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MyGate

Written by Shailesh Sridhar, Associate Data Scientist at MyGate

Introduction

Here’s a quick exercise.

The two sentences below mean “The coffee smells good”. One of them is in Chinese and the other one is in German.

1. Der kaffee riecht gut.
2. Kafei wen qilai hen xiang.

Can you guess which one is in which language?

If you guessed that the first sentence is in German and the second is in Chinese then you are right. 

If you are like most people, you are not confident about the meaning of even one of the words in those two sentences.

So how did you know?

Language Identification in the real world

Language Identification is the task of identifying the language which a certain text belongs to. 

It can act as an important first step in several text processing operations. Especially for operations such as search and text analytics, figuring out the language of text and applying language specific processing is generally a lot more efficient than applying generic processing.

Let us look at the example of a complex of guest houses for an academic institution. Many people enter the complex and visit the guest rooms. A data entry person sits at the gate and is responsible for noting down their purpose of visit. His english is not very good and he tends to make mistakes.

The following are entries made by people in similar situations. Can you guess what the correct spelling of each is?

Entries 

1.Oobar

2.POLEMBAR

3.GEZER

4.WHATRPHITR

. . .

Correct Spellings

1.Uber

2.Plumber

3.Geyser

4.Water Filter

Such misspellings make it quite a difficult task to map entries to their corresponding categories.

At MyGate, The data cleanse system is responsible for carrying out this mapping and uses phonetics based algorithms along with normal text based methods in the process. Application of Levenshtein distance technique to identify the most likely candidates to replace the incorrect word and Elastic Search for representative storage are two essential components of the system.

The real problem arises when text from other languages is mixed into the entries.

Here are a few such examples:

—————-

newspaper ka check dena hai

Room bearing 702 dekhna

DELIVERY NAM TO BATATE JAO YAAR

————-

Mapping such entries becomes a nightmare as not only do spelling mistakes have to be dealt with for english words, but for other languages as well. How do you know if a misspelled word belongs to english or Hindi? Adding to the complexity is words such as ‘TO’, which can be a valid word in both Hindi and english.

If there was a way to at least identify, within an entry, which language each word belonged to, things would be a lot easier. This is where language identification comes into the picture.

Word level language identification refers to the task of identifying the language in text, one word at a time. It is a popular research topic, attracting even big names such as Microsoft Research.

Several approaches exist for solving this problem. However one aspect most have in common is that they rely on surrounding context. Given the words around the word in consideration, it is possible to predict which language a word belongs to.

“DELIVERY NAM TO BATATE JAO YAAR”

Here the word TO is flanked on either side by NAM and BATATE, which both belong to the Hindi dictionary and hence highly likely to be a Hindi word.

This approach works very well for texts that are many words long. However, for our use case this is clearly not something that is guaranteed. We can not depend on the context. Find the below plot of the entries made.

Figure 1

Most entries are 1-2 words long and lack useful context. How do you figure out the language of an unseen word without context?

The Feel of a Word

Let us go back to the sentences we encountered at the beginning of the post.

1.Der kaffee riecht gut

2.Kafei wen qilai hen xiang

Why does the second sentence ‘sound’ more chinese? Let us say you only had one word from each sentence.

1.Riecht

2.Xiang

Most people would still identify 2 as chinese and 1 as german. “Xiang” can be broken up like so:

Xi – A – ng

Intuitively, these parts of the word feel chinese. Using the hundreds of chinese words we have heard from places we may not ever have consciously considered (eg. Beijing, Li Xingping, Jackie Chan etc.),  our brain subconsciously identifies ‘Xiang’ as a highly probable chinese candidate. The word ‘feels’ chinese.

To some extent we can actually teach this ‘feeling’ to a computer.

NGrams

Let’s take two 5 letter words and split them into pairs of adjacent letters.

xiang  ->  [xi,ia,an,ng]  (list 1)

hello  -> [ he,el,ll,lo]   (list 2)

If we have a dictionary of all possible 2 letter sequences possible and, the number of times they are seen in all words of a particular language, we will probably see that the sequences seen in list 1 are much more common in chinese than in english. 

Each such sequence of adjacent characters is called a bigram.

A sequence of ‘n’ adjacent characters is called a character level ngram. Ngrams play a very important role in Natural Language Processing (NLP). While ‘word level’ ngrams (a sentence is decomposed into sequences of words) are more popular, ‘character level’ ngrams, which we use here, can be very useful in their own right.

Let’s take a look at two more familiar languages, English and Hindi. It is very easy to think of words in Hindi which contain the bigram ‘kh’. Khana. Khargosh. Aankh. Khel. 

Now try doing the same for english. 

The stark difference becomes clearer when we plot the number of words in each language containing the ‘kh’ bigram.

Figure 2

All languages have their own unique flow and NGram frequencies. Programming a computer to decompose a word into NGrams and analyzing their frequencies to predict the language it belongs to seems like a viable option. 

The reason ngrams is such a powerful concept, is that spelling errors will only consist of a few characters. Most of the characters remain unaffected. Hence while a few ngrams may get affected by spelling errors, a majority of them is likely to remain untouched.

Not only that, spelling errors tend to follow patterns themselves and these patterns also may follow a trend based on language. If we have enough examples of spelling errors in a language we can probably identify ngram patterns for that particular language.

Let us see how well an implementation of this idea performs.

An Implementation

Let us limit the problem to, given a word, identify whether it belongs to English or Hindi.

In order to understand the important NGram based features a language possesses, we can either try to hand code certain rules which is an incredibly difficult task, or depend on good old machine learning to identify rules on its own from thousands and thousands of training examples.

So first , we create a large dictionary of English and Hindi words, decompose each word into its corresponding ngrams. We can try out various values of ‘n’ and identify which value seems to produce the best result. We also add every single ngram we encounter into a huge dictionary of ngrams.

Now that we know the ngrams that belong to each word and the language which the word belongs to, we can begin training a classifier to figure out patterns that make a word English or Hindi. Here we use Naive Bayes, a simple yet powerful algorithm which probably deserves a post of its own. The basic idea of Naive Bayes is that based on frequency of occurrence of ngrams in a particular language, we can identify the probability of a word belonging to a language based on each of its ngrams.

By training a Naive Bayes model on a large number of examples, the model learns which ngrams are important to classify a word as Hindi or English. Now when an unseen word, even one with a spelling mistake, is encountered it is decomposed into its ngrams and the probability of the word being Hindi or English is calculated, based on the probabilities corresponding to each of its ngrams.

A model was trained using a dataset of 8000 english words and 8000 Hindi Words, with both 3-grams and 4-grams. The model predicted the probability of a word belonging to Hindi and English. If the calculated probability was less than 0.6 for both Hindi and English, then the words’ label was marked as ‘unknown’. 

This allows us to get very informative results.

	English Precision	English Recall	Hindi Precision	Hindi Recall
n=3,TrainData=90%,TestingData=10%	0.9388	0.9136	0.9158	0.9403
n=3,TrainData=10%,TestingData=90%	0.9235	0.8908	0.8946	0.9262
n=4TrainData=90%,TestingData=10%	0.9444	0.9205	0.9224	0.9457
n=4TrainData=10%,TestingData=90%	0.9156	0.8815	0.8859	0.9186

Table 3

The model seems to perform quite well, reinforcing our idea that n-grams can be very useful in language identification of text. The hypothesis that ngrams can capture the feel of a language worked out well.

We can now take a breath of relief, knowing that the person who said the words:

“DELIVERY NAM TO BATATE JAO YAAR”

is one step closer to having his pain understood.

References

[1] Chanda, A., Das, D., & Mazumdar, C. (2016b).  Unraveling the English-Bengali Code- Mixing Phenomenon. 

In Proceedings of the Second Workshop on Computational Approaches to Code Switching, pp. 80–89, Austin, TX, USA.

[2]Tommi Jauhiainen, Marco Lui, Marcos Zampieri, Timothy Baldwin, and Krister Linden. 2018d. Automatic language identification in texts: A survey. arXiv preprint arXiv:1804.08186.

[3] Char n-gram based model to detect language of sentences out of 6 possible choices
https://github.com/dinkarjuyal/language-identification

[4]Vatanen, T., Väyrynen, J. J., & Virpioja, S. (2010). Language Identification of Short Text Segments with N-gram Models.

In Proceedings of the 7th International Conference onLanguage Resources and Evaluation (LREC 2010), pp. 3423–3430, Valletta, Malta

Each year, several shocking and heartbreaking deaths are caused due to accidental falls from balconies. 5% of accidental deaths in India were caused due to ‘falls’ in 2019. Most recently, the tragic death of a toddler was reported in Thane where the child opened the sliding approach door to the balcony and fell from the balcony of the seventh floor. Balcony safety is not a trivial matter, especially if you have children or young adults in the family.

To prevent any deaths, accidents, or injuries, residents must exercise precautions in

1. inspecting the sturdiness of the balcony’s existing railings, and
2. establishing safety installations over and above the basic balcony structure.

Balcony construction

Ensure that your balcony is constructed in compliance with the National Building Code which states that, “Parapet walls and handrails provided on the edges of roof terraces, balcony, veranda, etc. shall not be less than 1.0 m and not more than 1.2 m in height from the finished floor level.” It means handrails should be 3.44 feet and not less or else it poses a safety issue.

The code also states that any balcony at a height of 2 meters or more from the ground, should have safety railings. Guidelines state that “Every slab or balcony overlooking any exterior or interior open space which is 2 meters or more above ground level shall be provided with parapet walls or guard rails of height not less than 1.20 meters and such guard rails shall be firmly fixed to the walls and slabs and shall be of blank walls, metal grills or a combination of both.” Usually, full concrete railings are safer but if they are made of metal, the gap between the metal grills shouldn’t be too wide for little children to fit through (not more than 10 cm). There shouldn’t be any horizontal grills or foot-supporting enclosures to step up so that kids (or adults) don’t climb up top of the railings. Guard railing should not be made of glass or any material that is not reinforced. The ledge should be such that it’s impossible to sit on so that no one is tempted to sit on it for leisure or shenanigans. As an extra step, you can install spindles between railings bars to prevent any mishaps.

It’s been found that builders who might want to cut corners don’t adhere to guidelines during construction. Some disregard the building code to make the balconies and facades look more aesthetic and attractive. Such non-compliance could play a big role in causing accidental falls and in many cases, even death. If such is the case in your residential building, do bring it to the managing committee’s attention so that further safety measures can be used. Landlords should inspect the conditions of their balconies before they let tenants move in.

Safety precautions for residents

Even if the construction of the balcony is as per specifications, there’s always the danger of accidental falls and injuries. Follow these balcony rules for apartment buildings, to guarantee safe balconies:

• If you’re living in an older building, make sure you get an expert to check the structural integrity of the balcony and the railings.
• Balcony furniture should be placed away from the railings. It should be heavy so that kids don’t drag it over to the railings to play with or use it to climb up and stick their necks out. 
• Balcony doors should have a keyed lock and be placed higher so that toddlers and kids can’t reach up to open it. Never leave kids or pets unsupervised in balconies (whether it’s a high-rise balcony or not). 
• Winds are strong in high-rise balconies. Don’t hang loosely fitted decorative items made of glass or other sharp objects in ways that it can harm anyone. Furniture in balconies should ideally be bolted in to protect against rains and storms and so that it can’t be dragged around towards the railings.

Balcony safety installations

You have several options to reinforce your balcony structure to ensure high-rise balcony safety. Here are some of them:

1. Grills

You can choose from regular metal, wrought iron, stainless steel grills, or go for Invisible Grille that won’t block the view while maintaining sturdy security. If the approaching door to balconies is made of sliding windows, you can install lockable grills there as well.

2. Plexiglass

Toughened plexiglass is a great way to cover and shield the area in between and above the railings. It won’t spoil the view and provide additional security. You can have sliding plexiglass windows with locks as well so that air circulation isn’t blocked.

3. Wire mesh

Protection wire and metal mesh are the most commonly used balcony safety solutions in residential societies.

4. Balcony gate

As an additional measure that is aesthetic as well, you can simply install a child-proof balcony gate that adults can attach/detach or keep locked unless adults are around for supervision.

Make a list of dos and don’ts for all members of the family and domestic help with respect to balcony safety. Children should be thoroughly educated on the dangers of playing carelessly around the railings or leaning over them. Ensure that if there are any psychologically disturbed friends, colleagues or family members at risk of suicide, you keep them away from balconies and don’t leave them unsupervised.

Rajanee Balaram has been a resident of TATA Housing Rasina Residency in New Delhi for the past three years, and also the Vice President of its 8-member Management Committee. We spoke to Rajanee to get insight into the everyday challenges as a member of the committee and how MyGate is helping her keep these challenges at bay.

What made Rasina Residency feel the need for a solution like MyGate?

After the committee was formed, within the first few weeks we noticed there were a lot of gaps in how people were let into the society. People walk in and out randomly and it was very difficult to keep a tab on the overall activity. And, of course, the society communications happened in silos. There was a Whatsapp group, and there was a Google group. But again, everyone was not on the Whatsapp group so there was a separate Telegram group as well. Thus, it was all mixed up.

Complaint Management was another pressing challenge. Residents would raise complaints, and we, as a committee, would maintain excel spreadsheets. The information was manually imported as there was no automated workflow. We could barely make sense out of the data to derive any sort of analysis.

Thus, we knew we wanted to introduce a society management app and decided to outline our options after a bit of research. That’s how we shortlisted about 3 to 4 companies and spoke to them over two weekends. After thorough consideration, we opted for MyGate.

What was your residents’ response to MyGate’s installation?

The residents were extremely enthusiastic, quite literally, as we told them we are using MyGate. They immediately downloaded the app. I already started getting messages from people saying that they have downloaded the app, now what? This was before I’d even got the dashboard access.

We also spoke to the residents to inform them why we chose MyGate – because of the simple interface and for the unified solution that it is critical for visitor and society management. We wrapped up very, very quickly and today, nearly 90% of the residents are onboarded.

How did your guards react to this new way of enhancing security in your gated community?

Our guards were quite receptive of the idea and picked up really well. We never felt any reluctance from their end. Initially, there were a couple of areas where they were doing the wrong thing or they were not realising the importance of doing something right. However, they kept learning every day and we have now managed to eliminate all of the initial hiccups. Right now, I think we are quite tight in terms of managing visitor entries.

One of the other things that is really good about MyGate is, the message to the guard. I keep telling residents that if you have any issues, for example, cab entries, just text back to the guard. That way, we can just download the report. It saves a lot of time and effort.

Could you highlight a few features that have helped you simplify your daily responsibilities?

Actually a bunch of them. To begin with, I think the management of daily help who come in and go out has become so much better. We know that everybody who is coming in is registered and verified.

In terms of complaint management, it’s very simple to raise a complaint as it sits in the correct category. We are not required to choose a category for each complaint.

And I think in terms of notifications, it is a breeze. Communicating with the residents has become so easy. There was this time when our lift got stuck and the technician had been called. The maintenance went on for four hours, so a message went out to all the residents and there was not one complaint on the residents’ group because they were all informed.

MyGate

Thank you for using the Mygate app. On this page, we have compiled a list of frequently asked questions about the key features and offerings of the Mygate app. We trust you will find an answer to your question. In case you don’t, please write in to us at [email protected].

General Inquiries

What is MyGate?

MyGate is a smart, technology-forward security solution that helps gated communities manage their security needs including visitor entry and exit, household help, and delivery executives. It can also be used in the management of amenities, complaints, accounting and billing, and more.

Where can I get the MyGate app?

The app is available on Android and iOS. But to be able to fully utilize and experience its benefits, the management committee of your society needs to sign up with us.

How quickly can I get MyGate installed?

The app can be onboarded and deployed within 5-7 days of your society management team signing up. We create a backend database of all security personnel along with their digital profiles. We also train guards on the proper use of the app.

Amenities

What happens when I employ a new daily help in my house?

We create a digital profile for the new daily help using any government-issued ID. A 6-digit code is provided to the help, and her/ his profile is attached to yours.

Our staff is not comfortable with technology. Can they use MyGate?

Yes. MyGate is simple to use. If they still find it difficult, you can help them understand how to use it.

If the staff enters the premises but skips our house, how can MyGate help?

Since you will know exactly when the staff has entered the premises, there is little chance of missing out on their entry. You can follow up on their absence if they skip coming to your house.

How many profiles can I create per household?

You can create individual profiles for all the staff that visit your house.

Clubhouse Management

Who can access the clubhouse using the app?

Only residents and management committee members can access the clubhouse.

What about people who haven’t renewed their club membership?

The management committee can deauthorise those who have not renewed their membership, and prevent them from accessing it.

What inventory can I track with the app?

You can keep track of all the common assets of the society including indoor and outdoor sports equipment, clubhouse inventory such as chairs, tables, audio/ video equipment and many more.

Who will ensure that residents furnish their details for club usage?

While the guards are required to enter all the details of residents before club usage, strict enforcement of the system is the responsibility of the residents and the management committee.

Communication

What is the ‘Communication’ feature?

Residents can use this feature to initiate a discussion with several groups within the community. These groups can be created by the society management team.

How can I initiate a discussion among different groups in the society such as owners/tenants etc?

• Click on the ‘Community’ tab on the app home screen
• Click on ‘Communication’
• Click on ‘Start Discussion’ at the bottom of the app screen
• Type title and details. Photos and documents can also be attached

How to hide a discussion?

• You can hide any discussion in two ways
• Click on the discussion
• Click on the Eye icon on the top right corner of the app screen
• OR Click on the Eye icon on the discussion card

How does my discussion get approved/ rejected?

This is a society-specific setting which will be enabled depending on the management committee’s guidelines. In case the management committee does not want this setting to be enabled, the residents need not wait for the discussion to be approved by the Admin once it is initiated. Otherwise, any discussion initiated by the residents needs to be approved by the Admin so that other residents of the society can comment on it.

How to initiate a Poll?

Only society Admins can initiate a poll. When a Poll is created, the admin can also create options such as Yes/No so that residents can cast their vote accordingly.

Delivery Management

If there is a parcel delivery for me, who will pick it up?

If you are on the premises, you can authorise the delivery executive’s entry by using the ‘accept’ button upon their arrival at the gate. If you are not available, you can raise a request for the guards to pick up the parcel at the gate and keep it away safely. You can collect it using the 6-digit code generated to your phone when the guard picks up the parcel.

Should I tell the delivery executive that they will be stopped at the gate?

All delivery executives are stopped by the guards at the gate. You need not tell the executive about the guards or the MyGate protocol.

How will the guards know the package belongs to me?

When the guards pick up a parcel that belongs to you, a 6-digit code is triggered to your phone. You can claim your parcel after giving said code to the guards.

Where can I pick/drop off my package?

The guards can pick up your parcels on your behalf. You can leave your ‘to be returned’ packages at the gate.

What happens in case of damage to my package?

We have taken many measures to ensure that your packages are not misplaced or damaged.

e-Intercom

What is the ‘e-Intercom’ feature?

It is a mobile-based intercom which is used for automating visitor validations. An e-intercom call gets triggered to the registered mobile or landline number only when a resident does not respond to an app notification to approve or deny a visitor’s (Guest / Delivery Executives / etc.) entry to the society.

How to set my e-Intercom number?

You can set a mobile or landline number as your e-Intercom number from the app. There can be only one e-Intercom number per flat/home. By default, the primary e-Intercom is set to the mobile number of the first person who downloads the app for the flat. Residents who have not downloaded the app can also have an e-Intercom number. For this, they have to request the admin to set a fixed landline or mobile as the e-Intercom of the flat.

How to stop receiving calls from MyGate?

MyGate calls you for visitor validation on your mobile. If you don’t want to receive this phone call you can remove your mobile number from e-Intercom and add the mobile number of someone who can approve on your behalf.

I am travelling abroad. How can I stop calls from MyGate?

You can remove your mobile number from e-intercom and add the mobile number of someone who can approve on your behalf. You can also leave the e-Intercom numbers blank. To reset the e-intercom number, go to the Side menu, open e-Intercom and edit the numbers.

I am getting a notification for a visitor (e.g. cab, delivery executive) that I did not expect. What should I do?

This is likely due to an error in flat selection by the guard at the gate. You can inform the guard about this and ask him to be more attentive when taking entries at the gate.

I am at work and don’t want to be disturbed for visitor approval. My family should be able to do it. What should I do?

You need to:

1. Switch off app notifications in the app
2. Assign an e-intercom number to receive approval calls. If other members of your family have also downloaded the app, they will receive an in-app notification to authorise the entry. If no response is received from in-app notifications, calls will be initiated in the order of priority, first to the primary number and then to the secondary number.

Is it compulsory to set an e-Intercom number?

No, you can leave the e-intercom number field blank. However, we recommend that you set at least the primary number so that you don’t miss visitor validation calls from the main gate.

How does the authentication of surprise guests, cabs, courier, delivery executives etc. work?

For every visitor at the gate not having a pre-approved OTP, we initiate an authorization process with the residents of a flat. For this, it is important to understand how we recognize numbers/users in our system.

Registered users: Residents must be registered in the system for MyGate to communicate with them. Owners and tenants can register themselves by sharing their details via their facility office. They can register their family using the ‘Add family’ feature in the app.

Active users: When registered users download the app, they become active users. Active users can designate one mobile/landline number as an e-intercom number. This number is given priority when system calls are generated for approval.

Features

I have an ERP solution, do I need an alternative like MyGate?

MyGate was built with a single-minded focus on simplifying security. Our APIs are open, making any IoT based applications compatible with the app technology-wise – so that in the future, the app can include more features at no substantial expense to society management.

How can I ensure that I have the updated version of the app?

If there are any major updates to features, notifications to update the app are triggered. You can check the Play Store /App Store to ensure you have the latest version of the app.

Who can see my entry and exit logs?

If there is any requirement, the management committee can view data up to 6 months on the dashboard. By default, this data is not available for viewing by everyone.

What happens when residents move out?

Residents who move out of the society are removed from the system and cannot access the premises after removal.

Can a MyGate representative be available on site for a week for half a day in the clubhouse to answer resident queries or help them download the app?

We address real-time queries about the app via YouTube videos, flyers, email, signage at the main gate, standees at the clubhouse, and WhatsApp groups.

How can I enable the Multi-Tier System?

At an additional cost, the Multi-Tier System can be enabled by configuring the main gate device to the towers. It is recommended that the periphery be secured through MyGate while onboarding. If you decide otherwise, you can set it up later when the need arises.

Helpdesk

What is the ‘Helpdesk’ feature?

It is a complaint management system to ensure a quick and convenient way to track complaints via the MyGate app. When you face a society related issue (for eg. Electrical, plumbing), you can raise a complaint through the MyGate app. The complaint will be forwarded to the Society Management or Facility Manager. Further, he/she will update the complaint and assign it to the respective society staff. You will be notified about the assigned staff, the ETA and the action taken against your complaint. You can also add comments, attach photos/documents and reopen a closed complaint.

How do I raise a service request?

• Click on ‘Community’ tab on the app home screen
• Click on ‘Helpdesk’
• Click on ‘Raise Complaint’ at the bottom of the app screen
• Select the category and type of issue. Select ‘Personal’ if the issue pertains to your house and ‘Community’ if the issue pertains to the common areas of your society.
• Provide details of the issue
• Attach up to 3 supporting documents and photos

What is the escalation matrix for Helpdesk complaints raised?

Once residents raise a complaint/service request using Helpdesk on the MyGate app, the service request will be sent to the Helpdesk Manager. The resident will also receive an SMS/email notification with the service request ID and subject.

If the Helpdesk Manager does not take action within the stipulated time, the service request will escalate to the Facility Manager.

If no action is taken, the service request will escalate to the Admin who will be the last point of contact.

When the admin/Facility Manager, updates the status or adds any comment to the complaint, the resident will again receive the email with the service request ID in the subject line.

Residents can go to the ‘Helpdesk’ menu under the ‘Community’ tab and click on the specific service request/complaint to view the changes made by the admin/Facility Manager.

The app will be updated with the progress/action taken by the Admin/Facility Manager against the complaint.

Can a closed complaint be reopened?

Yes, residents can reopen a closed complaint at any time.

• Go to the ‘Helpdesk’ menu under the ‘Community’ tab
• Click on the specific complaint which is ‘Resolved’
• Click on ‘Reopen’, enter your comments and ‘Re-open’ the resolved/closed complaint

How to filter complaints according to their category or status?

To filter according to category:

• Go to the ‘Helpdesk’ menu under the ‘Community’ tab
• Click on ‘Category’ at the top of the app screen
• Select a specific category from the dropdown menu

To filter according to status:

• Go to the ‘Helpdesk’ menu under the ‘Community’ tab
• Click on ‘Status’ at the top of the app screen
• Select a status (New, In Progress, Closed) from the dropdown menu

Multi-Property Management

How can I add a tenant to my flat?

Go to Settings > My flat > Change status to Let Out > Add tenant details

Payments

What is the ‘Payments’ feature?

‘Payments’ helps you get timely updates on society dues. It makes payment of maintenance charges easy and hassle-free.

How can I pay my dues on the app?

Click on the ‘Community’ tab on the app home screen > Payments > Pay Now on the specific invoice you want to make the payment > Transaction mode (UPI/ PayU) > Pay

1. Payment flow via UPI —> Select UPI > Click Pay > Enter your UPI ID > Select Save > Click Submit > Make the payment from your UPI app

Note: Receipt generation might take time for UPI payments. Please wait for 90 minutes for an email confirmation from MyGate.

b. Payment flow via PayU/ RazorPay —> Select PayU/ RazorPay > Click Pay > Enter the phone number registered with bank > Select Payment Method > Make the payment

Note: To know about the transaction charges, click on ‘Transaction charges may apply’ dropdown option under UPI/PayU.

c. Select ‘I have paid by Cheque/ Cash/ EFT’ in case you have cleared the dues—> Select ‘I have paid by Cheque/ Cash/ EFT’ > Click on “Provide Details” > Select the date of Payment > Select the Mode of Payment > Enter details. Supporting documents and photos can be attached as well.

What payment modes are accepted on the MyGate app?

Payment on MyGate app can be made via UPI/ PayU/ Debit card/Credit card/Net Banking and e-wallets.

What are the UPI payments options on the app?

Payment can be made via all the UPI applications such as BHIM, Google Pay, WhatsApp, PhonePe, PayTM etc.

Where can I see my payment history?

Click on the ‘Community’ tab on the app home screen
Select “Payments”
Click on the bill icon on the top right corner
Select the financial year from the dropdown

What is ‘Advance’, ‘Dues’, ‘Overdues’ on the Payments page?

Advance: The amount you pay over and above the invoice amount

Dues: The date by when your payment is supposed to be paid

Overdues: Bills that are not paid on or before the due date. If yesterday was the last day to pay the bill but the payment was not cleared, the invoice becomes overdue as of today.

How do I make an advance payment?

• Click on the ‘Community’ tab on the app home screen
• Click on ‘Payments’
• Click on the arrow next to Advance/ Dues/ Overdue in the right side corner
• Select ‘Pay Advance’
• Enter the amount you want to pay as an advance
• Click on ‘Pay Advance’
• Select the payment type via which you want to make the payment and “Pay”

What happens if I make payment that’s more than my due amount?

The difference gets added to the advance. When the new invoice is generated, the bill amount is settled from the advance.

What is the difference between the invoice date, due date and overdue? Where can I find the invoice date and due date?

Invoice date: The date on which an invoice is raised by the society management. You can find the invoice date beside the status of every invoice.

Due date: The date on or before which the payment has to be made or else a fine/penalty fee might be charged. Due date is mentioned at the bottom of every invoice.

Overdue: If the invoice crosses the due date it becomes overdue. If an invoice is not cleared on or before the due date, the status changes from ‘Due’ (blue colour) to ‘Overdue’ (red colour).

Where can I see receipts of my payments?

• Click on the ‘Community’ tab on the app home screen
• Click on ‘Payments’
• Filter the Status to ‘Paid’ to find receipts for paid bills

How can I intimate the society management team about my payment?

• Go to the ‘Community’ tab
• Click on ‘Payments’
• Click ‘I have paid’ on the specific invoice
• Select the mode of payment, enter the details and click ‘Submit details’

I already paid my dues but see them as outstanding. What’s wrong?

If you use the MyGate app to clear your dues a receipt is generated immediately and there is no outstanding. In case you have used any other app or offline mode of payment then you could intimate the society management about the payment made following the steps below. The management can clear the dues and generate the receipt manually.

• Go to the ‘Community’ tab
• Click ‘Payments’
• Click ‘I have paid’ on the specific invoice.
• Select the mode of payment, enter the details and click ‘Submit details’

I can see some advance & dues amounts in my account. How do I adjust them?

The society management can adjust them for you.

I see a late payment fee added to my account but have an advance amount in my account?

In case the due amount has not been adjusted from the advance amount, please reach out to the society management.

When I click the ‘I have paid’ option, I get an error saying ‘Payment request already created for this charge’?

It means you have already raised a request but the society management has not yet accepted or rejected it. The intimation is pending for action from the society management.

Can I pay my dues using any foreign bank card?

Yes. You can pay the dues using foreign cards via RazorPay. If RazorPay does not show up as a payment gateway option, please reach out to the society management to get it enabled.

What is a Financial Year?

In India, gated communities are commonly following a financial year based auditing & tax filing system. The financial year starts from 1st April of the current year and ends on 31st March of the following year.

I cannot see the ‘Pay Now’ button to make a payment. Why?

Online transactions are allowed in the current financial year only. The selected financial year in the app may be incorrect. Please change the financial year from the drop down option under ‘Payments’ menu to find the ‘Pay Now’ option.

How can I see my payment receipts for the previous financial years?

Once you click on ‘Payments’, you can see the current financial year. Click on it and select the options from the dropdown to change the view.

What is the meaning of each filter in the Payments section

New: New bill/invoice

Overdue: Bill/ invoice that has crossed the due date

Paid: Receipt of the payments you have made

Pending: Bill/invoice that “I Have Paid” intimation raised, but not accepted/ rejected by the society management team

Rejected: Bill/invoice that “I Have Paid” intimation raised and rejected by the society management team

Should I use ‘Pay dues’ or ‘Pay advance’ to make a payment?

It is advisable to make the payment by selecting ‘Pay dues’. You can use the ‘Pay advance’ option in case you do not have any dues to pay. This will minimise the chances of a late fee being charged incorrectly.

I see some dues from the previous year. What is this?

When one financial year ends, the outstanding dues of the previous year get carried forward to the new financial year and show up with the tag ‘From previous year’.

Why is a convenience fee charged?

There is a convenience fee for online payments in Housing Societies that payment gateways charge either the customer or the association. This is not true in the case of direct transfers made via NEFT/RTGS/P2P UPI. Merchants such as online shopping platforms bear the charges themselves but in the case of Residents’ Associations, the user is charged.

Visitor Management

Does the guard stop everybody who enters the society?

Yes. The guard is required to stop and collect details from everyone entering a society’s premises.

What if I do not want my guests to wait at the gate?

You can raise a request through the MyGate app prior to their visit. A 6-digit passcode is sent to the visitor, which they can provide to the security and enter the premises without waiting for approval from you.

What if I haven’t raised an invite for my guests?

If you haven’t raised an invite, your guest will have to give their details to the guard who will update them in the app and raise a request for you to approve. On accepting the invite, your guest can enter the premises.

What if I am not home when someone comes?

If you aren’t home, you will still get a notification on your app to approve/ deny the visitor entry. The guards can inform the visitor if their request to enter the premises has been accepted or declined.

Technology

Why is Biometric not an ideal solution?

While biometric data provides a secure way to identify residents, it is highly sensitive and must be handled with utmost care. Also, the infrastructure requirements are very high and the IT Act 20 requires that all biometric data be renewed every 15 days.

Why is an Access Card not an ideal solution?

People tend to forget access cards or lose them. They can be then misused by anyone who has the card. Printing cards can also be a huge expense when a society’s churn rate is high.

Why is RFID not an ideal solution?

Even when residents vacate their flats they can still retain the apartment RFID which is a security risk. Additionally, infrastructure to set up RFID tags and readers is extensive and expensive.

Learn more

We’re rolling out a lucky draw offer in select communities to encourage more residents to use the Mygate app for their monthly maintenance payments, and we’re giving your community the first chance to benefit from it.

What’s the offer?

If your society sees a 30% absolute increase in the number of flats paying maintenance through the Mygate app in May 2025 , that means if 20% were paying earlier, 50% should be paying now then one lucky household will win a 100% cashback on their next maintenance bill. That’s right, we refund their entire bill.

Why Maintenance Payments via Mygate?

Because it’s not just about convenience, it’s about:

• Instant confirmations
• Secure digital transactions
• Automatic receipts & reminders
• Transparent records for residents & treasurers
• Fewer payment follow-ups for your management committee

Best practices to help spread the word

We’ve seen what works, and we’re sharing it with you. The more residents know, the closer you get to unlocking the cashback reward.

• Get people to download the Mygate app if they haven’t already.
• Broadcast the message in your WhatsApp groups and notice boards. (We’ve designed it for you, just hit “Download” and forward.)
• Ask your Treasurer or President to share a note in the resident groups with the flyer and a quick plug.
• Pin a short note about the offer in your Mygate community feed.
• A poster in the lift or lobby never hurts.
• Drop a reminder during the due date week. That’s when most people are looking to pay anyway.

Terms & Conditions

• A lucky winner will receive an amount equivalent to the amount of monthly maintenance paid, subject to a maximum of Rs.10,000.
• This is solely a promotional event and the winners will be selected through a lucky draw.
• A lucky winner will only be selected in societies if your society sees a 30% increase in the number of flats paying maintenance through the Mygate app in May 2025 (in absolute terms, not just a 30% more of currently paying residents). For instance, if 20% of total residents were paying earlier, 50% of total residents should be paying now to avail the offer.
• Participation in this offer is valid from May 1, 2025, commencing at 00:01 till May 31, 2025 culminating at 23:59 hours (hereinafter referred to as the “Offer Period”).
• Each winner is entitled to win only one voucher.
• In the event of inconsistencies between Terms & Conditions and the contents of marketing and/or promotions relating to the offer, these Terms and Conditions shall prevail and the decision of the company will be final and binding
• The cashback will be shared within 20 days of the lucky draw date, which will be on or before June 20, 2025
• Mygate reserves the right to extend, cancel, discontinue, prematurely withdraw, change, alter or modify this Offer or any part thereof including the eligibility criteria, and the T&C at their sole discretion at any time during its validity as may be required including in view of business exigencies and/or changes by a regulatory authority and/or statutory changes and/or any reasons beyond their control and the same shall be binding on the Customer(s).
• Taxes, if any, will be paid by the user.
• By participating in the promotion, the participant is deemed to have accepted and agreed to be bound by these Terms and Conditions and any other instructions, terms and conditions that the company may issue from time to time.
• Terms and Conditions are subject to Indian law and the exclusive jurisdiction of the Courts in Bengaluru, Karnataka.
• This offer is not applicable in the state of Tamil Nadu.
• Mygate employees are NOT eligible to participate in this offer.