Ting Community - Share money and knowledge

At the beginning of 2020, a cooperation between two associations (Verein Grundeinkommen, Dezentrum) launched the Ting Community experiment. Initially managed with Excel sheets, the small but rapidly growing community quickly forced us to realize that our small team would not be able to handle the tasks involved without a highly automated platform.
In spring 2020, we started the evaluation of the Ting software platform with the definition of user journeys, the evaluation of existing tools and a rough architecture of the various components. In mid-2020, we began developing the core modules, which are still being continuously supplemented with additional modules and functionalities.

Challenge

Developing a secure, high-performance community platform on time with a small development team and limited financial resources was a fundamental challenge. In addition, the following requirements emerged when analyzing the unique business model of an online community that shares money and knowledge:

• Analysis of which parts of the system can be covered by existing external applications and which parts need to be implemented in-house.
• Evaluation and definition of standard interfaces between external and internal system components (REST, plugins).
• Efficient member and financial management that can manage hundreds or thousands of members and their products with minimal effort.
• Simple onboarding process with an integrated, timed mailing series that introduces a member to the platform's key processes.
• Create opportunities for a self-managed community that automates the approval process for payout requests (submissions).
• Interfaces to payment providers (Stripe, Raisenow, ...) and banks via payment files and webhooks.
• Error-tolerant booking system with automated, personalized booking of member deposits and withdrawals. Posting must be carried out according to configurable business rules that can post deposits to different accounts and trigger further actions, such as e-mails in the event of missing payments, etc.
• Simple and efficient preparation of tax documents, such as the annual financial statements of the community fund, tax certificates for members, tax reports on the use of fund monies for charitable organizations, etc.
• Complete transparency of internal processes and all financial matters. 
• Rapid adaptation to new or changing business requirements.
• highest security standard for sensitive data (personal data, bank and credit card data)
• Strict separation of publicly accessible information (website) from all sensitive user data, which is only accessible to members with a login (WebApp).
• High-performance display of large amounts of data both in the WebApp and on the website (lazy loading).
• Software updates can be carried out during operation.
• Responsive, mobile-first design.

Thanks to Drupal's extensive framework, the large active community and good documentation, the challenges could be overcome even with a very small development team.

Solution

Due to limited resources, we strictly followed the concept of only implementing parts that are not available on the market or cannot be integrated into the overall structure due to a lack of APIs. The Ting platform consists of several interdependent modules that can integrate external systems via plugins. The overall system as of 2024 looks as follows.

Ting Website

All public content is edited and published on the website. The website does not store any sensitive data, but can display shared member data via a dedicated interface.

Ting API Client

Implements the JSON:API queries of shared resources and displays them in a suitable form (lists, grids, charts).

Ting WebApplication

The member area is a web application that is only available to members with a login and blocks anonymous access. The application stores and manages all sensitive user data which, if approved by the members, can only be retrieved and displayed from the website. It also provides access to all business processes and their administration.

Ting Base/Monitoring Modul

Core module that implements basic types and controls in the form of plugins that can be used and extended in all Ting modules (Highcharts plug-in, filterable entity lists with paging for efficient administration, ...). Configures the JASON:API resources that can be queried and displayed by the Ting website.

Ting Modul

Dependency: Ting Base/Monitoring
A core module that provides the registration process and member management. Certain processes trigger CRM events that can be processed by an integrated CRM.

Ting Accounting Modul

Dependency: Ting Base/Monitoring
Core module that implements a complete double-entry accounting system (excluding VAT), with account plan, journal, account sheets, balance sheet, income statement and annual financial statements. An import interface that can be extended with plugins enables the import of payments from payment providers via webhooks and from banks via standardized payment files (CAMT.053, CAMT.054, CSV,...).

Ting Business Logic Modul

Dependency: Ting, Ting Accounting
The module implements the Ting business logic, which is completely controlled by the import of the members' monthly payments. Incoming and outgoing payments are allocated to members and distributed to different accounts according to specific rules (community account, reserve, platform fees, liquidity). CRM events enable automated emails to be sent to members with incorrect or missing payments. Changed monthly member amounts are recognized and issued for adjustment.

Payout Application Modul

Dependency: Ting
Implements the payout application process, the evaluation and approval/rejection of payout requests as well as the management of them.

CRM Integration Modul

Dependency: Ting
Defines a plug-in interface that enables the integration of various customer relationship management systems. A specific connection to Intercom has been implemented.

Other smaller modules for a marketplace and an event calendar as well as for marketing purposes have been added over time.

Result

The system has reached a mature, stable and highly automated state and allows a small team to efficiently manage a community of now over 640 members and ensure timely customer support.

The Ting booking system can process tens of thousands of transactions efficiently and reliably. Monthly interim statements allow precise planning of authorized payouts, so that the community account cannot be overused. Members can download their tax statement in the member area at the touch of a button. Other mandatory association tax reports are also available at the touch of a button.

Sharing money requires trust. Members therefore have access to various charts and lists that show the current status of members, finances and entries in a simple and clear way, thus enabling complete transparency in the community.
 

At the moment, the Ting framework is still a private project. But it is intended to be Open Source soon.