Intro

Happy Holidays and welcome to onTOPS, an e-zine produced by TOPS Software to keep you informed about TOPS products and services.

I'm sure you've noticed, we've changed our format to text-only! This change is mainly due to the increasing volume of SPAM and therefore SPAM control programs that people are now using. We have found that a number of our subscribers have been unable to receive our e-zines due to the mistaken assumption of the SPAM control programs that the e-zines were SPAM.

We have also reduced the number of articles we will be publishing each month into a more digestible amount. Please click the feedback link below to let us know what you think of the new format!

IMPORTANT ANNOUNCEMENTS:

• We will be closed on December 24th and 31st for the holidays.
• Year End is the busiest time of the year for TOPS Tech Support. We will be responding to calls as quickly as we can, but please be patient! Customers on premium support plans can still expect preferred treatment, but there are no guaranteed call back times during this period.

Enjoy your reading, and we will see you next month!

>> Feedback: ezines@topssoft.com

Sales

Three Reasons You Need TOPS Internet Backup Service

1. THE SIMPLICITY: We know how valuable your time is, and how little time you have to do the things you *should* do.
   
   That is why we have made the TOPS Internet Backup Service so incredibly easy! You sign up for an account online at http://www.topsbackup.com, and we send you an email with all the instructions you need to begin backing up your important TOPS data.
   
   Setting up takes no more than 20 minutes, and once it is done, you can just leave it alone and the system will take care of the rest! A notification in TOPS 2000(tm) will show you when the last backup was performed for each community, so you can rest assured that your TOPS data is safe and sound.
   
2. THE LOCATION: Even if you already have an in-house backup solution, your data is still at risk. Fires, floods, and other natural and unnatural disasters can ruin perfectly good backup media. Not to mention the employee you let go who decided to get back at you, or the 4 year old backup tapes that got magnetized last year and nobody's realized it yet!
   
   For true peace of mind, you MUST maintain an off-site backup that will allow you to access your data from anywhere, at any time. With the TOPS Internet Backup Service, you get both the online backup server, and a redundant backup server that TOPS maintains. In other words, we backup the backups!
   
3. THE ALTERNATIVE: You can't afford the alternative! Companies spend millions of dollars every year on data recovery. Here are some important statistics that you should know about before you decide that backing up your data online isn't the right choice for you:
   
   • "93% of companies that lost their data center for 10 days or more due to a disaster filed for bankruptcy within one year of the disaster." (National Archives & Records Administration in Washington)
   • "The most common effect of a virus infection, reported by 70 percent of respondents, was rendering a PC unavailable to the user, the study found. Thirty-Seven percent of respondents reported loss of data due to viruses." (Connected Corporation)
   • "Nearly half (46 percent) of working computer users back up their data only once a month or less often, or they never back up their data. As a result, computer users are often completely unprepared for sudden attacks by hackers, viruses, blackouts and electrical failure." (Iomega)

We are currently running a special for Year End - Sign up for the TOPS Internet Backup Service today and you will receive the first month of service absolutely free - no restrictions! To sign up, go to www.topsbackup.com and click "Sign Up". Promo Code 124E.

TOPS INTERACTIVE WEB SITES:
A recent rave review from a customer

"Our login rate for our community is now 72.5%. That is just amazing for our community of 416 homes. Our site has gotten so active and people are really involved now.

Still aiming for 100%. Thanks for all your great support there! You have designed a great user-friendly site for our residents."

- Sharon Baron, Web Admin and Resident, Imagination Farms

Are you interested in signing up your communities for TOPS Interactive Web Sites? Visit http://www.topshome.com or call Susan at 1-800-556-7852 for a free information packet.

Appearances

TOPS Comes to You!

Products

Benefits of Electronic Payments

Cash receipts is the lifeblood of any organization including community associations. Community associations have to receive cash before bills can be paid, payroll checks written, and reserves funded. But the handling of cash receipts can be the single most time-consuming function done by a management company or a self-managed community. Look at the steps that have to be done when cash receipt are being manually entered into an accounting system:

1. Open envelopes containing checks
2. Sort checks by community
3. Enter payments into accounting system
4. Post payments in accounting system
5. Stamp checks "For Deposit Only"
6. Write deposit ticket
7. Take deposit to the bank

Have you stopped to think how much time is spent doing the above 7 steps? It’s huge. Now what if you could avoid all but one of these steps? A HUGE time-savings would be the result. Well that’s the big benefit and the big appeal of Lockbox Processing and Direct Debit payments. TOPS 2000™ has both of these capabilities built-in to the global module to give you the tremendous time-saving efficiencies of electronic payment processing. But what exactly is Lockbox Processing and Direct Debit?

>>Read On at http://www.topssoft.com/Articles/Products/PD22.htm

Updates

New Themes Interface for TOPS 2000™

We've added a nifty new feature to TOPS 2000™ - Themes! This feature will allow you to select a different look and feel for your TOPS 2000™ interface. The themes change icons and background graphics in the program. You can preview and download the themes from our corporate web site at http://www.topssoft.com under downloads.

New Features on our Internet Updater

• Corrected Work order invoice printing.
• Added the Report Export Utility.
• Added user manual for Report Export Utility in Manuals module.
• Corrected the last inspect date in CCR.
• Added new primary button for plug-in functions.
• Added new primary button for Community Fact Sheet.
• Added new themes interface. (See downloads above for details)

Please be advised that the Internet Updater is restricted to customers on a current maintenance support agreement. If you are interested in our technical support plans, please go online to http://www.topssoft.com/Support/MSA_plans.htm.

How to Update Your Files

1. Make sure you are logged into the computer that will be performing the
   update. (If you are updating in a networked environment, update the
   server first, as a workstation, and then run the update on each
   workstation.)
2. If it is open, close TOPS on your computer.
3. Go online to http://www.topssoft.com/downloads.htm.
4. Under "Program Updates" click the GO button.
5. Click Open, to run the update from the current location.
6. When the TOPS Web Updater appears, click the down arrow next to
   'Select Module to Check' and Choose TOPS 2000.
7. On the bottom right, ensure that the "Workstation Only" option is selected.
8. Click the "Begin Update" button. (The system may prompt you for a
   User ID. If so, enter in your TOPS Customer ID)
9. Once the update is complete, you can close this window and re-open
   TOPS 2000™.

Support

Support Department Restructure

In an effort to better serve our customers, and improve call back times, the TOPS Technical Support team has been restructured. Effective December 15th, the support department is now broken up into three tier levels.

The first tier of support is limited to a maximum of 10 minutes per call. Under this tier, you will receive immediate help with your support issues. Each of our first tier technicians will be manning the phones, so you should hear from a live person who has answers to your questions immediately when you call.

If, after talking with you, a first tier technician determines that your issue will take longer than 10 minutes to support, your ticket will be escalated to the second tier of support. These technicians will take the time to work on your individual problem and help you in whatever way is necessary.

If your issue is very complex, or requires a programming change, your ticket will then be escalated to the third tier, where either a manager or a programmer will help you solve your issue.

We hope that by initiating these new tiered levels of support, customers with simple problems and questions with a quick answer will receive a much faster turn around time. For those issues that are more complex, a first tier technician will at least touch base with the customers, minimizing call-back time waits.

Year end is always the busiest time in the TOPS technical support department, but we hope that by implementing this new structure, we can reduce some of the frustration inherent in seeking support at this time of year.

Contact Us

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

Designed by Property Management Systems Inc., d.b.a. TOPS Software. Copyright© 2005 Property Management Systems, Inc., 364-C Christopher Ave, Gaithersburg, MD 2879. ALL RIGHTS RESERVED.

To manage the emails that you receive from TOPS Software, please visit
http://www.topssoft.com/eforms/manage_subscriptions.htm.

Previous

Next