For Developers — the Development module¶
The Development module is the operating layer for a project that's still being built. It appears automatically for any facility whose lifecycle stage is pre-operational (pre-launch, construction or handover) and disappears once the facility flips to operational — the build data stays, the day-to-day modules take over.
Users holding the development · mgmt role land directly inside the module
when they sign in during the build.
Overview¶
A live roll-up of the whole development: units sold/promoted, schedule progress (% complete across milestones), BOQ estimate, budget vs spent with variance, draws released vs pending, sales contract value and deposits, payment-plan collections, handovers completed and open snags. Every tile reads from the tabs below — it always reflects the current state.
Units¶
The off-plan unit registry: unit number, type, floor, size and projected price, with a sale status (available → reserved → sold). Pre-load every unit here at the start — sales link to these units, and at handover each one is promoted into the live operational registry.
Schedule¶
Construction milestones with planned vs actual dates, a status (not started / in progress / done / blocked) and a percent-complete. The average % across milestones is the project progress your buyers also see.
One-click Ghana schedules
Instead of typing 30 milestones by hand, pick Residential (Ghana) (31 milestones) or Commercial (Ghana) (34) and click Apply template. The templates carry the full groundbreaking-to-handover arc — Lands Commission title steps, zoning/EPA/GNFS gates, the Assembly building permit, substructure → superstructure → roofing → MEP → finishes, fire certificate, practical completion, occupancy certificate, handover — with the usual permits and documents for each stage noted on the milestone. Applying is safe on an existing schedule: milestones you already have are kept, only missing ones are added, and everything stays editable.
Marking a milestone Done automatically emails a construction update to every invited buyer (see automated buyer comms).
Contractors¶
The firms on the project — main contractor, architect, quantity surveyor, MEP engineer, consultants — with their contacts. Draws can be linked to the contractor they pay.
BOQ — Bill of Quantities¶
The QS-standard elemental BOQ, divided by structures: line items grouped by element (Preliminaries, Substructure, Superstructure, Roofing, MEP, Finishes, External works — or per block, e.g. Block A — Finishes), each with item number, description, unit of measurement, measured quantity, unit rate and amount. The amount is always computed as quantity × rate; structure subtotals and the grand total are shown live.
Importing from AutoCAD / Revit / QTO tools. Click Import takeoff CSV and upload the quantity-takeoff export your design tool produces — AutoCAD schedules, Revit schedule exports and Quantity-Takeoff software all export CSV. Common column headings are recognised automatically (description, unit, quantity, rate, and optionally a structure/section column); when the file has no structure column you choose one default group for the batch. Rows without a readable description or numbers are skipped and reported.
Roll up to Budget. One click turns each structure's subtotal into a Budget line (category = structure, budget amount = subtotal). Re-running refreshes the amounts in place; committed and spent are never touched — so Budget-vs- spent variance tracks actual spend against the measured BOQ, not a guess.
Export. Downloads the full BOQ with per-structure subtotals and the grand total — ready for tendering or your QS.
Budget¶
The cost plan by category with budget / committed / spent and live variance per line. Seed it from the BOQ roll-up or enter lines directly.
Draws¶
Progress payments to contractors — each optionally tied to the milestone it pays for and the contractor it pays, with pending → released status. Because draws link to milestones, finance and the programme never drift apart.
Documents¶
Permits, drawings, certificates and contracts stored against the project and served over short-lived secure links (PDF or image, up to 10 MB).
Sharing with buyers
Documents are internal by default. Setting Visible to → All invited buyers publishes a document to every invited investor's portal — use it for project documents (permits, approvals, certificates), never a specific buyer's contract or anything carrying one buyer's personal details.
Sales¶
Off-plan buyer contracts: the unit, buyer, price, deposit and status (reserved → exchanged → completed, or cancelled). A buyer's national ID is encrypted at rest and only shown through the audited Reveal ID action.
Inviting a buyer to the portal. With the Investor Portal switch enabled for your facility (a superadmin turns it on from the Feature Access card), each sale row gets an Invite investor action. The buyer is emailed a secure 24-hour link to set a password; the Portal column shows who's been invited and ↻ re-sends. What buyers can and can't see is described in the investor guide.
Payments¶
The payment plan behind each sale: installments with a due amount and date, each optionally tied to the construction milestone that triggers it. Mark an installment paid when the money lands — or let buyers pay in-portal (below). The Overview's Collections tile totals paid vs outstanding across all plans.
In-portal payment. With Investor Pay-Now (installments) enabled (its own
Feature Access switch) and your facility's Paystack/Hubtel credentials
configured, buyers can pay installments directly from their portal. Confirmed
payments flip the installment to paid automatically and appear on the
gateway ledger with a DPP- reference so finance can reconcile installment
income separately.
Automated buyer comms¶
Once buyers are invited, the platform does the chasing:
- Installment reminders — each pending, dated installment reminds its buyer at 7 days out, 3 days out, on the due date, and once more 3 days after falling overdue. Email first; SMS for phone-only buyers. Each reminder fires at most once per installment per stage.
- Milestone updates — marking a Schedule milestone Done emails every invited buyer the milestone name and the project's overall progress, once per milestone per buyer.
Both respect the buyer's notification preferences and stop entirely if the Investor Portal switch is turned off.
Snagging¶
The handover punch list: defects per unit with severity (low / medium / high) and status (open / in progress / resolved). Any snag can be converted into a normal maintenance ticket so it keeps being tracked after the building goes live. Buyers see the snags on their own unit in their portal.
Handover¶
The payoff, in two steps:
- Promote units — every sold off-plan unit is materialised into the live operational registry. Idempotent: re-running promotes only what's left.
- Approve each buyer's handover — the buyer's portal login is upgraded in place: they gain owner access (bills, maintenance, amenities, visitors) with the same login ID and password, a billing account is linked, and they're notified their keys are in. If a buyer was never invited during the build, a fresh owner account is created and invited instead.
When every unit is handed over, the facility's lifecycle stage flips to operational and the estate-management modules take over — with all the data already in place.
Feature switches (superadmin)¶
| Switch (Feature Access card) | Default | Gates |
|---|---|---|
| Investor Portal (off-plan buyers) | off | Buyer invites + the whole /investor portal + automated comms |
| Investor Pay-Now (installments) | off | In-portal payment on buyers' payment plans |
Gateway availability additionally requires the facility's Paystack/Hubtel credentials and the same per-gateway allow flags the resident Pay-Now uses.