newsletter (or in an email bulletin) to help promote your web site and let your residents know just how great their web site is, and how easy it is to sign on and get informed! Just customize the article by inserting your community web site domain name and cut and paste it right into your newsletter!
Message Board, Your Community Link
Do you remember the days before the big technology boom when life was a little slower? Back then, people took the time to talk to their neighbors, participate in lively conversations, and share advice with the people in their community. In today's fast paced society, when we are all zipping from one place to another, it is so easy to lose that sense of neighborliness. But we all lose out when this happens.
Fortunately, there is a high tech solution that can help to bring us full circle. The community message board, available on our web site at [community web site address] is a great way to bring back that old fashioned community closeness to your hectic world. You can ask other residents their opinions, share your concerns, or just strike up a conversation.
You can even subscribe to the message board so that any new messages posted are automatically sent to your email inbox. This way, you can keep up with the various conversations within the community, and only respond to those topics that interest or concern you. The [Community Name] message board is a great way to participate in the community, get to know your neighbors, and share your opinions. Who knows, you might even learn something!
So go to our web site at [community web site address], log in using your unique user name and password, and click the message board link to strike up a conversation with your neighbors today!
If you have a method of drawing visitors to your site that has been successful for you, please take a moment to share it with your fellow community web site administrators. You can send your tips to websupport@topssoft.com.
Online Payments with 'eRentPayer'
Yes, the single most asked-for feature a community web site can have has now arrived. You can now sign up your community web sites to feature online payments for owners! Working with an online transaction company called eRentPayer, TOPS 2000™ community web sites can now allow owners to not only see their account balance and history, but also make online payments right from the community web site. Here's how it works:
Owner Account Setup
When an owner goes to your community web site, he or she can click on the Account Info screen to view their account balance, account history, and last payment info as usual. In addition to all of this information, a new button will also be available called "Pay Dues". Clicking this link will take the owner to the new online payment feature. It will ask the owner for a login name and password or, if the owner has never logged in before, to create a new account.
Notice: For security reasons, the login and password for online payments is completely separate from the login name and password for the community web sites.
If an owner has not yet created a login for the site, he or she will have to create one. Only one login can be created for each property. When the owner clicks the Create Login button, he or she will be presented with a pull down menu listing the street names in the property. The owner will first select his or her street, and click next. Secondly, the owner must select the address of the property, and enter his or her first and last name, and enter the user name and password he or she wishes to use.
eRentPayer identifies a valid owner by matching the street address with the owner name entered by the user. If the name entered by the user does not match the name uploaded to eRentPayer from TOPS 2000™, the account is rejected. This stricture helps prevent fraud and user error. The name associated with the property is the same name of the primary owner that is uploaded from TOPS 2000™ to the community web site. In other words, whatever the owner enters into these fields must match the name on the owner's profile in the community web site. For example, if in TOPS 2000™, the owner is listed as John and Mary Smith, the web site would list the primary owner as John Smith (putting Mary Smith in the Resident 2 fields). In the online payment feature, he would also be listed as John Smith, which is what Mr. Smith would need to enter into the create account screen.
After confirming a match between the street address and owner name, eRentPayer will prompt the user to enter or confirm his or her profile information. Much of this information is pre populated by TOPS 2000™, so the setup should just be a matter of confirming the information is correct. Once this section is complete, an account has been successfully created for this owner, and he or she may now set up a bank account or Visa or Mastercard from which to make payments. The current account balance is uploaded from TOPS 2000™, so the owner will know exactly the amount they need to pay.
Remember that the account setup is a one-time process. It may seem detailed, but we have pre populated as much information as possible to make the setup process easy on the owners. Once the account is set up, the owner can simply log in using the login name and password that they defined during the setup process.
Administration
When a new community is set up with eRentPayer, an administrative login account is created. TOPS Software will provide you with the administrative login info at the same time we inform you that the online payment interface is set up and ready. The admin login information should be given to the controller or accountant who will be responsible for pulling the online payments down into TOPS 2000™ for processing.
The administrator will be notified when payments are made online in one of three ways:
- You may opt to receive an Email for each transaction when they are performed. (recommended for small communities)
- You may log in to the eRentPayer site with the administrative login and run date specific reports to view payments that have been made. (Use this at the end of the month to insure late charges are not assessed unfairly)
- You may opt to receive an email when an entire batch of payments hit the bank account. This occurs approximately 4 days after the transaction has been performed online. (recommended for most customers)
Using any of the above three options, the administrator can log in to the site and export the lockbox file containing the transaction from the web site. We recommend creating a folder in Windows for eRentPayer files, so they are easy to locate and identify. Once the eRentPayer lockbox file is downloaded, it may be processed under Global -> Lockbox in TOPS 2000™. The lockbox file may be imported exactly the same as any normal lockbox file, except that when it is processed, eRentPayer must be selected as the lockbox type.
Making payments online is a bonus for the whole community, from the accountant to the owners. And, as you have seen, it can save both time and money in processing accounts receivables.
Is there a feature that you would like to learn more about? Send an email to websupport@topssoft.com with your suggestions for our next Feature Teacher.
Spring Cleaning: How to Clean up expired content
If your web site has been around for a while, you more than likely have hundreds of old events sitting around in your events calendar gathering dust (and taking up space!) Did you know that you can purge old events from your calendar? Not only can this make room on the server, it can also make administration of the events calendar a heck of a lot easier (No more hundreds of events to slog through!) Here's what you need to do:
- Log in to your site as the administrator
- Click on Events Calendar
- At the very bottom of the page, click "Click here to purge old Events by Date"
- Enter the date of the earliest events you want to keep (for example 1/1/04)
- Click Delete.
The system will inform you that the events were successfully deleted. It will also display the number of events still remaining in the database. The next time you need to edit your events, you should have a much easier time finding events by going through the new, smaller list.
Warning: The process above is a permanent delete. If you wish to archive events before you delete them, please use the "Export Calendar Events to a Text File" feature first.
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!~ + ~ + ~ + ~ + ~ + ~ + ~ + ~ + ~ + ~
Here is a list of some of the most common contact data for TOPS Software:
Department
Contact
Phone
Software Sales
Nicole Sezov
800-760-9966
Web Site Sales
Susan Sanders
800-556-7852
Technical Support
Jeanne Plennert
800-899-5689
Web Site Support
Brandon Kelley
800-899-5689
Accounting
Cande Estrella
301-869-8144
Designed by TOPS Software, LLC. Copyright© 2001-2004 TOPS Software, LLC, 364-C Christopher Ave, Gaithersburg, MD 2879. ALL RIGHTS RESERVED.
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1-800-556-7852
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Please contact TOPS Software at info@topssoft.com,
or visit our website at www.topssoft.com.