DOUBLE A PROPERTY MANAGEMENT SYSYTEM

WAUDO ALLAN SIGANGA ALLIANCE HIGH SCHOOL 200001212 2011.

A DISSERTATION SUBMITTED IN PARTIAL COMPLETION AND

FULFILLMENT OF THE REQUIERMENTS FOR THE KCSE EXAMINATION IN

COMPUTER STUDIES- 2011

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TABLE OF CONTENTS.TABLE OF CONTENTS................................................................................................- 2 -TABLE OF FIGURES....................................................................................................- 4 -DECLARATION............................................................................................................- 5 -PREFACE.......................................................................................................................- 6 -ACKNOWLEGEMENTS...............................................................................................- 7 -CHAPTER ONE.............................................................................................................- 8 -

INTRODUCTION......................................................................................................- 8 -CHAPTER TWO..........................................................................................................- 10 -

PROBLEM RECOGNITION...................................................................................- 10 -PROBLEM DEFINITION........................................................................................- 10 -

CHAPTER THREE.......................................................................................................- 13 -SYSTEM ANALYSIS..............................................................................................- 13 -PROPOSED SYSTEM.............................................................................................- 17 -

MERITS OF THE NEW SYSTEM......................................................................- 18 -SYSTEM REQUIREMENTS...................................................................................- 19 -

INPUT REQUIREMENTS...................................................................................- 19 -OUTPUT REQUIREMENTS...............................................................................- 19 -

SYSTEM SPECIFICATIONS..................................................................................- 21 -Hardware requirements.........................................................................................- 21 -

SOFTWARE REQUIREMENTS.............................................................................- 21 -FEASIBILITY REPORT..........................................................................................- 22 -

Schedule Feasibility..............................................................................................- 22 -Technical Feasibility.............................................................................................- 22 -Operational Feasibility..........................................................................................- 22 -Economic Feasibility.............................................................................................- 22 -

CHAPTER FOUR.........................................................................................................- 24 -

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TABLE OF FIGURES.

Figure 1: System Flowchart of current system............................................................- 15 -

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DECLARATION.

I hereby declare that this documentation along with the accompanying computerized system is a product of my effort and is not an imitation of any currently existing work.

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PREFACE

This document is a report. It has been authored to fulfill the requirements of the KCSE 2011 451/3 exam for 2011. It gives an exhaustive and comprehensive explanation of the already-created computerized system.I did the 2011 KCSE Computer Project within the stipulated period of 7 months. However I was faced with the following constraints:

Practical constraints The number of Computer Studies candidates in the

school far exceeded that which the school facilities could comfortably sustain. There were not enough working computers.

The few computers available experienced frequent malware attacks, which often derailed the work being done by the students.

Some resources, such as access to the Internet were not readily available to the candidates.

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ACKNOWLEGEMENTS.

I would like to take this opportunity to express for my heartfelt gratitude to all who played a role no matter how small in helping me successfully complete this task.First, I would like my teachers IT teachers; Mr.Kidi, Mr. Ombiro and Mr, Shikokoti for imparting upon me the knowledge necessary for the completion of this information system.Second, I would like to thank the school administration for providing the resources necessary for the completion of this task.Third, I would like to thank my parents for their unwavering support as I laboured to complete this information system.Lastly, I would like to thank the Almighty for helping me to successfully complete this task.

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CHAPTER ONE. INTRODUCTION.

The following report is meant to serve as documentation as per the project’s requirements. The goal is to make more efficient the operations of Double A Property Management Limited(from hence referred to as the firm.). It was in my position as a computer student with knowledge in system development and databases to come up with a computerized system.The outline of the project is as follows:

Chapter one gives an introduction to the report and a general outline of the structure of the report.

Chapter two gives the problem definition and a description to the solution of the problem.

Chapter three contains an elaborate analysis of the current system.

Chapter four outlines the design phase of the system development.

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Chapter five deals with the system testing for a range of input values.

Chapter six contains the user manual to serve as a guide to its operation.

Chapter seven outlines my recommendations on the use of the system.

Chapter eight gives the conclusion of the report.

The end of the report contains the appendix and bibliography for ease of understanding of the concepts.

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CHAPTER TWO.

PROBLE RECOGNTION AND DEFINITON

PROBLEM RECOGNITION.The problem at hand is to create a computerized system for Double A Management Property Management Limited to allocate vacant houses to tenants and collect rent on behalf of landlords.

PROBLEM DEFINITION.

The firm manages its houses and estates as follows:

ESTATE HOUSES RENTLOW INCOME

SMALL >KSH 3000 AND <KSH 8000

MIDDLE INCOME

MEDIUM

BIG

>KSH 8000 AND< KSH 15000

>KSH 15000HIGH BIG >KSH 15000

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INCOME

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Some landlords on different sizes of houses in the various estates. All the money collected on their behalf is remitted to them less 5% commission. If there is a vacant house, a potential tenant is referred to the agent in charge of the house with whom they sign a tenancy agreement. Tenants can pay in advancements or in installments.

Any outstanding rent after the 10th of every month attracts a daily penalty of .5& of the outstanding amount. All balances are carried forward to the next month.

The firm currently employees estate agents who earn 1% on all the rent they collect within a month. It also employees a receptionist, an office assistant, an accountant and a manger who are all paid fixed salaries.

Apart from salaries, the company incurs expenses on office equipment, office rent, fuel, vehicle maintenance and other miscellaneous expenses.

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Currently, all operations are carried out manually hence the the management realized the urgent need to computerize their operations.

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CHAPTER THREE

SYSTEM ANALYSIS

Overview of the current system.As the mentioned earlier , all operations are carried out manually. The firms receives client’s requests by postal mail or by telephone and processes them as per the client’s criteria.

Money to be paid to landlords is calculated manually. Each landlord is given an id matching to his/her house(s). Upon payment of rent, the firm deducts 5% commission before remitting the rest of the money into the respective landlord’s bank account.

Estate agents are paid based on whatever amount of rent they collect within a month. Each agent is in charge of a single estate and his wages are 1% of all rent collected within a specific estate.

Employees are also paid fixed salaries with the lowest - paid earning Ksh 4500 and the highest – paid earning ksh 12500.

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Expenses are manually calculated and receipts of expenditure filed. Profit is thus realized substracting total rent collect from money used in expenses, payment of salaries, payment of estate agents and landlords.

The flowchart below represents the current system:

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Enquiry by telephone

Enquiry by postal mail

New Tenant?

Houses vacant?

Estate ofInterest?

Refer to agent in charge

Open tenant file

Calculate days overdue, penalties and total rent.

Write receipt.

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Figure 1: System Flowchart of current system

Sign tenancy agreement

Calculate total rent paid

Check expenditure book

Calculate expenses

Calculate profit

Calculate income and expenditure

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Input tenant details.Assign house, tenant id

LIMITATIONS OF THE CURRENT SYSTEM.

After meticulous study of the current system, I noticed the following salient weaknesses crippling it:

Filing of documents (storing of data) is invariably slow.

Looking for documents (retrieval of data) in the firm’s records is not only painstaking but time-consuming also.

The files are bulky and unpleasant to deal with.The information in Double A is very prone to

loss through misplacement of files or documents, fire-outbreaks and other unforeseen risks.

The system has a high vulnerability to errors. For instance, miscalculation errors may arise when determining the amount of money to be paid to a landlord, since calculations are done by hand.

The system does not provide adequate security of funds and data

These weaknesses could be overcome and dealt with the introduction of a computer system.

PROPOSED SYSTEM.In the new system, requests are received electronically and input electronically if received physically.

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Each tenant , landlord ,estate agent, and employee is given a unique code for future reference and accounting purposes.

Tenant payment record is recorded electronically making defaulters easy to identify and track. Receipts for payments made by tenants or by the company to employees, estate agents and landlords are produced with copies filed by the company for backup purposes.

The company’s income and expenditure is electronically tracked and calculated and reports for any time period printed on demand.

The system also allows the company to monitor profits and losses.

MERITS OF THE NEW SYSTEM

Data entry will be speeded up, since a keyboard and/or other input device will be used to enter data into the database.

The new system will make retrieval of data from Double A’s database not only easier but much faster too.

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The risk of loss of data will be greatly minimized. This is because backups of already existing data will be made periodically.

The new system will be more accurate in data-handling than the current system. This is because it will enforce data validation constraints. In addition, calculations will be more accurate since computers do not make calculation errors like humans do.

On the long run, the new system will be more cost-effective than the current manual one.

SYSTEM REQUIREMENTS.

INPUT REQUIREMENTS.The system must be able to:1. To capture and accept client requests and store the

tenancy agreement details in the database.2.To capture records of income and expenditure of the company.

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OUTPUT REQUIREMENTS

The proposed system must be able to fulfil the following output requirements:

1. To produce tenants payment records.2. To produce income and expenditure reports.

SYSTEM SPECIFICATIONS.

Hardware requirements

A computer, with:o At least 128MB of RAMo At least 500MHz processor speedo At least 40GB hard drive storage capacityo The keyboard, printer and other peripherals

A tape drive and several tapes(preferably Quarter-Inch Cartridge (QIC) tapes)

Access to the Internet

SOFTWARE REQUIREMENTSThe proposed system has the following software requirements:

1. Windows operating system2. Microsoft Office Suite3. Updatable and reliable antivirus software

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In order to determine the feasibility of the proposed system, I undertook a feasibility analysis of the system.

FEASIBILITY REPORT

Schedule Feasibility

Development of the system would take 7 months for it to be fully operational.

Technical Feasibility

Technology required to develop the new system is readily available and is sufficient for effective completion of the task.

Operational Feasibility

The system users are comfortable with the proposal to develop the new system and will be fully trained on the system operation.

Economic Feasibility

CostsDevelopment costs are expected to arise from purchase of the required hardware and software and training of the personnel to operate it. Operational costs are expected to arise from maintenance and upgrading of the system. I chose to calculate estimates in order to bring out the profitability of the system in a manner that could be easily understood.

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The development and operational costs are as given in the estimates below:

Development – Ksh 1000000

Monthly operational costs – Ksh 50000

Expected lifetime of system – 5 years

Total cost in estimated lifetime = 1000000+(12*50000)*5 = Ksh 4000000

Benefits Estimated increased profit per

month – Ksh 750000

Estimated monthly savings – Ksh 500000

Total monthly benefits = 750000+500000=1250000Total benefits in estimated lifetime = 1250000*5 = Ksh 6250000

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CHAPTER FOUR. SYSTEM DESIGN.

POSSIBLE SOLUTIONSI considered at length different methods to use in order to fulfill the objectives enunciated in the previous chapter:

The manual method: Since this was the method already in use by Double A and because of its drawbacks, I disqualified it.

The computerized method: This involves the use of a computer to store data in an organized manner for quick and easy retrieval. Using this method, three approaches were possible:

i) Using low level programming languages, i.e. writing code in machine language (bare 1s and 0s) or in assembly language.

ii)Using high level programming languages to make a program that will handle Double A data. Examples of these include C, C#, C++, Java, Basic, Visual Basic, etc.

iii) Using already-created database software to construct the system, for instance Microsoft Access, Oracle, dbase, DB2, etc.

I disqualified approach i) because: Writing in low level languages is so difficult and time

consuming that they are almost obsolete in the modern world.

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Low-level languages are platform-dependent. A program written to work on one computer will not work on another.

Debugging low level languages is as difficult (or even more difficult) than writing them.

I eventually settled on combining approach ii) and iii), by using both Visual Basic and Microsoft Access.I chose Microsoft Access because:

It is user-friendly It is widely available and hence easy to obtain from

the market.Visual Basic was an automatic choice after choosing Microsoft Access, because it, as a 4th Generation language (4GL), complements and increases the functionality of Microsoft Access.

FLOWCHARTS REPRESENTING THE COMPUTERIZED SYSTEM

The system is triggered when the user sends a request. The user is given an option of choosing between eight modules: Houses, Estates, Estate Agents, Payment of rent, Expenses, Tenants, Landlords and Employees. Modules are self-contained components which together make up the whole computerized system. The respective information is then accessed from permanent storage and displayed on the screen. The general working of the computerized system can be represented using the following System Flowchart.

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TABLE/FILE STRUCTURE DESIGN

Microsoft Access consists of 6 main objects, i.e. tables, queries, forms, reports, macros and modules. All data entered into the system by the user is stored in tables. Queries have functionalities that can do calculations on the data in the tables. Forms are used to provide a friendly interface between the user and the data, and have features to validate data entered by the user. Reports are used to summarize information in the database according to certain specifications. Macros are used to automate repetitive tasks. I used all 6 objects in designing the computerized system. I designed the system to have 8 tables. They are used to hold data required by the system. They are as follows:

1.EmployeesThis tables contains information of all Double A Property Management Limited employees on fixed monthly salaries.

FIELD NAME DATA TYPE DESCRIPTIONSTAFF ID AutoNumber A unique id given

to each employee.FIRST NAME Text The first name of

the employee.LAST NAME Text The surname of

the employee.TITLE Text The position the

employee holds in the company.

DOE Date/Time The date and time

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at which the employee joined the company.

SALARY Currency The current salary the employee earns.

MARITAL STATUS Text The marital status of the employee.

GENDER Text The gender of the employee.

Table 1: Employees Table

2. Estate Agents.This table contains personal information on estate agents, i.e. estate agents currently employed by Double A.

FIELD NAME DATA TYPE DESCRIPTIONESTATE AGENT ID

AutoNumber A unique number given to each estate agent.

FIRST NAME Text First name of the estate agent

LAST NAME Text Surname of the estate agent.

DOE Date/Time Date and time at which the estate agent was employed by double A.

GENDER Text Gender of the estate agent.

MARITAL Text Marital status of the

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STATUS estate agent.ESTATE ID Number A unique number

given to each estate .CONTACTS Number Shows the estate

agent can be contacted .

Table 2: Estate agents table

3. Estates.This is a table maintaining a list of estates currently under the management of Double A. It also maintains a list of houses in a respective estate.

FIELD NAME DATA TYPE DESCRIPTIONEstate ID AutoNumber A unique number

given to each estate.

Name Text The name of the estate.

Type Text The income bracket of the estate i.e. high income

Number of houses Number Number of houses in an estate.

Estate Agent ID Number Number of the estate agent incharge of the estate.

Table 3:Estates Table

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4. ExpensesThis is a table which electronically tracks of all the Company’s expenses.

FIELD NAME DATA TYPE DESCRIPTIONExpense ID AutoNumber A unique number

given to each transaction in which an expense is incurred.

Type Text The type of expense incurred.

Cost Currency How much the expense cost Double A.

Date incurred Date/Time Date on which the expense was incurred.

Date paid Date/time Date on which expense occurred was paid for.

Mode of payment Text Method through which the expense was paid for i.e.Cash, cheque.

Table 4:Expenses Table

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5.HousesThis maintains an up-to-date list of houses currently under Double A’s management, their tenants, landlords, estate agents and the estate the house is in.FIELD NAME DATA TYPE DESCRIPTIONHouse ID AutoNumber The unique

number given to each house

House type Text The size of the house i.e. big, small and medium.

Estate ID Number The unique number of the estate the house is in.

Landlord ID Number The unique number of the landlord who owns the house.

Rent Currency The rent the house’s occupants pay.

Status Text Refers as to whether a house is vacant or occupied.

Table 5:Houses Table

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6.LandlordsThis table maintains a list of all landlords whose houses are currently managed by Double A.

FIELD NAME DATA TYPE DESCRIPTION.Landlord id AutoNumber Unique code given to

each landlord.First name Text First name of the tenant Surname Text Surname of the tenant.Contacts Number The number at which

the landlord can be contacted.

Gender Text Gender of the female. i.e. male or female.

Table 6:Landlords Table

7. Payment of Rent.

This is a table tracking down payments of rent by tenants and how much balance there is.FIELD DATA TYPE DESCRIPTION.Transaction number

AutoNumber Unique number given to each transaction.

Tenant number Number Unique number given to each tenant

First Name Text First name of tenant.

Surname Text Surname of tenantHouse ID Number Unique code given to

each house

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Date of Latest Transaction

Date/Time Date of latest payment of rent transaction.

Date due Date/Time Date on which the rent should be paid or have been paid.

Date of current Transaction

Date/Time Date of current payment of rent

Days overdue Number Days by which payment of rent is overdue

Rent Currency Rent that the tenant should pay.

Amount paid Currency Amount that the tenant pays.

Balance Currency Remainder after tenant finishes paying his rent.

Penalties Currency Any fines incurred on result as a result paying rent overdue.

Total rent Currency Sum of rent and penalties that the tenant must pay as rent.

Table 7: Payment of Rent Table

8.TenantsThis is a table that stores data on the tenants occupying houses under Double A’s management.

FIELD NAME DATA TYPE DESCRIPTIONTenant ID AutoNumber Unique number

given to each tenant

First Name Text First name of the tenant in question.

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Last Name Text Surname of the tenant

House ID Number Unique number given to the house currently occupied by the tenant.

Date of moving in Date/Time Date and time the tenant moved in into the house.

Mode of Payment Text Refers to how the tenant clears his rent arrears, i.e. advance or installments.

Contacts Number Contacts of the tenant.

Gender Text Gender of the tenant.

Table 8: Tenant's Table

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