How Automated is Your aP?

The Association Management industry is unique in that each individual association is a small government managed by a board of directors, who in turn, entrust a property management company to manage the accounting and day to day management of their association. This set-up implies a chain of command, where the property management company must receive the approval of the board for every decision it makes, up to and including paying the bills, whether it be an invoice for $10.00, or $10,000.00.

As such, the accounts payable process for an association is long and convoluted and generally involves the property manager or accountant tracking down board members for their approval on outstanding bills, and their signature on checks waiting to be paid. Because this can be a tedious process for both the board members and the property manager, many organizations opt to pay late charges or interest, and only approve bills and sign checks at board meetings, rather than be disturbed in their homes by a disgruntled property manager that is just trying to pay the bills. Any way you look at it, the current system is neither efficient, nor cost effective.

In an effort to increase efficiency in the Accounts Payable process, TOPS Software has been developing a series of Accounts Payable related products. The latest of these, Online AP Approval, completes the first stages of the new and improved TOPS Accounts Payable processing cycle.

Online AP Approval

This truly revolutionary product allows managers to enter outstanding bills either inside TOPS 2000™ or on a community web site. Once entered, invoices are uploaded to the community's web site, where authorized community officers can log in and approve or disapprove pending invoices twenty four hours a day seven days a week via the Internet. The invoices are then downloaded back into TOPS 2000™ where they can be posted for the checks to be printed.

Benefit: Saves time in seeking approval for outstanding bills. Saves money from late fees and interest owed due to late payments. Allows community officers to review and approve checks at their convenience.

MICR Check Printing

When checks are ready to be printed, you can MICR check printing allows you to print checks for all of your communities without the need to switch check paper in your printer. This can also eliminate the need to void checks when there is a misprint – simply print them again from TOPS 2000™. Since the check numbers are not pre-printed on the checks, you do not have to waste valuable time making up for a simple mistake.

Benefit: Saves time and money when printing checks. Virtually eliminates costly check mis-printing errors.

Digital Signatures

Digital Signatures for MICR Check Printing provides a secure and easy way to allow you to use digital signatures to authorize checks written on behalf of the association. Your checks are printed complete with the authorized signature on them, eliminating the need to walk printed checks around to get them signed. The program can even handle printing two signatures, where required, or a combination of a digital signature and an actual signature.

To use the digital signature program, companies can have board members or company officials sign a special 'Signature Card'. The signature is then digitized and encrypted with a special graphical encryption that prevents the image from being used in any program other than TOPS 2000™.

The Digital Signatures are secure, with redundant systems, which help insure that no unauthorized person prints a fraudulent check.

Benefit: Saves time getting signatures on printed checks. Saves money from late fees and interest owed due to late payments.

Global AP

The Global AP section of the Job Streaming module allows you to enter invoices and print checks for any of your communities in one central location. This module is currently undergoing major renovations, and will be released later this year with even greater functionality for the portfolio manager.

Benefit: Saves time entering bills and printing checks for multiple communities. Any of these features can improve your accounts payable processing by automating and streamlining the accounting cycle. But when combined together, they offer a truly awesome experience. By removing the "run around" aspect of Accounts Payable and automating processes, your AP department can become sleek, and cost-effective.

Andrea Drennen is the Internet Services Manager

For more information, please contact our sales department at 1-800-760-9966 or via email at sales@topssoft.com.