TOPS Home E-Zine; Issue #33 - February 2005

Welcome to TOPS Home, the web site e-mail magazine (e-zine) for the TOPS Community Web Site Service.

In this issue:

• New Release: Online AP Approval!
• Upcomming Events: Custom Reports Live Chat
• Feature Teacher: Requests & Questions
• Support Tips: New "Clustering" Search Engine
• Contact: Contact Information for TOPS Software

TOPS Web Sales: (800) 556-7852  WebSales@topssoft.com
TOPS Web Support  (800) 899-5689  WebSupport@topssoft.com

Read this issue and archived issues of the TOPS Home Ezine online at: http://www.topshome.com/topshome/Administrators/

>> Feedback: ezines@topssoft.com

NEW RELEASE: Online AP Approval!

This month, TOPS Software released our newest feature, Online AP Approval! This program adds even greater functionality to your TOPS Community Web Site(s) by allowing Board members to go to their community web site to approve outstanding invoices for payment. You may have noticed the new link in the 'Board Only' section of your community web site(s) called 'A/P Invoices'. Approving invoices couldn’t be easier for your board members! TOPS Online A/P Approval is at their disposal 24 hours a day, seven days a week from anywhere they have access to your Community Web Site via the Internet.

Online AP Approval is available completely free of charge to every TOPS Community Web Site customer. All you have to do is update your TOPS 2000™ files, and run a setup wizard in TOPS 2000™ to activate this exciting new feature. The setup wizard provides a number of setup combinations in an effort to cover many different community scenarios. For example, you may set a minimum number of signatures (up to 3), and/or designate that a second and/or third signature is only required for invoices over a certain dollar ammount. You may even designate a minimum ammount that invoices should upload for approval if your management company has de facto approval on any invoice under a certain amount.

Once you activate the feature, you will have the option to enter invoices from TOPS 2000™ and/or from the Community Web Site. Invoices entered in TOPS 2000™ will be marked by default to upload to the Community Web Site for approval. Invoices may not be posted to be paid until approval has been received. You may choose to change an invoice to an 'offline' invoice when you enter it in TOPS if you have already received approval, or need to process it quickly in preparation for a board meeting or an emergency.

Online A/P approval is the third in a suite of programs specifically designed to streamline the Accounts Payable process. While Online A/P Approval can be a major time saver in and of itself, when combined with MICR Check Printing and Digital Signatures, you can significantly improve the flow of your Accounts Payable processing, and reduce the time you and your staff are currently spending on Accounts Payables for the communities you manage. Contact sales at 800-899-5689 or sales@topssoft.com if you are interested MICR Check Printing with Digital Signatures.

Because it is unique to each community, Online AP Approval can only be used with TOPS Community Web Sites, and not on your management company web site, unless you are using TOPS to track your internal Accounts Payables as well.

We have provided a page on our website that explains some more about Online AP Approval at http://www.topshome.com/topshome/Online_AP_Approval.htm. On the same page, you will find links to the individual manual portions regarding this feature. There are two parts, one that discusses the TOPS 2000™ side of operations, and one that describes the web site side of things. I highly recommend that you post the latter in a Board Only (level 25) category in your Documents feature, so that your Board member approvers will have help on using this feature without the need to contact you.

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UPCOMING EVENTS: Custom Reports Live Chat

We will be hosting our next scheduled live chat for TOPS Web Site Administrators on Tuesday, March 15th at 2pm EST. We will be discussing custom reports. Please let us know that you will be attending so we know how many people to expect. You can email your RSVP to websupport@tossoft.com, or submit it on the site at http://www.topshome.com/admin. You must have a login name and password to access the site and attend the chat, so be sure to visit the web site and request your login info today.

Our last chat on Online Payments was very successful. We had James Rowell from eRentPayer on hand to answer questions, and 26 attendees. The transcript is posted under Documents on the TOPS Administrator Forum.

Speaking of the Administrator Forum, we have been regularly adding to this site, so be sure to check out the Web Site Features section, or the Message Board to talk with other administrators. If you've never been to the forum, you will need to request a login. Sign up today at http://www.topshome.com/admin/.

FEATURE TEACHER: Requests & Questions

One of the features of the community web sites that is often overlooked is the Requests & Questions feature. It is overlooked because it seems very similar to the eForms feature and many people do not understand the difference. This article will help explain the differences between these features and point out some of the advantages of using the Requests/Questions feature.

The eForms feature is often used because it can require specific content and specific fields to be completed. It asks the user to complete specific information for the form. The Requests & Questions feature, on the other hand, is more free form. It simply has a large text area where the user can input anything they want. This is useful if what they need to say does not fit appropriately into the fields of one of the eForms. It is controlled more by the person submitting the form than by the person who created the form.

There is also the issue of reciever transparency. This basically means, "Does the the person submitting the form know who it is going to?" While both the eForm and the Requests & Questions features hide the specific e-mail address of the reciever, the Requests & Questions feature still allows users to select who the submitted e-mail goes to. When someone submits a Request/Question, there is a pull-down list titled "Send Request To". Here, they can select from a list of recievers. Notice, however, that it does not display thee-mail address of the receiver but only the title and name of the recievers. You can modify this list by logging in as an administrator and going to the Requests & Questions feature. Now click Add, Edit, Delete Request Options. Here you can change the list of recievers.

When adding or editing a recieiver, there are 3 fields. - Name, Description and E-mail. The E-mail field determines where the submission goes to, but is not visible from the pull-down list. The Name & Description fields will be displayed in the pull-down list. Only one of the fields is required and it doesn't matter which one, but the Description (often used for the title) is displayed first followed by the Name. This is useful if you want it to display the department that it will go to or the title of the reciever, but want to keep their specific name generalized in case it changes.

The Requests & Questions feature is a very useful tool for users who need to contact the management company, web site administrator, or another office for the community. It is more free-form than an eForm, and receivers do NOT have to be from the Address Book (unlike eForms). Be sure to setup the Request Options to allow your owners to contact whichever person they need to reach.

SUPPORT TIPS: New "Clustering" Search Engine

The world around us is clustered – from restaurant menus, stadium seating, retail stores to our desks at work with files of documents, people like to see things organized. So, why is this natural impulse for order completely ignored in the world of web searching?

Typically, search engines return anywhere from hundreds to millions of results for a query you type in. Unfortunately, these results are rarely organized by their topic, leaving you to look through dozens of pages of results just to find the exact information you are searching for. For example, a search for CAI in a typical search engine returns thousands of results for topics ranging from Computer Aided Instruction, Canadian Airlines, Cold Air Intake, Chai Tea, and Community Associations Institute. All of these results are provided together, ordered by popularity in the number of clicks, not by the individual subject.

Enter Clusty, a new search engine currently available in it’s Beta stage from Vivísimo. Clusty is a “clustering” search engine that offers a new method of presenting results. Clusty automatically clusters results into categories that are intelligently selected from the words and phrases contained in the search results themselves. These categories offer a hierarchical drill-down capability in a familiar and intuitive folders-style interface. Thus, you get a quick overview of the types of information available on a topic and can quickly focus on the specific grouping that interests you.

Clustering lets users easily see results that would have been invisible because they are buried in later pages. By organizing the results into titled folders, even results on page 15 may now be only a click away.

Check out Clusty at http://clusty.com.

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!

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Here is a list of some of the most common contact data for TOPS Software:

Department	Contact	Email	Phone
Software Sales	Nicole Sezov	sales@topssoft.com	800-760-9966
Web Site Sales	Susan Sanders	websales@topshome.com	800-556-7852
Technical Support	Jeanne Plennert	support@topssoft.com	800-899-5689
Web Site Support	Brandon Kelley	websupport@topssoft.com	800-899-5689
Accounting	Cande Estrella	billing@topssoft.com	301-869-8144

Designed by TOPS Software, LLC. Copyright© 2005 TOPS Software, LLC, 364-C Christopher Ave, Gaithersburg, MD 2879. ALL RIGHTS RESERVED.

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