MSTS104 MYCOMMUNITY FUNDAMENTALS

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1 Copyright Mystrata South Africa Pty Limited 2014 Version 1.0 (February 2014) STUDENT WORKBOOK

2 COURSE OUTLINE CONTENTS 1.0 INTRODUCTION TO MYCOMMUNITY WHAT CAN EACH USER TYPE DO AND SEE? MANAGER USERS TRUSTEE USERS OWNER USERS TENANT USERS PORTAL SETTINGS & OPTIONS GENERAL SETTINGS WALL SETTINGS REQUEST SETTINGS SMS SETTINGS HOW TO TURN ON A NEW MYCOMMUNITY PORTAL INVITING OWNERS AND TENANTS TO THE WEB PORTAL REMOVING PORTAL ACCESS FOR AN OWNER THE COMMUNITY WALL YOUR USER PROFILE MY PROFILE CHANGING PASSWORDS CHANGING NOTIFICATION SETTINGS MAINTENANCE & SERVICE REQUESTS HOW AN OWNER OR TENANT CREATES A NEW REQUEST VIEWING AND RESPONDING TO REQUESTS CLOSING REQUESTS Page 2 of 33

3 1.0 INTRODUCTION TO MYCOMMUNITY MyCommunity is a web portal system that is connected to Strataware. The goal of the system is to give trustees, owners and tenants direct access to information relating to their property in a secure online environment. MyCommunity achieves this through its persistent connection to Strataware, requiring very little intervention from the manager and making it easy to administer. MyCommunity is split in two parts: 1. Public community website - a publicly accessible web page 2. Secure My Account section a password protected members only area The public website is a landing page where owners and tenants can log into the account for their property. It comprises a scheme photo, location map, overview of the property, a list of scheme features, a directory and photo gallery. The property manager can change the information on this web using a Content Management System (CMS). Below: A standard public home page. The secure My Account part of the website displays different information for each type of user (trustee, owner, tenant or manager) who logs in. Some elements of the My Account information are consistent for all user types. Page 3 of 33

4 Above: Dashboard of a Trustee. In the screenshot above, note that a great deal of financial information is displayed, including: Administrative fund balance Reserve fund balance Total fund balance Current arrears Levy account balance for the user All of this information is automatically populated from the various ledgers within Strataware; there is no need for data synchronisation or uploading of financial data. The integration of MyCommunity to Strataware is not restricted to financial information. The management company s contact details, community information (property name, number of Page 4 of 33

5 units, insurance details, and list of committee members etc.) and documents are also taken directly from the Strataware system. Above: Documents published to the portal from within Strataware. Page 5 of 33

6 2.0 WHAT CAN EACH USER TYPE DO AND SEE? One of the questions most commonly asked by managers implementing MyCommunity is what each user type can do and see. There are effectively four levels of access in MyCommunity: 1. Manager 2. Trustee 3. Owner 4. Tenant Each level of access is fundamentally the same, in that the interface doesn t change dramatically however the options available to each user type change depending on their level of access. For example: Tenants have no access to financial data. Page 6 of 33

7 2.1 MANAGER USERS Manager users have access to the Admin Tools panel in MyCommunity. It is through this panel that they access the various settings and functions available to them no other user type has access to this panel. Besides having access to the Admin Tools panel, Manager users can do almost everything a Trustee user or an Owner user can do, with the exception of: 1. Viewing a unit ledger statement because managers are not connected to a unit 2. Submitting a maintenance or service request 3. Uploading a document because managers must publish documents from Strataware. Uploading documents directly to the MyCommunity portal is a function reserved for Trustee users only Page 7 of 33

8 2.2 TRUSTEE USERS Via Strataware (on the Trustee screen) you have the option of giving Trustee members a higher level of access than owner users. Note: If the Access Portal option is not ticked on the Trustee screen, the trustee will still have the standard Owner level access by default, assuming that trustee is also an owner. There are two options available: 1. Access portal 2. Edit portal Ticking the Access Portal option gives that person Trustee level access. Ticking the Edit Portal option gives that person the ability to use the Content Management System (CMS) on their property s MyCommunity website. Caution: Giving someone access the CMS will allow them to modify the public contents of the MyCommunity website. Only give this access to people you trust. Above: Committee member with the Access Portal & Edit Portal option ticked. When given Trustee access, the user will have access to a Financial Reports button on their dashboard (see the screenshot above). Page 8 of 33

9 When the Financial Reports button on the dashboard or the Finance menu item is clicked, the user will be able to see: 1. General ledger 2. Balance sheet 3. Annual budgets (if any are published) The other important function available to Trustee users is the ability to upload documents to the web portal. Note: Only Trustee users have access to this function. Manager users must publish documents from within Strataware. An Upload New button (above) is available for Trustee users. This gives them the ability to upload documents directly into MyCommunity. Page 9 of 33

10 The Trustee uploading the document chooses the Document Type and File Permissions and once uploaded the document is visible to those who have been given permission to view it and is listed under the chosen document type. Page 10 of 33

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12 2.3 OWNER USERS Owners make up the bulk of MyCommunity users and are considered to be the standard user type. Owners do not have access to financial reports as Trustee users do, however they do have access to high- level financial information for their community. Above: An owner s view of the My Account section An owner also has access to account balance and statement information for their own unit, and will have the ability to make a payment online once the integrations with the SA banks are finalised. Above: An owner s view of the Unit Details panel in the My Account section Page 12 of 33

13 One of the most popular features of MyCommunity is the online access that it gives owners to their statements. Owner users simply click the View Statement button or the account balance amount on the Dashboard to bring up their statement the MyCommunity portal then retrieves the data directly from Strataware. Above: An owner s view of the View Statement panel in the My Account section Page 13 of 33

14 2.4 TENANT USERS Unlike other real- estate web portal systems, MyCommunity doesn t ignore tenants. They are unable to view any financial information related to the community or the apartment in which they live, but they can see non- financial details of their apartment, including the numbers of any assigned parking bays. Above: A tenant s view of the MyCommunity dashboard Tenants are also able to discuss topics on the Community Wall, view documents that have been uploaded or published to the portal and submit Service and Maintenance Requests. Page 14 of 33

15 3.0 PORTAL SETTINGS & OPTIONS Settings on MyCommunity are community specific meaning that each community / complex / property must have its settings configured individually. Having community specific settings allows you to customise the operation of each MyCommunity portal to cater for different client requirements. Manager users can log in to MyCommunity and configure the settings by clicking Settings in the Admin Tools panel. 3.1 GENERAL SETTINGS On the General Settings tab a Manager user can change the settings to determine whether Trustee members are visible on the Community Details page, whether the bank balance information will be visible to users, whether users are allowed to change their own passwords and which user groups can upload images to the Photo Gallery. Page 15 of 33

16 3.2 WALL SETTINGS Using the Wall Settings tab a Manager user can determine whether the Community Wall will be available for the users in that particular scheme or not, whether or not to turn on the private Trustee wall and whether to allow users to comment on Notices, events and promotions posted to the Community Wall. Page 16 of 33

17 3.3 REQUEST SETTINGS The Request Settings tab allows a Manager user to direct the service and maintenance requests submitted for a particular property to the correct addresses. If you d like a request to be sent to more than one address, separate each address with a semicolon. Page 17 of 33

18 3.4 SMS SETTINGS Using the SMS Settings tab a Manager user can set the Username and Password required to access the SMS gateway, if any, set up for this property as well as to check on the amount of credit that remains available for future SMS messages. Page 18 of 33

19 4.0 HOW TO TURN ON A NEW MYCOMMUNITY PORTAL When a new community/property is added to Strataware, a web portal is automatically created using the community s name as the new portal/website name. Initially nobody other than the Manager user has access to the portal. This gives the Manager user time to log in, to upload a photograph and to populate the public content using the Content Management System ( CMS ). Once the portal content is completed, the manager sends usernames and passwords to owners and tenants from within Strataware. 4.1 INVITING OWNERS AND TENANTS TO THE WEB PORTAL All user management for MyCommunity takes place from within Strataware. To send your initial welcome s to your owners and tenants: 1. Log in to Strataware and select the building you wish to send welcome s for 2. Click the Send Welcome s button on the MyCommunity Tools panel Page 19 of 33

20 Note: The above process is to send welcome s to owners. To send to tenants, repeat the process using the Tenants tab. 4.2 REMOVING PORTAL ACCESS FOR AN OWNER What if you don t want a user to have access to the web portal? This is also controlled from within Strataware using the Section Details screen; however in this instance we use the Contact Details tab. On this screen you will note an Access Portal column a tick box will be ticked if an owner (or tenant) has access to the portal. To remove their access, simply click Edit, un- tick the box and then Save. Page 20 of 33

21 5.0 THE COMMUNITY WALL The community wall provides all members of the community with a familiar communication medium that is easy to use. The central panel in the My Account screen acts as an activity stream that shows all new posts from the community wall, notices, events and promotions. The user can comment directly here as they would on any social media platform. Above: The community wall feed on the My Account dashboard All users have access to the Community Wall. Note: Manager users have the ability to remove comments on the wall. The Community Wall can be filtered using the tabs to show specific types of communication. An Owner user can filter between Community Wall comments, Notices, Events and Promotions. Below is a screenshot of the community wall filtered to only show notices posted by the community manager. Page 21 of 33

22 Managers and Trustee users have an additional filter for the Trustee Wall, and a Manager user also has the ability to see historical SMS messages. Page 22 of 33

23 6.0 YOUR USER PROFILE To enhance the social components of MyCommunity, we provide the ability to upload a profile picture, enter some about me information and allow users to change their notification settings. Clicking the Edit Profile link in the My Profile panel accesses all of these options. Page 23 of 33

24 6.1 MY PROFILE Once in the My Profile section a user can change his or her profile picture and enter other information, including contact details. It is important to note that updating user details in MyCommunity does NOT change details in Strataware. This is intentional, so as to maintain the integrity of the Strataware database. Page 24 of 33

25 6.2 CHANGING PASSWORDS User passwords can be changed at any time using the Change Password link in the My Profile panel. There are no restrictions on the type of password that can be used. Page 25 of 33

26 6.3 CHANGING NOTIFICATION SETTINGS Using MyCommunity can generate a significant amount of communication to users of the portal (which is really the point!). However, sometimes this additional communication is not wanted, in which case the user can change their notification settings to ensure they are only contacted about items that interest them. Notification options include: New document uploads Community events Community notices System notices Community Comments Local promotions or special deals (sent by the manager) Photo Gallery All options are ticked by default. A user can un- tick any of the options to configure their notifications according to their personal preference. Page 26 of 33

27 7.0 MAINTENANCE & SERVICE REQUESTS One of the advantages of using a web portal such as MyCommunity is the ability to provide your clients with self- service tools - such as the ability to submit maintenance or service requests online. When a user submits a request through MyCommunity, an is sent to an address specified by you in the Settings section of the Admin Tools panel (see section 3.3 above). Requests behave as tickets. The person who opened the request (Owner or Tenant user) or a Manager user can comment on the request/ticket. Manager users also have the ability to mark tickets as Closed. 7.1 HOW AN OWNER OR TENANT CREATES A NEW REQUEST From the Dashboard an Owner, Trustee or Tenant user simply clicks the New Request button on their My Requests requests panel. Note: Manager users do not have this button There is also a Create New Request button on the My Requests panel in the My Requests page. Once either of these buttons is clicked, the user will be presented with a form below in which to fill out the request details. Page 27 of 33

28 When the form is completed and the Submit Request button is clicked, the request is ed to the address set by the Manager user in the portal s Request Settings. Page 28 of 33

29 7.2 VIEWING AND RESPONDING TO REQUESTS As a Manager user you have the ability to: View all requests Filter requests Comment on requests Close requests Delete requests Access requests for a community by clicking the View All button on the My Requests panel on the Dashboard. Page 29 of 33

30 The main requests window will show all Open requests by default. Use the filter categories in the dropdown lists at the top of the page to filter the types of tickets displayed or search for a request using the search bar above. You can also sort requests by column as required. Page 30 of 33

31 Click on a request to view its details. Comment on the request as required. Your comments will be saved against the ticket. Any replies from the user who initiated the request will also be displayed here. Page 31 of 33

32 7.2 CLOSING REQUESTS There are two ways to close maintenance and service requests: 1. Select closed from the dropdown menu next to Change Status as shown below and then write and post a comment. Note: You must write a comment in order to close a request. 2. Simply write a comment and click Post Comment. A pop- up will appear asking if you would like to close the request. Click Yes. Page 32 of 33

33 Mystrata Pty Limited Phone: Fax: Mystrata South Africa Pty Limited Phone: Fax: Mystrata Middle East FZ LLC Phone: Fax: Mystrata Malaysia Sdn Bhd Phone: Fax: Since 2001, Mystrata has been developing and supporting great technology for sectional title, strata and homeowners associations. Professional managers, developers, trustees, directors, property owners and tenants throughout Australasia, the Middle East and South Africa use our software Learn more about Mystrata at or on your favourite social media site Page 33 of 33