Getting Started – Basic concepts

BDP is built using what we call “Widgets”. These are small, floating panels, each containing information and input fields relating to specific functions. As an example, the Property page contains widgets for, among others,

  • Owner details – contains all the information about the owner or owners and their contact details
  • Selling details – contains information about the price, the market date, sold date (if applicable), price qualifier, etc.
  • Photographs – where all the photographs of the property are uploaded and re-ordered as required
  • Etc.

Each widget can be opened and closed, (or expanded and collapsed if you prefer) by clicking in its title bar. The order of the widgets on the page can be changed by clicking in the title bar and dragging the whole widget to a new location on the page. This can be in either column and at any location in the column. The order of the widgets and whether they are expanded or collapsed will be remembered by the system so that your desktop looks the same the next time you log in. This has no effect on your colleagues’ desktops and means that you can configure BDP so that it is personal to you.

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To get started, log in to BDP by going to http://bdphq.com and clicking the login link in the top blue bar. Fill in the email address and password given to you.

You find your way around the main sections of BDP using the left-hand menu. This is divided into key sections:

  • Dashboard – this is the home page of the dashboard
  • Properties – this is where you see a list of all properties you have in the system
  • Contacts – this includes all vendors, applicants and other contacts like solicitors
  • Settings – If you have admin rights you will see this item. It contains all the settings for your account and BDP environment.
  • New password – If you need to change your password use this link

If your firm offers both sales and lettings properties, the left-hand menu will not show “Properties” described above, but “Sales” and “Lettings” as two separate items.

Clicking on any of the main headings above expands that section with the exceptions of Dashboard and New Password which do not contain any sub-items. Looking at the menus in detail:

Dashboard

This screen features the calendar, call list, notifications and your details widgets.

Properties (or Sales and Lettings)

The Sales sub-menu contains entries for:

  • All – displays all properties in the database, regardless of status
  • Pre-take-on – these properties are in the system but you haven’t been awarded the contract to sell the property, or you have the contract but it’s not ready to go on the market yet.
  • Under Offer – all properties that are under offer
  • Sold (STC) – Properties that are Sold Subject to Contract
  • Available – all properties that are on the market and available
  • Create a sale – click this item to create a new property for sale

The Lettings sub-menu, if applicable, contains entries for

  • All – displays all lettings properties in the database, regardless of status
  • Available – displays only those lettings properties that are currently available
  • Let – displays all properties that are currently let
  • Let agreed – displays all properties that have a status of Let Agreed
  • Create a Letting – click this item to create a new property to let

Contacts

The contacts sub-menu contains entries for

  • All – displays an A-Z list of all contacts in the database, regardless of type or status
  • Vendors – A-Z list of only vendors or clients who are selling a property
  • Tenants – A-Z list of tenants who are renting property or looking for a property to let
  • Landlords – A-Z list of landlords or owners of rental properties
  • Applicants – A-Z list of all people looking to buy a property
  • Solicitors – A-Z list of Solicitors that have been added to your database

Note that not all items may be present depending on your firms’ configuration.

Configuration (Only visible to administrators)

The configuration sub-menu contains the following items

  • Agency details – all details of billing, subscription (only visible to administrators), branches and users.
  • Configuration – widgets to do with the setup of document templates, business rules, checklist items, javaScript snippet, etc.
  • Attributes manager – tick-box lists of items that can be turned on and off in the widgets in the rest of the site
  • Branding – the branding and appearance section gives you control over how the BDP snippet outputs data to your own website. You can alter colours, layout and content of the default templates and precisely control how BDP appears in your website.

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Properties summary listing and property detail

If your property database is blank you will need to start by adding a new property. There is a brief article about how to do this.

If your property database has been pre-populated, click on Sales > All or Lettings > All in the left hand menu and you will see a list of all properties. To quickly filter that list there are further sub-menu entries, or there is a comprehensive search and filtering box at the top of the property listing.

Click on any of the thumbnail images of the properties in the list and you will be linked to the property detail page. Alternatively you can click the pencil (Edit) icon to the right hand side of the list entry.

The property detail page comprises a series of “widgets” or free-floating panels that each contains key information about the property, and can be minimised and moved into any order you wish. To minimise, click on the blue header bar of the widget, and to maximise, click again. To move the widget into a new position, click and hold in the header bar and drag around the screen as required.

Some BDP accounts have the property details screen divided into tabs, which groups the widgets into logical order. If this applies to you, click through the available tabs and order the widgets within each tab as above.

Moving widgets around and minimising them affects only your account and not your colleagues, and your preference will be remembered.

Each widget contains a ? icon which links to this help website. This resource is growing all the time, so if you find a help page is not sufficient or is confusing in any way, please let us know by visiting http://bdphq.com/support and we will endeavour to improve the  quality of the entry.

Applicants / Buyers

All applicants can be found in the “Contacts” menu.

Applicants are treated as a group which can comprise one or more individuals or corporate entities. In this way we can control more precisely communication with the principal contact and/or the rest of the members of the group. The group as a whole can be edited, or the individual members can be edited by clicking the pencil (Edit) icon next to the respective entry.

You can then create a property search for an applicant which can be saved and recalled. You can save multiple searches against each applicant. Search results can be viewed either on-screen (through the BDP interface or through your own website), or can be emailed to the applicant. Viewing the results through the BDP interface allows inclusion of off-market properties.

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