Admin/Manager - GENERAL - Feature List
Community Web Site Features
The site has both public and private (resident-only) areas. Below are the community web site features.
Only those features with an asterisk (*) in front of them are available to non-residents on the public portion of the web site.
Other features, i.e Message Board require a person to be logged in for use.
 | Address Book: a searchable database of all community residents and managers. We'll preload any information the community would like, generally including the primary resident's name, address, login and password. Then, each resident can update their information and share more with their neighbors (email addresses, hobbies, work, etc.). The Address Book is only available to residents with passwords. Residents can be listed by last name or by street name, or the Address Book can be hidden for administrative access only. |
 | *Amenities: information about your facilities including pictures or attached document files, rules and hours of operation. This is a great place to brag about your neighborhood to those who are surfing the web. |
 | Announcements: here you can post announcements about all community events and clubs. The information is separated into categories to suit your specific community needs. |
 | Boards/Committees: this is a complete listing of all Boards and Committees within the community. It can include a picture, times and dates of meetings, goals or mission statements, as well as names of members and their positions. (i.e. Joe Smith - Board President) |
 | *Classifieds: here residents can place and find ads for babysitters, lawn mowing, dog walking, lost and found, free puppies, etc. In addition, you can sell this advertising to local vendors (Restaurants, Maid Services, etc.) to make the site a Moneymaker for your community. The ads can contain coupons for printing, menus for ordering and even a link to the vendor's web site and email address. |
 | *Documents: all Community Documents can be displayed by category in this area including Bylaws, Newsletters, Covenants, Architectural Committee Review Forms, & Budgets. The site supports many file formats - .gif, jpg, html, Word, Excel, txt, Power Point. |
 | EMail Bulletins: here residents can sign up to receive regular emails about various community related subjects. This will push out information from the web site to the residents instead of the residents having to always visit the site and look for updates. The emails can also contain attachments. |
 | EMail Newsletter: choose from designer Email Bulletin templates to create your community’s online newsletter. Add your own unique text, graphics, pictures and greetings. As with eMail Bulletins, you can distribute your online newsletter to pre-set groups or clubs, certain subdivisions of the neighborhood, or to everyone in the address book. |
 | Events Calendar: the calendar displays various views of all events. By drilling down on a particular date, all events for that date will be displayed. By clicking on the event, a more detailed description is available. Details can include a picture as well as a hyperlink. You can easily post recurring or multi-day events. The Events Calendar can be sorted by Category, such as Clubhouse, Tennis, or Crafts Club. This functionality is especially helpful if you have an active community with many clubs and teams holding meetings and other events. There is no limit to the number of events you can post and events can include an RSVP request, a picture, or a document. |
 | *Eforms: the administrator can design forms specific to the community. These forms are filled out on-line and are emailed to one or more people as designated during set up. Common forms are: Login request form, Architectural Review Request Form, Maintenance Request Form and a Clubhouse Reservation Form. |
 | Reservations: allows administrators to set up facilities (such as tennis courts and meeting rooms), create business rules for each one (such as when they can be reserved, how far in advance and how often by the same person) and allow residents to make their reservations. Reservations can be immediately accepted or put into a queue for the reservation manager to approve before confirming. |
 | *FAQ’s: this area allows you to create your own database of frequently asked neighborhood questions as a resource for the homeowners. Everything from questions about architectural guidelines and management policies to local emergency services and more. |
 | *Garage Sales: tell as much as you want about what you have available for sale. This ad will show up on the public site as well, so people outside your community can see it. Residents can add their own garage sales. Some communities only allow for garage sales once per year. Recognizing that, we're happy to remove this menu item until the right time and then add it back to your menu when needed. |
 | *Homes or Condos for Lease/Rent: similar to homes for sale, residents can list their home for rent/lease. |
 | *Homes, Condos, or Lots for Sale: list Homes and sites for sale with a description, multiple pictures, and a map link to the address. |
 | Hot Links: this is a customizable categorized list of interesting web sites for residents such as schools, utilities, scout groups, etc. |
 | Job Bids - Vendor Tracking: this system allows the board to put on their web site any maintenance or repair jobs that they would like out for bid. A database of community-approved vendors is created and an automatic notification is sent to selected vendors based on the category of the job. (i.e. - Landscape Companies are notified of a new opportunity to bid on pine straw and pool supply companies are notified when the job is to replace the pool cover) |
 | Message Board: a "slow motion" chat room where conversations can play out over days or weeks. Post a comment, question or problem here and others can read it and reply to it whenever they want. Just like live chat, all residents can participate but there is no anonymity - Every message is tagged with the resident's name. The creator of the topic can be notified via email when a response is posted on the site and any resident can “subscribe” to the message board so all new messages come to his own email. |
 | *Module Feature: this feature is used to create extra features specific to your community's needs. Some communities use it for their recipe exchange areas and others are using it for the Kids Play Group. If we don’t have a feature you need, you can probably make it yourself with the Module feature. |
 | *Online Payment: allows your residents to make payments for association dues, common area rentals, and even team or club fees by eCheck or Credit Card online! Simply fill out the Online Payment Application and once approved, we can add this link to your site. |
 | Photo Albums: you can create many photo albums with multiple photos in JPEG and JPEG file types. Allows for thumbnails and captions, as well as a slide show format and “comments” area. You set the edit and view security levels for each album of photos. |
 | Requests & Questions: here you can post a message or question to specific people right from the web site. This is typically function specific, so instead of Joe Smith, you would have Board President. Often people within the community know what topic they want to discuss but not necessarily the specific name of the person to send the question. |
 | Reviews: various categories of Review can be created - such as Vendors; allowing residents to write a review on a particular plumber or painter - or even give their opinion about the latest movie! Share your thoughts with your neighbors. |
 | Site Search: the site search feature is a case-insensitive, exact subset match search tool which searches for the full and exact text you type. You will get best results by searching for a single word or short phrase. It searches Announcements, Address Book, Classifieds, Events, Message Board, Address Book and all Modules. |
 | Surveys: an informal place for gathering opinions and checking interests among residents. A great way to take the "temperature" of the community on a particular issue. Each survey question and up to eight possible answers are created by the administrator, and each household can vote one time on each survey. Summarized results are available for all to see. |
 | **Task Manager: allows your board and committees to keep track of their “to do” lists online. When a committee member has made progress on a task and adds an online note, other committee members are immediately updated on the status! A full report of each task can be printed for your meeting. Especially helpful for the Architectural Control Committee. |
 | *Volunteer Needs: if you need one or more volunteers for a community event/activity/committee/etc., post those needs with this feature. Residents looking to help out in the community check here to see where their time and skills are needed. |
 | What’s New: when a resident logs into the private-resident only portion of the web site, the resident will be shown what has been added to the web site within the last week. Residents love this as they can quickly catch up on new community news without having to scan through each feature! |
BOARD ONLY FEATURES:
- Board-only message board area
- Board-only chat room
- Board-only Documents area
- Task Manager
ADMIN ONLY FEATURES:
A Community Administrator can maintain each of these features. The Community Administrator does not need any "special" knowledge of the Internet or programming abilities. All maintenance is done through a web browser interface using a point and click methodology.
- Login Requests: manage login requests from residents easily and quickly. Requests go into a listing where you can review and automatically approve or deny the request and click to send the resident their new login/password automatically.
- Manage Menu: This Admin feature allows administrators to Add, Remove, or Change the menu items on the website.
- View/Export Resident Information: the administrator can choose specific fields of information to export from the address book. This information can be viewed on screen, printed or exported out for import into another program. This was created at the requests of clients who had to print directories for their residents. The web site then becomes the central storage location for resident information and residents can update their own records. When the time is right, the information is easily exported with very little burden on the administrator.
- Web Site Statistics: the administrator is given the view and print several reports showing site activity. The first report shows the number of hits to their web site for the previous thirty days. A second shows which pages are most popular on the web site and how many hits they are getting. The final report shows how many times residents have logged in to the private area and the date/time of their last login. Associations who sell advertising find this feature helpful as it presents “hard data” which can be used when convincing a vendor of site activity.
- Feature Descriptions: allows administrators to place customized descriptions at the top of most features. This is useful for placing your own “disclaimer” on the classified ad or reviews pages or for guiding residents as to the proper use of the message board. This can also be used to edit your public and private home pages if your website does not use Widgets. Widgets are a newer way for you to display content on your home pages and feature pages.
- **Modules: the modules feature allows communities to design their own custom features if we don’t have something you need. We have used it to design our own Photo Gallery, Recipe Exchange, and Kids Play Group features. Master Associations often use it to create special interest areas for each of their sub-communities.
- Vendor/Job Bid: this is actually a menu of a number of functions associated with tracking, rating community vendors and notifying them of any jobs within the community that might be open for bid. After posting a job for bid, including full description and up to 4 photographs, the site can automatically email notify all appropriate vendors that the job bid has been added and direct them back to your web site for more details.
- Edit Subdivision: this feature is used by Master Planned Communities to differentiate between neighborhoods within their master association.
SECURITY LEVELS:
Access to the private area of the web site and to the viewing and editing of the various features is controlled by the assignment of 99 security levels, with Level 1 have the most access and Level 99 having virtually none. Our contact within your community will initially be given a login and password with the “Community Administrator” security level (Level 1). That person can then assign security levels to other people who need to do site administration. AtHomeNet will also pre-load all of your resident’s names and addresses into the site Address Book assigning them a default “Resident Security Level” of 50. This will allow them to view all features and only edit those that your community decides they should edit. This is determined when you fill out your Web Site Agreement and tell us what features you want residents to be able to administrate. After initial setup, administrators can change security levels of anyone in the Address Book at any time and AtHomeNet can work with you to create additional security levels that will provide various levels of access to the site. For instance, you can create a Security Level 10 that belongs to Board and Committee persons, which might allow them to post Announcements and Events but not make changes to the Address Book or send Email Bulletins. This customization will be done only at your request and will be coordinated with you to reach your site administration and security goals. On the following page is an example of a “security structure” that is typical for a new community web site.
EXAMPLE COMMUNITY SECURITY STRUCTURE:
PREDEFINED SECURITY LEVELS
- Security Level 100: Public Access: anything defined as level 100 may be accessed by any visitor to the site without the need to log in.
- Security Level 50: Residents: Residents may log in to the site and view all of the primary features of the site. They can edit only a limited number of approved features.
- Security Level 35: Committee Members: any feature that is assigned this level of security will only be available to individuals whose user profile designates a security level of 35 or less.
- Security Level 25: Board Members: any feature that is assigned this level of security will only be available to individuals whose user profile designates a security level or 25 or less.
- Security Level 1: Community Administrator: only the selected Community Administrator(s) may see/edit items of this security level. This is the highest access level and has rights to add, edit and delete all dynamic functions on the site.
Listed as Admin Only
| Available items | Edit |
| Online Help | N/A |
| Edit Subdivisions | 1 |
| Edit Modules | 1 |
| Statistics | 1 |
| Vendor/Job Menu | 1 |
Listed as Board Only
| Available items | Security Required to Access |
| Board Message | 25 |
| Board Chat | 25 |
| Board Documents Category | 25 |
| Task Manager | 25 |
Standard Features
| Address Book | 1 | 50 |
| Amenities | 25 | 100 (PUBLIC) |
| Announcements | 25 | 50 |
| Board/Committee | 1 | 50 |
| Classifieds | 1 | 100 (PUBLIC) |
| Documents | 25 | 100 (PUBLIC) |
| eForms | 1 | 100 (PUBLIC) |
| eMail Bulletins | 1 | 50 |
| Events Calendar | 25 | 50 |
| Facility Reservations | 1 | 50 |
| FAQ’s | 1 | 50 |
| Garage Sales | 50 | 100 (PUBLIC) |
| Homes for Lease | 50 | 100 (PUBLIC) |
| Homes / Home Sites for Sale | 50 | 100 (PUBLIC) |
| Hot Links | 1 | 50 |
| Jobs for Bid | 1 | 50 |
| What’s Nearby | 1 | 100 (PUBLIC) |
| Message Board | 50 | 50 |
| Online Payments | N/A | 100 (PUBLIC) |
| Photo Albums | 1 | 100 (PUBLIC) |
| Requests/Questions | 25 | 50 |
| Reviews | 1 | 50 |
| User Profile | 50 | 50 |
| Volunteer Needs | 1 | 50 |