Locata guest blog – Turning the TAP on for greater temporary accommodation efficiency

| |by

A screenshot of the TAP dashboard within the HPA2 system

Increasing numbers of councils have been signing up for Locata’s TA – Plus (TAP) which gives officers far greater options managing Temporary Accommodation.

TAP is a “bolt-on” to the HPA2 module (Locata’s homelessness system) and provides an expandable workflow platform for Tenancies and Properties that can be easily customised.

This means that a local authority that has purchased the bolt-on can configure their own management functions, such as compliance certification, within their own system.

TAP also provides HPA2 users with:

  • The ability to schedule credits and debits against an account at the required frequency e.g. daily, weekly
  • A Property Journal for storage of compliance information such as Gas Safety Certificate, EPCs and so on
  • The ability to create communications templates specifically for Properties and Tenancies, automatically populating with the relevant Property and Tenancy fields.

“We’ve found that TAP has helped us manage our temporary accommodation much more efficiently,” said Richard Fowler, Business Systems Officer at North Devon Council, which was one of the early adopters of the bolt-on.

“We like the dedicated workload dashboard and the fact that tasks for property and tenancy records are totally configurable,” he added. “It can also be used to record inspection outcomes”.

“We believe we now store TA information in the most relevant place and can record and better report on our void/tenancy inspections as well as monitoring repairs against property records.  And the repeatable tasks come into their own when setting up adhoc inspections and repairs.”

TAP was originally called “Enhanced TA”, but the name did not reflect the extra functionality it brings as a bolt-on (or add-on) to the HPA2 module.

Current users of TAP will be interested to note that we have recently created the ability to add both Client and Property elements into the Tenancy workflow.

This allows certain relevant information to be carried through from one tenancy to another.

To find out more about our HPA2 module and TAP please email us at enquiries@locata.org.uk