TOPS Home E-Zine; Issue #30 - November 2004
Inside TOPS Home
1)
Welcome to TOPS Home!
2)
Managers: It's That Time of Year Again...
3)
Online Payments User Manuals
4)
Online AP Approval in BETA Testing
5)
New Features on Your Web Sites
6)
ReadyDocs, Integrated, Secure Document Sales
7)
Correcting Failed Uploads
8)
Avoid Your Emails Being Marked as SPAM
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.
Holiday season is upon us, and we have all begun to turn our thoughts to family, friends, and... Accounts Payable? That's right! We have a very exciting announcement for you this month regarding the imminent release of our new Online AP Approval feature. Get the goods on that, along with the latest updates to your web sites (14!), a tip on a great new companion product for the web sites, some timely help from support on correcting failed uploads, and an important notice about avoiding SPAM reports from AOL users. All of this and more awaits you in this issue of The TOPS Home Ezine, so what are doing still reading this intro? On with the Ezine!
TOPS Web Sales: (800) 556-7852 WebSales@topssoft.com.
TOPS Web Support (800) 899-5689 WebSupport@topssoft.com.Association Managers – it's that time of the year again!
Revising those community budgets isn't exactly the most fun part of the year, but making sure you include the TOPS Interactive web site service in your client’s budget for 2005 will bring both you and your communities many rewards next year! If you’re continuing a current web site agreement with us, simply call and we'll help you calculate the annual budget amount for 2005. Once again, TOPS Interactive Web Sites has no fee increase for next year!
If you have been thinking about getting sites started for more of your clients, now is the time to call us! We will prepare web site marketing kits for the managers to pass out at their next board meeting; they’re even customized with your company information, logo, and web site pricing scheme. It only takes one week to get a community web site online and you can start reaping the benefits of easier, faster communication between the manager, the board, and the residents.
What about adding Online Payments for 2005! Accept credit card and e-check payments of association dues and fees online at your company web site – and there’s absolutely no charge to your company or the community. We even interface with many popular accounting software products.
Don't forget, in addition to the complete information packets, we have a full selection of helpful handouts and CD's that can be completely customized to your management company brand. Just call us or email websales@topssoft.com and we'll work with you to provide just the right information for your client's needs!
Online Payments User Manuals
As the old saying goes, all good things come to those who wait, and for those of you who have been holding your breath waiting for the online payments user manuals, breathe! We have two great manuals to offer you this month.
First is our Online Payments user manual, targeted to Administrators and TOPS Users. This manual covers the whole kit and caboodle when it comes to Online Payments, from changing settings, to setting up and receiving payments, and everything else you might need to know.
The second document is a user guide geared specifically for homeowners who will be making payments. We have taken great care to keep our names out of this manual, so you can load it directly onto your management and community web sites. You can even ask us to add a feature description to the Online Payments login screen directing owners to the user guide. You can also direct owners to the user guide when you inform them about your new Online Payments functionality.
You can download both manuals, and check out our Online Payments page at: http://www.topshome.com/topshome/Online Payments.htm
Online AP Approval in Beta Test Stage
Our Online AP Approval program is nearly ready for release to all web site customers! This feature adds the most functionality between TOPS 2000™ and community web sites yet!
Online AP Approval is available from the Board Only section of the private side of the community web site, but logins are restricted to specific individuals set up in TOPS 2000™. Each login is given a specific level, from Invoice Entry to Approval Levels 1, 2 and 3. Invoices may be added either in TOPS, or on the web site by a user with 'Invoice Entry' level. Regardless of where the invoices are entered, the data is synchronized so that all open AP items are visible in both TOPS and on the web site.
Once invoices are loaded on a web site, board members who have been assigned an approval level may log in, review open items, and approve invoices for payment. You may define a minimum number of approvals on an invoice, or additional approvals based on amounts. For example, you might require a minimum of two signatures for every invoice, but a third signature is required for invoices over $1,000.
Once the correct number of approvals have been received, the approved invoices will be synchronized back to TOPS, where they are marked to be paid. The accounting staff can then print checks on the approved invoices. If you have purchased MICR Check Printing with Digital Signatures, you can even take it a step further by printing the authorizing signatures directly on the checks, thus avoiding altogether the need to take a pile of invoices and checks to every board meeting seeking approval and signatures.
When the invoices are paid and checks are posted in TOPS, the data is synched again with the web site, providing a list of paid invoices that stays on the web site for 30 days. Additionally, The web site keeps a list of disapproved invoices, which are also synched to TOPS to allow the accounting staff to take the appropriate action.
We hope that you will be as excited about this new functionality as we are! The feature is currently in the beta testing phase, and we will be releasing it, at no additional charge, on all community web sites within the next month. The portion of the program that runs in TOPS 2000™ will be made available on the TOPS Internet Updater at the same time.
Please contact web sales at 1-800-556-7852 or websales@topssoft.com for further information on this incredible service.
New Features on Your Community Web Sites
- In the Events Calendar area, there are now two views: 'Compact View' and 'Monthly View'. Each site, by default, will view the compact view when they enter the Events Calendar. Site administrators may contact support to change the site's default calendar view.
- In the Events Calendar, the drop-down menu for the current month automatically selected 6 months ago. This now correctly selects the current month for the current year.
- In the Survey area, site administrators can now see the results (final and on-going results) for surveys when they are editing the specific survey. Site administrators no longer have to participate in the survey in order to view the results. The results will be displayed just below the survey edit form. They also have the option of clicking the link below the results to view who has voted for that survey.
- The Board Chat feature was displaying the wrong font color when users would enter this area, which would cause problems on certain sites that were using specific colors. The font is now displayed in the correct site color.
- When sending a new Announcement with an Email Bulletin, the subject line for the email that is sent out was not being set correctly. This has been fixed and the subject line of the Email Bulletin will be taken from the Title field for the Announcement.
- New ''Master Search Field'' available in Address Book Search that will search every field of the address book instead of a particular field. Great for finding a person when you don't know if they are primary, secondary or child.
- Give the option of adding the ''Location'' information to the recently added Calendar print out feature.
- Message board topics are now listed in ''most recent posting'' first order. So ''hot'' topics will show up at the top of the list and ''dead'' topics will fall to the bottom.
- As an option administrators can now export the full results of surveys, including who voted, HOW they voted, and when they voted (date and time). This new feature also allows administrators to delete specific survey submissions. Because of the controversial nature of this we have turned this feature OFF by default and only turn it ON at the specific request of the community. If you would like this feature turned ON for your community, please email support@athomenet.com
- When emails are sent to subscribers of the Board Only Message Board all recipients security levels are checked at send time in case they are no longer board security level.
- Statistics logging now differentiates between hits to the regular Message Board and the ''Board Only'' Message Board, these used to be ''lumped'' together.
- When sending an eMail Bulletin via a newly posted Announcement that has a file attached, the attached file is now also attached to the eMail Bulletin.
- When posting a new Review it now enforces the 255 character limit on the long description of the review subject (with a count down box and warning popup). This was required because of some limitations on the ''max size'' parameter in HTML text boxes
- Added some ''apostrophe checks'' in the Events calendar entry screens
Thank you to those who have made suggestions for improvement, our service wouldn't be what it is without you!
Thank you to those who have made suggestions for improvement, our service wouldn't be what it is without you!
Ready Docs - Integrated, Secure Document Sales
I don't usually endorse third-party products in this e-zine, but today is an exception. A new company has come onto the market within the last few months, with an exciting product that fits right in with our web site service. The company is called AssociationReady, and the product is called ReadyDocs.
ReadyDocs allows you to create and sell document packages in a secure environment. This may not sound any different from CondoCerts or GetDocsNow or any of the other document sale services in this industry, but ReadyDocs offers a little something special that these other services do not offer - seamless integration.
ReadyDocs will create a fully functional online document resale interface that has the exact look and feel of your existing site. This is even more exciting with TOPS Interactive Web Sites, since the framed interface allows a visually seamless transition between your own site and the document resale site. Your menus even remain the same so the user can navigate back and forth between your regular web pages and the document resale pages. With ReadyDocs, you get all of the functionality of a secure document sales site, without any of the hassle of directing users to another web site, and having to deal with clunky document IDs.
But wait, it gets better! ReadyDocs charges a flat rate of $5 per document that you sell, no matter where you are located or how large or small your volume. You may mark up this price as much as you like (or your market will bear). As sales are made throughout the month, ReadyDocs collects the money from the customers, so there is literally no work on your end. At the end of each month, AssociationReady will cut you a check for the document sales that were made on your site that month, less the $5 per sale that goes to them, plus credit card fees.
If you are interested in seamlessly integrating online document resales with your TOPS Interactive Web Sites, please contact AssociationReady at sales@associationready.com or call 1-888-497-8832. For more information on ReadyDocs, please visit www.readydocs.com.
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.
Correcting Failed Uploads through Advanced Uploads
Occasionally TOPS and a web site can become out of synch, where TOPS will believe that owners have been uploaded to the web site when in fact, they have not. This generally occurs because of an interrupted upload cycle, where TOPS generates the data to be loaded onto the site, but the connection to the Internet is unavailable, or the connection was dropped partway through the upload process.
The end result is the records that have been added or changed since the last successful upload are not loaded onto the site, but TOPS believes that they have been, and so will not attempt to upload those records on the next upload cycle. Unfortunately, TOPS cannot detect a missing or dropped Internet connection, so at this time we cannot stop this out-of-sync issue at the time it occurs. However, there are two ways that you can solve this problem if it happens to you.
First, if it is just one or a few records missing or incorrect, and you know which ones they are, you can 'fool' TOPS into thinking that a change has been made on that record, thus forcing it to be included in the next upload cycle. To do this, you simply need to pull up the record in TOPS under Owner, Maintain, and make a slight change to the record. (i.e. Change John K Smith to John K. Smith) This change will trigger TOPS to add an "update" command to the record, causing it to be included in the next upload cycle.
Secondly, if there are a number of incorrect or missing records, or you do not know which ones they are, you can force an update command on all records by performing an "Update All" advanced manual upload:
- Open TOPS 2000, and open the problem community.
- Click Internet, Community Web Sites, Upload Current Community.*
- Once the upload is complete, click Internet, Community Web Sites, Advanced Upload Options.
- Click on the problem community's name.
- Check 'Update All Records'.
- Click Update Now.
(The upload cycle for Advanced Upload Options is different from the standard upload cycle, and may not seem to be working at first. Please wait a few minutes and you should see a browser window pop up containing the details of the upload.)*WARNING: Update All Records should NEVER be performed in lieu of a standard upload cycle, since it will conflict with owner resales. Instead, you should perform a standard upload first, and then perform the Update All Records afterwards.
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.
email Bulletins: Avoid Being Marked As SPAM
We have recently been informed that some mail hosts, specifically AOL, have been very aggressive with their "anti-spam" policy when processing emails for their users. When you send an eMail Bulletin "to all", some users may view your email as "spam". If an AOL recipient of an email bulletin decides to click the "spam" button to mark that email as spam it "counts against" our server as a spam email in AOL's system. This is detrimental to all of our clients. If too many people do that in a fixed period of time we are officially considered a "spam server" and AOL blocks any further email from that server to any AOL account for 24 hours. AOL will not tell us the magic number of how many "spams" we must get over what period of time to accomplish this, but we will continue to be in contact with AOL to come up with a solution to this situation. Meanwhile, we are asking our community administrators to encourage residents using AOL not to mark community email bulletins as spam but instead notify the community that they do not wish to receive them.
Here are some suggestions when composing your eMail Bulletin:
- When sending email bulletins, be sure to customize the eMail Bulletin subject line to make it more specific. For example, instead of "eMail Bulletin" change it to something more pertinent to the email topic, "Monthly Newsletter", "Budget Updates", "Area Construction", etc.
- Include a message in your eMail Bulletin to identify those users who may wish to be removed from the distribution. Insert this at the beginning of your email message in bold or different color. It could read:
"NOTE: If you wish to be removed from our community email bulletin distribution list, please email me at youremailhere@myemail.com "
I would then find this user and move their email address to one of the custom fields in the USER PROFILE. This will eliminate them from being included in the "send to all" eMail bulletin list."Rich Text Editor and Norton Internet Security:
We have received inquiries from some administrators who are using the Rich Text Editor but are experiencing problems with the editor loading very slowly or even receiving a "852 symrealwinopen is undefined" error. If you have experienced this problem and you are using Norton Internet Security, you will need to disable the "ad blocking" option. Norton views the Rich Text Editor program as an "unwanted" ad banner.
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.