CommonFloor’s Presence at UnPluggd: Vikas Malpani talks about The Art of Scaling

May 27,2014 / By Nimesh / No Comment

On the 24th of May, Vikas Malpani, our Co-founder, spoke at UnPluggd which is without a doubt the biggest start-up conference in India. This event brought together more than 600 entrepreneurs and investors of successful start-ups across the country to speak about their experiences, lessons and goals.

Besides our very own Co-Founder, Vikas Malpani, some other prominent speakers who spoke their hearts at this year’s UnPluggd event were Sachin Bansal (Flipkart), Mukesh Bansal (Myntra), Ankit Pruthi (Unicommerce), Kingsley Joseph (TripThirsty) and Vishal Anand (CPO @NewsHunt).

Here goes a synopsis of what the captain of our ship covered:
Vikas Malpani spoke about the ‘Art of Scaling’ which includes the scaling of technology, product, infrastructure, team and revenue. He spoke at length about Commonfloor’s phenomenal scaling journey that had begun in 2007 with seeking revenue from offline pamphlet advertisements to pioneering the concept of ‘Apartment Management Software’ in India to launching property map search feature to receiving funding of over $10M to setting up offices in 18 cities across India to ComScore ranking Commonfloor.com as the No. 1 website with maximum number of unique visitors for Nov, Dec ’13 & Jan 14.

He went on to discuss how important it is to have a strong feet-on-street sales team, mass-media as a marketing platform, running revenue experiments while remaining focused and always keeping yourself and your team motivated.

Looking back with pride at how Commonfloor.com has scaled up and grown by leaps and bounds over the past few years, he finally spoke about what the company has learnt over time- focusing on ‘real’ customer problems, building ‘quality’ right from the start, making product ‘solution-rich’ and not ‘feature-rich’, hearing the customer but deciding by number and the final & vital principle of ‘Build-Measure-Learn’.

Here is the presentation http://www.slideshare.net/CFGroups/unplugged-2014-scaling-up-common-floor

Leave a comment in the section provided below if you have any questions or wish to share your experience attending the event.

Product Updates

CommonFloor Groups Unveils Its Brand New Android App

May 22,2014 / By Nimesh / No Comment

CommonFloor Groups brings out its new user-friendly mobile application in an effort to make its community management tool easily accessible from anywhere on your mobile devices and not just on your laptops or computers.

Why You Need It?

To be able to access your community management portal from anywhere, anytime
So you can keep yourself up to date with all the occurrences within your society
To send a direct message, start a discussion, raise a complaint, write a notice, find out which neighbour lives where, update payments made or to simply update/edit your profile
To make sure all content that goes live on the platform is first moderated by you to avoid any objectionable content (can be done by Management Committee members)

Some Important Highlights

Enriched Visual Experience-Clean interface with a lively appearance
Optimized Mobile Experience-Easy, fast navigation and user-friendly application
Push Notifications-Get notified on your community’s latest updates

App Features
On downloading the app and logging in, you will see

News-feed: Get a snapshot overall view of community ongoing activities.

Discussion: Start a discussion/reply to a currently discussed topic.

Complaints: Raise a complaint on a community related issue bothering you.

Notices: Create a notice for an event or to make an announcement.

Neighbours: Find out exactly where each neighbour lives.

Messages: Send a direct message to a neighbour to interact and know your neighbours better.

My House: Find out pending dues against your house.

Settings: Use this feature to edit your profile, change your password or to contact our support team.

Moderate: If you are a management committee member, you can moderate content uploaded on the platform.

Download Now for Android version 4.0.3 and up!

https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.groups.commonfloor

PS: We are soon bringing in the iOS and Windows versions too!

Product Updates

Money Manager Module Update: Introducing Defaulters List

May 12,2014 / By Nimesh / No Comment

No one wishes to have to deal with “Maintenance defaulters” but it’s no news that often treasurers are left with no other choice. When it comes to collating a defaulters’ list, it’s a painful job which requires plenty of time and subsequent follow-ups.

Now, are you a treasurer who finds himself in such situations and wishes there could be one space containing a list of all defaulters with their respective house numbers? There’s exciting news for you! We have just introduced the Defaulters List feature to our Money Manager Module.

Snapshot: Defaulters List

How Is It Helpful?
This feature will help Treasurers in easily keeping track of all those who have not paid their Maintenance Dues on time or beyond the due date.

You have the option to filter the final report by Block, House, Invoice Title and the number of Days Elapsed.
You can also take a printout of the defaulter list and put it up on notice boards in the community (club house, lifts or halls) as a reminder to residents.

Where Will You Find It?

Log on to www.groups.commonfloor.com using your login credentials.
On the dashboard page, click on your community name.
On your community homepage, under the Manage tab on the right section of the page, click on the Money icon.
On the Money Manager page, under Reports tab click on the Defaulters List button.

Once you’re on the Defaulters List view, you can choose a date range and filter out a list of defaulters based on block number, house number, invoice title and days elapsed.

Hope you will find this new feature addition useful. Write to us at support@commonfloor.com in case you have any query.

Smart Residential Living

Accounting : CommonFloor Groups vs Tally

May 5,2014 / By Nimesh / 2 Comments

Every residential complex requires an accounting tool to effortlessly manage the uphill task of community accounting.

CommonFloor Groups includes a Money Management module designed specially for a residential complex for easy management of income, expenses and dues in and offers considerable information on property taxes imposed by the government.

Tally Accounting Software, on the other hand, is best used as a corporate accounting software designed mainly for taking care of generation of financial statements, accounting vouchers (to record account related transactions) and taxation.

Read on to understand a comparison between both these tools to get a better idea of the aspects of community money management each tool takes care of.

CommonFloor Groups vs Tally

Specifications	Groups	Tally
Initial Set-Up	Free	Paid
Yearly Renewal	Free	Paid
Need Experienced Accountant	No	Yes
Free SMS & Email Alerts	Yes	No
User Friendly with Preset Accounting Heads	Yes	No
Automatic & Manual Options for Invoicing by Managing Committee	Yes	No
View Dues & Make Payment using Payment Gateway	Yes	No
Easy Reconciliation of Payment Gateway	Yes	No
Resident Transaction detail posting for Easy Reconciliation	Yes	No
Automatic Late Payment Penalty	Yes	No
Complete Drop-down box mentioning Accounting Heads & category	Yes	No
Automatic Contra Debit & Contra Credit of Cash & Bank Accounts	Yes	No
Options of Combinations for Creating Maintenance Invoice for Variable Calculations	Yes	No
Easy Access by Managing Committee (24X7)	Yes	No
Moderated Access	Yes	No
Excel Upload of Maintenance Invoice	Yes	Yes
Automatic Interest Calculation and Total Pending Dues	Yes	Yes
Creation of Invoice by the Associations themselves	Yes	Yes
Ledger Accounts for Individual Flats	Yes	Yes
Ledger Accounts for Vendors	Yes	Yes
Ledger Accounts for Bank & Cash & Petty Cash	Yes	Yes
Invoice, Payment Receipts, Payment Vouchers Excel Import	Yes	Yes
Customization of Accounting Heads	Yes	Yes
Journal Entry	Yes	Yes
Export and Importing of Accounts in Excel Format	Yes	Yes
Reports Income & Expense, Trial Balance & Balance Sheet	Yes	Yes
Multi-Currency	No	Yes
Multiple Companies’ Accounts in a Single system	No	Yes

Conclusion: CommonFloor Groups’ accounting system and Tally Accounting Software are both money management tools that have proven significantly helpful in community accounting matters.

But what gives CommonFloor Groups’ accounting system an edge are factors such as combination options when generating invoice, SMS/Email reminder, controlled access of community accounts and due viewing option/payment using payment gateway. And what makes it any residential complex’s obvious choice is the fact that its set-up and renewal doesn’t cost a penny!

Smart Residential Living

Everything You Need to Know About Paying Property Tax in Bangalore (2014-15)

Apr 30,2014 / By Nimesh / No Comment

According to the notification issued by BBMP, you can pay your property tax through cheque, demand draft, Pay Order, or online using your credit card or through your Netbanking account (ICICI, HDFC, AXIS or IndusInd).

You can make the payment directly in BBMP Help centres or BangaloreOne centres anytime between 9.00 a.m. and 12.30 p.m. and again between 3.00 p.m. and 7.00 p.m.

Following are some important pointers regarding the payment of Property tax:

The tax rates remain the same for the financial year of 2014-2015 as the previous year.
If entire tax is paid before 30th April, you will earn a rebate of 5% on your incurred tax amount. If tax of 1st half of the year is not paid before 30th May, you will be charged an interest of 2% per month after that.
In case of payment in installments, for interest-free payment you need to make the 1st payment before 30th May and the second before 29th November.
If your tax details starting from 2008-2009 to 2013-2014 are available online, you can pay your BBMP property taxes online using your credit/debit card through the BBMP website. In this case, no transaction charges will apply. You will need your BESCOM & BWSSB connection R.R. Numbers or Meter Number while filling the online form.
If you have an assigned Khata or PID number, you can pay your property tax for the financial year 2014-15 through Cheque, DD, Pay Order or by using a Credit/Debit card at Office of the Assistant Revenue Officer or at BBMP Help Centres. If you don’t have a Khata can use separate forms/returns and pay similarly. People who have not paid taxes since 2008-09 can file their returns and then pay like the others.
If you don’t have an authorized revenue layout or don’t have an Occupancy Certificate/Ownership/Title Deed, you can pay register your property in B Register at the Office of the Assistant Revenue Office and pay your tax under the Self Assessment Scheme.
If the sum of your incurred tax and Solid Waste Management Cess is less than Rs.1000, you can pay at the Office of the Assistant Revenue Officer or at BBMP Help Centers in cash.
The Self Assessment Property Tax applications/return form and Solid Waste Management Cess application form are available at the Office of the Assistant Revenue Officer/ BBMP Help Centres. The Solid Waste Management Cess can be calculated on a yearly or half-yearly (proportionately) basis and must be paid while paying property tax.
BBMP has already issued a tax assessment notice to owners who haven’t made the payments from 2008-09 to 2012-13. Only after clearing the current outstanding due amount, you can pay property tax for 2014-15.
If you pay a property tax of over Rs.15000 by DD/Pay Order, the payment receipt is issued immediately. If you choose to pay the same by cheque, the receipt will be issued after the amount is realized. In case the amount is less than Rs.15000, the receipt is issued right away. In case you opt to pay your tax online, the payment receipt will be issued instantly.
Banks that allow you to make property tax payment over-the-counter: Canara Bank, Corporation Bank, HDFC Bank, IDBI Bank, Induslnd Bank, Indian Overseas Bank, Kotak Mahindra Bank, ING Vysya Bank and Yes Bank.
Property owners have to fill out one of the two forms – Form IV or Form V. For more details on this, visit http://www.karnataka.com/govt/bangalore-property-tax or directly call the relevant zonal office number.

Bangalore Zone Office Number Control Room Numbers:

AC/JC/DC (Yelahanka) 2297 5935 / 2297 5949 2363 6671 / 2297 5936
AC/JC/DC (Mahadevapura) 2851 1166 / 2851 2229 2851 2300 / 2851 2301
AC/JC/DC (Dasarahalli) 2297 5901 / 2297 5902 2839 4909 / 2839 3688
AC/JC/DC (Rajarajeshwari Nagar) 2860 4652 / 2860 3827 2860 0954 / 2860 1851
AC/JC/DC (Bommanahalli) 2573 2628 / 2573 5608 2573 2247 / 2573 5642
AC/JC/DC (West) 2297 5601 / 2346 4648 2356 1692 / 2346 3366
AC/JC/DC (South) 2297 5701 / 2297 5731 2656 6362
AC/JC/DC (East) 2297 5801 / 2559 5239 2297 5803