I am looking at storing our homeowners community records on my NAS. Does anyone know of any existing software solutions that are available for this type of record retention. There are 250 homes that are part of the homeowners community that has been around for almost 30 years, so there are quite a few files to scan and store. Currently all the records are in paper form, stored in filing cabinets.
I assume there are software solutions that would help organize all the data.
I hope there is someone that can provide some advice on how to organize all the data electronically.
I would also like to make the data stored available to a small group of people.
Any advice would be appreciated.
Model: RN628X|ReadyNAS 628X - Ultimate Performance Business Data Storage - 8-Bay
Are you looking for an actual database, or are you looking for a simple repository of the files?
A database would be something you'd query - "get me all a list of all the homeowners who haven't paid their dues" kind of stuff. If you are looking for a database, then I suggest that you also consider hosted services. Also, you might need to run the software on a PC, but only have the data files on the NAS. This is a specialized application, and building it on your own would be a major project.
A repository would be just a set of folders that hold the scanned files. This could be one folder per homeowner, or it could be structured by address (one folder per street perhaps, with one subfolder for every street number).
FWIW, there is some homeowner association software here: https://www.capterra.com/hoa-software/ Note this isn't something I've ever needed, so I am not recommending any of these - just sharing my googling.
I would gess that it would be nice if there was an application that ran on the NAS that could be used to organize and search on the PDF files that were stored on the NAS. I could not find any existing database aplications that are currently available to install.
The user base would be way to diverse to expect everyone to have a database application on their home computer.
I can imagine setting up folders on a NAS share that for administrative things like general information and then more folders that would store information for each of the 250 lot numbers.
Since the NAS does not have a generic desktop GUI, using a database installed on one would take some doing. I suppose you could install an XWindows interface on an external PC and access via it, but why would you want to when you could more easilly install dedicated software on the PC that uses the NAS for storage?
