Calderbrook Housing Group / BG-Demo – Onboarding
Callcompleted
Calderbrook Housing Group · 17 Sep 2024 09:45
Onboarding call on 17 Sep 2024. Helen Marsden wants the board arrears figure traced to its source and will widen use only once it reconciles. Paul Rigby's duplicate repairs rows and a planned housing system upgrade are the main watch points.
What was said
What this says
As at Fri 9 Oct 2026Onboarding call on 17 Sep 2024. Helen Marsden wants the board arrears figure traced to its source and will widen use only once it reconciles. Paul Rigby's duplicate repairs rows and a planned housing system upgrade are the main watch points.
What happened: Callie Brennan walked Helen and Paul Rigby through source access, field mapping and owners. Paul showed repairs jobs that appear twice when a job has a second visit.
Customer view: Helen bought the brain to trace the arrears figure in the board pack to its source. She will not open it widely until the numbers reconcile.
Commercial: Helen restated the Growth plan at £44k a year with 40 users, and Callie confirmed it as the order form shows. Only two people use it so far, with heads of service planned as phase two.
Watch: A planned housing system upgrade could stop a connector loading, and Helen agreed to put Callie on the project distribution. The arrears difference may sit in the finance recovery file, which is not yet agreed as a source.
Themes
As at Fri 9 Oct 2026Theme
Arrears reconciliation onboarding
Importance
neutral
Sentiment
positive
Voice
champion
Who was there
BG-Demo
CRMmade from
Them
CRMmade from
Follow-up
Next steps
As at Fri 9 Oct 2026- Paul sends an uncleaned repairs sample and chases IT for the read-only housing account.
- Helen asks the finance lead for the recovery file and the balance flag meaning, and finds the call recorder admin.
- Callie sends the setup note, access checklist, finance questions and table list for IT.
Risks
As at Fri 9 Oct 2026- A planned housing system upgrade could stop a connector loading and leave the brain stale.
- The arrears figure is not yet shown to reconcile, and the finance recovery file is not agreed as a source.
- Only two people use a 40-user Growth plan, so adoption depends on phase two going ahead.
Opportunities
As at Fri 9 Oct 2026- Phase two for heads of service would take use towards the 40 users on Growth.
- A first page of jobs and arrears by month, each with its source, can prove value to the board.
Transcript
Callie BrennanMorning, Paul. Can you hear me all right? I've got the recording light on my side, so I think we're live.
Paul RigbyAye, I can hear you fine. Morning. Bit of an echo, but it's just me in the room so it should settle.- Callie BrennanNo echo here. Is Helen joining us?
- Paul RigbyShe is. She's finishing something off for the board pack, she said five minutes. Her calendar says she's on the call already, so she's probably just in the wrong lobby.
- Callie BrennanNo problem at all. How's the week been? Settled in since the contract was signed?
- Paul RigbyIt's been all right. Busy. Leeds is chucking it down, so everyone's in a mood. Repairs team's got a backlog from the weather, so I've had my head in job lists most of the morning.
- Callie BrennanThat sounds about right for the time of year. Well, while we wait, let me say what I'd like to do with the next hour, and we can shuffle it when Helen's here. We've booked forty-three minutes, so it's slightly under an hour, which is good.
Helen MarsdenSorry, sorry. Hello, I'm here. I was in the wrong room, as Paul said. Can you hear me?- Callie BrennanLoud and clear, Helen. Good morning. No need to apologise, we've only just started.
- Callie BrennanSo, the plan. Three things. First, I want to walk through what I need from your side, which is access, written access, for each source before we switch on the refresh. Second, we look at the field mapping for the sources you've told us are most important. Third, we agree who does what, with a date against each step, so that when I hand over you're able to run it yourselves.
- Helen MarsdenThat's helpful. Can I state up front what I'm chasing, so it's on the table? The tenant arrears figure in section four of the board pack doesn't reconcile with what the housing management system gives us when you run it a different way. That's the main reason we bought this. The board will ask, and at the moment I can't show them the source.
- Callie BrennanUnderstood, and that's exactly the kind of thing the brain is meant to settle, because every figure it gives you points back to the record it came from. I won't promise the arrears figure matches until I've checked the mapping, though. That's what today is for.
- Helen MarsdenThat's fair. I'd rather you didn't promise.
- Paul RigbyCan I share my screen? I've got the repairs export up. It's easier if you see what I'm on about.
- Callie BrennanPlease do. Go ahead.
- Paul RigbyRight. Is that coming through? This is the repairs jobs export from the housing system. Each row is a job. But where a job needs a second visit, say the first operative can't get in, it sometimes shows up as two rows with the same job ref. I have to strip them out by hand before the stand-up, otherwise the numbers are inflated.
- Callie BrennanOkay, I can see it. And the job ref is the same on both rows, yes? Can you scroll right a bit, I want to see the visit column.
- Paul RigbySame ref, different visit date. There. And a status that's changed from no access to completed.
- Callie BrennanGood, that's really useful. So what I'd want to do is treat the job ref as the key and the visit as a child record, so a job is counted once however many visits it has. Let me write that down as a question rather than a promise: is the job ref unique to a job, or can it be reused?
- Paul RigbyUnique. Well. I've never seen it reused. I wouldn't swear to it, but I've never seen it.
- Callie BrennanRight, so I'll check that against a full export rather than take it as read. Could you send me a sample, a few hundred rows, with the multi-visit ones left in? Don't clean it.
- Paul RigbyI can do that today. I'll leave the messy ones in. There's plenty.
- Helen MarsdenPaul, are you saying that's already in the numbers I've been giving the board?
- Paul RigbyNo. Not the ones in the pack. I strip them before it goes to you. It's just that it takes me an hour.
- Helen MarsdenOkay. Good. Sorry, I just wanted to be sure, because I'd have wanted to know.
- Callie BrennanThat's a sensible question, and it's one worth asking of every source. Let me stop sharing there and go to the checklist. Sharing mine now.
- Callie BrennanCan you both see the list? So this is the access checklist. For each source there are three lines: who owns the system, what kind of access we've asked for, and whether that's in writing. Nothing is switched on until the third line is ticked. That's the rule I work to.
- Helen MarsdenThat's reassuring. Our IT team will want it in writing anyway. They were particular about it when we went through the security questions.
- Callie BrennanGood. So, the housing management system first, because that's where repairs, tenancies and arrears all sit. What I need from your side is a read-only service account, scoped to the tables for those three areas, and a note from whoever owns it saying we may use it. Is that Paul, or someone in IT?
- Paul RigbyIt's IT. I can ask. There's a colleague in IT who looks after the database side, she's good, she'll want to know exactly which tables.
- Callie BrennanPerfect, I'll send her the table list straight after this call so she isn't guessing. And one more thing worth saying: the brain runs inside your own Snowflake account, so your IT team will also need to create the space for us there, a database and a role. Nothing leaves your account.
- Helen MarsdenCan you say that again? Nothing leaves our account?
- Callie BrennanCorrect. The data is built and queried in your Snowflake account, under your roles. We don't hold a copy of it on our side. I'll put that in the setup note so you have it in writing for the board.
- Helen MarsdenPlease do. That's a question that will come up.
- Callie BrennanNext, the call recorder. That's for the tenant calls. Who administers that?
- Helen MarsdenThat's the customer contact team. I'd have to introduce you. I'd rather ask them first than have you email cold.
- Callie BrennanThat's a good idea. If you tell them it's an API token with read access, and that we want recordings and transcripts but not anything marked as sensitive, that'll save a round of emails.
- Helen MarsdenSensitive meaning what, exactly? Safeguarding calls?
- Callie BrennanExactly that, or anything you flag. I don't know how your team marks them, so that's a thing to find out. If there's a tag or a queue, we exclude it at the source, before it reaches the brain.
- Paul RigbyThere's a queue. I know that much. Safeguarding goes to a separate team and a separate line.
- Callie BrennanBrilliant. Then that's an easy exclusion. I'll note it. Now, the helpdesk, for repairs tickets and complaints.
- Paul RigbyThat's mine, mostly. I'm an admin on it. So I can give you what you need there today.
- Callie BrennanLovely. That one's quick. The same pattern: read access, a named account, and you confirm in an email. Then the fourth is the spreadsheet or whatever holds arrears. Helen, is arrears coming from the housing system or from somewhere else?
- Helen MarsdenBoth, is the honest answer. The housing system has the ledger. Finance keep a separate working file for the cases that are in recovery. The board pack takes the ledger and adds the recovery file. I think that's where the difference creeps in, but I don't want to speculate, I'd want to see it.
- Callie BrennanThat's a very useful thing to have said out loud. So we'd bring the finance working file in as its own source, and the brain would show the two side by side, ledger and recovery, and then the total. That way you can see which part moved. Would finance be happy to share that file?
- Helen MarsdenI think so, if I ask properly. I'll speak to the finance lead this week and come back to you. Can you give me a sentence I can use?
- Callie BrennanI'll put one in the note. Something like: we'd like read access to the recovery working file so the board figure can be traced to its parts. Plain, no jargon.
- Helen MarsdenThank you. That's what I need.
- Paul RigbyCan I ask something about users? We've got forty seats on the order, but at the minute it's me and Helen and that's about it. Is that a problem, having all those spare?
- Callie BrennanNot a problem at all. Forty is the licence under the Growth plan, and you grow into it. Most teams start with the two or three people who built it and then add people as the first dashboards land. What matters more is that you've got a plan for who gets added and in what order.
- Helen MarsdenMy team, first. Then the heads of service. The board secretary, maybe, later. I'd not open it up widely until the numbers reconcile. I don't want people seeing figures I can't defend.
- Callie BrennanThat's a sound way to do it. Narrow, then wide. I'll write it as phase one, your team and Paul, and phase two, heads of service, after the arrears check. Does that sit right?
- Helen MarsdenIt does. Yes.
- Callie BrennanGood. Now the part I like. Dates. I'm not going to put calendar dates on things I can't control, but I'll give you the order and how long each should take once access is in. Access first. If the housing system account and the helpdesk account are with me by the end of next week, I can connect those two the week after and run a first refresh on them only.
- Paul RigbyEnd of next week for housing. I'll chase IT today. I'll tell her it's a read-only account and send her your table list when it comes.
- Callie BrennanPerfect. And the first refresh is the moment of truth, so I won't call it done until we've compared a handful of figures against the source. Paul, you'll be the one to say whether the repairs counts look right, because you know what they should be.
- Paul RigbyAye. I'll know straight away. I know roughly what a Monday looks like.
- Helen MarsdenCan I ask about the refresh? How often does it update? Because the stand-up's first thing and Paul needs it before then.
- Callie BrennanIt's nightly. It completes by seven in the morning your time on working days, which is the commitment for every plan. So by the stand-up it's there. If it isn't, that's a ticket, and Paul, you raise it with us straight away.
- Paul RigbyRight. I'm good at tickets.
- Helen MarsdenHe is. He keeps a spreadsheet.
- Callie BrennanThen you'll be a joy. Okay, sharing the mapping sheet next. I'll go quickly because I've only got the first pass, and what I'd like is for you to tell me where I've got it wrong.
- Callie BrennanSo here's tenancies. Tenancy reference, property reference, tenant, start date, status, and the rent account. On the left is the field in your housing system, on the right is where it lands in the brain. Most of these map cleanly. Anything in amber I'm not sure of.
- Helen MarsdenWhat's the amber one, the third from the bottom?
- Callie BrennanThat's a field called, in your export, a balance flag. I don't know whether it means in arrears, in credit, or something to do with the payment plan. I haven't guessed.
- Helen MarsdenI don't know either. That's going to be a finance question. Paul?
- Paul RigbyNot mine. I'd only be guessing, and I don't guess.
- Callie BrennanThen it goes on the list for finance, alongside the recovery file. That's two things for the same conversation, which is handy. Helen, would it help if I drafted the questions so you can just forward them?
- Helen MarsdenIt would. If it's in the note I can forward it as it is.
- Callie BrennanDone. Let me go on to repairs, since Paul's already shown us the main one.
- Callie BrennanSo for repairs: job ref as the key, visit as the child, priority, trade, raised date, completed date, status. And one I want to be careful with: a completed date on a job that has two visits. Do you count the job complete on the final visit date, or the first?
- Paul RigbyFinal. The job is complete when the last visit's complete. But then the target time runs from when it was raised, not from the last visit.
- Callie BrennanGood, that's exactly the kind of rule I'd have got wrong. Raised date to final completion. I'll write that in as the definition, and it will go in the setup note so anyone who joins later can read what a completed job means.
- Helen MarsdenThat would help me with the board as well. They do ask what we mean by complete. It's come up before.
- Callie BrennanThen it's worth having it in one place. Right, complaints next, and this I can do quickly because it comes from the helpdesk.
- Callie BrennanComplaints: reference, stage, category, opened, closed, outcome. Stage matters, I think, because you report by stage. Is that right?
- Helen MarsdenIt is. Stage one, stage two, and then the ombudsman. We'd need to separate those, and I'd need to be able to show how many escalated and how many were upheld.
- Callie BrennanNoted. I'll check that the stage is a field and not something your team writes in free text. If it's free text, we'll need to agree a tidy-up, and I'd rather find that out now than after the first refresh.
- Paul RigbyIt's a drop-down, I think. But I can check. I'll put it in with the sample.
- Callie BrennanThank you, Paul. That would save me a day.
- Helen MarsdenCan I ask a slightly different question? About what happens after you've gone. Because I understand that you do the implementation, and then somebody else looks after us.
- Callie BrennanYes, and a fair question. I run the implementation, the connecting and mapping and the first refresh. When it's settled, I hand over to Daniel Okafor, who's your customer success manager, and he looks after adoption and the reviews. Tom Ashdown, who agreed the scope with you, remains your contact for anything commercial.
- Helen MarsdenAnd you'd leave us a setup note.
- Callie BrennanAlways. I don't hand over without one. It says what's connected, what each field means, what we agreed about the awkward cases, and who to ask. Paul, I'd like you to be able to read it and run the thing without me, that's the aim.
- Paul RigbyI'd like that. I don't like depending on people who aren't in the building.
- Callie BrennanThen we're on the same page. You'll be the admin day to day, so for the first couple of weeks I'd like you to shadow the refresh each morning. Look at what landed, compare a few counts against the housing system, and tell me if something's off.
- Paul RigbyFine. Ten minutes a day, if that.
- Helen MarsdenCallie, one thing worries me, honestly. We have an upgrade of the housing system planned. If the structure changes, does the brain break?
- Callie BrennanIt can, yes. If a field is renamed or a table is restructured, a connector can stop loading, and the symptom is that the number of records stops growing. So two things. Tell us before the upgrade, so we can check the mapping against the new version, and Paul will spot it in the morning check if we've missed it.
- Helen MarsdenI'll make sure the project team tells you. I'll put you on the distribution.
- Callie BrennanThank you, that would be ideal. Even a short heads-up is enough.
- Paul RigbyMind, if they change how it counts a job, that'll be the first I hear of it. Last time it was. You find out when the numbers go funny.
- Callie BrennanWhich is exactly why the job definition is going into the note. Then there's something to compare against.
- Helen MarsdenCan I come back to the board pack? I'd like to know what the first thing is that I'll actually be able to see. What's the first page worth looking at?
- Callie BrennanHonest answer: once repairs and tenancies are in, I'd build you a simple page, jobs raised and completed by month, and arrears by month, each with the source underneath. It won't be the whole board pack. It will be the part you can check line by line, and that's the point.
- Helen MarsdenThat's what I want. Smaller and right, rather than bigger and nearly.
- Callie BrennanSmaller and right. I'll use that. Then your team can ask it questions in chat as well, but I'd have them start with questions where they already know the answer, so they learn to trust it.
- Helen MarsdenYes. That's how I'd do it anyway. Test it on things we know.
- Paul RigbyCan I sort out what I'm sending, so I've got it written down. Sample of repairs, rows left messy. The ticket export. A check on whether complaint stage is a drop-down. And the account for housing from IT.
- Callie BrennanThat's all four, and then in the note I'll add the table list for IT. Helen, yours is the call recorder admin, and the finance conversation: the recovery file and the balance flag.
- Helen MarsdenCall recorder admin, and finance. Yes. I'll do both this week.
- Callie BrennanAnd from me: the setup note today, the checklist with owners, the draft questions for finance, and the table list for IT. I'll also put in the Snowflake wording so you've got it in writing.
- Helen MarsdenThat's everything I wrote down, too. Can I check one thing on the commercial side, so I don't give the board the wrong picture? We're on the Growth plan, forty-four thousand a year, forty users. That's right?
- Callie BrennanThat's the order form as I have it: Growth, forty-four thousand a year, forty users. I'd leave anything beyond that to Tom, because he holds the commercial side, and he'd give you the paperwork. But those are the numbers I've got in front of me.
- Helen MarsdenThank you. I wasn't questioning it, I just like to say it back.
- Callie BrennanQuite right, and it's a good habit. Is there anything we haven't covered that's worrying either of you?
- Paul RigbyOnly the double counting. I know we've talked about it. I'd just like to see it come out right on the first refresh. Not near enough. Right.
- Callie BrennanUnderstood. I'll check it myself against your sample before I show you anything, and I'll tell you what I found, whether or not it's good news.
- Helen MarsdenThat's all I can ask. Thank you, Callie. This has been more useful than I expected, to be honest.
- Callie BrennanGlad to hear it. Right, I'll get the note out this afternoon. Speak soon, both of you, and Paul, send that sample when you can.
- Paul RigbyWill do. Cheers, Callie. Bye, Helen.
- Helen MarsdenBye both. Thanks again.
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