This month we rolled out portal updates. In this issue of HERO News, we talk about portals.
Some of the mailbag questions directly relate to this new update; others have come to light because of a visibility change in the update.
We answer some questions, and provide a video.
Enjoy!
– The HERO PM Team
Did you know?
Portals act as a 24/7 staff member. They handle information, payments, and more. Harmony portals are the most advanced portal system in property management.
Community Mailbag
I noticed the layout of the portal intro has changed. What are the key features?
The entire underlying portal structure changed, not just the intro. Portals now show predefined action boxes on the dashboard so users see what needs attention the moment they log in, and they can click these to go directly into the corresponding work/info flow.
For example, when an owner logs into their portal, they can now see – at a glance – how many work orders are awaiting their approval, how many invoices are awaiting their approval, how many documents are unread, and how much money they have.
When a tenant or guest logs in, they can see how much they owe, how many work requests are awaiting resolution, and how many messages they’ve not yet viewed.
A vendor logging into their portal will see how many work orders are awaiting acceptance, how many new work orders have not been reviewed, how many work orders have not yet been completed, and the amount of their completed but uninvoiced work orders.
Across all portals, there are about 30 new predefined actions – all configurable by you.
I saw that when an occupant requests a repair, they now have some new options. What are those about?
Maintenance coordination is one of the top areas members want to optimize this year. We’re adding automation to reduce the back-and-forth.
You’re probably already familiar with some elements of the Harmony CMMS, like advanced work order scheduling, vendor selection based on calculated metrics, key management, automated messaging, appointment scheduling, and more.
Coming soon are additional improvements focused on offloading schedule coordination to your trusted vendors. When the option to coordinate scheduling is selected, you’ll choose to either coordinate yourself, or allow the assigned vendor to suggest available times, set an appointment time themselves, and/or link the occupant to the vendor’s availability calendar. You stay in control of how much you delegate. All of this will be automatically available once this new version is released to your account.
I want my tenants to see their balance due on the dashboard, but it’s not showing. Why is this?
Portal options are based on your configured settings. Many users introduce portals with minimal options. It’s a good idea to circle back and add authorized options to increase the work your portals do for you, offloading the communications and transactions you need to handle yourself.
Specifically in this case, you’ll want to make sure Money is enabled for the tenant, so they can see balances and make payments or set up preapproved automated payments. You’ll also want to be sure their balance is not excluded from the portal in Settings → Portals → Preferences → Exclude options and display in Money & Payments portal view.
My owners don’t ever authorize payment on an invoice – once they’ve authorized the work costing over the agreed upon limit, we simply pay the invoice after our internal review. How do we configure this so the portal doesn’t show the owner there are invoices to approve?
In each invoice, you can set authorization required, or you can set the global option in Settings → Money → Preferences → Require approval (by financial administrator or account) before paying all invoices. If the global option is on for owners, you can still turn it off for individual invoices, or approve it internally before the owner sees it.
Featured Harmony U Article: The Portal to Freedom
As a property manager, it’s easy to get overwhelmed with transactions and interactions. Your role positions you between owners/investors, tenants/guests, and vendors – all the time. Each one has their own needs, and they’re relying on you to meet these needs.
Harmony has you covered with portals. Portals are the extension of your staff and office, the primary method that your people can use to interact and transact. HERO PM invented web portals for the property management industry over 25 years ago, and we have more experience than any other company. This is reflected in the power, simplicity, and functionality of portals.
There are a plethora of things that make Harmony Portals better than any other solution available – too many to list here! However, we’ll cover a few of the big ones, and let you see the rest in action.
Featured Harmony U Video: Where can I learn how to set up and configure Portals?
