How often have you found yourself in the middle of congestion at the society gate or come across incidents of unwanted visitors knocking on the door to your utter surprise?
Still worse, if you’re a part of the managing committee, you may have consistently faced the issue of financial mismanagement and delayed maintenance payments from the residents.
Let’s explore some simple and elegant solutions to such pesky problems.
For Gate Security
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Fortify the access points
Whether due to Covid-19 or any other reason, patrolling the gate perimeters is crucial as there’s no telling when the next super spreader or a random intruder/solicitor can gain entry into your society.
Place security guards in full PPE at the main entry and exit points of your gated complex. It’s advisable to arm them with extra gear like batons, tasers or pepper spray if the neighborhood is strewn with unwanted lurkers.
It may be a good idea to provide them with a digital copy of the license plate numbers of the residents as well as regular visitor vehicles like the water tanker providers and other vendors so that if any suspicious vehicle or imposter tries to enter, they can further probe them.
An intelligent society management app like MyGate is equipped with a state of the art passcode verification system that allows entry to visitors who have been pre-approved by the residents, including guests, rental cabs and delivery men. No need for pen and paper registration.
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Use technology to monitor movement
Once the visitor is in the premises, they’re required to leave once the purpose of the visit is served instead of lingering. This includes repairmen, hired labour and delivery men.
Strategically placed high resolution fixed pole cameras can help track the movement of visitors within the premises. If a society is investing in CCTV surveillance, they may as well figure out the spots inside the society from where a 360° view can be found.
Another way is to use the ‘Overstay Alert’ feature in society management apps that can alert the guard when a visitor (not including guests) has not left the premises despite the expected timeframe. Additionally, face recognition technology in such apps can take guard attendance without the need to physically verify it, while also registering the entry time of domestic help and relaying it to the residents.
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Use trusted delivery services
Tie up with local grocery and daily needs suppliers whom you trust, making sure that they provide daily essentials after following the necessary sanitization protocols.
Pro tip: Use the ‘leave at gate’ feature in MyGate to have the parcel with the guard which you can collect after passcode verification.
Society management apps have tie-ups with trusted food, medicine and grocery vendors, an option you can use to further secure and monitor incoming traffic.
For Financial Management
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Streamline monthly payments
A housing society is often burdened with the problem of late maintenance payments which in turn delays payments to services like common light bills and staff payments. Not every society has extra funds lying around to offset late payments from the residents.
Going to every household to collect monthly maintenance bills is unnecessary when you can simply have them transfer the funds online via society management apps. But you’ll first need to set a timeframe for residents to pay (e.g. by the 5th of every month), after which you can send auto reminders to the residents if the payments haven’t been received.
Even if you weren’t using a society management app, you could always follow the same procedure and send reminders on society group chats manually.
Another way to ensure that payments flow in regularly is by setting a penalty for late payments and defaulters, (the amount and calculations can be predefined on MyGate accounting suite).
Societies that integrate digital payments and streamline the process of setting up reminders have noticed that at least 80-90% of payments are paid on time once the residents are alerted and penalized for late payments.
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Create monthly budgets
A society has several expenses on a monthly basis such as staff/guard payments, common utilities payments, amenities management, running composting units, landscaping maintenance, along with other expenses like cleaning supplies, not to mention petty expenses. It’s a best practice to set aside a monthly budget after calculating how much money is generated from maintenance payments. Conversely, it’s also acceptable to pay for the services first and then charge the amount in the maintenance invoice. However, it’s a good idea to have a budget formed in advance so that no resident feels like they’re being overcharged.
End-to-end accounting suite has easy to use templates for expense and income sheets and pre-built calculations that can make accounting automation simpler and more efficient.
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