Welcome to EstateMax

One-tap gate access for Nigerian estates — with a full estate-management suite behind it. Residents tap Get Code on their phone, the gateman types the 6 digits, green check means let them in. No app to download, no QR codes, no fobs to lose. Residents sign themselves up with one shared link. Plus household passes for drivers and househelp, one-tap group guest codes for parties, license-plate gate entry, service-charge billing with Paystack autopay, AGM voting, complaints, broadcasts, document storage, an opt-in resident directory, and a free SOS panic button that also works on the login page (no PIN needed in a real emergency), shows responders the resident's blood type / allergies / emergency contact, and supports Web Push to admin + guards. You can even block residents who owe from generating codes until they pay. Every feature is a module you switch on or off.

This first lesson is a quick orientation. Once you finish it you'll know where the main sections live, what to set up first, and where to go when you have a question.

The first time you open it

When you install EstateMax, the platform takes you straight in. The home screen shows the dashboard with the most important numbers at a glance: today's activity, anything that needs your attention, and shortcuts to the things you'll touch most often.

If this is your very first time, take a minute to:

• Click around the sidebar so you know what each section is for. The dashboard groups everyday tools up top and rarely-used ones under More tools.
• Open Settings → Modules — this is where you switch features on or off. Every estate is different: turn on what you need (AGM polls, resident directory, documents, license-plate entry, autopay…) and leave the rest hidden so the app stays uncluttered. Each enabled module gets a Manage shortcut straight to its page.
• Open Settings and check the basics — estate name, currency (set by your phone's country code), the price list of standard fees, and any labels you want to customize.
• The fastest way to onboard residents: turn on Self-registration (Settings → Modules), set it to auto-approve, and share the one sign-up link in your estate WhatsApp group. No spreadsheet needed.

Tip: Want the gate to help you collect? Under Settings → Service Charges & Bank, turn on "Block codes when a resident owes" and set a grace period. Residents overdue past that window can't generate any codes until they pay — they just tap Pay now on their home screen.

Where to find things later

Every section is just a click away from the sidebar. The most-used screens are pinned near the top; deeper configuration lives under Settings. If you can't find something, the search field at the top will usually take you there.

When something doesn't make sense

If you get stuck:

• Open Support from the platform sidebar and start a conversation — we usually reply within a few hours.
• Use the Phone option on the support page if it's time-sensitive.

Tip: Some lessons also have a short video — if one's available, you'll see a Watch tab at the top of this page. The written version covers the same ground and stays up to date as the app changes.

That's the whole orientation. The next lesson goes deeper into the day-to-day work — adding, editing, and managing the things this app is built for.

Most of your time inside EstateMax will be spent adding records, finding them again, and updating them as things change. This lesson covers that rhythm — the same handful of moves repeat across every screen, so once you've got the pattern down, the rest of the app feels familiar.

Adding something new

Every list screen has an add button — usually a + near the top-right. Tap it, fill in the short form, save. The form only asks for the essentials; you can add the rest later by opening the record and editing the fields you need.

Save early, edit later. EstateMax saves your work as you go and nothing gets locked.

Finding it again

Three ways to track something down:

1. Scroll the list. Default is newest first, so anything you added today is near the top.
2. Search. The search field at the top of the list matches name, phone, ID — whatever identifying info is on the record.
3. Filter. Most lists have category/status filters in the toolbar so you can narrow to "active", "pending", "this week", and so on.

Editing and updating

Open a record by clicking it. Inside the detail page you can change any field, add notes, attach files, and see the full history of changes. Saving is instant — there's no separate "publish" step.

If you change your mind about an edit, every screen has an undo path: either re-edit the field, or restore an earlier value from the activity log inside the record.

When you no longer need it

Tip: EstateMax keeps your old records forever by default — even when you archive them. You can always come back to them. Archiving is preferred to deleting in most cases, since you keep the history for reports and audits without cluttering the active list.

If you really want a record gone permanently, the delete option lives on the same menu as archive (often behind a confirmation).

When the screen doesn't behave the way you expect

The written guide is the source of truth and stays current as EstateMax evolves. If a screen looks slightly different from what you read here, the gist still applies — buttons may have moved but the shape of the work doesn't change.

For anything you can't figure out, Support from the platform sidebar will reach our team — we usually reply within a few hours.

EstateMax isn't just for you — most of the value comes from sharing the right pieces with the people you do business with. That might be customers checking on an order, partners viewing a report, or staff logging in from their own phones. This lesson covers all of that.

Your public link

Every EstateMax install comes with a public URL automatically. It looks something like mypancho.com/p/your-id/EstateMax/... and works without anyone needing a Pancho account. Share it with customers via WhatsApp, SMS, or just paste it on your website.

You'll find the public link in Settings under "Share with customers" (or similar wording, depending on the labels you've set).

Staff and team members

If EstateMax supports staff (most apps do), invite them from the Staff section in Settings. They get their own PIN-based login that's separate from your Pancho admin account — they only see the app, not your billing or other apps.

Tip: Give each staff member their own login rather than sharing yours. Activity logs only make sense when actions are tied to individual people.

When sharing doesn't work the way you expect

• If a customer says your link doesn't load, copy it and try it yourself first to confirm it works.
• For everything else, Support is the fastest path to a real answer.

Every business runs a little differently. EstateMax ships with sensible defaults, but most of the labels, statuses, and behaviors can be changed so the app speaks your business's language instead of ours. This lesson covers the customization knobs that matter most.

Where customization lives

Almost everything is on the Settings page. The sections you'll touch most often:

• Business info — your name, contact details, branding.
• Labels — rename "customer" to "client", "order" to "ticket", etc. The change flows through every screen automatically.
• Statuses — adjust the names and colors of order/job stages so they match how you describe them out loud.
• Features — turn modules on or off depending on what your business actually does.
• Pricing / catalog — if your app sells anything, this is where the price list lives.

A good order to customize in

1. Start with business info. This is what shows up on receipts and public pages, so it sets the tone for everything else.
2. Adjust labels next — that's the biggest visible change and it's a one-time edit.
3. Tune statuses once you've used the app for a day or two and know which stages you actually need.
4. Leave features for last — toggle them only when you're sure you don't need a module, since old data stays put but new entry points disappear.

Things to be careful with

Heads up: Currency is set once at signup based on your phone country code and can't be changed later. If you signed up with the wrong country, contact support before adding important data.

A few other changes are one-way:

• Pricing changes apply to new orders only — old orders keep their original prices.
• Deleting a category that's already on records will detach those records, not delete them.

When you're not sure what something does

• If a setting's tooltip doesn't make sense, leave it on the default. Defaults are picked to be safe for most businesses.
• Support can answer "what does this do?" for any individual setting if you'd rather ask than experiment.