TOPS Home E-Zine; Issue #29 - September 2004
Inside TOPS Home
1)
Welcome to TOPS Home!
2)
Guidance from the Front Line
3)
Online Payments Marketing Materials
4)
Important Updates
5)
New Features on Your Web Sites
6)
Online Payments Hit the Spot!
7)
Online Payments A to Z
8)
The Facts About Online Payments
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. Thankfully, we all made it through Hurricanes Charley, Frances, and Ivan unscathed, and we are all ready to bring you all of the helpful news and information on TOPS Interactive Web Sites that you have come to expect from us!
This issue is exciting in that it is our first ever themed e-zine! And what a great theme, too! This issue is all about our online payments service. Whether you already use our online payment service, or you are just now looking into it, this e-zine is for you! We have packed it to the gills with the most information on this service ever before compiled into one space! Oh yeah, and we also have the latest updates to the service, which includes some new options that we have added due to popular demand, so be sure to check it out!
So enjoy your reading, and if you have any questions or concerns, or you are hungry for still more info on online payments, 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.Guidance from the Frontline!
In talking with Management Company personnel, we find that the receptionist is usually the first to know when a Management Company needs to offer a new service in order to stay ahead of their competition! After all, she (or he) is the one who talks with just about every person that visits and calls the firm. Your receptionist knows what they're calling about and who to direct them to within your company. We encourage you to ask her how many people on a weekly basis ask if they can pay for something with a credit card! We were surprised and we think you will be too! It is the reason that we went out and found a payment processor that understands the needs of the community association industry and chose to work with us to offer such a terrific service!
The online payment feature is specifically geared to this industry. There are no set up fees, no monthly fees and no monthly transaction fees. Due to the fiduciary nature of a non profit community association such as your clients, all fees must instead be added to the principal amount of the transaction and are charged to the resident using the service. The online payments flow right into TOPS 2000™ through a special “lockbox” interface we constructed so any online payments will automatically update the owners payment history—no manual entry of cash receipts needed. So everyone wins with online payments, the homeowners who have the convenience of paying by credit card or debit and the management company who gets the efficiency and time savings of automatic updates to TOPS 2000™.
There is no cost, there is no obligation. Just the amazing upside potential of making more of your residents excited about the management company services you offer! Call us to today at 1-800-556-7852 or email websales@topssoft.com for additional information.
Free Marketing Materials
This month, we have four great documents for you! First of all, we have expanded on and improved the FAQ pages, one for homeowners, and one for administrators and managers.
Secondly, we have created a whole series of fliers/postcards that you can send to your residents to inform then that you now have online payments! The series is called "Faces" and is offered in two different formats, one for 1/2 page fliers, and one for postcards. There is a complete set of instructions included in the first page of both files. A variety of ethnic and age groups have been provided to enable you to send out a collection, or choose the faces that best suit your community!
Download all four great documents, and check out our new Online Payments page at: http://www.topshome.com/topshome/Online Payments.htm
Important Updates
Even More Payment Options!
Our online payment interface now accepts two more credit cards, American Express and Discover, so you can offer even more online payment options to your owners! The American Express fee is slightly higher than the usual 3% convenience fee, at 3.5%.
Errata:
If you are currently using Online Payments, and have the scheduler set up to perform automatic uploads of owner data, you may have experienced an error message within the past few days. The error reads "Access Violation at address XXXXXXXX in module 'EMain.exe'. Read of address 0000003C." We apologize for any inconvenience this may have caused you. The problem was due to some permissions being incorrectly defined on our secure ftp server, and has since been corrected. You will need to update your program files to receive the new changes. You can find the instructions to do so in the "What's New" article.
New Features on Your Community Web Sites
- Corrected network permissions error in online payment scheduled uploads.
- Updated pool pass to improve web site compatibility.
- Changed file name format for online payment uploads.
- Events Calendar export now also exports the new "location" field
- The amount of time a deleted topic or message in the message board can be recovered is now customizable by community (defaults to 30 days - email support to change)
- Daily events listed underneath the calendar view now also include the time of the event
- When adding an announcement via the events calendar feature it now also includes any web site link and location
- All modules and module categories now show the number of categories and items under them in parenthesis
- Fixed a problem with deleted messages still showing up under "what's new"
- Allow an option for eForm submission emails to be sent in "rich" (HTML) format for easier viewing
- Resolved error caused by "too much data" being manually entered into the address field in the User Profile
- Increased the size of the text box for messages and topics in the message board and Board Only message board
- Allow option for adding announcements in "Rich Text" format - default is "Plain text", you must email support to activate Rich format
Thank you to those who have made suggestions for improvement, our service wouldn't be what it is without you!
Online Payments Hit the Spot!
We asked several of the customers who are currently using Online Payments for their communities to tell us what they thought about the service, and what feedback they had received from Residents regarding Online Payments. Here is what they told us:
"With a management business that is ever growing, we have found the online payment one of the best methods of reducing work load of staff and increasing time for new accounts - which boils down to more $$$$$$ for the boss!
Initially, we were sceptical of how our clients would receive the online payment procedure. To our surprise, it has been a great move! We are continually decreasing our mail bag and increasing our online payments.
In December, when we prepare our payment coupons for the new year, we will begin our promotion of the online payment plan. We expect to be receiving 25% of our payments on line!!!
How is that for doing business - increasing time for new accounts and keeping our staff happy. It hasn't cost management a cent!!!!!!!!!"
Tom Finnerty, CEO,
TW Finnerty Property Management, Inc., New York"As for me I think its great. We have people now paying that wouldn't otherwise. I have had a few say they love it because they travel a lot and can use it where ever they are at, at the time."
Heather Turley, Web Administrator,
Brown Property Management, Arizona"Online payments is a program that we really like. It has been working very well for us. More people are using it each month and many use it consistently each month. It allows the homeowners to make their payments at their leisure, close to the due dates and it guarantees that payments are made on time and not late due to something happening with the mail service. We are very happy with the program and [support] has been terrific about working with us when we have had any issues. "
Sheri Burke, Client Accountant Supervisor
Real Property Management, Ohio"We thought it would take awhile for homeowners to catch on to the 'on-line payment' option we had added to our web page. Surprisingly, before we could get an informational mailing out, we were receiving payments and continue to receive online payments on a daily basis. It has been a great addition to the financial service we are able to provide our clients."
Gina Morris, Director of Financial Management
D.H. Bader Management Services, Maryland
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.
Online Payments from A to Z:
A step by step Guide to Online Payments AdministrationThe newest feature of the TOPS Community Web Site Service is also the most widely demanded. The Online Payments feature is an extraordinary advancement in the service, and this article will give you an in-depth look at how to use it. Before you can understand how to use it, however, you first should understand the overall structure of how it works.
Online Payments - A First Look
The Online Payment process is divided into 3 sections - the owner data upload, the online processing, and the lockbox download.
- The owner data upload process deals with the upload of owner data from TOPS 2000™ to eRentPayer, the online processor. This will load owner address information and account balances to the server so that owners can setup their online payment accounts.
- The online processing part of the service involves several different steps including defining the company settings, owners setting up their online payment accounts, owners making payments, and the online processing of transactions.
- The final section, the lockbox download, deals with importing the cleared transactions into TOPS 2000™.
Part 1: Owner Data Upload
The owner data upload portion of the process is actually quite straight-forward. The purpose of it is to make sure that the Online Payments processor has the correct owner information and account balances. When an owner creates a login, they must enter their first and last name correctly or the system will reject their attempt to create a login. This is based on the data that is uploaded from TOPS 2000™, so it is important to upload on a regularly scheduled basis.
When you first receive an e-mail from us letting you know that we have received your application submission, you will need to perform an initial upload of the community data from TOPS 2000™. Following are the instructions for completing that process.
To perform an initial upload of the community data from TOPS 2000™
- Before you do anything, you should first make sure all of your program files are up-to-date using the TOPS Internet Updater utility and selecting the Community Web Sites module.
- Next, in the TOPS 2000™ software, go to Internet -> Online Payments ->Community Management.
- Here, you will put a checkmark next to each community that you have an Online Payments contract for. This will tell your system which communities will be uploaded.
- When you have selected each community (or deselected the communities which should not be uploaded), click Done.
- Now, to do the upload, you can simply go to Internet -> Online Payments -> Upload Now.
You will also want to setup the TOPS Scheduler utility to upload this data regularly. Notice - this is NOT the same as a Community Web Site data upload. This uploads to a different server using secure FTP.
To set up the online payments upload schedule:
- Open the Scheduler utility.
- If the scheduler is already running, simply double click the icon for it in the system tray (the lower right of your screen next to the clock).
- If it is not running, in TOPS 2000™ click Internet -> Scheduler -> Schedule Tasks.
- Now, click Add to add a new task.
- Give it a description (usually a name that identifies the task), then click Online Payments (the gray house icon).
- Click Next, set the scheduled time and days you want it to upload, then click Finish.
- The task will now appear in the main Scheduler window. You can now minimize the window or click Done to have the Scheduler go down to the system tray.
- One last thing before you're done - you have to make sure that if your computer restarts, the scheduler will be running when it comes back up. In TOPS 2000™, go to Internet -> Scheduler and look for a menu item called Run Schedule On Startup.
- If there is a checkmark next to the menu item, you're all set. However, If there is not, click on Run Schedule on Startup to activate it. This places the Scheduler program in the Start->Programs->Startup folder, which will run every time the system restarts or logs in.
- Special note for server administrators. The TOPS Scheduler is a program, not a service, and will not activate on a server machine unless the user is logged in.
A Note About the Setup Phase: During the setup process, you will do everything mentioned above as normal. Once the Scheduler is set, there is little reason to go back to configure it. However, whenever you add a new community to Online Payments, you must go to the Internet -> Online Payements -> Community Management screen and add a checkmark next to the new community you are adding. Also during the setup process, please e-mail us at websupport@topshome.com to let us know when you have performed your first data upload. When you e-mail us, also let us know where you want the link to the Online Payments feature to appear on your web site's left-menu frame. By default, we place it near the top right underneath the Home link and we name the link Pay Dues. If you would like it called something else or placed somewhere else on the menu, please let us know in your e-mail.
Once the Online Payments are completely setup and the links have been placed on your web site, we will send you an e-mail that contains the administrative login and password for your overall company as well as the administrative logins and passwords for each comunity. The difference is that the company login can view all owners and transactions in ALL of your communities, whereas the community login can only view the owners and transactions from that particular community. This is useful if you want to give a property manager access to only certain communities and not others.
Part 2: Online Processing
When your owners submit a payment, they will receive a receipt letting them know that they paid, the account administrator will also receive a copy of this receipt. However, it actually takes 24-72 hours for the transaction to hit your bank account. When it does go through, you will receive a notification that there are new transactions to be exported. This is when you will need your administrative login and password to retreive your lockbox file. Go to the Pay Dues page on your management web site and select any community. At the login screen, enter your login and password to login as an administrator.
Here is where the community administrator login and the company administrator login appear very differently. There are 5 menu options, 4 of which are the same for all administrative logins: Summary, People, Billing, and Settings. The fifth menu option is called Companies if you are logged on as Company admin, or Exports if you are logged in as Community admin. Clicking Exports will take you directly to the exports list for this specific community, whereas Companies makes you select a company/community first to search for available exports (or search for all available exports regardless of community).
- Summary is used more for owners because it shows the transactions that your particular login has made. Since you are unlikelty to pay yourself with an online transaction, this isn't as useful for the administrator account.
- People lets you look up detailed information on owners and their transaction history.
- Billing lets you view detailed information on the transactions that have been made.
- Settings lets you alter the e-mail address that is posted in the From field of any e-mails sent to owners such as receipts, confirmations, etc. This will make the online payment transaction look customized for your company.
- Companies/Exports lets you view, export and download the transactions into a lockbox file.
There is also an area of the Online Payment web site that lets you change your administrative account's system settings. Near the top of the screen, underneath the 5 main options as well as the orange "status" box below that, look on the right-side. There will be 3 links - Manager *company*, Logout and Printer Friendly. The other two are fairly self-explanitory, but Manager *company* is the one that we want to look at. This is basically a way of editing your administrative account's user profile. From here, you can change your username, password, e-mail address (this is the e-mail address that notifications are sent to), etc.
Part 3: Lockbox Download
The last section deals with the process of retreiving the lockbox file from the Online Payment site and importing it into TOPS 2000™. You should receive a notification each day that payments have been processed and the transactions are ready for download.
To download completed transactions into a TOPS Compatible Lockbox File:
From your community or the management company web site:
- Click Pay Dues.
- Login as Administrator.
- If you are a community, select the Export option then go to Step 6.
or- If you are a management company, select the Companies option.
- Select a particular community or Select <All Companies> to export all transaction for all communities.
- Search for Files dialog box appears.
- Click “Export N Transactions now.”
- The browser dialog box appears, asking you if you want to Open, Save or Cancel the file.
- Click Save.
- Identify a location on your system, or the server drive for the lockbox file and save it to that location.
The path to this location must NOT have any spaces in it. For example, it is okay to store it in T:\TOPS2000\Lockboxes, but not in C:\Documents and Settings\Owner\Desktop because that path has spaces in it. Do NOT save it to your desktop.- Go to TOPS 2000™ to proceed with importing the transaction information to the homeowners ledger history.
To Import an Online Payment Lockbox File into TOPS 2000™
- Open TOPS 2000™. From the Main menu, and click Global
- Click Lockbox menu option.
- Click the down arrow to locate the file you just saved. The Windows Explorer Open File dialog box appears. Locate the file you just saved, and click Open.
- You are returned to the Receive Lockbox Payment window. Click the Process File button to the right of the file name field.
- You will be prompted for the type of lockbox file to process. Select eRentPayer™ file format.
- Click Post when you have finished reviewing the transactions for accuracy. The TOPS 2000™ post function will update homeowner account history and make all G/L entries to the appropriate accounts.
Tip: Should you misplace the lockbox file before you have a chance to process it, you may download it again. Login to the online payments web site and go back to the Exports/Companies feature. Then do a search for the lockbox file for the time period in which you exported it. When it displays the lockbox export, Click on it to download it again.
Handling Non-Sufficient Funds
Should an eCheck be returned for NSF, managers and residents are notified by e-mail, and the owner will be assessed a fee of $25.00. The manager has the option to resubmit or contact the homeowner to do so. Returned payments will automatically be reflected on the homeowners TOPS 2000™ ledger history along with any additional NSF fees. The Online Payment service will resubmit the NSF payment as many times as a manager likes until funds are available.
Overview
This article went over in great detail everything an administrator needs to setup and process online payments. I would recommend adding this article to your Favorites (Internet Explorer) or Bookmarks (Netscape), because it goes over step-by-step each process involved in the online payments. If at times it seems as if there is a lot involved in this process, remember that this is for one reason alone - security. It is necessary to make sure that owners credit card, e-check, and payment information is secured as much as possible. The Online Payments feature has been widely sought by associations, and now it is here, it is secure, and it is easy!
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.
Your Questions Answered: The FAQs about Online Payments
If you are considering offering an online payment solution to the owners in the communities you manage, there is no time like the present! TOPS Software is working in conjunction with eRentPayer, an online payment portal specifically designed for this industry, to provide our customers with a simple and secure solution for online payments. Here are some of the more commonly asked questions regarding this valuable new service:
What does it cost my Management Company/Association?
This new online payment service has no set-up fees, no monthly fees and no minimum amounts that have to flow through your community's bank account. Transaction fees are charged directly to the payer, so there is no obligation whatsoever on the part of the association or management company.What guarantees/Monthly minimums are required to use the service?
There are no personal guarantees, minimum number of transactions, or minimum monthly dollar amount required for this service.Do I have to have a TOPS web site to use the service?
TOPS Software requires a minimum of a TOPS Management Company Web Site for hosting data. We have a special limited functionality plan for those companies that already have an existing web site, but wish to use this service.Do we have to switch banks to use this service?
Absolutely not! The applications that are filled out are simply to set up a merchant account for each of your associations. All monies are deposited into the association’s existing bank account.What payment options can I offer to owners through this service?
Currently, eRentPayer can process e-checks (ACH), Visa, MasterCard, American Express and Discover.What security measures are in place to protect online payment transactions?
All financial information is stored on a secured server with Secured Socket Layer (SSL) protection. Additionally, transactions are encrypted with a 128bit level encryption. Furthermore, owner accounts are protected by a unique user name and password that they define when they first connect to the service.How does the service integrate with my TOPS Software?
TOPS 2000™ integrates with eRentPayer in two ways. First, you will initiate a regularly scheduled upload of owner information, including current balances, to eRentPayer’s secure site. This ensures that owners pay the correct amount owed when paying their dues online. Secondly, TOPS 2000™ receives transactions that have cleared the bank account in the form of a modified lockbox file. Each day when your administrator receives notification that transactions have cleared, her or she can download a lockbox file, save it to a designated location, and import the data into TOPS 2000™. Since the Lockbox feature is included in the TOPS 2000™ basic system, there is no additional charge or fee for this functionality.How much will the payers be charged?
> ACH / Direct Debit (echeck) - $2.00
> Visa/MasterCard/Discover - $2.00 plus 3% processing fee
> American Express - $2.00 plus 3.5% processing feeHow do I sign up to use the service?
An application must be completed to set up a merchant account for each community, which does include a credit check. A copy of the application may be downloaded from our web site: www.topshome.com/topshome/Administrators/downloads.htm. An application must be completed for each individual association in addition to your management company application. Applications take approximately two weeks to process and approve.What do I do once I have been approved?
You will receive an email from TOPS Software’s web support department informing you that your application has been approved. Included in the email are detailed instructions to help you perform your initial data upload, and define a schedule for regular data uploads. We will then define a “Pay Dues” link on your web site to allow owners to pay online immediately.More FAQs available at http://www.topshome.com.
Please contact web sales at 1-800-556-7852 or onlinepayments@topssoft.com for further information on this incredible service.
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
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