Welcome to EstateMax

Getting started with EstateMax

EstateMax runs your estate's gate: residents tap Get Code, the gateman types the 6 digits, green check means let them in. Follow these steps to go from install to a working gate.

1. Set your estate details

1. Open Settings and scroll to Advanced settings.
2. Open Estate Info.
3. Enter your Estate Name, Manager Phone, and Address.
4. Tap Save Estate Info.

2. Pick your modules

At the top of Settings is the Modules grid — every feature is a switch.

1. Turn on what your estate needs; leave the rest off so the app stays clean.
2. Already on for new estates: Service charges, Complaints, Broadcasts, Meeting minutes, Group guest codes, Pre-approved visitors, Self-registration, License-plate verify, Document storage, Resident "My account".
3. Off until you want them: AGM polls, Resident directory, Special-business visitors, Event-day mass codes, QR/barcode scanning, WhatsApp broadcast, Web Push, Work-orders, SMS channel.
4. Each enabled module shows a Manage button that jumps straight to its page.

3. Add your security guards

1. From Home, tap the Security quick link.
2. Tap Add Guard (name + phone), or Import CSV for a list.
3. Guards sign in with their phone number and the starter PIN — 1234 by default (change it in Settings → Resident Access → Default Security PIN). They pick their own PIN on first sign-in.

4. Put the keypad at the gate

1. On the Security Staff page, find the Gate sign-in link card.
2. Tap Open on the device that stays at the gate (any phone, tablet or computer), or Copy and send it there.
3. The guard signs in — the keypad appears automatically. Guards get the keypad; residents get their own screen; the app routes by the phone number typed.

5. Bring in your residents

Two ways — use either or both:

1. You add them: open People, tap Add Resident (or Import CSV to paste your existing list). They sign in with the default PIN — 1234 — and are forced to pick their own on first login.
2. They add themselves: Self-registration is on by default, with each sign-up waiting for your approval. For launch day, open Settings → Advanced settings → Self-registration and turn on auto-approve, then share the sign-up link in your estate WhatsApp group. Everyone signs up, picks their own PIN, and is in the same day. Switch auto-approve off after the launch wave.

6. Share the portal link

1. At the top of Settings is a green card: "Share this one link with everyone in your estate."
2. Tap Copy link, or WhatsApp share to drop it straight into your estate group.

This is the one URL residents, guards, and businesses inside the estate all sign in at.

7. Test the gate

1. Sign in as a resident and tap Get Code — 6 digits appear.
2. On the gate keypad, type those 6 digits.
3. You get a green check with the resident's name and house — or a red X.

Codes last 15 minutes and die the first time they're used, so a screenshot can't be reused.

What EstateMax costs

EstateMax is included with the Pancho Plus plan. One subscription covers the whole estate — no per-resident fee, and adding residents costs nothing.

Running EstateMax day-to-day

The daily loop: watch the gate, approve sign-ups, bill and collect, handle complaints, send notices.

1. Watch the gate

Open Gate (the entries tab). Every code verified at the gate logs itself with the person's name, the guard, and the time — nothing to type.

• Filter with the All / Residents / Visitors / Expected tabs.
• For a walk-in with no code, tap Log visitor and fill in the short form.

2. Approve new sign-ups

When self-registration is on and someone signs up, People shows a yellow banner: "N new sign-ups waiting for your review."

1. Tap the banner to filter to pending rows.
2. Open a row's menu and tap Approve sign-up or Reject sign-up (rejections can carry a reason the person sees when they try to log in).

3. Bill service charges

1. Open Money and tap New charges.
2. Pick From price list (your standard fees — edit them under Price List → Add fee) or Custom amount.
3. Choose the audience (all residents, owners only, or tenants only) and the period.
4. Confirm — one charge is billed to every active resident in that audience.

Track them on the Service Charges page with the All / Due / Overdue / Paid / Waived tabs.

4. Record payments

• Paystack payments record themselves — the resident pays in the app, the charge flips to Paid.
• Cash, transfer or POS: tap Record payment on the Service Charges page, or open the resident's profile and tap Collect payment to settle against what they owe.

Tip: Want the gate to chase late payers for you? Turn on "Block codes when a resident owes" under Settings → Service Charges & Bank. Overdue residents can't generate any code until they pay — they see a Pay now button instead.

5. Handle complaints

1. Open Complaints from the Home quick links.
2. Open a complaint, move its status: Open → In Progress → Resolved → Closed.
3. Reply in the thread — the resident gets a push notification if they enabled it.

6. Send a notice

1. Open Comms.
2. Pick the audience — All residents, Owners only, or Tenants only.
3. Type the message and tap Send broadcast.

Residents see it in their Notices inbox next time they open the app; installed phones get an instant push. The recent-broadcasts list shows how many read it. No SMS bill — and there's a WhatsApp button to drop the same message into your estate group.

7. Respond to an SOS

When a resident raises SOS, a red banner with a siren appears on your dashboard and the gate keypad.

1. Tap Call resident to phone them, then Mark responded to clear the alert everywhere.
2. If it was a prank, mark it a false alarm — repeat offenders are auto-quarantined from SOS for 24 hours.
3. Full history lives in the SOS log on the Home quick links.

8. End of the month

• Reports — pick a 7/30/90/365-day window for entries, money collected, complaints and more, and export a CSV for your AGM pack.
• Activity Log — every action as a plain-English sentence ("Tommy billed a new service charge of ₦5,000"), searchable by name, date, or action.

Sharing EstateMax with your estate

Your residents, guards, and the businesses inside your estate never need a Pancho account — they all use one link. Here's how to hand it out.

1. The one link

1. Open Settings — the green card at the top says "Share this one link with everyone in your estate."
2. Tap Copy link, or WhatsApp share to drop it into your estate group.

Residents, security guards, and businesses inside the estate all sign in at this same URL with a phone number + PIN. The app routes each person to the right screen automatically.

Demo mode — show the app to anyone

Want to show EstateMax to an estate chairman or committee before they commit? Turn on Demo mode (Settings → Demo Mode) and you get a special /demo link: whoever opens it can tap any resident, security guard or estate business and be signed straight in as them — no PIN, nothing to set up. Next to the link, Settings also gives you a ready-made invite message (a short write-up of what the app does and what to try) that you can copy and paste into WhatsApp or email along with the link, so you never have to explain the app from scratch. Everything they see is sample data, so they can tap around freely. Turn Demo mode off before real residents start using the app — while it's on, anyone with the link can sign in as anyone.

2. What residents get

After signing in, a resident can:

• Tap Get Code — a 6-digit gate code, valid 15 minutes, used once.
• Generate a guest code (valid 6 hours by default) with a ready-made WhatsApp invitation.
• Create household passes for their driver, househelp or nanny — with day-of-week and time-window rules.
• Mint group codes for a party: one tap makes a separate single-use code for each guest.
• See and pay their dues (Paystack card payment, or your bank details for transfer).
• File a complaint, pre-approve a visitor, and read your notices, meeting minutes and documents from the More grid.

On the login page, phones offer "Install this app on your home screen" — it works like a native app afterwards, with no app store.

3. Launch day with self-registration

1. Open Settings → Advanced settings → Self-registration and turn on auto-approve.
2. Share the sign-up link in your estate WhatsApp group.
3. Every resident registers with their name, phone, house number, and their own PIN — active immediately.
4. After the launch wave, switch auto-approve off. New arrivals then wait in your approval queue on People.

4. The gate device

1. Open Security Staff (Home → Security).
2. In the Gate sign-in link card, tap Open on the device that stays at the gate, or Copy and send it there.
3. Each guard signs in with their own phone + PIN and gets the keypad.

5. Businesses inside the estate

If you have a church, hotel, pharmacy or shop inside the gates:

1. Turn on Special-business visitors in Settings → Modules.
2. Open Businesses from the Home quick links and add each one (name, type, contact phone).
3. They sign in at the same portal link to release their own visitors — a visitor can't exit until the business confirms their phone number.

6. Forgot PIN

Residents reset their own PIN: tap Forgot PIN? on the login page, enter the email on their account, type the 6-digit code from the email, pick a new PIN. You're never involved — but the resident needs an email saved on their profile.

7. Your own domain

1. Open Settings → Advanced settings → Custom Domain.
2. Follow the link to connect a domain like gate.yourestate.com.

Once verified, the portal link you share uses your domain instead of the long platform URL.

Customizing EstateMax for your estate

Everything lives on the Settings page: the Modules grid on top, Advanced settings below it.

1. Turn modules on or off

Every feature is a card in Settings → Modules with an on/off toggle.

• On by default: Service charges, Complaints, Broadcasts, Meeting minutes, Group guest codes, Pre-approved visitors, Self-registration, License-plate verify, Document storage, Resident "My account".
• Off until you enable them: AGM polls, Resident directory, Special-business visitors, Event-day mass codes, QR/barcode scanning, WhatsApp broadcast, Web Push notifications, Work-orders, Recurring event codes, SMS channel.
• Enabled cards show a Manage button to that module's admin page. Turning a module off hides its screens but keeps its data.

2. Resident Access

Open Advanced settings → Resident Access:

• Default Resident PIN and Default Security PIN — both 1234 out of the box. New people sign in with it and must pick their own.
• Code TTL — how long a resident's gate code lives. Default 900 seconds (15 minutes).
• Guest code TTL — default 21600 seconds (6 hours), up to one week.
• Household relationships — the dropdown residents see when adding a pass (Driver, Househelp, Nanny, Family, Gardener, Cook, Other). Edit the list to fit your estate.

3. Self-registration

Open Advanced settings → Self-registration:

• Auto-approve — on for launch day (sign-ups active instantly), off afterwards (each waits for your approval).
• Require email — off by default; turn on if you want every resident reachable for forgot-PIN.

4. Money settings

• Service Charges & Bank — default billing cycle (Yearly out of the box), your bank details for invoices, and "Block codes when a resident owes" with its Grace period (days) field (default 7; 0 blocks the day a charge is due).
• Online Payments (Paystack) — paste your Paystack public + secret keys, copy the Webhook URL into your Paystack dashboard, and (optionally) set up Service fee & payouts to add a fee on online payments and split it across up to 4 bank accounts.
• Price List (Money → Price List) — the standard fees residents can pay; fresh installs ship with six starter fees you can edit or replace.

5. SOS & Panic alerts

Open Advanced settings → SOS & Panic alerts to tune the siren on/off, how often dashboards check for alerts, the rate limit between SOS presses, and the false-alarm quarantine thresholds.

6. Audit log retention

Open Advanced settings → Audit log retention — keep the activity log 30, 90, 180 (default), 365 or 730 days, or forever.

7. Labels and branding

• Labels — rename the estate's terms (Resident, Unit, etc.); the change flows through every screen.
• Shared-code footer — the "Powered by …" line on every code a resident shares; defaults to your estate name.

Things to know

Heads up: Currency is set at signup from your phone's country code and can't be changed later.

• Changing a default PIN doesn't change existing people's PINs — it applies to new adds and resets.
• Recurring card autopay appears in Modules as Coming soon — residents pay per bill via Paystack for now.