Webinar - Benefits of Integrating Software and Hardware Solutions

Good afternoon, everyone, and thank you for joining us today. Welcome to today's webinar titled ‘Benefits of integrating software and hardware solutions’.

My name is Rebecca Woelfle, and I'm a customer marketing specialist at Condo Control. I'll be your host and speaker for this session. I'm also joined by my colleague David Guthrie, associate product manager at Condo Control, who will also be speaking today as well as participating in the q and a session.

Before we get started with the webinar, I just wanted to provide a few reminders and housekeeping items. So this webinar is being recorded. A follow-up email will be sent to all registrants with the recording link once it becomes available. And then after the presentation, we will have a formal q and a session.

Please submit any questions into the Zoom q and a at the bottom of your screen, and we will do our best to get to as many questions as we have time for. And after the webinar, upon leaving the Zoom meeting, a survey will automatically appear in your browser to gather feedback you may have and answer some questions. So please do keep an eye out for that survey once the webinar ends. We really value your feedback.

So on our agenda for today, we'll start by discussing the benefits of integrating Condo Control with other property management tools. After that, we'll review key software solutions, including those for accounting, payment processing, and security.

Next, we'll go through some of the types of hardware that can be integrated with Condo Control and then highlight a customer testimonial as well, and then have our q and a.

 So let's start by understanding the benefits of integrations. Property management professionals are increasingly relying on a variety of tools to manage day to day tasks and ensure the smooth operation of their properties.

They may face challenges such as data silos where information is trapped in separate systems leading to inefficiencies and wasted time. And with so many different systems in play ranging from payment processing software to elevator screen hardware, it's really easy for things to become disjointed. And that's where integrations come in. So, essentially, an integration refers to the connection and communication between different software applications, or hardware devices within a property management platform like Condo Control.

So with this slide here, we just wanted to start off by presenting some of the main benefits of having integrations. And first, they help reduce manual tasks and workloads. When your property management software like Condo Control is connected to other software in which you have property data, account balances in the same system, you eliminate the manual data entry and reduce the likelihood of errors. So this means that your team can focus on what truly matters, providing excellent service to your residents and maintaining the property.

And having integrated systems can ultimately save you time and resources. So, you know, therefore, in the future, you can make strategic investments to, you know, enable more functionality. And then next, having in integrations can enhance the resident experience. So residents today expect convenience and responsiveness.

And by integrating systems such as, say, secure access controls with your management software, you can offer features, like instant notifications, real time updates. This not only improves security, but also adds a layer of convenience that residents will appreciate.

Finally, integrations help improve operational efficiencies. So for example, if you're using an integration that helps to sync data, streamline your accounting, you can more strategically manage your building or portfolio of buildings, reducing the need for reducing the need for additional staffing, for example. The integrated workspace can collaborate between individual property management companies in a way that a stand alone system, would not effectively, not as effectively operate. And something that we'd like to highlight, is that Condo Control is continually investing in new integrations and expanding our offerings. The solutions are getting better all the time. There's that continuous improvement. So, if you came here with a problem and you don't hear a solution to today, please do tell us. There may be an integration out there that we can help you with.

In particular, we're gonna put a little link to our feedback forum in the chat. This is a place where you can specifically provide suggestions to us. Thank you, Richard, for adding that into the chat.

 

So please do check it out. You may need to log into your Condo Control account to view this.

So then also, something that is continually improving, communities have suggested implementing new software for things like, say, booking a communal washing machine or electric vehicles are more popular now. Having those chargers be something that you can book, receiving alerts for these types of things, you know, looking into the future could be new integrations that could be implemented.

So now we will conduct a poll for the audience. And our question today is, are there any integrations that you currently do not have and or are hoping to implement that would improve your workflow?

First, we have accounting integrations like QuickBooks or Yardi.

Maybe you're looking at payment processing integrations like Zego, Stripe, a security one, a hardware integration for an elevator screen, or something else that we don't know about. So please do fill out that poll. We'll give everybody a minute or two to answer and see what we have.  

What do you think is gonna come out on top there, Rebecca? So interesting. We have the payment processing integration leading the way so far.

It's very seems to be very popular. And, yes, we do also have that option of ‘I'm not sure. I intended to learn more’. So, hence, why you're at the webinar.

Great, everyone. I'll just give another few seconds.

And, yeah, we were going to be going through these, so it'd be interesting to see what people think. We've got, yes, payment processing and accounting seem to be our top ones. So, I'm going to end people to learn. They're at the top.

 

Alright. Out of the ones people want to learn about, those win, but, yes, many are here to learn, which you're very excited about. So, thank you everybody for participating in the poll. We appreciate your participation. Going to end it right now. Share results. There we go. So everybody can see. 

Let's continue with the presentation. So moving on, I am going to now pass it over to David who will go through some of our software solutions. David.

Thanks, Rebecca, for that great intro and conducting that poll. So as Rebecca said, now we're gonna walk you through through some software integrations offered by Condo Control.

Condo Control integrates with several popular accounting platforms to help reduce workflow and simplify manual processes. There are four main ways that data flows between an accounting integration and Condo Control. They're what we call property import, property export, commerce import, and commerce export. And we're gonna go over each one of those, in a little more detail.

Import, which is the next slide, means, that data will be pulled from the integration into Condo Control. So property data includes information such as unit numbers, addresses, resident names, emails, and phone number. That information is imported into Condo Control from the account and integration, which means that you do not need to enter it twice, in two different systems.

Export means data that will be sent from Condo Control back to the accounting platform. When it comes to property data changes or additions in Condo Control to things like emails and phone numbers are exported back to the accounting platform through the integration.

Commerce import is all about balances and transactions. So residents will be able to view their transaction and their balance from directly inside Condo Control via my account. For select integrations, there's this is also viewable by staff in the unit file. This information is displayed live on demand and is never stored in Condo Control, keeping it secure in the accounting platform. The only exception to that is QuickBooks Desktop, is that is not an online product.

Select integrations allow financial transactions that are made in Condo Control to be exported back to the accounting platform. This is what we call commerce export, and it saves you time since you don't have to enter the transactions inside of the accounting platform. This works for things like amenity booking, store purchases and fee payments. Some integrations even allow invoices from the accounting platform to be paid directly inside Condo Control, which will mark the invoice as paid in the accounting platform.

So this summarizes what information we import and export between counter control and an accounting platform. What exactly imports or exports will vary depending on the platform.

For example, QuickBooks Online is one of our most robust account integration. It makes use of all four data flows. And with QBO, residents can also pay QBO invoices directly inside Condo Control, and those invoices will automatically marked as paid in QuickBooks Online. QuickBooks Desktop only offers the import flows, whereas Convert Manager and FSR Connect all have all flows except for commerce export.

On the next slide here we have is a Yardi and BMS, which are similar to QuickBooks online making use of all flows.

ShiftSuite and Constar are import only like QuickBooks Desktop is and Enumerate, also known as TOPS, does not have commerce export, but it makes use of property import, property export, and commerce import.

Now moving on to payment processor integrations, which was our highly, number one voted feature. So here we go. For property managed professionals, when it comes to handling depositing of checks, or late payments from residents who couldn't make it to the office during office hours, or managing payment collection through multiple systems. By integrating a payment provider with Condo Control, you can streamline and consolidate your payment processing. Online payment options offer residents more convenience and control and significantly reduces the workload for staff who are responsible for managing these payments.

 

Condo Control integrates with payment processing software so that owners and residents can use their credit cards like Visa, Mastercard, or American Express, to pay online for things like amenity booking, store purchases, monthly fees, service requests, violation fines, visitor parking and status certificates.

Preauthorized payment or ACH is also available for select purchases. All residents need to do is log into their Condo Control account and make a payment. And they can even set up reoccurring payment for things like condo or HOA fees. All payments are directly deposited into the community's bank account within five to seven business days.

Now you might be wondering who do we integrate with? Well, Condo Control integrates with three different payment processing companies. We have Rotessa, Stripe and Zego. Your payment provider will depend on your location. So if you're in the United States, you will use Zego and that's for both ACH and credit card. If you're in Canada, you'll use a combination of Stripe and Rotessa. Stripe is used for credit card payments, and Rotessa is used for PAP or preauthorized payments.

If you're already using Condo Control, but are not accepting payments through your workspace, be sure to discuss your payment processing needs with your customer success manager or reach out to our support team. They can help walk you through the integration setup and get you started on collecting payments by an efficient, fast and secure workflow.

Moving on to security software. So Condo Control integrates with four platforms: ISS, Proptia, ButterflyMX and KeyTrak.

First with intellect security system or ISS integration, it scans the vehicle's license plate. It checks it against what is in counter control and decides whether to allow the vehicle into the community. Proptia is a powerful intuitive cloud based software system focused on visitor management. There's a one way sync of visitor authorizations from Condo Control to Proptia.

Moving on to ButterflyMX, a smart intercom system that enhances property access control. ButterflyMX empowers residents and building staff to open doors, gates and elevators with a smartphone, ensuring they never miss a visitor or delivery. With this integration, admins reduce time spent on manual data entry and the potential for errors. Condo Control will send an updated list of residents to ButterflyMX every night. 

KeyTrak is a key checkout system. When integrated with Condo Control, key checkouts are logged inside the security and concierge module in Condo Control. Not only can management keep track of their keys, but it makes life easier for residents who want dog walkers, electricians, families, friends, or short term visitors to have access to their unit.

Now that we've covered the software integrations, let's shift our focus to some hardware solutions. These integrations are essential for managing physical assets like packages and display screens.

There are two main types of hardware integrations that we will highlight today. First, integrations for lockers used for package delivery, and second, those for residential display screens.

Condo and HOA communities may experience challenges when it comes to package delivery. This includes port pirates or notifying the resident of a delivery or having lobbies overrun with packages. Luckily Condo Control integrates with multiple providers shown here, that offer solutions to these problems. Primarily to reduce the demanding and time consuming process of package management for security and concierge, and to maximize security and convenience for residents.

The integrations will vary slightly by provider, but the essential idea is that an installer or a third party comes into your community, and Condo Control then communicates with the software inside the lockers, that were installed for ease of managing your community.

The integration makes it easier because resident data is kept in sync between Condo Control and the locker. These integrations significantly reduce the time property staff spend managing packages and ensures a smooth delivery process.

Please note Amazon Hub and Amazon Apartment Locker are similar solutions in different jurisdictions. Condo Control integrates with Amazon Apartment Locker, which is only available to communities in the United States.

 

Now it can be a challenge to send notices and communicate effectively with residents in a timely fashion. As a solution, Condo Control integrates with both vertical city and Patterson.

With these integrations, any building notices or announcements that you post to Condo Control can automatically be displayed on screens, announcements that you post to Condo Control can automatically be displayed on screens located in such locations as mail rooms, lobbies, and elevators.

These display offerings give property manager and condo boards the ability to manage and post notices in real time from any desktop or mobile device. Even if residents don't receive or use email, residents can still view important messages on the screens when they leave or return to the units, which can include, packages ready for pickup.

I will now pass it over to Rebecca who will provide a client testimonial about QuickBooks Online.

Thank you, David. Alright. So, there we wanted to include a testimonial on a successful integration, specifically of the QuickBooks online integration. And this testimonial came from Mario Rosales, one of the board members at the eighteenth at Walden.

It's a community in Montgomery, Texas. So here, Mario says, we are very happy with the QuickBooks online integration with Condo Control. We deal with over two hundred owners, and with the integration, it makes things so much easier. The funny part is we haven't even begun to use the full functionality, and we are already happy with it.

So thank you, Mario, for that testimonial. And, lastly, as we wrap up, we wanted to just review some of the key takeaways here. So we highlighted the significant benefits of integrating Condo Control with software and hardware solutions, addressing the challenges of the fragmented systems, potentially faced by property managers. So, software integrations, they create this unified platform for resident data, reducing the manual data entry and allowing admin and property managers to streamline tasks that were previously time consuming.

 

So we had discussed, for example, with the payment processing integrations that David went over this offering residents more convenience for making payments and essentially reducing the workloads for admin staff responsible for managing and collecting payments.

And then for utilizing hardware solutions, as a benefit these integrations for package deliveries and display screens help to automate communication and ultimately improve, the resident experience.

And, as you can as you can see, these integrations, both software and hardware are designed to help to create a more seamless, efficient, and secure environment for both property managers and residents. So thank you very much for your attention today. That sums up the webinar presentation component.

I wanted to just promote our next webinar in September. This is on our task tracking feature. It is ‘Conquer your to do list: task tracking with Condo Control’ on Wednesday, September twenty fifth. Richard will provide a link to register in the chat, so please do check that out. You can also register at events.condocontrol.com.

That concludes that, you know, the presentation component. Thank you very much, David, for being our guest speaker. We will now start the q and a session. So as I said, if you do have any questions, please submit them in the q and a function at the bottom of your screen.

So let's get started here.  Alright. First question. Do you recommend using a hybrid model for Stripe? And if so, why? If not, why not? Thank you, Arlene, for your question.

 David, do you mind taking that question?

I do. Hybrid model I mean, like, cash in person payments versus a hybrid model online. So Stripe is a credit card processing software that we have. And what it's really great for is let's just amenity bookings as an example. If you're taking deposits for amenity bookings, I would recommend only using Stripe because Stripe will hold the deposit.

 

And then if you need to capture the deposit, you can capture it, and there's no need to worry about them bringing a check down to the office and then having to return that check or destroying that check. You can just have a preauthorization on the credit card, and then that will get automatically released if you don't capture it after the booking or you have a grace period after the booking to capture that deposit if you need to. So my recommendation, if it's we're talking about hybrid between, you know, transactions online and in person, all online. It's easier, it's faster, and it's less, paperwork for the office staff.

Awesome. This is a question about integrating a condo website. How do I integrate our condo website into Condo Control? The website is essentially for the purpose of communicating among and between residents.

Okay. David, what are your thoughts on this question?

I assume we're talking about a public facing website here versus Condo Control. Condo Control is more of, a platform or a portal, and it's secure. Right? You need to log into it to get to see its content.

And there's a lot of content in there and, you know, there's group permissions and what people can see and cannot see, versus some of them might have a public website that is very, you know, sort of general about the community and promotes its maybe amenities or have units for sale. So Condo Control does offer the ability in premium packages to have a, what we call, a public website. And then the way that we sort of integrate it between the two is we would add a login button, which would then just take you to the login page of Condo Control and residents would log in, and then they would be taken into the secure portal side of Condo Control. And, also, we throw a registration button in there. It takes you to the registration page where residents can find that link if they don't actually have an account yet. They can set it up with the code that they would have been given during launch.

So, really, it's just your public facing website and a button that directs to the Condo Control login page. But we highly recommend keeping sensitive data inside of Condo Control, and there's various different features and modules we have, so that it's all securely kept and only those who should have access get access versus a public website is open to everybody.

 

Thank you for your question, Robert. Alright. Next question. What are the costs involved in using Stripe? I think what we'll do is any questions about costs, we would advise to reach out to your dedicated customer success manager for more information, and we will also follow-up with anyone, after the webinar. Thank you very much, though.

And that's just one point to that, which they might be asking us. There are fees associated with it, which we can get outlined when you contact us. But there can be passed on to the resident. In most cases, there are. So the community is left full with the money that they want. So if you're wanting to charge a hundred dollars, at the end, you get your hundred dollars and the resident pays the fees. That's the sort of typical setup.

Okay. Next question from Edward. Can the security function be integrated with other companies besides the ones listed?

Integrations that we listed are our current, integrations. But as Rebecca said at the top, we have our feedback forum, which you can access by logging into Condo Control and clicking the feedback form button, inside your workspace, or you can go to that link that we provided in the chat and log in using your Condo Control account.

There's where you would suggest that if it gets enough votes and there's other people that are interested, it's something that our product team would be able to consider. But what we showed you today are the integrations we have. They're also all listed on our marketing websites. You just go to condocontrol.com. There'll be an integration section there, and you can see all of the integrations that we currently offer listed there.

 Thank you, for that question. Ruby, does the corporation have an option not to pay service fees if there are any to Stripe?

So that might lead to what I said before. So the fees exist, but like I said, the corporation doesn't pay them, for the most part. It's the default setting is that the resident would pay those fees.

A question from Khalid. How long would the records be kept? Once a resident sells off his or her unit, can they access her records later?

 

The I think a little bit outside of it. I'm not sure if that's integration related, but, it's basically, the unit file, is where all of the resident information is stored. When a user is deleted, they're actually archived into the archive section of the unit file, a property manager would be able to log in and and see their information, but a resident would no longer be able to access Condo Control and access their information.

 Next question. How long does it take to receive the payment from Stripe into management account? So it takes about five to seven business days, for that to happen.

 Does Condo Control offer technical specialists to help us with integrations like with QuickBooks? Thank you, Diane, for your question.

 Yes. Well, I work on the product team here, and the integrations are, you know, one of my areas of focus. We also have when you onboard onto client controls, a new client, you have your activation team, and they're all trained when the integrations.

And if you have a customer success manager, they definitely will be able to help you and answer your questions about integrations. If it's a very in-depth problem, they'll speak with me, and we'll come up with, you know, getting you the answers that you need. And, of course, you can also reach out to our support team. They're trained to be able to answer integration questions as well. And if they need to, they can reach out to the product team, for those more in-depth questions.

Do you offer special projects where you help associations with integration between Condo Control and QuickBooks Online? Do you send rep on-site to do the setup work, especially if our staff on-site does not have the digital skills to handle integration, who would we talk to? 

So, David kind of touched on this in the previous question, but was there anything additional you would want to add about anyone on-site that we can just depending on your location, I guess?

Yeah. I mean, you know, I don't think it's very often that we would go on-site to do a setup. Although, you know, if we're there is someone in Condo Control close to where you are, it is a possibility. But, you know, it's pretty easy to handle it virtually through Zoom calls, and through the documentation that we have. And that our activations team and our customer success team is really good at guiding clients, even virtually.

Could the board approve vendor payment digitally for reserve and or operation account payments?

So vendor payment, we do have a vendor management portal, but that's a separate from integrations. So maybe we could follow-up with you after on that one. Absolutely.

Question from Elaine. Are webinars taped and available for client viewing? Yes. So I will be sending out the recording to all of our registrants, and you're welcome to also view it on our marketing website as well. So keep an eye out for that email.

The community forum it ends up on too? Oh, yes. Many different areas. Community forum, our website through email.  To get my face out there. So as many places as possible.

Exactly.Thank you, Elaine. This is a general question from Angela. Is anyone using QuickBooks and integration for their HOA or COA accounting?

So, David, I don't know if you wanna just generally answer this on, you know, generally how it's being used, what our clients are using it for.

Most definitely. Yes. That QuickBooks on, well, QuickBooks online more so than QuickBooks desktop. QuickBooks online is, you know, a very well established, piece of software out in the market, and we definitely have clients, using it. HOAs, one hundred percent. Actually, one of our very largest HOAs uses QuickBooks online. And as I said, it's one of our most robust, account integrations offering all the four different data flows and the ability to play QuickBooks, invoices directly inside of Condo Control.

So there's lots of good stuff there. And then QuickBooks Desktop, yes, it is used, but it is, not a SaaS product. It has limitations because they're both not online, and they can't talk to each other back and forth. And the future of QuickBooks is sort of the online version. So one hundred percent, lots of our clients are using QuickBooks, and QuickBooks online and integrate with Condo Control.

Alright. Next question from Debbie. Can Sage accounting be integrated as well? So I have heard that name being floated around. It is not a current integration, but I recommend visiting our feedback forum. And if there's not already idea there for it, adding your vote to it. Like I said, the more votes we get on ideas in the feedback form, the more attention it gets with the product team here at Condo Control.

Alright. Any other questions from the audience?

There might be some in the chat, I think. Oh, let's see here. Oh, we are very interested in butterfly. Okay. Yes. There will be a follow-up, to any inquiries, from our customer success team. So, do not worry. We see all of your questions and comments here, and we'll follow-up as needed.

Do you have a QuickBooks online integration setup video? 

We don't have I think there might be a video on our Zendesk about QuickBooks, but not the setup of it.

You can reach out to your customer success manager or support team if you are an existing client, and there is a setup guide of what is required, that would walk you through it. So, there is a guide for sure for the setup, but not necessarily, a video.

Who receives the payment for status certificates? Is it Condo Control or the association?

So status certificates, there is a fee that Condo Control, collects on each certificate, and that's a standard fee. And then you are able to set your prices, however you want. And they either go into the association's bank account or sometimes we see if the property management company collects that fee. So it goes, into their separate Stripe account versus the other, fees for amenity which go into the association. So definitely the fee that the association or the property management company charges, will one hundred percent go into your own account.

Janine, you mentioned booking, a washing machine. Tell me more.

 

This was very much just something as used in as example as a future integration that we could consider. We do not currently have any washing machine booking integrations, but, as I mentioned, electric vehicles are becoming more popular. There certainly are, you know, many future potential integrations that we at Condo Control may consider. So just keep an eye out. Maybe in the future, we will have it available.

What else we have?

If you already have hello, Anthony. If you already have a property management company who has software, then what are the pros of using the software instead of our property management systems? Okay.

That one might be a general question comparing not necessary integrations, but what Condo Control offers versus what another software offers.

That's right. A little bit hard to answer that without knowing what the other system is, but Condo Control is a very, robust piece of software that has very many different modules, and varying packages.

So, you may be logging into your Condo Control and wishing that it doesn't have a certain feature. But we actually do offer that feature. It's just not part of your package. So I would definitely say reach out to your customer success manager with what you're trying to accomplish with Condo Control, and we'll be able to find you a solution.

And I Diane, I do see your question about charges and costs. We will not be answering any questions about cost in the webinar live, but if you do have any questions, we encourage you to reach out, if you are an existing Condo Control client to a customer success manager.

 Any other questions from the audience? We'll give everybody another minute or so. And if we don't have any more questions, we will wrap up. Oh, there's a question. Do you have a webinar more geared to unit owners and residents or tenants?

That is learning about access to documents, submit service requests. So we actually do have a service request webinar recording, available on our website. So if you go to condocontrol.com and you go to resources, you'll find our list of webinars, and it is included there. So I highly encourage you to check out what we have on offer there. But something to consider for future. We do take that into account when planning these.

And I'll just add there. We also in the bottom left corner, left menu of when you log into Condo Control, there'll be a user guide section. There's lots of video user guides in there. So if you're looking specifically as a resident, how to upload files or property manager, how to do something, a lot of our guides are in video format as well as written format. So and Colleen who does them does them very well. So, you know, that's a great resource to check out as well.

Yep. It's very it's a very detailed walk through. We highly encourage everyone to check those out.

Angela, for the washing machine reservation, they may consider using the calendar events function. Nice. That is a great suggestion. Yes. Thank you, Angela.

 I think what I can see, there's no further questions. Well, with that, thank you everybody for your questions and participation. I am going to end off here with some contact info.

If you do have any questions, again, you know, about cost, for example, please send an email to customer success at condocontrol.com. We encourage you to also visit our website at condocontrol.com as well, and we appreciate everyone joining us here for today's talk. If you have, you know, any further questions, would like to explore the integrations in more detail, please do not hesitate to reach out to your dedicated customer success manager.

As a reminder, after this Zoom meeting ends, a short survey will appear in your browser. So if you don't mind taking the time to fill this out, we would greatly appreciate any feedback.  Have a great day, everybody.