Six ways Titan Office will revolutionize your appraisal office
Written by Becka Champagne on April 18, 2019
Running your own appraisal business means having to be a jack of all trades – but it doesn’t have to mean juggling multiple programs. Lucky for you, you’ve got Titan Office. It’s your one-stop connection point integrated with TOTAL and Titan Reports to access to all your orders, notes, statuses, schedules, and billing from one spot.
If you haven’t tried it out yet, or you’re not exactly sure how it’ll work for your office, this blog walks through some steps in your current workday to show how Titan Office will save you time (and sanity) with every piece.
1. Creating the order
You’ve been asking for a better way to handle order tracking and management for years. Many appraisers are still updating a paper file or spreadsheet when a new order is received – and then re-entering that information multiple times to schedule the inspection, start the report, and create the invoice. The amount of data re-entry is exhausting.
With Titan Office, you can link any new order to a report file in TOTAL. When you do this, order details like the address, case/loan numbers, and client info flow straight into the report. Hello, time savings! And your order info pushes to calendar notifications for the appraiser performing the inspections, as well as automatically populates to any invoices and past due notices. See for yourself how easy report linking is in the video below.
When your client calls you for an update, just open your order in Titan Office to instantly view the notes, history, and status. (You know, instead of spending the next 15 minutes sorting through multiple programs and records.)
Learn more about working with orders here.
2. Scheduling the inspection
Scheduling inspections often require looking at multiple calendars, Google maps, and employee schedules – just to determine who’s available. We’ve spoken with many frustrated appraisers who still run around with post-it notes or printed schedules to manage inspections, even after they’ve started using accounting software and online spreadsheets.
Titan Office makes scheduling faster than ever. Use the map view in the scheduling window to see all appointments by day and time, color-coded by appraiser – so you instantly know if someone will already be in the area for an existing job. Watch the video below to see it in action.
Appraisers can even sync their calendars to get appointment updates while they’re out in the field. Calling all Office Managers and Admins! This lets you notify appraisers immediately when you’ve scheduled an inspection for them, or a revision is requested – no extra steps.
Learn more about scheduling inspections here.
3. Getting paid
No appraiser wants to work for free. But, in the real world, we all know that not every customer will pay on time, every time. Staying on top of it all can be a monumental headache – we get it. That’s why we’ve fully automated the payment process and made it simple to follow up on the money you’re owed.
Anytime you create an order in Titan Office, the associated invoice is populated, too. Simply tell Titan Office what you charge for a specific type of job or client, and when the order is created, your fees flow in automatically. As soon as an order is completed just go to the accounting tab to open and send the invoice to your client along with the report file. Watch how easy it really is in the video below.
Ready for something really cool? From the moment you send the invoice out, Titan Office is tracking the timeline until payment is received, as well as sending out past due notices based on the settings you chose to automate the process.
Then when the money comes in, you simply open the invoice to easily apply the payment. Or, use the Batch Payments button to apply one check to multiple invoices. If there’s a partial payment, once you apply the amount, the invoice stays open reflecting the remaining balance. Never again wonder what your missing and who still owes you money – because it’s all available to you with the click of a button.
Learn more about invoicing and past due notices here.
4. Staying up-to-date
One of the best ways to make sure everyone has access to the same information at the same time is to store it all in the same place! We developed the Titan Office Dashboard based directly from user feedback. You asked us for a combination to-do list and calendar – we took that a step further and gave you an at-a-glance view of everything happening in your shop.
Each person in your office has a Dashboard view specific to their role and function. Appraisers can see their custom pipeline of upcoming tasks, month-to-date performance graphs, and office-wide notes. Office Managers and Admins can view pipelines for the whole office at once, or filter by employee. As well as, set company-wide reminders in the Office Notice section to disburse that information to the rest of your staff about upcoming meetings, training, or general updates. You can even save the Dashboard screen as your default Titan landing page.
Each section of the Dashboard is interactive. You can click on any category and instantly see all corresponding orders. For example, you can click on the Unassigned Orders tally to see all orders that haven’t been scheduled or assigned, and then simply click to open and edit orders as needed – including assignment and scheduling.
We know appraisers spend a lot of time in the field. Use the Dashboard as your one-click view anytime you need a status check on the go or just to access what you need in moments – from anywhere.
Learn more about the dashboard here.
5. Paying your staff
We’ve had plenty of appraiser feedback stressing how quickly, running payroll gets unnecessarily complicated. A single completed appraisal order can have multiple sign-offs from a data entry person, appraiser, and supervising appraiser – all at a different pay rate. Add in varying client, job, and form rates, and you’ve got an accounting nightmare.
With Titan Office, you customize all your job types, client rates, and fee splits. That information then flows automatically into whatever you’re working on. When you’re ready to run payroll, simply select the employee from a dropdown and any associated orders are shown – with your employee’s fee split pre-calculated. Watch the video below to see step-by-step instructions.
Fee split tables allow you to assign a percentage or dollar amount to a task such as inspections or data entry. Set up a fee table split for all the tasks you pay out to your employees. Then assign that table to your staff when setting up each user. Then any work they complete automatically calculates their individual pay rate by task.
Set up Job Types and Client Rates to customize the fee charged for the type of appraisal requested and by individual clients. Then those settings auto-populate amount due on your invoices, past due notices and more.
After the initial settings are in place, you no longer have to do any of that data entry, calculation, or guesswork. When you’re ready to run payroll, simply select the employee from a dropdown and any completed associated orders are shown – with your employee’s fee split pre-calculated. This will generate an accounts payable summary for you to print with the check to give to your employees.
Get more detailed help on payroll and accounting here.
6. Planning ahead
Every business needs to know how they’re doing. In the end, it all comes down to dollars and cents. Your reporting and analysis should let you check your performance, your expected income, and what’s in store for the months ahead.
Titan Office reporting gives you all the data you need to track trends. Not only can you pull reports showing payroll, outstanding invoices, and overdue orders, but you can also filter by client type, assigned appraiser, or date range. You can even have a recurring report sent out on a schedule – to yourself or the whole office!
Have a client requesting multiple rush jobs? Run a report reflecting current work volume and turn times before giving them an ETA. Trying to staff accordingly during the slow months? Base your decision on volumes during those same months in previous years.
Titan Office comes with a plethora of pre-built reports. You can customize them, or even build one from scratch depending on your needs. Data-driven decision making is now just one click away. Chart your own course!
Get more detailed information on reporting here.
We’ve highlighted a few of the real-life results you can expect with Titan Office, but it’s really just the tip of the iceberg. You now have all the tools you need to streamline and automate the majority of your back-office workflow. And, we’ll help you get started anytime!
When you’re ready for some training, choose from our wide variety of learning options from videos to written guides at https://help.alamode.com/titan-office.
Or, if you prefer guided hands-on help, attend one of our free upcoming webinars. We’ll provide a complete product tutorial and answer your questions live! https://www.alamode.com/resources/training/
Elite members don’t forget you have unlimited Coaching Calls for some hands-on training with one of our product experts!
Give us a call to schedule yours today at 866-518-6189.