In continuation of our efforts in improving usability, increasing engagement, increasing collection, reducing operational efforts, and supporting acquisition and retention in the system, we have identified and rectified the following product gaps and added certain valuable enhancements to the product.
ERP :
Revamped IGST for income
Much like our expense system that perfectly handles IGST Input, we have now completely automated the IGST Output on the income side. Previously, the IGST active societies had to make some amount of manual effort to ensure the monthly flow of their liabilities. However, with this comprehensive set of changes made to invoicing, penalty calculation and GST reporting, they can now directly use the system for their output filing and compliance. This would helps our admin/accountants in the following ways –
- Automated billing and collection when it comes to IGST houses
- Automated GST on penalty calculation depending on the type of GST applied on the principal invoice
- Dedicated column for IGST in the output report (both tax invoices and canceled ones) along with summations at the bottom of the screen
Notes –
- Normal GST and IGST items are not allowed in a single template, given that it increases the chances of human error and application of CGST on IGST houses
- IGST upgrades are available with both New penalty (applied provisionally post due date and generated as a separate invoice upon receipt of dues) and Mumbai penalty (applied on charge date within the next month’s invoice) systems
- Old penalty system is not covered for this, since it produces invoices that are not static and provides fewer controls to the accountant
Dashboard >> Accounts >> Member invoices
Amenity Grouping for a similar set of facilities
For a society with multiple similar amenities such as badminton courts, guest houses, parking slots etc. it becomes very difficult to ensure that a resident within the society does not book all of the available courts and creates a supply concern.
The previous process allowed creation of similar amenities as individual entities exclusive of each other. With the new update, we have introduced a new tool to group those similar facilities and link them under a few booking restrictions –
- A house’s daily booking quota would now apply across the individual facilities within the group
- Similarly, a house’s monthly booking quota would now apply across the individual facilities within the group
The society would benefit in the following ways and cases –
- Effective management of supply if there is a huge demand for a facility (with multiple courts) such as badminton or tennis
- Peak hours and normal hours for a facility can be created separately and then bound together under a group to apply booking restrictions
Dashboard >> Amenities >> Settings
Live society account balance on MyGate Dashboard
Knowing the real time society balance is highly important for making decisions around vendor payments. Further the difference between the current balance and the last reconciled balance can give the admin a proper view into the pending reconciliations by the accounts team. With this update, we have presented the society balance on the homepage of the dashboard to the roles such as admin, treasurer, accountant, etc.
Notes –
- This feature is only available with ICICI & Yes Banks current account for now and soon be expanded to SBI and other banks
- We are currently running a pilot with a few societies in Bangalore. Post this exercise, we will open the feature to be enabled on demand
Dashboard Home Page
Quick fund transfer between advances for a house
Quite a few times, funds not being available in the proper advance account can lead to auto-settlement not happening and disputes arising. Such cases are mostly encountered when excess payment has previously been booked into a wrong advance account by the society office or a resident has made an advance payment for multiple heads into a single advance account. To resolve this, the accountant is required to pass JVs under the voucher section. With this new update on the house dues page, the admin receives the following benefits on a day to day basis –
- The quick transfer tool does not require one to go to the voucher section, saving time in navigation
- Minimum amount of data is asked while making the transfer, further saving one’s time
Notes –
If a user wants to operate in a previous financial year, he should change the FY first
The admin/accountant can delete the relevant JV created to revert the transfer of advance
Dashboard >> Accounts >> Dues and Receipts >> Dues
Renaming of society advances brought under admin control
As we go forward, the number of societies adopting the multi advance / multi bill plan setup are increasing every month. Hence, it is occasionally possible that the advance names configured in the first go by our team are not suited for the society and require a revision. This function added within the existing edit form would allow such changes at the admin’s end.
Any revision would only be required for the general ledger of the concerned advance – the changes to the relevant house sub-ledgers under it would automatically flow.
Dashboard >> Accounts >> Invoicing
Bill Plan & advance status brought under admin control
Along the lines of the previous update, as the number of bill plans and multi advances in a society become quite a few, the admin would be required to strictly control the ones which are no longer in use. Showcasing all the bill plans and multi advances all the time may lead to human errors on both accountant and resident level.
With this update, we have introduced a publish/unpublish checkbox within the edit forms and the unused configurations can be disabled as per admin’s or treasurer’s choice. The benefits are –
- The disabled bill plans and advances would not be available for template creation or any fresh transaction on the dashboard, removing the chances of mistakes by accountants.
- The disabled advances would not be available for fresh payments on the app, removing the chances of mistakes by residents.
- This method can also be used to preserve liability funds (IFMS, advance maintenance, etc) – the values will be visible to the respective residents, but would not be utilized for any settlement.
Accounts >> Invoicing >> Member Invoices>> Bill Plans
Accounts >> Invoicing >> Member Invoices>> Multiple Advance
Last updated user to be logged for the amenity bookings
In the lifecycle of an amenity booking, its status changes with time from created to canceled or rejected. Sometimes, in cases of disputes, it becomes essential for the admins to quickly know who (and when) updated the booking status.
We have now added the ‘Last Updated By’ and ‘Last Updated Date & Time’ details in the downloaded Amenity report and also when viewing each amenity booking detail on the dashboard UI. This will help the admins to know this data easily and also to maintain any local records.
Amenities >> Reports
Security :
Entry-Exit report enhancements
- Vendor name addition in the downloaded report
The vendor name (‘From’ column) was only visible to the admins in the monthly entry-exit report. The same will now be visible in the date wise entry-exit report as well. This will help the admins to check this data for a short period of time and avoid downloading the monthly report each time.
People Hub >> Visitors >> Entry Exit Report
- Gate Number addition in the downloaded report
The Gate number of entry-exit was not shown in the reports making it difficult for the admins to check the activity at each gate in case a society has multiple gates. Now, the admins will be able to see the gate number in the entry-exit report making it easier for the admins to compare the visitor footfall at each gate.
People Hub >> Visitors >> Entry Exit Report
People Hub >> Visitors >> Entry Exit Monthly Report Download
Attendance report enhancements
- Passcodes and Serial numbers addition in the downloaded report
The attendance report when downloaded did not show the passcodes of the service providers and also serial numbers for the admins to verify. We have now added these parameters to the downloaded attendance report where the admins can now see the passcode against each staff and also the serial numbers in order to get the right count of staff whose attendance is being checked.
People Hub >> Service Providers >> Attendance >> Download Attendance
People Hub >> Service Providers >> Attendance >> Download Attendance Detail
- Download Date range header addition in the downloaded report
In order to avoid confusion after downloading the report and to avoid multiple downloads of the same data, we have now added the Date range of the data downloaded as a header in the attendance report. This will help the admins identify the exact date range for which the attendance report has been downloaded.
People Hub >> Service Providers >> Attendance >> Download Attendance
People Hub >> Service Providers >> Attendance >> Download Attendance Detail
Personal data protection enhanced across the platform
Currently, the PII data of residents and service providers were masked based on the GDPR settings when the society opts-in for the same. This was leading to visibility of privacy data for the admins and misuse of the data by the society admins. We have now enabled masking of resident and service provider data irrespective of the society enabling GDPR. The masking in the listing page will show the ‘View’ option where the admins will have to enter the reason to view the data. The masking has been added for the PII data in the dashboard as well as in the downloaded reports. This will avoid misuse of any privacy data and safeguard the personal data of residents and service providers. The data masking has been done in the pages below:
People Hub >> Service Providers >> Service Providers List
People Hub >> Service Providers >> Service Provider company
People Hub >> Service Providers >> Inactive Service Provider
People Hub >> Residents >> Resident List
People Hub >> Vendors
People Hub >> Key Personnels
Additional Notes :
- IFSC code to be displayed within invoice template and generated batch to ease account remapping requests from societies.
- Multiclick concerns resolved and loaders added to the penalty item list page.
- Comment count added within the listing cards of the society discussions.
- Transaction Charges renamed to Convenience Fees on the ERP checkout page.
That’s all folks!!