A society management app is one app that runs a gated housing society: the gate, the maintenance charges and accounts, the booking of shared facilities, and notices and complaints. It is also called a society app, an apartment management app or RWA software. The society's managing committee chooses it, and every resident and guard uses it.
The app covers four jobs.
The gate: the guard logs every visitor and delivery in the app, and the resident approves each one from a phone. This part is the visitor management system.
The money: residents pay the monthly maintenance charge in the app, and the committee keeps the society's accounts there. This part is society maintenance billing and accounting.
Shared facilities: residents book the clubhouse, the badminton court or the party hall, and pay any booking fee.
Notices and complaints: the committee posts notices, such as a planned water cut, and runs polls. Residents report problems, such as a broken lift.
Take, for example, a 320-flat society in Kharghar, Navi Mumbai. Its committee of seven volunteers signs up for a society app at about ₹20 per flat per month, which is ₹6,400 a month. On a Sunday morning, a resident on the ninth floor finds that one of the two lifts in her wing has stopped. She opens the app, chooses "Lift" as the category and adds a photo. The app creates a complaint ticket and sends it to the facility manager. He calls the lift company, and updates the ticket when the technician arrives at 2 pm and again when the lift is fixed at 5 pm. The resident sees each update. The committee sees how many lift complaints there have been this quarter. A job that is logged, assigned and tracked to completion in this way is called a work order.
Who buys the app? The buyer is the society's committee, or the builder of a new project, who sets up the app before handing the society over to the residents. Usually the society pays a fee for each flat. Some apps are free for the society, and earn instead from services sold to residents.
The app connects to other systems. At the gate, it can open a boom barrier through physical access control hardware, and video analytics cameras can read the number plates of residents' cars. Residents pay their dues through a UPI payment app. Some apps also offer services such as cleaning and repairs, as a home-services app does.
How is a society app different from property management software? Property management software serves one landlord who rents out many flats and collects rent from the tenants. A society app serves owners who share the costs of a building that they run together, through a committee they elect.