In this chapter of our series, we will look at My Work Queue, where many of the action items we all need to access every day are collected. There is literally something for everyone in these groupings. Use the Table of Contents to be able to home in on what you need for your role.

Table of Contents

• Table of Contents
• Section One: Access and Usage Tips
• Access
• My Work Queue: Tips and Usage Examples
• Understanding How to Use My Work Queue
• Section Two: My Work Queue Nodes
• Community Management
• Architectural Applications
• Common Lots Appraisal
• Fulfillment Queue
• Maintenance Work Order
• Violation Review
• Community On-Boarding
• Add Community
• On-Boarding Checklist
• My Work Inbox
• Payables Workflow
• Invoice Approval
• Metrics
• Process Invoices
• Process Tracker
• Annual Budget Preparation
• Annual Coupon Order
• Annual Statement Generation Process
• Management Report Generation
• Projects / Tasks
• Receivables Lockbox
• Statement Approvals
• Vendor Management
• Community View: My Work Queue
• Board Approvals
• Insurance
• Recommended Practice / Follow-Up

Section One: Access and Usage Tips

Access

There is a work queue both from the main Navigation Pane and from the Community module. Those of you familiar with working in the Management / Board Portal ("Classic") may think of these as a "portfolio" view and a "community" view. While you may need to make certain clarifying selections to have a page load from the main My Work Queue, such as the name of the community you need to work in, it does allow users to see a wider array of information than the pre-filtered community view, and to switch easily back and forth to different communities if need be.

• To access the portfolio view, from the main Navigation Pane, the My Work Queue is third down the list of main information nodes. From there it contains a series of sub-nodes that we will be taking a detailed look at as we go.
• From Community, My Work Queue is the final node listed on the Navigation Pane:

My Work Queue: Tips and Usage Examples

My Work Queue in some ways is not unlike the My CiraNet landing page in the Classic Portal where internal users are able to access several work areas via icons that allow them to drill into the modules they need. In the Management Portal, icons are replaced by the Navigation Pane menu. But the concept remains the same: it collates pages that many of you will need to use every day, while there are others you will only need to access periodically, and still others that you may never touch because they fall outside your work area. However, if you put them altogether, they add up to a very large node chalked full of functionality. So how do you find the pages you need the most when you need them?

Remember what you learned from the Management Portal Workspaces and Bookmarks Process and Service Description about bookmarking pages and use that tool to organize what you need to have routine access to. As a refresher, the Bookmarks tool is the ribbon icon along the Navigation Pane Header. Click on it and then select the Gear icon (see Figure 3) to open the pop-up to manage your bookmarks. Find the page to add in the left-hand side of the window and use your mouse pointer to drag it over to the right-hand side of the window. Click Save and that is all there is to it. To remove a page later, click on the name of the page in the right-hand side of the pane and click on the "x"

Additionally, make use of the Search Navigation found in the Navigation Pane Header. Lacking an eidetic memory? Don't need to have one. Simply click on the compass icon and type a key word and it will reveal the page you are searching for.

Understanding How to Use My Work Queue

As we mentioned above, My Work Queue is not unlike the My CiraNet page in Classic where internal users can launch to many of the work areas they need to carry out the daily tasks of managing a community association. However, there are differences other than how the menu looks. While there is not an avenue to upload community documents at a portfolio level in the Management Portal, as one example, and some of the My CiraNet landing page options have been nested under other areas, such as Automated Document Print, you can enjoy the benefits of everything you need in this more efficient portal. Allow us to illustrate some of the ways these options can assist us in our management.

Example One: What if I only wish to approve my pending Violation Reviews right now?

In the Classic Portal, users have the option of My Work Inbox and can set their grid to group by Process. The Management Portal has a corresponding My Work Inbox that can be grouped that same way, allowing a manager to focus in on whatever process they want to prioritize.

However, the Management Portal also provides an alternative page where only the violation records pending review populate.

2. From My Work Queue, select Community Management and then select Violation Review to open to a page listing the violation records in your specific queue pending review. In this view below, the user is a DCAM (supervisory manager), and these results are from her entire portfolio view, not just those assigned directly to her. Therefore, it can also serve as a venue for supervisors to keep a finger on the pulse of the escalated violation activity in his or her sphere.

The same filtered view is available for payables. In this case, from My Work Queue, select Payables Workflow and then Invoice Approval.

Example Two: A board of directors wants to keep tabs on how information is being loaded and configured as the community on-boards onto the CiraNet platform.

Documents ready for upload into the archive, items pending review and approval, and information needed to configure violations, information summaries and amenities, just to list a few of the myriad of items it takes to on-board a community, should all be linked to the appropriate line item in the On-Boarding Checklist. This checklist serves several purposes but in brief, it helps everyone involved with the process know what is needed and when, and it provides a communication gateway. This is not a new module, but one that was so large and involved that it could be unwieldly for internal users to manage in the Classic Portal. It is a far more efficient tool in the Management Portal. Information populated here integrates with the same checklist the board members can see from their Board Portal access. Granting that board members are viewing it in the Classic version, they are viewing data only and therefore not impeded by having to manage it. What this improved efficiency for those of us who need to manage the information is that we have the opportunity now to use it to its fullest capability not only to allow a highly involved board to see our progress, but for all of us to know exactly where we stand as a team as well.

Example Three: You need to document all your action items following a board meeting so the board can see the progress and even add comments if needed.

Projects / Tasks has been a core element in the Classic Management / Board Portal for years as a way for both internal and executive (board/committee) users to document items for a community association. That functionality is now faster in the Management Portal, and while its use currently is limited to internal users from here, it does integrate to the Classic Portal where the board can still see any tasks that we open and interact with them as they need to.

Therefore, it remains the great tool it has been to list all open action items you have for your entire portfolio. Let the boards see the work being done by being transparent using Projects / Tasks and Maintenance Work Orders. They have no idea how hard you are working, so show them.

Example Four: You have an open item you want to work on for a community but need to keep the view to internal users only. How do you keep track of the work you are doing, be able to involve other internal users if you need to but keep the information just between us?

As the name implies, Internal Tasks are perfect for a job that meets those parameters. While an Internal Task in some ways resembles a Project / Task, and is linked to a community, it is not visible to executive users. Examples of how it might be used can run the gamut. Perhaps the Financial Manager noted that a Replacement Fund allocation was not posted for a specific month. They can open an Internal Task for the accountant to investigate. Or an accountant may assign a task to the CAM to obtain a bank statement for a non-partner bank, such as an investment account. Perhaps an assistant receives a proposal for work that they wish the CAM to review before it is presented to the board. An Internal Task can be opened to let other team members review it before it goes any further. If it looks acceptable, they can launch a Project / Task directly from the Internal Task to pass it on to a venue the board can view.

Do not discount the value in assigning yourself an Internal Task occasionally if you need to keep yourself on track or have a landing spot for notes and documents. Do you, for example, need to verify information on a specific owner violation before it can be referred to an attorney? Are you working on a lot audit perhaps? It allows you a place to attach any documents that are relevant to the task, make notes for yourself and generally keep yourself organized when there is so much that clammers for your attention.

Section Two: My Work Queue Nodes

The usage examples in the previous section barely scratch the surface of the functionality loaded into this area, so now we will step through the nodes, look at their audience and how each serve all of us, whether we access them ourselves or not.

Community Management

Architectural Applications

This page opens to a portfolio view of the Architectural Applications entered into the platform, broken into two tabs: Open Application and Closed Application. The Open Application tab is the default view as is the setting of All Applications, which allows the viewer to see anything within their portfolio, regardless of whether it is directly assigned to them or not.

While there is additional training material in CiraHelp to help a new user learn the module in general, there are a few salient points to this view that we will review here:

1. Open Application / Closed Application. As noted, the default setting when first opening the page is All Applications, but users can also toggle to My Applications for a more streamlined view of only those applications they are directly responsible for. Internal users within the RealManage Family of Brands may see a third option of Administrative Applications which filters the view to those applications that fall within the responsibility of their ACAM Central team.
2. Always Refresh. The default is not to refresh the page automatically as soon as a new application is added. While the page is far more responsive than its Classic counterpart, this default allows for optimum efficiency. However, users can choose to toggle Always Refresh to Yes to allow the page to refresh as new applications come in.
3. Add Application. Clicking here will open to a pop-up window that allows the user to add a new application. Again, there are other training resources available to learn the process in greater detail from that point forward, including the link above.

4. Disposition Date. Moving on to the Closed Application tab: every application that has progressed through the process and been Finalized is captured here. To make finding any of these records both efficient and discoverable, they are called back using a Disposition Date range that by default pulls up the last three months. That range can be expanded or narrowed as needed to look for any Finalized applications you may need. The date is when the item was finalized and moved to the Closed Application tab.

Common Lots Appraisal

This page is only available at a portfolio view and is currently not accessible to management team members but is a tool for the internal teams who receive and log the common area lot appraisals. They can use this tool to match common lots with the appraisal districts. They can also use the tool to add new common lots and appraisers.

Fulfillment Queue

Details on using this page to create an online request for a printed mass mailing are in a separate document that can be found in CiraHelp. For anyone wanting to avail themselves of the services of our Fulfillment Shared Services Group ("FSG"), it is helpful to review this document to understand the timelines required and best practices related to submitting printready documents. However, here is a high-level view of what you can expect to see and do from this page.

Opening the page defaults to the Active Jobs tab. This allows the user to see all jobs within their portfolio presented in a grid format. This is the easiest way to see the status of a pending job without needing to try and reach out to anyone else for a status update. Once a status is changed to Fulfilling, FSG is working on the job.

Users, as you will note on the top right-hand corner of the page, can click on Add Job to complete the form to request a print fulfillment job. If our Corporate Accounting team bills your communities for variable expenses, but your team self-fulfilled a mailing for any reason, it still needs to be documented. There are many advantages to making sure it is logged in the system but the ability to bill it correctly is primary among them. In that event, users can use the Add Completed Job to enter the information, including the document, so it can be accounted for properly.

Looking at the Closed Jobs tab, users can use the filter builder at the top of the page to search on any archived/completed fulfillment jobs. If you determine that the request has not been submitted, notice you can access the two variations to add a job from this view as well.

Maintenance Work Order

This is a view of the Maintenance Work Orders within the user's portfolio. From this page, there is not a filter to open or restrict the view as we have seen in the pages we have reviewed above. But, as we have seen on the other pages, the view is broken into two tabs: Open Work Orders and Closed Work Orders.

If working in the Open Work Orders tab, users can use the grid to filter down to the work order(s) they wish to view and work on, and from the Action button in the far left-hand column they can manage the following (based on a management team member's view):

1. View/ Edit. Selecting this option opens the Maintenance Work Order pop-up window so any of those fields can be edited from that format.
2. Generate Work Authorization. This action generates a vendor work authorization and parks it in the Work Authorization page of the work order but does not download it or send it to the vendor.
3. Generate and Email Work Authorization. This variation, however, does generate the authorization and opens a CiraMail email composer with the authorization attached to send it to the vendor and link it to the work order.
4. Email Latest Work Authorization. This alternative will open a CiraMail email composer but will attach the most recent authorization already generated. This is a great and quick option if the vendor failed to get the original email for any reason.
5. Change Status. As the name implies, users can access a list of statuses they can change the work order to. The selections are:
1. Initial Request. This is the default beginning value. The status shows it is open but would lend to the conclusion that arranging for bids or for the work to be completed is still at the early stages.
2. Approved. This would be the status to set the work order to when the board has authorized the work, but its completion is still pending.
3. Out to Bid. You are currently soliciting bids for the scope of the job listed in the work order.
4. Completed. This indicates the work is done and moves the work order off the open tab.
5. Canceled. This also moves the work order from the open tab but means the work will not be done.
6. In Progress. This tells any reader the work is currently being done.
7. On Hold. The work or the bidding process is suspended for the time being but has not been canceled.

(We recommend leaving notes in the notepad for any change of status.)

6. Manage Work Authorization. The difference between this option and the Generate Work Authorization noted above is that clicking here opens directly to the Manage Work Authorization pop-up screen but does not automatically generate an authorization. An example of where this might be handy is if you want to look at the history before generating another document.
7. Manage Proposals. This opens to the Manage Vendor Proposals pop-up.
8. Manage Task References. This option allows users to link Projects / Tasks, either open or closed to the work order. This can come in handy if, as one example, a board member opens a Project / Task to report an issue and you in turn open a work order for a vendor to handle the issue. You can then link them together, so the board knows it was handled. It is also a great way to manage a larger project. Open a Project / Task to manage the overall scope of the work and link the work orders issued to the individual vendors needed to complete the work.

The Closed Work Orders tab will bring back results from the last 90 days initially, but that date range can be changed either up or down depending upon the user's needs. From that tab, users have some of the Action items they have from the Open Work Order tab: View/Edit, Change Status, Manage Work Authorization, Manage Proposals, and Manage Task References.

Last, but far from least, to open a new Work Order, click the button labeled Add New Work Order at the top right-hand side of the page. This will open to the pop-up window to allow you to create a new Maintenance Work Order. For anyone new to that process, detailed instructions are available in CiraHelp.

Violation Review

This page does not apply to all users, and is not even visible for some of us, but for management team members it is a collation of all open violation records that need CAM review to move forward. To understand what prompts a violation record to be loaded into this queue, please refer to CiraHelp, but the page itself is simple. It has just this one function: to list and allow CAMs to action on their pending violation records.

Community On-Boarding

For many of us, the On-Boarding Checklist is the page we interact with the most in this grouping. The other pages are just as important in the process of on-boarding a community onto the CiraNet platform but are used by the team members who are on-boarding specialists; therefore, many of these pages are not even visible to most of us.

Add Community

This page is only accessible to the on-boarding teams but is the template they use to add the community association's "shell" to the CiraNet platform.

On-Boarding Checklist

This is the page most of us who have any part in the process will need to interface with. The purpose of the checklist is so each of us knows what is needed to successfully on-board the new community, when those things are needed in the overall process, and who is responsible for obtaining them. It is an important tool and is visible to board members, so it is important for more than our own purposes that it is used robustly since they can watch our progress. The good news is the page is efficient in this portal.

Learning the on-boarding process is over and above the scope of this Process and Service Description, but here are some salient points about loading and using this page that will help you get started using it:

First, as we have seen many times before, the page opens to a two-tab view. Here you will see Open Tasks as the default tab and Completed / Closed Tasks as the secondary tab.

1. Active Filter. Upon opening the page, this is set to only My Tasks, which filters down to only those Internal Tasks assigned directly to you. It can be switched to All Tasks, which will bring back all open tasks for those departments you have access to, whether it is directly assigned to you or not.
2. Department. Initially All Departments couples with the Active Filter to bring back your results, but using the drop-down menu, you can find a specific department to filter to just those specific tasks.
3. Email Settings. This allows each user to control what type of email notifications they receive as Internal Tasks are added or the status is changed. Clicking on it opens to a small pop-up window allowing the customization:

4. Action. Clicking here allows the following modifications / actions to be taken pertaining to the Task.
1. Edit. This opens the pop-up window of the Internal Task so it can be modified.
2. Change Status To. This allows a user to change the Status to Open, Closed or Complete. The difference between Closed and Complete is that Internal Tasks were designed to allow for an audit process. If someone assigns you a task and you believe you have satisfied it, you can mark it as Closed. If the task's author audits it and agrees with that assessment, they would mark it as Complete. If you may need to do some additional work, they would change the status back to Open and add notes indicating what else is needed.
3. Change Assigned To. There is the opportunity to change the assignee, not just if there is someone better equipped to handle the issue, but often tasks are handed off like a baton in a relay race. If you do one part of the overall task and need to have someone else pick up the next phase, notate your work and change the assigned to the next person on deck.
4. Email Reminder. This option prompts a quick email ping to the selected individual that is a summary of the task and any notes made. It will look like the example shown in the On-Boarding Checklist.
5. Email. This option will open a CiraMail composer that will be from the community address, which allows you to compose an email to whomever you need to in relation to the task and it will then automatically link to the task via the Emails column.
6. Delete Task. Users who authored a task can delete the task, but no one else can.
5. Notes. As seen in many modules in CiraNet, a notepad allows us to communicate with one another as well as to document anything we need to about the process we are working on.
6. Attachments. The paperclip icon allows users to attach documents to the task either from the community's Document Archive or your local hard drive. If you see a number next to the paperclip it indicates how many documents are already there.
7. Emails. This allows us to link CiraMail emails to the task. As mentioned above, emails that are launched from the Action button are automatically linked, but others that are attributed to the community can be linked as well.
8. Tasks. Users can either link a Project / Task to the Internal Task or launch a new one by clicking on the open file folder icon.

What you may notice is missing from the illustration above is how to open a new task. To enable that option, from Department, drop-down to your group and notice that the + Add Task button appears on the top right-hand side of the page to open the Add Task form.

My Work Inbox

This is the page users who have any of these core items to approve can go to see and work on them:

• Invoice Approval
• Mass Communication
• Violation Review

When a user opens to this page, they see the default setting of Show My Work, which limits the view to only those items they are directly responsible for. However, some users can see more than one user's work (DCAM's, Branch Leaders and even assistants who have a back-up CAM role), so to open to everything within their portfolio, they can toggle to Show ALL Work. The Action button in the far left-hand column in all cases opens to the different process workflow for review and action. How that workflow looks and acts depends upon the process.

Payables Workflow

For many users, particularly front office management teams, the only page visible in this arena is Invoice Approval, but for the Payables Lockbox Shared Services Group ("APSG"), this is how they manage their steps in the payables lockbox process and have been instrumental in how they have been able to shorten the length of time it takes to receive an invoice and prepare it for the CAM step.

Invoice Approval

This page will list all the open AAP Workflows for the individual user. If the user is an accountant, they will only see the Accountant Approvals, CAMs and their supervisors see CAM Approvals, and the Payables Lockbox team would only see their work items, etc. Opening the page initially opens to a status of Show ALL Work but can be filtered down to only Show My Work. Lite Mode is ON initially, but if you turn it to OFF, it enables the additional column of Responsible, which can be helpful to supervisory team members.

Metrics

This page has a limited view and is used primarily by supervisors with the Payables Lockbox Shared Services team and company executives to monitor the production of the varying payables team members.

Process Invoices

This is the queue the AP Processors use to work the verify steps for all AAP Workflows. Any processor new to CiraNet can find detailed instructions in CiraHelp, but in general the queue flows in one workflow at a time to load for the processor. They cannot select which workflow to work, which helps avoid more challenging workflows being delayed. Once they process a workflow they receive the next one in the queue and so on.

Process Tracker

Process Trackers allow all of us, who are spread across the country and in different business roles, to come together to take care of certain core processes on behalf of our client communities. They also help us determine appropriate timelines and often streamline a process by integrating to other areas of the platform. These are the process trackers available in the Management Portal:

Annual Budget Preparation

The budget process is one of the most important functions we do on behalf of our communities, and involves several processes and different applications, including for most communities on the platform, the Windows application of CiraBudget. This Process Tracker is a critical component in the process. To fully understand the budget process and your own company's SOPs, we encourage you to work closely with your company leadership team but there is also additional training information available in CiraHelp.

The goal here is to help understand the page in the Management Portal. The illustration is from a Financial Manager's viewpoint, and he has set his grid to his own preference, as can you. But there are other options available to every user that helps bring up the information each user needs to focus on any given day:

1. Period Selector. Initially the page opens to a setting of ALL ME/YE, which translates to all "month-end / year-end". As you begin your budget season, change the drop-down to the appropriate year-end, meaning if you are working on the 2025 budgets that are on a calendar fiscal year you would set this to 2024-12:FYE. Once you set it, the system will retain it for the next time you open the page.
2. Management Company Selector. For most of us, the default of All Management Companies is sufficient because we only work within one company, but some personnel have access to more than one and can use this option to filter down to a specific company to work on.
3. Responsible / Portfolio. The page opens to the setting of Responsible, which lists those budgets the user is directly responsible for. Swapping to Portfolio opens the list to budgets within their portfolio, even if they are not directly working on them.
4. Include Completed. Generally, once a budget line is completed it will be removed from the active grid. Changing the toggle to Yes and then refreshing the page brings any completed line items back into the visible grid.
5. Include Unnecessary. We can mark a budget unnecessary for any number of reasons: it is not a full financial contract, the budget was entered another way (common for communities on-boarded during the year), etc. Once it is flagged Unnecessary it is removed from the active grid. Selecting Yes here and refreshing the page pulls it back into view.
6. Filter by Actionable Items. Toggling to Yes filters the grid down to only those rows that are waiting for your action.

If there is a symbol to the left of the community's name, it indicates a specific status, which will be repeated throughout the trackers:

This indicates the community is on-boarding currently.

This will indicate the community has terminated.

There are eight steps in all:

1. Initialize Budget. This step creates an initial budget draft in CiraBudget.
2. Budget Submission to Client & Manager. Once it is determined that the budget is at the stage where it can be presented to the board, this step is used to launch a CiraMail template to deliver the draft to the board.
3. Preliminary Client Approval. Once the board has indicated that they approve of the draft budget the manager marks the budget as approved in CiraBudget in Step 20 of the Process Checklist. That action integrates with the Annual Budget Preparation Process Tracker here and completes the step.
4. Final Accountant Approval. The accountant reviews the budget to verify there are no issues that were not caught earlier, and they mark the status complete in Step 22 of the CiraBudget Process Checklist to complete this step in the tracker.
5. Budget Finalized. Once all changes are done and the board has formally approved the budget, the manager notifies the accountant and the accountant marks Step 25 of the CiraBudget process tracker to finish this step.
6. Upload Approved Budget Package (Resolution, Rules & Budget). Once the budget is approved, the manager replaces the signature pages in the overall package and uploads it into this step. The corresponding control steps in CiraBudget are 26 and 27.
7. Upload Resident Version of Budget for Resale Cert. The more streamlined budget prepared for resident view is to be loaded in this step. The corresponding step in the CiraBudget Process Checklist is Step 27.
8. Submit Resident Notification Job to FSG. This allows the manager to create a fulfillment job to notify owners of the budget / assessment status. The step completion will launch a Fulfillment Workflow, but the manager will still need to upload the print ready notice in the job. From this step, managers also have the option to Bypass the mailing as not required.

Annual Coupon Order

This process tracker is pertinent to those communities who bill by coupons. In many ways, the page opens and behaves like the Annual Budget Tracker:

1. Period Selector. When first opening the page, the setting is ALL ME/ FYE but can be filtered down. As with the budget tracker, to work on the upcoming fiscal year, set the date for the last month of this fiscal year.
2. Management Company Selector. This allows those users who may have access to more than one management company to use this drop-down to filter to the one they wish to work on; however, note in the illustration on Page 22 that the user did not need to select a company to have their entire portfolio populate into the tracker.
3. Responsible / Portfolio. The page opens to the setting of Responsible, which lists those line items the user is directly responsible for. Swapping to Portfolio opens the list to budgets within their portfolio, even if they are not directly working on them.
4. Include Completed. Once a line is completed it will be removed from the active grid. Changing the toggle to Yes and then refreshing the page brings any completed line items back into the visible grid.
5. Include Unnecessary. As with budgets, coupon orders can be marked unnecessary for several reasons. Once it is flagged Unnecessary it is removed from the active grid. Selecting Yes here and refreshing the page pulls it back into view.
6. Filter By Actionable Items. Toggling to Yes filters the grid down to only those rows that are waiting for your action.

This tracker has six steps in all:

1. Rules Approved. The purpose of the step is to document the board's approval of the upcoming fiscal year's assessment rules so the coupon order can commence. The step is populated one of two ways: client approval of the annual budget as uploaded and verified in the Annual Budget Process Tracker. This is applicable to those communities using the Assessment and Billing Rules configuration. Alternatively, the CAM can manually upload a board executed authorization form that approves the rules. Verification is required by the Process Owner' before the step can be completed.
2. Coupon Order Generated. Here the Process Owner will generate the data file that is transmitted to the coupon fulfillment partner. The step is auto-completed when the application job runs to generate the coupon order file.
3. Order Submitted to Fulfillment Partner. Next, the Process Owner will submit the generated data file to the coupon fulfillment partner who in turn provides a job number. That provides the confirmation that allows the Process Owner to complete the step.
4. Proof Received and Approved. The Process Owner will perform an initial review of the coupon order proof when it is made available by the coupon fulfillment provider. If it looks acceptable, they will upload the proof to this step for the CAM to review it next. If the CAM notes any issues, they should reject the step. If it looks good, the CAM can approve the step.
5. Notify Southdata of Coupon Proof Approval. The Process Owner notifies the coupon fulfillment provider of the approval to print and fulfill the coupon order for the community once Step 4 is complete.
6. Coupons Mailed Out and Verified as Received. The Process Owner records the date the coupon order was mailed out to the owners, but the mailing is verified when the Process Owner receives their control copy of the coupon booklet, which allows them to then close the step.

Annual Statement Generation Process

This process tracker is pertinent to those communities who bill by statements. This page also behaves in many respects like the Annual Budget Tracker, as follows:

1. Period Selector. When first opening the page, the setting is ALL ME/ FYE but can be filtered down. As with the budget tracker, to work on the upcoming fiscal year, set the date for the last month of this fiscal year.
2. Management Company Selector. This allows those users who may have access to more than one management company to use this drop-down to filter to the one they wish to work on; however, note in the illustration above the user did not need to select a company to have their entire portfolio populate into the tracker.
3. Responsible / Portfolio. The page opens to the setting of Responsible, which lists those budgets the user is directly responsible for. Swapping to Portfolio opens the list to budgets within their portfolio, even if they are not directly working on them.
4. Include Completed. Once a statement order line is completed it will be removed from the active grid. Changing the toggle to Yes and then refreshing the page brings any completed line items back into the visible grid.
5. Include Unnecessary. As with budgets and coupon orders, statements can be marked unnecessary for several reasons. Once a line is flagged Unnecessary it is removed from the active grid. Selecting Yes here and refreshing the page pulls it back into view.
6. Include Unnecessary. As with budgets and coupon orders, statements can be marked unnecessary for several reasons. Once a line is flagged Unnecessary it is removed from the active grid. Selecting Yes here and refreshing the page pulls it back into view.
7. Filter By Actionable Items. Toggling to Yes filters the grid down to only those rows that are waiting for your action.

This tracker has four steps:

1. Rules Approved. The step is identical to that of the Annual Coupon Process Tracker Step 1 in that the purpose of the step is to document the board's approval of the upcoming fiscal year's assessment rules so the statements can be correctly generated. The step is populated one of two ways: client approval of the annual budget as uploaded and verified in the Annual Budget Process Tracker. This is applicable to those communities using the Assessment and Billing Rules configuration. Alternatively, the CAM can manually upload a board executed authorization form that approves the rules. Verification is required by the Process Owner before the step can be completed.
2. Statements Generated, Printed and Approved. The entire owner statement file is for the first assessment billing period is generated by the Statement Generation Service ("SGS") and uploaded in this step for review. The CAM reviews the statements. If there are concerns noted, they would reject the step, detailing their concerns in the notepad. Otherwise, they can approve the step.
3. Statements Forwarded to FSG for Mail Fulfillment. Next, the Process Owner, a member of the Receivables Lockbox team, processes the order with the print fulfillment provider.
4. Statements Have Been Mailed. The Process Owner will finalize the step once they receive confirmation that the statements have been mailed.

Financial Report Publishing

This process tracker is utilized by the accounting teams to generate the monthly financial reports based upon the financial report configuration set for each community. While primarily used by the accountants, the management team members can view this tracker, which has many of the same settings and features as the other trackers to customize the view for the user:

1. Period Selector. When first opening the page, the setting is ALL ME/ FYE but can be filtered down. To filter down to the month to be worked on, choose it from the dropdown menu and Refresh the page. However, since financial reports are all completed based on contractual expectations, the default setting on this tracker may be sufficient.
2. Management Company Selector. This allows those users who may have access to more than one management company to use this drop-down to filter to the one they wish to work on.
3. Responsible / Portfolio. The page opens to the setting of Responsible, which lists those line items the user is directly responsible for. Swapping to Portfolio opens the list to budgets within their portfolio, even if they are not directly working on them.
4. Include Completed. Once a financial report line is completed it will be removed from the active grid. Changing the toggle to Yes and then refreshing the page brings any completed line items back into the visible grid.
5. Include Unnecessary. As with the other process trackers, a row can be marked unnecessary for various reasons. Once it is flagged Unnecessary it is removed from the active grid. Selecting Yes here and refreshing the page pulls it back into view.
6. Filter By Actionable Items. Toggling to Yes filters the grid down to only those rows that are waiting for your action.

This process can be set to produce and release a packet based on the Configuration Module on a specific date automatically or set to Manual so the accountant and accounting director will complete each step before the contractual deadline. There are five steps to this tracker:

1. Update Income Statement Variance Notes and Reclass Expenses. The objective to this step is to review the revenue and expenses and determine if any reclassifications need to be made. The user can also notate any significant variances. This is done by clicking on the step and then selecting Launch Editor to open to the Actual vs. Budget module for the community. This step is not done systematically for those communities set to complete automatically as it takes human analysis, so it can be managed manually for all communities. If it is not, the system still generates and delivers the packet for those set to automatically fulfill.
2. Bank Reconciliation. This step integrates with the Bank Reconciliation module and completing the reconciliation of the accounts, either manually or done by system automation, will automatically complete this step. Conversely, the accountant has the option to Bypass Step: From the Select drop-down the accountant would select Complete: Not All Statements Available and then click on Approve Bypass to allow the step to be completed.

3. Accountant Produces, Maintains & Uploads All Required Parts of the Financial Package. At this step the accountant adds all the required files to combine into a financial packet per the company SOPs and the contract with the community association. To open to the upload tool, the accountant will click on Generate once they have opened to step:

Once the accountant is ready, they click on the Generate button on the bottom right of this pop-up screen to schedule a report generation. When it is ready, they will receive a system-generated email and are able to go back into the step to review the packet. Once they are satisfied, they can Save/ Approve the step.

4. Review & Markup or Approve Monthly Draft Financials (Accounting Director). In this step, a supervisory accountant can review the packet before it is published to the client board. The step can be bypassed by selecting Complete: No Review Performed in the Options to Bypass Step. If they do want to review the packet, they would Open Step Editor to see the packets) produced. If they have any questions or concerns, they select Reject to Accountant. They will be prompted to leave a note specifying the concern. Once rejected, Step 3 is reopened as Rejected and is highlighted in red. If everything looks acceptable, on the other hand, they can select Approve or Save/ Approve to move it on to the final step.
5. Publish Monthly Reporting Package and Deliver to Client. This final step allows for an email to be sent to the board members configured to receive them from the Board / Committee Members page in CiraNet. A default email template is configured and will be loaded into a CiraMail composer with the financial report as an attachment. The CAM and DCAM are blind copied on the email, so they are aware it has been delivered. The signature on the email is the CAM by default as the primary relationship manager. The email can be modified in the CiraMail email composer if there is anything that warrants special attention. That modification does not impact the template for the next reporting cycle. Alternatively, the step can be bypassed and completed with no email sent. The report would then simply publish to the Financials folder in the community's Document Archive and would need to be accessed from there.

Management Report Generation

As with most of the Process Trackers, information flows into the process from other sources, and this is possibly the penultimate example of that since the very concept of the Monthly Management Report is to collate and report on all key metrics within CiraNet in one packet that can take minimal time to generate. Therefore, the key to the success of the process is to manage the information in CiraNet throughout the month by making sure all action items are documented in Projects / Tasks, work items are assigned to Maintenance Work Orders, meetings are documented in the Calendar, etc. This is particularly important for those reports set to publish automatically. For more information on the process and quality control of the report, refer to CiraHelp and your company's training leaders. However, this section will provide an overview on how to turn all that data into a comprehensive report in five steps.

The main page settings are like others in previous Process Trackers in most respects:

1. Period Selector. When first opening the page, the setting is ALL ME/FYE but can be filtered down. To filter down to the month to be worked on, choose it from the dropdown menu and Refresh the page. For this purpose, the current month is the period to concentrate on, although the report will rely on the previous month's financial report. Other activity on the report is current. For those communities set to manually fulfill it is imperative to understand that the report must be delivered within the same calendar month. If a CAM misses the end of the month, do not attempt to complete the report in the next month as the data becomes conflicted with the next month's information.
2. Management Company Selector. This allows those users who may have access to more than one management company to use this drop-down to filter to the one they wish to work on; however, note in the illustration above the user did not need to select a company to have their entire portfolio populate into the tracker.
3. Responsible / Portfolio. The page opens to the setting of Responsible, which lists those line items the user is directly responsible for. Swapping to Portfolio opens the list to budgets within their portfolio, even if they are not directly working on them.
4. Include Completed. Once a monthly management report line is completed it will be removed from the active grid. Changing the toggle to Yes and then refreshing the page brings any completed line items back into the visible grid.
5. Include Unnecessary. As with budgets, coupon orders can be marked unnecessary for several reasons. Once it is flagged Unnecessary it is removed from the active grid. Selecting Yes here and refreshing the page pulls it back into view.
6. Filter By Actionable Items. Toggling to Yes filters the grid down to only those rows that are waiting for your action.

The tracker has five steps in all:

1. Prior Month's Financial Report is Complete and Published. This step is automatically completed as soon as the Financial Report Publishing is complete. It can be bypassed in certain circumstances. The Options to Bypass Step allow two selections as possible reasons to move forward without complete financials: Complete But in Transition and Client Doesn't Take Accounting Services. We would recommend speaking with your leadership team first about requesting certain report modules be suppressed before selecting the latter. Also be aware of your company's SOPs before using this bypass step.
2. Update Income Statement Variance Notes and Reclass Expenses. In essence, this opens to the Actual vs. Budget module in CiraNet, as does Step 1 of the Financial Reporting Publishing tracker. And it allows the same functionality. Note, however, that any changes a CAM might care to make in advance directly from that module, most notably making some variance notes for items you know need to be explained, will reflect here so one does not need to wait until working on these reports, which can be helpful for anyone with a large portfolio. If an individual attempts to open Step 2 on the same day Step 1 is completed, they receive a warning.

In short, this tells the user that changes made that day to complete the financials may not be reflected until the next day. A best practice, therefore, is to wait until the following morning to begin work on Step 2, but clicking on OK will allow the step editor to be opened.

3. Generate Monthly Management Report. Once Step 2 is complete, the CAM can move to generate a report. They will move through a brief wizard that prompts if there are any red flags or cautions so they can review the information before running the report. The next field allows CAMs to append the report with any ad hoc documents, such as a physical site inspection report, photos, any recommendations from vendors, etc. Once satisfied, select Generate to schedule a job. A system-generated email will be sent as soon as the report is ready to be reviewed from the step. The report can be re-generated as many times as necessary until you are satisfied with it and ready to Save / Approve the step.
4. Review & Markup or Approve & Publish Monthly Management Report. This step is assigned to the DCAM and can be actioned by anyone with that permission role or above. This allows that individual to review the report for any issues that the CAM may have inadvertently overlooked. They have the option to reject it if they note any issues, which will require that they leave a note for the CAM to understand what they need to remedy. Step 3 is re-opened with the column highlighted in red to clearly indicate it has been rejected. As with Step 3, this step can be repeated as many times as necessary until the DCAM is satisfied the report is ready to go on to the board, at what point they will Save / Approve.
5. Deliver Monthly Management Report to Client. The Monthly Management Report publishes, as the name of the step implies, to the Document Archive upon completion of Step 4, but to deliver it to the client board, Step 5 is the final step. This step opens an email composer that has a preset template addressed to the board members for the community who are enabled to receive the report based on the Board / Committee Information module. The template can be modified to fit a specific situation that month but modifying it here will not change the template permanently. Files can also be attached if there is additional information to send the board. That said, the management report itself, often more than 100 pages with color graphs and charts, is not attached but accessible via a hyperlink in the body of the email, so be careful not to overwrite or delete that paragraph.

Projects / Tasks

While there are detailed instructions on using Projects / Tasks in CiraHelp, we will take a high-level view of how to use the page in the Management Portal.

1. Open Tasks / Closed Tasks. When first opening to the page, you will note that there are two tabs, Open Tasks and Closed Tasks, with the Open Tasks being the default view.
2. My Tasks / All Tasks. The default view is also filtered down only to those Projects / Tasks assigned directly to you, but switch to All Tasks to see all open items within your portfolio.
3. Notification Settings. This resembles what is available in Internal Tasks but here it is more of a one size fits all and allows you to either receive notifications for any status change or to disable them altogether.

4. Add New Project / Task. As the name suggests, clicking here will open the pop-up window allowing you to open a new task. Remember that board members do have the ability to open tasks, but at this time they must do so from Classic. This page is internal user access only for now.

Other features available on each line item are the ability to attach documents by clicking on the paperclip icon in the Attachments column. Making notes to keep track of the progress can be done by clicking on the notepad in the Notes column. One of the other options available is to be able to link Internal Tasks to the Project / Task, as well as linking any emails in CiraMail that pertain to the task.

Receivables Lockbox

Statement Approvals

This module is used primarily by on-boarding teams and a select group of community managers who wish to review the debit statements before they are fulfilled. To learn how to use it effectively, please be sure to read the detailed CiraHelp text but as an overview, the page opens to a view of three tabs, with the Pending Approvals being the default open tab.

The Pending Approval tab will list all open items waiting for action. To work an item, click on the Action button to choose from these three options:

1. Approve & Print. This allows the statement batch to be released to the fulfillment partner or emailed to any owner who has opted for that delivery method.
2. Delete & Reschedule. If any adjustments need to be made, this would be the option to use. However, the module itself does not notify any team member once that action is taken, so the user needs to create a Case to the Receivables Lockbox team or their Account Manager to notify them of the issue(s) to address before re-generating the batch, which will deliver them back again to this module for review.
3. Delete Forever. Selecting this does as it states. Taking this action removes the batch from the queue and the Statement Print Oueue that the Receivables Lockbox team uses to generate statements. Use this, therefore, with caution.

The Search Approvals tab allows users to search for any batches that were approved based on a date range. The default view is to set the Date Type to Run Date, but this can be changed to Statement Date and the date range is for the last three months, but the ranges can be modified to refine the search parameters.

Finally, the Statement Runs tab allows the most robust search of the three tabs:

1. Action. This option is enabled after the other search parameters have been set and the results populate in the grid below. Check the box in the far left-hand column for any communities you need to action on. Notice that there are two options only: a. Delete. This option allows you to delete a run that was not intended to go out. Use this only for statements that have not been fulfilled yet. Reschedule. Use this option if updates are needed. Again, no notice is launched to the Receivables Lockbox team, so let them know of the issues and the action you took.
2. Year. The system will default to the current year, but the tab can be used to search on runs from prior years by changing this and refreshing the page.
3. Month. This will default to the current month but can be adjusted back.
4. Community. If the user wants to filter down to a single community, they can use this drop-down. Alternatively, the entire portfolio will populate in the grid view below.
5. Include Deleted. This allows any deleted runs to populate in the grid.

One of the most important things to keep in mind if you have statement batches populating for review in this page is to review and action on them immediately. Generally, a system-generated email is sent to the individual responsible for the review. That individual should plan on reviewing the statements that same day since the timing of future debit statement cycles and collection notices can be dramatically impacted by any delays.

Vendor Management

This module is large and powerful enough to have earned its own Process and Service Description, along with robust CiraHelp instructions. Therefore, our focus for this purpose is to the look at the community-level page and grid and what options are offered there.

Initially, the page opens blank except for the drop-down selector box offering the user to Select a Value. Click on it to be able to search for the Management Company, Branch Location or Community you are needing to work in. For most management team users, that final layer, the Community view, is where they want to be and can manage the vendor information on behalf of the community association, so that is where we are focusing our attention as well.

1. Select a Value. The name of the community will show here. Once done working in that entity, if you wanted to move on to another location, click on the box to open the drop-down and type in at least part of the name to filter down to the result you want (refer to Figure 38).
2. Show Community Vendors. This is the default setting. However, users can toggle to Show Location Vendors to bring up any vendors added at the "branch" level.
3. Show Active Community Vendors. This is the default view as well but can be switched to Show All Community Vendors that populates any inactive vendors into the grid below.
4. Action. This opens to a wealth of options*, which we will review briefly here:
1. View/Edit. This option opens a pop-up window that allows access to three tabs:
1. Vendor. Which has some basic information about the vendor such as the name, vendor type, and the primary phone if it was added at the branch level. The actionable item from this tab is the Merge Payment Request, which is set to No but can be toggled to Yes to allow a single check to be cut for multiple invoices from the same vendor processed at the same time. Often applicable for utilities or attorneys who invoice per issue they are handling for the community.

*The items any specific user can view differ depending upon user role.

2. Contacts. This allows multiple contacts to be added for the vendor. Keep in mind this at the community level so these are unique to that community. Any contacts added here become available in the CiraMail Email composer.
3. Remit Address. While the address on the vendor's W-9 is added at the branch level, it can be overridden at the community level.

2. Manage Insurance. This opens the window to load the vendor's proof of insurance, often in the form of a COI.
3. Manage Contracts. This option allows the user to load the contracts) between the community association and the vendor. To know the specifics on what to select based on the type of contract and the renewal provisions, please refer to the more detailed instructions mentioned above.
4. Set Inactive / Set Active. This allows the user to inactivate a vendor that the community association no longer uses or re-establish them as active if they are re-hired. Keep in mind that inactive vendors cannot be paid in the system, so if there are outstanding invoices, the Payables Lockbox team will need to re-activate a vendor to process the workflow(s).
5. Set Approved. What constitutes an Approved vendor differs per entity and vendors can be set as approved at any level. A vendor that is not approved can still be paid without any adjustment to their status.
6. Email Vendor. This option opens a CiraMail email composer and the Email Address Book set to the Vendor Contacts tab, allowing the user to select any vendor contact they need to reach out to.
7. Generate New Work Order. Selecting this option opens the Maintenance Work Order window, which is automatically linked to the vendor for the purpose of issuing a Proposal or Work Authorization. (NOTE: This option is available for General Service Providers.)
8. Submit an Invoice. This opens the AP Payment Request screen allowing users to start an AAP Workflow already set to the specific vendor.
9. Apply 1099 Adjustment. The Lockbox Payables team uses this tool to enter a manual adjustment to the amount paid to a vendor for reporting on IRS Form 1099. This is only used if a community comes onto the platform during the year and there are payments made to the vendor by another software platform that need to be accounted for in addition to what was paid via our system.
10. Electronic Payment. This option is not available for all users but allows the Payables Lockbox team to set the vendor up for Vendor ACH. (NOTE: Not all partner banks currently support Vendor ACH; please verify eligibility before offering the service to your vendors.)
11. AAP Workflow Auto Actions. CiraNet can support automatic actions for workflows. This will allow the user to see what is in place for that vendor and some users can edit existing conditions or add new ones for that specific community vendor.
12. AAP Workflow Template. This is the functionality to set default GL coding for a community vendor, as well as being able to set specific handling (e.g., a specific vendor check needs to always print to the local check printer), and which account it is disbursed from as well as being able to set a default description.
13. AAP Workflow Checklist. Allows the user to see the current checklist configured for the vendor, if applicable, and set new checklist items if warranted.
5. Vendor Name. The vendor's name is listed in this column. Active. By default, when opening to this view, only the active vendors populate, but if a user changes the setting along the top of the page to Show All Community Vendors, inactive vendors will populate in the grid below. Any active vendors are indicated by a green check mark in that column. Inactive will show as a red "x".
6. Approved. What defines an approved vendor can differ by management company, branch or community, and a vendor can be set as "approved" at any of those levels. The designation does not impact the system's ability to pay a vendor, nor does it make that vendor a priority payment.
7. Vendor Type. While most vendors are configured as a General Service Provider, we do support other labels that impact other areas of the application (e.g., Utility vendors are handled as priority vendors, Professional - Attorney/ CPA vendors are able to be selected for collection referrals, etc.). The label the vendor was set up with is listed in this column and can be sorted or filtered by vendor type.
8. Work Orders. Not all vendor types have the icon populated in this column. An example of where it is not applicable are utility vendors. But where the icon is present, users can click on it to be taken to the Maintenance Work Orders page and any work orders in existence linked to that vendor will populate. If there are none, if you open a new work order from that page and that vendor will be pre-selected.
9. Description. This field can be populated at the "branch" level, but any content will show in this column. The only individuals on the management team with access to edit a branch level vendor are DCAM roles or above but if they chose to, as one example, use that field to further define what their general vendors specialize in (plumber, cleaner, pool service, etc.), that would be an excellent pathway to do that.
10. 1099. While this setting, which is a designation to mark whether a vendor receives a 1099 at the end of the year, is only set at the "management company" level, users can see the designation in this column.
11. W9. Again, this is the responsibility of the Payables Lockbox teams to manage and is added at the "management company" level, if there is an Adobe symbol in the column, that means one is on file for the vendor and users can click on it to download it.
12. Accounts. Some vendor types (utility and insurance providers) require that accounts be configured for the vendor. In the illustration above, you will note the tag icon in the column for the utility vendor, which indicates that accounts have been set up for it. Users can click on the icon to open the Community Vendor Accounts for that vendor.
13. Last Activity. This column is more robust than one might realize at first glance. On the surface it is a helpful guide to see the most recent date for activity in the system involving the vendor. But notice that date is a hyperlink. Click on it to open to a Search Invoice window pre-filtered for that vendor in the status of All. The settings work precisely like Search Invoices, just filtered to that specific vendor.

15. COI. If there is a Certificate of Insurance on file for the vendor, we will see an Adobe symbol in that column. Clicking on it will allow the document to download.
16. COI Eff. & COI Exp. These two columns show the effective and expiration date of the policies).
17. INS Waiver. The other option is to upload an Insurance Waiver, which would populate as an Adobe symbol in this column.
18. # Active Contracts. The module allows more than one contract to be uploaded for a vendor (e.g., the landscaper has the routine maintenance contract, but is also working on a major entryway renovation that entails a separate contract). The number of contracts uploaded that are current will show in this column. The number is a hyperlink. Clicking on it opens to a window with additional details, including the ability to view the actual contracts).
19. # Expired Contracts. This works much the same way the Active Contracts do, but of course this provides information on any expired contracts.

And there's a few more!


20. # Future Contracts. Managers can upload contracts for future periods as well and they will populate into this column in the same manner as we have seen in the previous contract columns.
21. Notes. Users can make notes about the vendor in general. This is different than notes in a specific workflow. These are permanent items of note about the vendor. An example might be a notation that the vendor cannot support EFT.
22. History. If some of the information is changed for the vendor, it is logged as to when the change was made and by whom.

Community View: My Work Queue

There are a couple of important sub-nodes only available at the community view, nested under Community Management:

Board Approvals

This is analogous to the Board/Committee WorkInBox in the Classic portal. This supports executive approval of the three optional processes:

• Architectural Request Approval
• Collections Referral
• Invoice Approval

To learn more about the approval configuration and processes, refer to CiraHelp. We offer support material you can provide to the board and committee members from here.

Insurance

This page is relevant to those clients who subscribe to the services of our Insurance Services Group. That Shared Services team helps monitor the policies in place for our valued client communities by entering the data that populates this read-only view. This is the source of the information that publishes in the Monthly Management Report, it is worth noting.

As you see from the illustration above, the page opens to a two-tab view, with Insurance Info the default tab and only the current policies showing. Users can switch to Show All to bring all policies that have been entered into the grid below.

The second tab, Internal Tasks, is relevant because CiraConnect Insurance Services delivers quotes for coverage to managers via Internal Tasks. This allows the management team to access both open and closed Internal Tasks to review current and past quotes.

Recommended Practice / Follow-Up

Now that you explored the options available in My Work Queue, we suggest the following practice exercises:

1. Notice that there is not a Workspace available in this grouping, so one way is to Bookmark the pages you need most. Thinking back to what you learned in the CiraConnect Management Portal Workspaces and Bookmarks Process and Service Description, identify the pages in the module you will need the most and bookmark them for faster access in future.
2. To find those pages you read about and need or want to use, again, harkening back to the Process and Service Description mentioned above, use the Navigation tool to orient yourself to the location of those key pages.
3. Do your own time trial. After your next board meeting, use the Management Portal to open half your action items as Projects / Tasks and set the timer on your phone to see how long it takes. Then move over to the Classic Management / Board Portal and create the other half, also timing how long it takes.
4. CAMs, make a point to work on your next cycle of Monthly Management Reports from the Management Portal and test out the efficiency of working Steps 2 and 3 specifically.