From the mobile number that needs to be opted in send “Apna SMS START” to 9243000111 as an sms.

You would get a confirmation message back stating “Your message is received by ApnaComplex.com and will be processed in 24-48hours”.

Once sent the mobile number should be enabled to receive SMSs with in 24-48 hours, if the number is listed as a mobile number in ApnaComplex against a member or staff.

You can use the same facility to opt-out as well by sending Apna SMS STOP to 9243000111.

Types of Messages:
Going forward you have two “types” of messages you can send through ApnaComplex

Template Based SMS
Non-template Based SMS
Template based SMS – as the name indicates – are pre-defined messages with some placeholders. You will have option to fill these place holders and send to members. These message formats are pre-defined – they are already scrutinized and approved by relevant authorities. Hence, they will reach all members – including those in DND and at any time. All system generated messages such as Meeting Reminders, Complaint Escalations, Invoice/Payment notifications etc. will all fall under this category.

Non-template based SMS – as the name indicates – these messages have no restrictions on the text. It is free text and one can type any thing. However, these will have restrictions that they cannot reach all members. These messages will only reach people who are not on the DND and that too only from 9 AM to 9 PM.

Explicit Opt-in to receive SMS:
As per TRAI regulations, it is mandatory for ApnaComplex to maintain the records of the approval given by a member to receive SMS before we attempt to send an SMS. Hence, every member has to login to ApnaComplex and update their SMS opt-in preference before being able to receive template based SMSs. Members who have not opted in, will get an alert as soon as they login. It is very simple to update the preference – got to Home->My Profile->Edit Profile, select “Yes” for SMS Opt-in and update.

With our smart routing logic, we attempt to send a message scheduled by you in multiple channels to ensure the member receives it – we fist deliver a template based SMS to all members who have opted for receiving SMS. Next, we try and deliver SMS through another channel for all the members who have not updated thier opt-in preference – these members would get the SMS in case they are not on DND list.

Also, the email that gets sent upon closure of a poll shall include the final results of the poll – voting options and votes for each option.

1. Show last 3 comments by default for every topic. See more with less clicks!

2. Open the entire discussion in a separate window to go through all the comments in details. Very useful for long running threads

3. Improved experience due to pagination of topics. Helpful in case of very large and active communities where there can many discussion threads running in parallel.

With this feature, any one in your society can now receive various reports by email at a pre-defined and periodic intervals (OneTime, Daily, Weekly, Monthly).
You can schedule reports to be sent to entire community/owners/committee/sub groups or to a selected set of individuals.

Some of the “new” things you can do in your society with this feature:
1. Improve Financial Transparency by auto-publishing Income/Expense statement to all owners every month!
2. Schedule to send List of all expense details for the week to the entire committee!
3. Get End of the day cash/bank balances on a daily basis!
4. Automatically send updated key contact list once a month to entire community!
5. Get Bouncing email ID report once a week!
and much more… All just by configuring for few minutes.

There are around 40+ reports available for scheduling. As always, the list will continue to grow as we move forward.

To start using this feature, go to Reports->Reports List and click the ‘Scheduled Reports’ button.

Please note that the system shall execute and send reports post mid-night every day.

Background: Housing Societies and need for Payment Gateway

Housing societies, welfare associations and folks managing multi-tenancy buildings/ complexes keep collecting recurring dues from the members. Members usually pay their dues through Cheques, and these days transfer money through NEFT to the Society Bank Account. Non-resident owners also use one of these modes to pay their dues. However, keeping of track of payments from several members, validating the bank transfers, accurately issuing receipts is a big issue for the treasurers and accountants and the amount of money that lies in “Suspense” account head keeps increasing as mapping the payment received to the correct flat is quite time consuming. This triggers a chain of issues – complaints from members of not getting receipts, unable to accurately impose late payment charges properly, accurate defaulters reports and so on.

Advantages of an Online payment system where members can pay their maintenance dues and get an instant receipt from the are now obvious – in addition to getting money securely into the bank, treasurers/accountants can heave a sigh of relief due to tremendous savings in the reconciliation efforts and other issues mentioned earlier!

As everyone is aware – ApnaComplex offers a Payment Gateway module using which members of Housing Societies can pay their dues online and avoid all the reconciliation problems mentioned above.

A word of caution: Integrating with Payment Gateways and offering such a solution needs to be thorough, requires lots of due diligence to ensure safety of the money and comply with all relevant regulations. There have been providers in the market offering solutions for Housing Societies that were not fully legally compliant and were forced to change their solution. This has created a dent in the confidence of Housing Societies to go fully online. With the vast industry experience the founding team brings to the table, trust ApnaComplex to not offer services hastily without appropriate due diligence.

The online payment gateway platform offered by ApnaComplex is a reputed Payment Gateway operating in India since past 7 years and is complliant with PCI, ISO 27001 & RBI norms, whereby funds are settled directly to existing bank account of the society, via trusted banks in India for your society’s members to transact online with confidence.

Here is the detailed explanation on the online payment gateway integration in ApnaComplex.com that can clarify various questions we keep receiving from our prospects and customers. ApnaComplex is an alliance partner for one of the leading payment gateways in India who enables the online payment platform for Housing Societies.

Enabling Payment Gateway for a Society

As a first step, like any other business that collects money, the Housing Society or the RWA which is going to collect the funds electronically shall be setup with the Payment Gateway as a “Biller” (also referred as Merchant in Online Payments terminology). For this, the Society / RWA has to submit legal documentation related to AGM resolution authorizing the association to be a biller and other KYC documents. Once verification and scrutiny of the documents is done, the Payment Gateway shall register the Society/RWA as a ‘Biller/Merchant’. This entire process is co-ordinated by ApnaComplex.com with the society. Upon successful verification and merchant registration, merchant details are provided to the society by the Payment Gateway. The same merchant details shall be updated in the ApnaComplex portal, and the online payment facility is turned on for the society’s portal hosted on ApnaComplex.

Making a payment using Payment Gateway

• A members logs into ApnaComplex.com and selects to make a payment using Payment Gateway.
• ApnaComplex redirects the user to Payment Gateway along with the Merchant details of that society.
• Member enters amount to be paid, and other credit card / net-banking details on the Payment Gateways’ pages and completes the transaction
• The funds flow from the members account/credit card to the account of the Payment Gateway. This is an RBI monitored bank account.
• Upon successful payment, the payment gateway redirects the member to ApnaComplex portal’s payment confirmation screen along with the amount paid
• ApnaComplex mails a PDF receipt to the member and also updates the member’s ledgers and other accounts to reflect the payment
• The payment gateway transfers the money to Society’s Bank Account directly.
• It is important to note that the money paid by member NEVER comes to an account which is related to ApnaComplex.com in any way. The funds flow from the Member’s Account to the Society’s Bank Account using RBI approved and monitored channels – thus making this a fully legally compliant mechanism for making online payments.