05 onTOPS

September 2002

onTOPS

Welcome to onTOPS, an e-zine produced by TOPS Software to keep you informed about our products and services. In this issue, we will be talking about TOPS 2000™ version 3.1, a new sales office opening in South Florida, and more!

We look forward to hearing your feedback about the e-zine. Please let us know what things you liked, what you would like to see, and any suggested articles by e-mailing us at Ezines@TOPSSoft.com

by Andrea Drennen  

onSoftware

TOPS 2000™ Version 3.1

We are nearing the completion of our testing of this new version of TOPS 2000™. A preliminary version has been shipped to a selected group of customers who volunteered to be testers. There are some powerful new features in Version 3.1 including email capabilities so you can answer owner questions by email right in TOPS 2000™.

The new Community Fact Sheet is also included in this release. The Community Fact Sheet gives you a place to record all the important information about a community, including insurance policies and coverages, emergency contacts, contractors, facilities, and important rules and regulations.

The above are just a few of the hundreds of changes in the new version. These changes include:

• Batch Owner Adjustments make adding or waiving owner charges easy.
• Set up and save recurring owner adjustments that can be posted each period.
• G/L Closed Period Protection prevents backdating entries to closed periods.
• G/L Year End Closing is a new option to retain the G/L transaction history for closed years. This enables reprinting of financial statements for a closed year.
• Rental Accounting allows one to set up a rental community and charge rents, track security deposits, do lease expiration inquiries and reporting. Vacant units are also tracked and reports generated. If you handle rental properties in addition to condo/HOA properties, these new capabilities in TOPS 2000™ will help make your job easier.

As there are far too many changes to list here, a complete list of the new features and programming changes will be sent with your Version 3.1 update, as well as made available on out website.

by Jeff Hardy 

onSales

Bruce Gran, Director of Sales, announced that TOPS will be opening a south Florida sales office in October 2002 in the Ft. Lauderdale area (Broward County). The office will begin handling all sales for TOPS 2000™ and TOPS On-Site™, add-on modules, and all future TOPS Software products. Currently, the sales staff is split between Florida and Maryland. By consolidating the staff in one location, we hope to be able to provide better, more responsive handling of inquiries and orders to both our customers and our dealers across the country.

Other Announcements:

• TOPS Software has contracted the services of the AtHomeNet team to act as a sales force for the TOPS Community Web Site Service; Susan Sanders and the rest of her sales team will be placing the full force of their website knowledge behind TOPS Community Web Site sales.
  
• Bruce Gran will be exhibiting at the Orlando CAI Day, September 24, 2002. Our booth assignment will be announced on our web site shortly. Additionally, Bruce Gran may be a presenter at this conference. We will announce further information as it becomes available on our trade show page: www.TOPSSoft.com/sales/trade_shows.htm.
  
• Mark your calendar to join us at the CAI Community Leadership Forum in Orlando, Florida. The show is scheduled for October 24 through October 26, 2002 at the Walt Disney World resort.
  
• In addition to a booth on the trade show floor, we will be participating in a panel discussion on October 26 at 9:00 am. Bruce Gran, Susan Sanders from AtHomeNet, and William Owens, CPA will be the speakers for the panel. The topic is "Getting the Most Out of Technology".

by Jeff Hardy & Bruce Gran   

onSupport

We are continuing our discussion of "Utilities You Can Use". This month, we discuss the many uses of the AR Utility.

The AR Utility contains a multitude of features that can be both helpful and potentially dangerous. If you delete entries in the AR Utility, they will disappear for good. Therefore we recommend users go into the AR Utility only to “reorder by date” (which reorganizes the history by date) or to “search checks” (which searches your system for undeposited checks). Neither of these actions permanently deletes any information from your database.

You can edit the actual history (you might need do a journal entry to fix the GL if necessary), or even move a history from one unit to replace the history in another, but you can’t combine histories. For those and all other options, we encourage you to call support until you reach a comfort level with the data, know when and where to use these options, and understand what you are seeing in the data.

The utilities are powerful tools designed to help you, but as always, we encourage you to be careful until you know what you are doing. Feel free to walk through it with us a few times to ensure you learn it correctly and become comfortable with the process. We are always here to help. All you have to do is pick up the phone and give us a call at 1-800-899-5689, or email us at Support@TOPSSoft.com.

Editor's Note: Cathy Flynn is the corporate trainer for TOPS Software. If you have a question related to training, feel free to send her an e-mail at Training@TOPSSoft.com.

by Cathy Flynn

onSpecial

Upgrade your support plan and receive a 20% discount for the first month. This offer only available until October 1, 2002.

With summer coming to an end, the busy season will be soon upon us. There are many functions in TOPS 2000™ that are often done once a year, such as creating coupon books, entry of budget information, and year-end closing. Don't get caught off guard!

If you have high overage times, upgrading your support plan to a longer allowed time can actually help lower your monthly support costs. Upgrading to the premium level support plan can eliminate overage costs altogether! Premium level support customers also receive preferred callbacks, ensuring a quick response to your support needs.

TOPS is offering a special on support plan upgrades. Receive 20% off the first month if you upgrade your current support plan by October 1st. You can't go wrong with this offer. Upgrade your support plan today to take advantage of this great offer!

by Ryan Allen  

onLine

Some of the new items online at www.TOPSSoft.com:

• Topshome.com has been completely redesigned for our web site customers and prospects. The website includes information about web site plans and pricing, features, downloads, a web site support knowledge base, and more!
• Knowledge Base Added - In response to feedback received from our customer survey, TOPS has incorporated all of the help materials currently available into one simple, easily searched, Support Knowledge Base. The knowledge base replaces both the FAQ and the How To sections previously on this web site. The new program contains all FAQs and How Tos, as well as previously unreleased troubleshooting guides and internal help files.
• Job Streaming Page Added - In addition to TOPS 2000™ version 3.1, TOPS Software will be releasing a new Global Add-On: Job Streaming. This program is fully integrated into TOPS 2000™ to allow portfolio managers to perform repetitive tasks simply and automatically.
• New Articles Added - All of the articles from the Fall 2002 quarterly edition of The TOPS News have been added to the Articles section.
• Fall 2002 Newsletter in Downloads - The Fall 2002 quarterly edition of The TOPS News has been added to the Downloads section. Read about the upcoming TOPS 2000™ version 3.1, an interview with Dorian Drossos, overcoming resistance to change, letters to TOPS, and more!
• E-zines Added to Articles: The August issues of the TOPS Home and onTOPS e-zines have been added to the Articles section.
• Customer Survey: We want to know your opinions of our products and services. Please take a few moments to complete our new online customer survey. Your answers will be used to help us improve our products and services. Results will be tallied in a future version of The TOPS News.
• TOPS Forums: Our Message Board Forums will enable you to communicate with TOPS employees, dealers, trainers, and other customers. Sign up for a local account to join our online community.

by Andrea Drennen  

onTopic

Did You Know?...

According to researchers at Temple University, positively identifying with three or more of the following characteristics means that your home is at risk for burglary:

• The house is within three blocks of a major thoroughfare.
• The house is on a cul-de-sac.
• The house is adjacent to a wooded area, abandoned railroad tracks, or park.
• As occupants of the house, you are newcomers to the neighborhood (within the past year).

From www.securityworld.com

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