DFC Consultants, Ltd

Tribal Housing Newsletter

November, 2010 - Vol 1, Issue 1

DFC Work Orders Streamline your Maintenance Department

Toni Parisien

When you have hand written work orders lingering in or on a desk and not being entered into a "system", they get misplaced, tossed in the garbage by mistake or they could just be laying on the floor. Does this sound like your housing authority? If the work order doesn't get entered or communicated to someone in housing, who suffers the consequence? The main one that suffers are the ones in the unit because the work doesn't get done. The department could be reprimanded for "not doing your job".

When a call for a fix is received, a work order is entered into the DFC Property Management software and it triggers the tracking mechanism that allows for accountability in all departments. Once the work order has been entered, you can view it, see how long it has been open, see what work has been completed and the cost associated. It is a great way to see everything from one area. It is a great management tool. This is a process example that may be followed at your housing entity:

1. Tenant call is received by Maintenance and a work order is issued.

2. A rating is assigned to the call. Ratings could vary depending on the Housing Authority but here are examples:

a. Emergency

b. Routine

c. Vacant

d. Renovation

3. Maintenance then goes to the Property & Supply (inventory) and receives materials/supplies that are scanned or entered into work order system.

4. Maintenance completes the work on the work order and submits work order to Maintenance clerk.

5. The Maintenance Clerk enters the maintenance worker's time onto work order.

6. If billable, the tenant will receive an invoice. If not billable, the work will be charged to maintenance budget (routine upkeep of unit).

Toni Parisien is an Application Consultant with over 28 years of experience as a finance director for Casino, Manufacturing and Housing industries. Toni has a master's degree in business and has taught at the undergraduate level for the past 10 years.

The Housing Bootcamp provides a hands on experience on the set up and use of DFC Housing in our Certified Training Center.

February 1-2: Occupancy Training

Designed for those who work with DFC Housing and Dynamics GP Receivables and Cash Receipts. Topics in the class will include:

� Create Districts, Projects, Units, Tenants

� Enter Applications and Certifications

� Create Leases and Waiting Lists

� Run Monthly billings, enter charges and cash receipts

� Run Occupancy Reports

� Discusses various housing programs including Low Rent, Home Ownership and Tax Credit Programs

February 3-4: Work Order, Contract and Renovation Training

Designed for those who work with Maintenance, Renovations, Contracts, Insurance and New Development. Topics in this class include:

� Create work orders and enter time, materials, purchase orders and payables against them

� Close work orders and bill the tenant for damages as needed

� Job setup in Dynamics GP for maintenance, modernization, insurance, emergency and new construction to track costs and progress

� Printing various reports

Our next DFC Housing BootCamp will be April 12-15^th. To register, email training@dfcconsultants.com or contact Chrissie at 1-800-277-5561.

Jim Luptak

Customer address line on work order printouts. The normal path, in the program, for displaying addresses for work orders is 1) if the unit has an address on it, we use that address (remember that units can be assigned addresses, just like tenants; the unit screen has an address button where you can input the address information); 2) otherwise, we use first tenant address line. For housing authorities that would like the work order address to default to the second tenant address line, we added a system setup option to identify which of the two lines (line 1 or line 2) should be used for work orders. This is a setting in the setup table. So, if your tenant address line 2 reflects the physical location and tenant address line 1 the post office box, you can add the setting in the setup table to indicate that address line 2 should be used for work orders.

User defined allowance feature for certifications. One of our new housing authority clients has a special allowance called cost of living allowance. We decided to make it possible for housing authorities to add specific allowances by defining in the program setup table whether a special allowance exists, what it should be named, and what, if any, default value should be used. When this is set up, an additional line is available on the certification screen for allowances with the title entered and the default amount, if any, displayed. The user can then modify that value.

Track changes to rent values. If a user is in the Recurring Setup table where the rent values for a lease are displayed and makes a change to the value of the rent and saves it, a tracking record is set up in a table in the program to indicate what lease, charge code and value was changed and who made the change and when did it happen. This provides a means for managers to identify why a tenant's rent is not what they expect it to be.

Angie Reiter

Such as: If a tenant was overcharged in rent, you would want to enter a credit transaction to the RENT code which is tied to your Rental Income account in general ledger (you would not want to use a SECDEP code which would be tied to your Security Deposits Payable account). If you are unsure of what code should be used, you may want to discuss this with your supervisor.

Angela Reiter, Senior Accountant/ Consultant, has been with DFC for over 16 years. She supports our housing clients through the Dickinson office, providing accounting services, audit support services and technical consulting services. Also, being one of only five listed GPA support consultants in the US, Angela supports customers around the world on the GPA product.

DFC Travel Manager is a tool that is built within Microsoft Dynamics to help our customers streamline their travel advances. This module ties purchasing, accounts receivable and payroll together as they relate processess to travel advances. Some of its features include:

• Recording travel advances issued for employees through Payables transaction Entry, Purchase ORder Entry and Purchase Order Receiving
• Documenting what the advance is for and the categories and amounts per category that have been advanced
• Assigning the advance to the employee as an amount owed in Dynamics Accounts Receivable
• Accounting for actual amouns spent for travel after the trip report is submitted
• Collecting undocumented amounts from the employee through garnishment in Dynamics Payroll

If you are interested in learning more about DFC Travel Manager, contact us at 800-277-5561.

DFC Consultants has regular webcasts scheduled to show you how DFC's Housing Solution can improve the peformance of your Housing Entity's needs. Here are a few of the topics that are covered during the webcast:

Vanessa Veflin

• Increase Collections and Decrease Delinquencies
• Comply with HUD and other Regulations
• Manage your Budgets with Ease
• Get Easy to Read Reports and Graphs
• Manage your Human Resources & Payroll

Carol Rogne

Our passion is to assist clients in meeting their goals with professional services and powerful business solutions. DFC Consultants, Ltd provides software, support, training and development services. DFC Consultants is a Microsoft Gold Certified Partner selling the Dynamics GP and Dynamics CRM solutions in addition to our DFC Property Management solution designed for Tribal Housing.

DFC Consultants was founded in 1989 by our president Carol Rogne, CPA. Since the beginning we have been providing consulting services and audits for government agencies and tribal entities. DFC has been involved with various housing authority associations including UNAHA and NAIHC. It is through working with the tribal entities that our own housing application was born. Other housing programs weren't able to meet the unique requirements of many tribal housing authorities. The staff at DFC heard these challenges and recognized the need for a better solution; one that is customized to meet the requirements of tribal housing.

DFC Housing integrates with Microsoft Dynamics GP and handles tribal housing tenant accounting, rents, waiting lists and certifications. Our package allows you to segregate your projects by district for easier management by your specialists. It will incorporate all of your tax credit programs into the system. The total system is integrated and handles all of your needs including finance, budgets, tenant accounting, work orders, inventory, bar coding, construction and renovation and payroll and human resources, including timekeeping.

DFC Consultants has offices in Fargo, Bismarck and Dickinson, North Dakota. We provide our housing services to customers nationwide. Areas of expertise include tribal entities like housing authorities, tribes and casinos. Other areas of expertise include manufacturing and distribution, payroll and human resources. DFC Consultants is a Microsoft Certified Training Center that provides training to all users in the area.