The PropertyBoss Portals can add a great deal of ease and functionality to your business.   PropertyBoss Portals come with a variety of abilities ranging from lease management, owner views, online applications, and more.   Here we will talk about the Resident Portal, Owner Portal, and the Payment Portal.

The Resident Portal gives your residents an online view of their lease with optional features as well, such as:   the ability to enter work orders, and editing contact information.  The Work Orders tab allows tenants to view any work orders associated with their lease.  They can also update information on a work order.  You can also decide if your tenants should be allowed to edit their contact information.  If they edit this information, you will receive the updated contact information in PropertyBoss.  Any combination of the above options can be used.  You can upload media to the Resident Portal for your residents to view.  You can also upload media and assign it to a lease so only the lease holder can see it or you can assign it to the property so that anyone in that property can see the media.  Media can also be added to work orders making it available to residents, owners and vendors.

The Owner Portal allows owners to view information about their properties, profit and loss amount, work orders for each property and more.  The Owner Portal has optional features similar to the Resident Portal options. Like the Resident Portal, the Work Orders feature has three options. If you choose to turn on the Work Orders for the owners, you can decide if they should be able to edit and add new work orders, or just see existing ones.  Owners also have the optional Contact Information tab where they can edit their own contact information.  Once again, if they change their information, PropertyBoss will be alerted and it will be added to their information in PropertyBoss.

The Payment Portal is the path for all of your customers to make payments to you. If you have a Payment Portal, you have the option to add the ‘Make a Payment’ link to the Resident and Owner Portals.  Users can also have the option to set up recurring payments.   A gateway is necessary to use the Payment Portal.  PropertyBoss offers the Merchant Gateway and the Bank Gateway.  The Merchant Gateway allows you to accept credit cards and bank drafts.  The Bank Gateway is only for bank drafts and also provides the ability to pay owners.

If you would like to know more about the portals that you already have you can schedule training at training.propertyboss.com.  If you don’t currently have any portals and would like to know more, contact your sales representative

One of the many factors search engines like Google and Bing take into account when ranking your website for a given keyword (or phrase) is the number of other websites that link to yours (a backlink), how much of an authority on that keyword the linking site is, and how they go about actually doing the linking.

Yeah, it’s a bit complicated, but there is a method to the madness and with a short explanation it will all make sense.

In short you want lots of other website linking to yours. However, as with most things in life the devil is in the details. What you really want is a lot of other websites that are considered an “authority” on the keyword(s) you are targeting to link to you, using the very keywords in question as the anchor text of the link (the words the user clicks on to follow the link), and you DON’T want to link back to them in return. That’s right…no trading links. Read on…I’ll explain.

Which websites link to yours makes a big difference. If a blog about pets links to your property management website it won’t really help so far as your search engine ranking is concerned. A link to your site from a website run by the city Chamber of Commerce that lists property management companies would be a GREAT backlink. The difference is that the former has nothing whatsoever to do with the subject matter of your website whereas the latter does. It’s quality over quantity when it comes to backlinks.

In addition to the subject matter of the site from which a backlink originates, the actual text of the link impacts how much value you get from it. Ideally, you want sites linking to yours to use the keyword(s) you are targeting as the anchor text of the link. For example, “Your Compay Name is the best property management company in town!!!” is a great endorsement. However, if the author links “Your Company Name” to your site, the benefit in terms of your SEO efforts on the keywords “property management” is virtually nil. However, if they link the keywords “property management” in the same sentence to your site, a search engine will regard that as an endorsement by the linking site that your website is itself an authority on “property management”.

Last point about backlinks. There are two kinds. Organic and reciprocal. An organic backlink is one way. A link from some other website to yours with no link from your site back to theirs. Search engines regard this a genuine endorsement. When two websites trade links they are referred to as reciprocal and are effectively disregarded by search engines.

December 7-9, 2010 Greenville, SC

As mentioned in previous issues of Inside the Door, there are several options clients can pursue for their training needs. Along with the web-based sessions discussed, PropertyBoss also offers classroom and on-site courses. In this article, let’s take a closer look at the classroom option.

Although online training is useful, productive, and has a relatively low overhead, often times more can be gained in a classroom setting. The two and a half day instructor-led course focuses on core features of the PropertyBoss software. This allows clients to learn in a hands-on approach with the guidance of a PropertyBoss instructor. After completing the course, clients will leave with a better understanding of the daily functionality of the system.

Although there are many topics discussed during the course, QuickBooks is not covered in depth. If you are interested in the topic, you can stay after the class on day two for an hour long introduction. For additional help, you can schedule a web-based implementation session(s) to complete your setup of the interface with hands-on help from a PropertyBoss trainer. Along the same line, the portal and add-on module use is often referenced at a high-level during the class and do not cover detailed instruction on their setup or use.

Registration for our classroom training course includes materials, classroom with work stations and instructor guidance. You will receive a training workbook that provides instruction for topics covered in class. There is ample space provided to take notes to refer back to after the class is completed. We do not, however, provide a complete user-guide for participants. Clients can access our online help system, Einstein Answers, at any time through the internet: einsteinanswers.propertyboss.net and print the almost 1400 pages (yes, 1400 pages!) from there.

We invite you to seriously consider attending the next classroom training session.  The next session is scheduled for December 7-9, 2010 in Greenville, SC.  To learn more about our classroom course offering, please visit our website www.propertyboss.com.

You probably already know that PropertyBoss is a leader in the property management software industry. What you may not know is that we also specialize in providing advanced, custom website solutions for property managers through our Web Solutions group.

So what do I mean by an “advanced, custom website solution” anyway?

Well, by “advanced” I mean that web surfers today expect a lot from your website. Future residents want to submit their rental application online and be able to search the latest property listings. Current residents want to be able to pay their rent and submit work orders. Owners like to keep tabs on their properties and income. Throw in business partners, vendors, associations and any number of other “constituents” and the demands on your website start to stack up. PropertyBoss has the experience, expertise and technology to deliver a complete solution that addresses each of your company’s unique requirements.

Precisely because it offers the advanced functionality and information they need (or soon will), your future customers and partners will  likely visit your website before you hear from them and they will form a first impression. According to a 2006 study by the University of Ottawa, it’ll take them an average of 50 milliseconds to decide, subconsciously, just what they think about it, and by extension, your business. That’s 1/20th of a second. Not much time is it? This is why things like layout, colors, the amount of content displayed and what is referred to in the business as a web page’s “call to action” (the one thing you want a user to do like click a link or download a document) are so important. This is where the “custom” comes in.

Developing a unique, custom website, as opposed to one that is “turnkey” or based on a template, starts with creating an aesthetically appealing and original design tailored to each client to make sure that first impression is a great one … but that’s just the start. By engaging in a discovery process at the beginning of each project, our Web Solutions group seeks to identify ways to help each client’s website stand out and rise above the noise.

If a client is already writing a monthly article for a trade publication we might suggest they incorporate a blog and post those articles on their site because the added pages provide what is called SEO “juice” (more about search engine optimization in another article). The same feature might not work for the next client who has no time to produce original content. Another client may be managing several apartment communities near a university in which case we might suggest they create Facebook pages for each community so their residents, likely already active Facebook users, can become a “Friend” of the apartment community where they live … which will immediately put a link to that community’s fan page in front of every person that resident is friends with on Facebook. You can’t beat free, viral marketing on a website with 500 million users now can you?

Whether you’ve got an existing website that needs help or are looking to have a new site built from scratch, PropertyBoss Web Solutions, can help. Contact us today for a free consultation.

About The Author

Paul Angell is a veteran web developer with 15 years experience ranging from freelance work to a 10 year stint at Infor Global Solutions where he served as the Director of Web Development for the Hosted Solutions division. He joined PropertyBoss in May of 2010 as the company’s Web Architect and manager of the Web Solutions group.

One of the most important questions that many of our customers will ask is whether they should use one database to manage their properties or divide the properties into separate databases. Using one database simplifies the process for a variety of reasons – one set of data for reporting, central management of user permissions, security, and backups and a single point of entry for all system users. However, there are instances when multiple databases are the right choice. Let’s explore in more detail the benefits of each option and identify ‘real-life’ examples of using one database and multiple databases.

Customers choosing to manage all of their property management data in a single database typically fall into one of two categories:

1. Property management companies managing properties on behalf of a variety of individual third-party owners or ownership entities.
or
2. Property owners whose holdings are consolidated under one ownership entity for management and accounting purposes.

A good example of the second category is an individual or group who own properties under the umbrella of a single corporate entity. The ‘one database’ option is appropriate in both instances, because this approach provides easy access by the property manager to data for all ownership entities. Customers who use PropertyBoss with QuickBooks can link multiple QuickBooks company files to one PropertyBoss database for the purpose of maintaining separate financials for each ownership entity. This is accomplished by associating the property in PropertyBoss with the corresponding company file in QuickBooks.

The introduction of the Property List function makes the ‘one database’ model viable for property management companies that manage larger portfolios and have multiple users accessing the data in PropertyBoss. Property Lists enable the management company to group properties together so that a property manager can view only the properties for which he or she is responsible. The Property List feature is also useful as a way to segregate properties owned by a single entity.

Apartment management companies usually maintain a separate database in PropertyBoss for each apartment community. This is a logical choice, because the site manager is focused exclusively on the management of his or her community. A notable exception to this rule would be a manager who is responsible for several small communities (25 to 30 units each) or multiple ‘phases’ of a community. In these instances the various communities may be grouped together in a single database. Community statistics related to leasing and renewals, collections, traffic, vacancy, and work orders can be consolidated into a portfolio-wide report for management purposes. Therefore, the management and owners of a community can view data related to the entire portfolio while restricting the access of the site manager to a specific community.

If you have questions about which option is right for your business then feel free to contact an Application Specialist at 1.800.562.661 x1 or by E-Mail at solutions@propertyboss.com.

If you are like many property managers and looking to grow your business by diversifying your portfolio, PropertyBoss is here to help.  We have seen a great deal of property managers take on condo association/homeowners associations recently.  While your leasing database may fit the bill, adding an association-specific database to your PropertyBoss application is a cost-effective and easy way to service that industry.

Some items that PropertyBoss’s association-specific database ads:

• Association-specific languages.  No ‘rent’, ‘tenant’, and ‘lease’, but instead ‘assessment’, ‘contact’, and ‘ownership’.

• Architectural Review – usually associations require submission & approval of any changes to their home or condo.  PropertyBoss has a process for this that is customizable to the board’s direction.

• The unlimited user-defined fields (available in all PropertyBoss databases) provides a perfect repository for the detailed information required for all associations – board members, terms, insurance/attorney information, garage/parking space number, recreation pass numbers, amenities listing.

• Media tab provides a document archiving and distribution of Restrictions/Covenants/By-Laws, clubhouse rental forms, etc to members through the Member Portal.

• Board member specific portal access to allow certain members of the association access to financial statements without generalized distribution.

• Violations Tracking – a checklist-style process that adapts to each association’s covenant-driven process.