Issue #48
- Calendar/Scheduler Now Available in Public Beta
- Association Pack Sale and Online Purchasing
- Keeping TOPS v3.2.1™ Files Up-to-Date in a Networked Environment
- Eve 'n You Can Change Assessment Amounts for 2007 Coupons
- Something to be Thankful For...
12/13/2006 TOPS U presents NCS-101, New Community Setup (Online)
01/17/07 TOPS U presents CCR-101, CCR/ACC Enforcement Setup (Online)
02/1-2/2007 CACM Northern CA Law Seminar & Trade Show (Oakland, CA)
04/25-28/07 CAI's National Conference (Las Vegas, NV)
Best Fit Solutions, LLC provides TOPS v3.2.1™ training & accounting services. On-site or Internet-based training services available. Learn more at www.bestfitsolutions.net, or call 281-870-0404.
Use www.ReadyDOCS.com to sell documents online and turn Process into Profit. Contact us at (888) 497-8832 to find out how!
ReadyCollect integrates with TOPS Software to provide a complete collections process when accounts are turned over to your attorney. Visit www.ReadyCollect.com for more information on this money-saving program.
TOPS Corporate Trainer now provides
training on your site or via the Internet! Our corporate trainer, Dave
Black, has years of experience training in TOPS Software products. To
schedule a training session:
Toll-Free: 1-800-760-9966
Email: davidb@topssoft.com
The TOPS Internet Backup Service allows
you to automatically back up your important TOPS Community Data from right
inside TOPS v3.2.1™! For More Info, see www.topsbackup.com.
The TOPS Web Admin Forum, located at
admin.topswebsites.com provides
resources for TOPS Community Web Site Administrators, from free web site
content to direct chat with other admins. If you are not a member of this
forum, be sure to request your login today.
If you have not yet checked out TOPS'
Online Support Center, do it today! You can see your current
usage minutes, review past tickets, and see what tickets are open for
your organization. All you need to do is know your TOPS Client ID and
fill in a one-time sign-up form.
Thanks to all who attended our 2006 User Group Conferences. We are planning up to nine user groups throughout the US in 2007. The first is planned to be held in the Chicago area in early March. Details will be released as they are confirmed. Contact sales@topssoft.com for more information.
The onTOPS Ezine is published by TOPS Software, LLC., 25400 US 19 N. Clearwater, FL 33763.
Copyright© 2001-2006, All rights reserved. Articles
may be reprinted with permission from the publisher.
TOPS
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TOPS On-Site
Internet Backup
TOPS Web Sites
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Welcome to onTOPS!
Welcome to the onTOPS Ezine, an email publication from TOPS Software. We hope you enjoy reading this issue.
News and Notes:
- In observance of the holidays, TOPS Software will be closed on Monday December 25th and Monday January 1st.
- December begins the busy season for TOPS Software's technical support team, as our customers begin their year-end cycle. Please be advised that call volume is extremely heavy during this time of year, and therefore, premium clients may not receive a 45 minute call back time. The TOPS Technical Support team will make every effort to call back each and every customer in a timely manner. We advise you to make sure that you have a login to the Online Customer Care Center, where you may access our knowledge base, as well as a history of your prior support tickets.
- In an effort to reduce the number of program updates we release, TOPS Software will be moving to a monthly update schedule in 2007. Starting January 2007, updates will be released the third week of each month. Critical updates will continue to be released as needed.
All of the articles in the ezines are stored in the articles section of
our web site, www.topssoft.com,
which also means that ezine articles are searchable via our web site search
engine. You will find the search link at the bottom of each article, along
with a convenient option to send an article of interest to a friend or
colleague.
Please send feedback to: insider@topssoft.com
Calendar/Scheduler now available in Public Beta
The TOPS Calendar/Scheduler is a free enhancement to TOPS v3.2.1™ that is currently being made available to all customers in a public Beta Test.
This public beta cycle introduces a new effort on the part of TOPS Software to provide a better mechanism for testing new products by opening them up to all customers in a Beta format prior to official release.
The Calendar/Scheduler is slated to stay in the Public Beta cycle until March of 2007 to give customers plenty of time to complete their year-end cycles, as well as to give TOPS time to incorporate any public beta tester feedback into the program before its general release.
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Association Pack Sale and online purchasing
Get a 10% discount on all association pack purchases from our new online store! Enter the appropriate Promo Code listed on the welcome page.
TOPS Software is proud to announce our online store will be open for business on Monday, December 11, 2006! You will be able to purchase modules, association packs, and user licenses directly from our web site.
To access the online store, go to our web site, www.topssoft.com, and click Login. From there, you'll be prompted to enter your customer ID and a password. If you've already been using the Online Support Center, then you can enter that login information, otherwise, enter your customer ID and click Create Account. Once you've created your account and have logged into our Online Customer Care Center, just click Purchase Add-Ons, which will direct you to our online store.
[More]
December Course at TOPS U
Last month we officially opened TOPS University, a new way to receive interactive training for all of your TOPS Software modules. The first class, Being Prepared for Year End, was a smash success. All of the sessions were sold out and the feedback that we've received thus far has been very positive.
Our course for December will be NCS-101 - New Community Setup. In this course we will cover the steps necessary to successfully setup a new community in TOPS v3.2.1™. In addition, we will highlight items that you should consider when setting up a community.
[More]
Registration is due by December 8th, so respond now to register! The registration form and additional details are available at www.topsuniversity.com
January Course at TOPS U
Five Course Series on CCR/ACC Enforcement
On January 17, 2007, TOPS U will be offering the first in a five course series on the CCR/ACC Enforcement module. The courses will be offered every other month throughout 2007, until the series is completed. Students who successfully complete all five courses in the series will be given the opportunity to take a test and become certified by TOPS Software as a CCR/ACC Enforcement Specialist.
The first course in the series, "Setting up the CCR/ACC Enforcement Module," is designed to teach the proper methods of setting up the CCR/ACC Enforcement module to be used as efficiently as possible. This course will focus on the CCR/ACC Enforcement process, the Control Info settings, and the intricacies of the CCR Codes.
[More]
Registration is due by January 10th, so respond now to register! The registration form and additional details are available at www.topsuniversity.com
Keeping TOPS v3.2.1™ Files Up-to-date in a Networked Environment
Keeping the TOPS program files for all of your users up-to-date in a networked environment can be challenging. TOPS Software provides two mechanisms to update program files, the TOPS Internet Updater, and the Update Workstation from Server feature. But when is the appropriate time to use each, and who should be doing what?
Network Administrator – The Network administrator's responsibility is to update the server and the remote host server (if you have one and it is a different machine from the primary data server). The server should ALWAYS be the most up-to-date machine in your office. TOPS Software recommends that you schedule the updates to run once per month (Starting 2007 updates will be released monthly, in the third week of each month).
[More]
Eve 'n You Can Change Assessment Amounts for 2007 Coupons
Ok, so, 2007 is on its way and you have new 2007 amounts to charge for your assessments. How do you get your 2007 coupons to show the "SHINEY, NEW, & IMPROVED" 2007 assessment charge amounts on your coupons???
Coupon. Hmmm... Qooooh-Ponnnnn. What a fun word to say huh??? YAY!!!
*Shuffle, Grumble, Cough* "Back to the business at hand you!!!"
Like I was saying, you HAVE 2006 assessment amounts showing up when you try to print coupons, but you NEED to 2007 amounts to show even though it's not yet 2007. Well, the first question you have to ask yourself is which version of TOPS you are running, because that will decide which way you can do this.
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Something to be thankful for….
This is just such a busy time of year both personally and professionally that TOPS wanted to make an announcement that will make things a little easier on the manager! NO PRICE INCREASE for the TOPS web site service for 2007. In the six years TOPS has been offering this service, over 2,000 enhancements have been made and no price increase. Have you ever seen this from any other vendor?
TOPS Software is totally committed to bringing to your fingertips the most advanced technology, for the most reasonable price and the TOPS Community Web Site Service is the best example of this! We offer synchronization to important areas of TOPS software not found anywhere else – giving board members the ability to approve invoices and see the current balance of the association's checking account, residents access to their 12 month payment history, online payment functionality, resident ability to view their work orders' status, and so much more!
[More]
Understanding Live Updates
Live Updates is a very powerful feature that allows TOPS Users to make real-time changes to owner data, and have those changes appear immediately on your TOPS Community Web Site. However, at this time, the Live Updates feature is strictly limited to live updates of Owner Contact Information. This includes the following fields on the web site (We have listed the TOPS equivalence in parentheses where necessary):
[More]
TOPS v3.2.1™>
- The Public Beta of the TOPS Calendar/Scheduler is now available! To join the beta group, please complete the form located here.
- Added a select community box to the new message screen in Phone Messenger. This allows users to associate messages with a specific community, even if the message did not come from an owner in that community, for example a call from a vendor. This will cause messages to sort correctly under associated communities in the 'Community Time Spent' report.
- In Phone Messenger, added a community filter to the 'All Messages' report for community to allow users to print only messages related to a specific community.
- In Phone Messenger, added a community filter to the 'My Messages' inbox to allow users to display only messages related to a specific community.
- In Phone Messenger, enabled the save button when a message is closed.
- Clicking the cancel button on a new ticket in Phone Messenger will now clear out the changes made to the ticket and close the window. Clicking the exit button will now prompt the user "Do You Want to Save Changes?" before exiting the ticket.
- The TOPS Internet Updater has been upgraded to help improve the process of performing updates in a networked environment.
- Added ability to include all 10 recurring codes on coupons
- Added the version build number to the User Log file to help administrators verify which version of the TOPS2000.exe individual users are connecting with.
- Corrected invalid characters when saving AP to GL distribution to file.
- Updated the dialogue windows for printing and AR functions so that custom programs all use similarly compatible versions of these files.
- TOPS Payroll will now correctly subtract Holiday or Sick hours from salaried employees.
- Corrected the ReadyResale Plug-in upload for a single community.
- Corrected the Paid through calculation for the ReadyCollect Plug-In upload.
TOPS On-Site >
- Corrected a range selection issue in labels and owners' reports.
Internet Backup Service>
- Added a new option to the Internet menu in TOPS v3.2.1™ that will allow users to switch from the new 'Files and Folders' backup program to the original 'TOPS Only' backup program if they desire.
TOPS Interactive Web Sites>
- Added new FAQ feature. This option will be available under the Admin Only section of your web site. If you wish to activate it, please contact web support.
- Added new "Clone" feature to eForms. This option will allow you to make a duplicate copy of any existing eForm, including all fields, receivers, and autoresponder text.
- The Rich Text Editor will now correctly display in Firefox with the IE Tabs plug-in. This correction resolves the problem with the Insert Image dialogue box not displaying fully on the screen.
- Corrected an issue causing the Login Names and Passwords to not correctly download into TOPS when they were updated on the web site.
- Invoices created on the web site in Online AP Approval will now correctly be marked as paid when they are paid in TOPS.
- Administrators may now request certain security levels be excluded from the hits in the statistics feature to avoid having their own visits unfairly weight the site statistics. Please contact web support with which security levels you wish to exclude.
- New Photo Albums and Photos are now reflected in the What's New feature, in chronological order.
- Added captions and picture count (x of y) to Photo Albums slide show feature.
- Added a 'contribute' security level which allows administrators to define a security level whereby members can add pictures, but only edit or delete their own pictures.
- Email sent to subscribers of the Message Board will now have the link to the message even if "URL footer" option is turned off.
- Email to subscribers of the Message Board will now include the Topic description in the email for clarity.
- Recurring Reservations may now be created by Admins or Reservation Admin or Resource Contacts.
Software Sales
- 800.760.9966
Web Site Sales - 800.556.7852
Tech Support - 800.899.5689
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Web Support - 800.899.5689
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Backup Service - 800.899.5689
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Billing Questions - 301.869.8144