Houses and families

The Houses section is a register of the households in your mahallu. Instead of recording every contributor on their own, you group people into the house they belong to, with one family head and the family members around them. It gives you a single, combined picture of each family's giving and what they still owe.

What a house holds

Every house has a number, a name and an address, along with a family head and the family members who live there. Each member is recorded with their relationship to the head, such as spouse, son, daughter, father, mother or sibling.

The fields explained

Number

A unique reference for the house. When a prefix is configured it is pre-filled and counts up on its own, for example H2026-1, so you rarely need to type it by hand.

Name

The household name, usually the family it is known by.

Address

Where the house is located. This also lets you search for a house by its address later.

Family head

The member the rest of the family is recorded against. Everyone else in the house is listed by their relationship to this person.

Subscribers and the house total

Not everyone in a house gives every month, so within each house you choose which members are subscribers. A subscriber's Subscription counts towards the house's monthly total, while other members are still recorded for the family record without adding to that total. The house also shows a combined Outstanding, which brings together what the whole family owes. You can read more about how Outstanding is calculated under Members.

Adding a house and its family

1. Open Houses from the menu and choose Add house.
2. Enter the number, name and address. If a prefix is configured, the number is filled in for you.
3. Set the family head, the member the rest of the family will be listed against.
4. Add each family member, either as a new member or by choosing an existing one, and set their relationship to the head.
5. Mark which members are subscribers so their Subscription counts towards the house total.
6. Save. The house now appears in the register with its combined total and Outstanding.

Managing a house

Open any house to manage its family. From there you can add a new or existing member, change a member's relationship to the head, and switch on or off whether a member is a subscriber. To find a house quickly, search by its number, name or address.

House clusters

Many mahallus divide their houses into clusters (also called wards, areas or units) so follow-up is easier. Each cluster can have one or more cluster leaders chosen from its members, each with an optional position such as Convener, the way the committee page names its office bearers. The cluster shows a combined Outstanding so the leaders know exactly which families to follow up with.

1. An administrator turns on House clusters in Settings. It is off until then.
2. Clusters appears in the menu under Community. Open it and add a cluster, for example one per road or area.
3. Add houses to the cluster, then pick its leaders from the cluster's members.

A house's cluster can also be changed when editing the house. Deleting a cluster keeps its houses; they just lose the grouping.

A cluster's overview

Open Details on a cluster to see how its round is going: what the month's subscriptions come to and how much of that is in, how much is still with its leaders awaiting deposit, every house ranked by what it still owes, how old the debt is, the biggest amounts owed, and twelve months of collection history. Export figures hands over the same house table as a PDF or a spreadsheet, in the same order.

The cluster leader's own login

A cluster leader can be given a Cluster leader login (see Roles and access). They see only their own cluster, with the same overview the committee sees for it: who has paid the month, who is due, and a printable collection sheet to carry on the round. What they collect at the door is recorded as awaiting deposit and counts toward dues only when the treasurer confirms the cash was handed over. The Clusters page compares every cluster's collection rate for the month, and members who use the payment lookup page also see their cluster and its leaders' phone numbers.

Several months taken from one household at once are one entry, and get one receipt once the deposit is confirmed. Until then, the leader can hand the family a Slip from the Awaiting deposit list: a short note of what was collected and by whom, sent from the leader's own WhatsApp or copied. It says it is not a receipt.

Moving to another mahallu

When a family moves away, an administrator opens their house (or one member) and chooses Move to another mahallu. Three short steps follow.

1. Who is moving. The whole house is listed. Ticking a person also ticks everyone recorded under them, so a son's wife and children go with him.
2. Where to. The mahallu they are joining, its place and the moving date. Phone numbers go to the new mahallu only if you tick Share phone numbers and email.
3. Check and move. Anything still owed is shown here, with a link to record the payment first.

The people who moved leave your register on the moving date and their subscriptions end with that month. Their payments, receipts and anything still owed stay on record. When nobody is left in the house, the house closes too. If the certificate register is on and nothing is owed, a transfer certificate entry is added, ready to sign and print.

You then get a transfer code to share with the family, or print on a slip. If their new mahallu uses InflowBooks, it opens Members, then Mahallu transfers, and chooses Add a family from a transfer code. The family is added to its register with the same relationships, in a new house or one it already has. Payment history never moves. Your Mahallu transfers page then shows the move as received.

Removing a house

An administrator can delete a house. Its members and their payment records are kept; they are only unassigned from the house.