Onboard a new association
Overview¶
Onboarding a new association takes you from a property that exists only as a request to SmartProperty, through to a reserve study your board can act on. It is for the Account Admin or Property Manager setting up a new property, usually working alongside a Reserve Analyst who builds out the component inventory. Each stage below has its own article covering the detail. This guide strings those stages together in the order you need them.
Setup¶
An Account Admin or Property Manager carries most of this journey. A Reserve Analyst typically owns the component inventory and the reserve study itself. A module you do not have write access to either does not appear in your left navigation, or opens in a view only state with its edit controls hidden. If a step below does not match what you see, check your role, or contact SmartProperty.
Nothing in this guide can start until the property itself exists. SmartProperty creates every new property and the Portfolio it sits under. There is no self-service way to create one.
Everyone who needs to work in the new property must be invited first. An invited person signs in for the first time by accepting the invitation email, registering if they do not already have a SmartProperty account, or signing in directly if they do. See How do I Register on SmartProperty Portal?
How-to¶
Request the property. Contact SmartProperty and provide the property name, the full address, the number of units, the year built, the property type, and the Portfolio it belongs under. If the association already has a reserve study report or a list of components, include it with your request. Once SmartProperty creates the property, open "Property Settings" to review what was set up and fill in the rest. See Where to find settings for your property, your Portfolio, and your own account.
Invite your team. Once the property exists, the Account Admin invites everyone else who needs access: a Property Manager, a Reserve Analyst, and any board members who should see the study as it comes together. Each invitation sets a role and the properties that person can reach. See Invite a user to SmartProperty.
Get oriented on the property. Open the new property and look at the "Dashboard", "Components", and "Plans" screens before changing anything. Doing so gives you a baseline for percent funded and shows you where the component and funding plan data you are about to add will appear. See What a reserve study is and what it tells you.
Build the component inventory. Add the components your reserve study will track: the roof, the pool, the elevators, and everything else the association is responsible for replacing. Add components one at a time, or import a full list from a spreadsheet if you already have one. See Add a component to your property and Import components from a CSV file.
Enter the association's financial details. Set the starting reserve balance, the annual assessment fees, the portion going to reserves, and the rates the reserve study projects forward with. These figures turn a list of components into a funded, or underfunded, projection. See Set your financial assumptions.
Build and record a funding plan. Create one or more funding plans for the fiscal year, compare them, and record the plan your association selects. "Reports" then feature that plan by default. See Create and compare funding plans for your next budget year.
Generate the association's first reports. With components, financial details, and a recorded funding plan in place, open "Reports" and produce the Reserve Analysis Report for your board. See Generate and export a report.
Reference¶
What depends on what¶
Add your components and enter your financial details before building a funding plan. Both feed the plan's projections. Record a funding plan before generating the Reserve Analysis Report. Until a plan is recorded, the report shows a reminder to select one instead of a finished projection.
Have this ready before you request a property¶
Property name, full address, number of units, year built, property type, and the Portfolio the property belongs under. Having an existing reserve study report or component list ready to attach can speed up the setup SmartProperty does on your behalf.
What comes after onboarding¶
Once the association's first fiscal year is underway, the next milestone is moving into the following budget year. See Advance to Planning: move your association into the next budget year.
If a property is missing something you expected¶
If "PORTFOLIO", "Components", "Plans", or "Reports" does not appear where you expect it, or a property you requested has not appeared yet, contact SmartProperty.