Calderbrook Housing Group / BG-Demo – Check In
Callcompleted
Calderbrook Housing Group · 17 Sep 2025 10:15
Helen Marsden said the brain's tenant arrears figure does not reconcile with the housing system ahead of the board pack. She also flagged low seat use and in-house build talk, and wants a usage summary to show the board the brain's worth.
What was said
What this says
As at Fri 9 Oct 2026Helen Marsden said the brain's tenant arrears figure does not reconcile with the housing system ahead of the board pack. She also flagged low seat use and in-house build talk, and wants a usage summary to show the board the brain's worth.
What happened: Helen opened with a gap between the brain's arrears figure and the housing management system, with the brain slightly lower. Daniel Okafor showed the last connector load and offered a timing explanation, but Helen asked for the line-by-line check rather than accept it.
Customer view: Helen said some people have gone back to spreadsheets because it is what they know. She was candid that there is conversation about building a platform in-house, and said it is not her plan.
Commercial: Daniel described Growth at £44k a year with the term running to 1 Sep 2026, and said he would raise the renewal about ninety days ahead. Helen wants the usage summary and a source-backed arrears figure before the board asks what the brain is worth.
Watch: Active use is about eight of forty licensed seats, and Helen offered to keep the seats if people can be brought back. The evidence does not show the outcome of the arrears comparison.
Themes
As at Fri 9 Oct 2026Theme
Arrears reconciliation and value
Importance
renewal
Sentiment
mixed
Voice
champion
Who was there
BG-Demo
CRMmade from
Them
CRMmade from
Follow-up
Next steps
As at Fri 9 Oct 2026- Daniel Okafor to compare the housing system export with the brain at the same cut-off, check former tenant arrears mapping and the refresh time, and reply by Friday.
- Daniel Okafor to produce a usage summary for the contract year so far, including what the team has built.
- Daniel Okafor to run a session for the lapsed users once the board pack is signed off, with Helen choosing attendees.
Risks
As at Fri 9 Oct 2026- The arrears figure does not reconcile with the housing system, which undermines trust ahead of the board pack.
- About eight of forty Growth seats are active, so the seat count may be questioned at renewal.
- Some colleagues are discussing building a platform in-house instead of buying one.
Opportunities
As at Fri 9 Oct 2026- A usage summary and a re-engagement session using Calderbrook's own repairs and arrears data could bring lapsed users back.
- Showing the brain's value to the board strengthens the case for keeping the Growth subscription.
Transcript
Daniel OkaforHello Helen, can you hear me alright?
Helen MarsdenI can, yes. Good morning, Daniel.- Daniel OkaforGood morning. Thank you for making the time. Just checking who has joined, is it only the two of us today, or is someone from your team on their way?
- Helen MarsdenJust me. Our analyst is buried in the board pack, so I said I would take this one.
- Daniel OkaforOf course, it is that time of the cycle. How is Leeds treating you? It has been raining here since I got up.
- Helen MarsdenGrey but dry, which I will take. Daniel, do you mind if I start with something? It has been bothering me since the weekend.
- Daniel OkaforPlease, go ahead. That is what the call is for.
- Helen MarsdenThank you. It is the rent arrears section of the draft board pack. The current tenant arrears figure that comes out of the brain does not match what the housing management system reports for the same position. These don't reconcile. It is not wildly out, but the board will ask, and at the moment I cannot tell them why.
- Daniel OkaforRight, that is helpful, thank you. Just so I am clear, is the brain figure higher or lower than the housing system?
- Helen MarsdenLower. Slightly lower. So it looks as though the brain is missing something, rather than counting something twice.
- Daniel OkaforMm. And when did your team pull the housing system report, do you know? Was it first thing, or later in the day?
- Helen MarsdenYesterday, mid-afternoon, I think. My analyst ran it while we were assembling the section. Why, does that matter?
- Daniel OkaforIt might. The brain refreshes overnight, and the refresh should be complete by seven in the morning on business days. So anything paid or posted during the day would not be in the figure until the following morning. If the report was run in the afternoon, after a batch of payments had gone through, you could see a small gap in exactly that direction. I do not want to tell you that is the whole answer, though.
- Helen MarsdenCan you show me the source? I would rather not take it as a theory. If it is timing, I want to see that it is timing.
- Daniel OkaforFair enough. Give me a moment, I will share my screen. Can you see it?
- Helen MarsdenYes, I can see the page now.
- Daniel OkaforSo this is the arrears page your team built. If I open the source detail here, it shows the last load from the housing system connector was early on Tuesday morning, before your report was run. So the figure you are looking at is as at Tuesday's refresh, and the report is some hours later.
- Helen MarsdenSo the report is a few hours ahead of the brain. That would explain a gap in that direction, but I would want to see the movement. Arrears do not usually shift that much in an afternoon, not in my experience.
- Daniel OkaforThat is a fair challenge, and I would rather not guess. Can I suggest two things? One, I will take the same cut-off and check the brain figure against the underlying records myself. And two, if you can send me the export from the housing system with its run time on it, we can compare it line by line. I will come back to you by Friday.
- Helen MarsdenI can send the export this afternoon. And Daniel, can we also check how the brain treats tenants who have left but still owe? That is the other thing I wondered about. In the housing system, former tenant arrears sit in their own section.
- Daniel OkaforYes, that is exactly the sort of definition question that can cause a gap. I will check how it has been mapped and tell you plainly which way it is treated, so you can say it in the pack without hedging.
- Helen MarsdenThank you. That is the section I have to be able to defend.
- Daniel OkaforUnderstood. Just to close the loop on this one, I will send you a short note with the comparison, and you can decide whether it goes in as a footnote or not at all.
- Helen MarsdenA footnote at most. I would rather the figure was simply right.
- Daniel OkaforAgreed. Can I turn to something more general? How is the team finding it? I looked at usage before the call and I wanted to ask you rather than assume.
- Helen MarsdenGo on.
- Daniel OkaforYou have forty licensed users, and over the last month about eight have been active on average. That is down by roughly a fifth on the quarter before. I am not worried, I would just like to understand what sits behind it.
- Helen MarsdenYes. I am aware, and I would rather be straight with you. Some of it is just people being pulled onto the board pack and the annual cycle. A couple of people who used it for repairs reporting have gone back to their own spreadsheets, because it is what they know. And one or two have moved roles since the spring.
- Daniel OkaforThank you, that is honest and it helps. When people go back to the spreadsheets, is that because the brain did not answer them, or because they did not think to ask it?
- Helen MarsdenMore the second. They know the spreadsheet, they trust it, and nobody has the time to learn something new in September. The people who do use it, mainly my own team, use it for the tenant, repairs, complaints and arrears picture, which is what we bought it for.
- Daniel OkaforThat is the heart of it, isn't it, the join across the tenant calls, the repairs tickets, the complaints and the arrears. Are the complaints and repairs views holding up for you?
- Helen MarsdenThey are fine. No complaints from me there, if you will forgive the pun. We have not had to raise anything with your support team for a while.
- Daniel OkaforNo, nothing in the last month, no tickets at all, and your invoices are all up to date, so thank you for that. It is quiet, which I take as a good sign, but quiet is not the same as busy, so I do like to ask.
- Helen MarsdenCan I say something else, and I want you to hear it from me rather than from anyone else. There is conversation in the organisation about whether we ought to build our own platform rather than buy one in. That is not my plan, and I want to be clear about that. But when the board asks what the brain is worth, I need to be able to answer, and figures that do not reconcile do not help me.
- Daniel OkaforI really appreciate you telling me, Helen, and I understand why the arrears figure matters so much more in that light. So let me ask it plainly: what would a good answer look like for you when the board asks?
- Helen MarsdenThree things, I think. Arrears that reconcile, with the source shown. A clear view of who is actually using it and for what. And some sense of what it would take for us to do the same ourselves. I do not expect you to do the third one.
- Daniel OkaforNo, and I would not want to argue that one from my side of the table. But the first two I can do. I will put together a usage summary for the contract year so far, who is asking questions, which areas, how it has moved, so you have something real to show them rather than a feeling.
- Helen MarsdenThat would help. Please include what my team has built, not just the questions. The board likes to see work they can recognise.
- Daniel OkaforOf course. And just so you have it in front of you, you are on Growth at £44,000 a year, you have been with us since 2 Sep 2024, and the current term runs to 1 Sep 2026. Nothing needs deciding now. I will want to talk about the renewal properly well ahead of time, about ninety days before, so nobody is rushing it.
- Helen MarsdenThat is fine. Better after the board has seen the pack, in any case. I would rather have this settled first.
- Daniel OkaforCompletely. One more thing on the seats. Forty is what you are licensed for. If some of them are sitting idle, I would rather we looked at that together and made the licence fit how your teams actually work, than leave it hanging there. I would not want you paying for something that is not earning its place.
- Helen MarsdenI appreciate that. I would want to see the usage summary first. If the people who have drifted back to spreadsheets can be brought back, I would rather do that than reduce anything.
- Daniel OkaforThat makes sense. Would a short session help with that? I could walk the people who have drifted away through asking the brain the questions they would normally answer in a spreadsheet, using your own repairs and arrears data, so it is not a generic demo.
- Helen MarsdenYes, I think that would land better than an email from me. Not this week, though. After the board pack is signed off, so, a couple of weeks from now.
- Daniel OkaforThat is fine. Pick a slot when you know the pack is done and I will build it around your people's questions. Do you want to choose who comes, or shall I suggest it?
- Helen MarsdenLet me choose. The ones who went back to spreadsheets will not come if it looks like a telling off.
- Daniel OkaforQuite right. Let me recap so we are both clear. You will send me the housing system export with its run time this afternoon. I will compare it with the brain at the same cut-off, check how former tenant arrears are treated, and send you a short note by Friday.
- Daniel OkaforThen I will pull together the usage summary for the contract year so far, including what your team has built, and we will fix a session for your wider group once the board pack is out of the way.
- Helen MarsdenThat is right. And if the note says the gap is the timing, I will still want the figures laid out so I can show the board the movement.
- Daniel OkaforUnderstood, you will have the figures either way. And if it turns out to be a mapping problem on our side, I will tell you that straight, and we will fix it properly, not just for this one pack.
- Helen MarsdenGood. That is all I ask.
- Daniel OkaforIs there anything else on your side, anything the team has raised in passing that has not made it to a ticket? Sometimes the small things matter.
- Helen MarsdenNothing I can think of. One of the team did ask whether the nightly refresh might finish a little earlier, but I think that was curiosity more than need. I will let you know if it becomes a real request.
- Daniel OkaforPlease do. For what it is worth, seven in the morning is the commitment, and I can check what time it has actually been finishing for you recently, if that is useful for the pack as well.
- Helen MarsdenActually, yes. That would be a good thing to have in the note. If I can say the data is in by a known time every morning, the board will find it easier to trust the rest.
- Daniel OkaforI will add it. Right, I think we have covered it. Thank you, Helen, I know it is a busy week for you, and thank you for being so direct about the in-house conversation. It helps me far more than hearing it later.
- Helen MarsdenThank you for taking the arrears figure seriously, Daniel. I will send the export after lunch. Kind regards, Helen.
- Daniel OkaforBest wishes, Helen. Speak on Friday, and good luck with the pack.
- Helen MarsdenBye for now.
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