ICYMI: Release Notes Recap(Q1 2019)

April 10, 2019

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Rent Manager

In Case You Missed It

The first quarter of 2019 brought multiple new additions to the Rent Manager platform and as always, we’re here to highlight a few of our favorite updates in the Rent Manager Release Report.

Want to learn about these updates even faster? Check your inbox for regular Release Notes emails, or be on the lookout for the latest webinars and training courses in Rent Manager University (RMU).

NEW FEATURES

Other Rentable Items & Rentable Assets

Before the addition of this feature, the only way to track rentable items was by creating units. If you had a property with 100 units, as well as optional garage or storage spaces that were available for Tenants to rent – the empty garage and storage space would be present on vacancy reports for that property. This causes your property to appear more vacant than it truly is. Now, these items can be marked as Other Rentable Items in the system, so that you won’t be dinged on occupancy reports.

On a similar note, Rentable Assets can now be tracked within the system. These could be items like washer and dryer machines, air conditioning units, or even manufactured homes. If you’re renting out manufactured homes that you’re tracking as assets, you can now categorize them as Rentable Assets – rather than creating a unit for the home and an additional unit for the lot (if you’re tracking those separately). This removes the need for duplicate units in your system for the same manufactured home.

Asset Depreciation

Over time, your assets lose value. This is known as depreciation. For IRS purposes, you need to track and record the depreciation of your assets over time. The book value of your asset is not always the market value, and now this can be calculated and booked within Rent Manager. We’ve added a new tab that allows you to do this. Once you enabled “Track Financials” on an asset, you’re able to set up a depreciation schedule within the system. Here, you can select the method of Depreciation (Straight Line vs. Accelerated). If you’re not sure which method to use, check with your accountant.

After entering in the details of your asset including life expectancy, purchase amount, etc., you’ll set up journal details. If you’re an online user, you can automate depreciation postings, so that Rent Manager will not only calculate the depreciation for you but automatically create the Journal entries and post them to the appropriate accounts on the frequency you’ve set up.
*Use F1 to access the Help File and search “Depreciation” for more information.

Web Chat (licensed feature)

Engage with Prospects, Tenants, and Owners right from your keyboard with the newest addition to the Rent Manager platform: Web Chat. Each chat queue can be customized to fit the channel it is on, from your website to the Tenant and Owner Web Access portals. Customizable options include which employees can handle the chats to what information is required from the other user. Because the Web Chat is built directly into Rent Manager, when a Tenant messages you regarding a maintenance problem – you can create a service issue with a few clicks. The Tenants account information will be pre-populated within the issue ticket, saving you even more time. All Web Chat interactions are automatically saved within the user’s History/Notes Tab.

The Web Chat feature is only available when an employee is logged into the queue. If nobody is logged in, the user on the other end would only see the customized text you’ve set up for offline situations. For example: when online, your website might display a “Let’s Chat!” button, but if nobody is managing the queue within Rent Manager at the time, it would display a “Leave us a message!” button or not appear at all, if that’s what you prefer. This feature makes for seamless communication with Tenants, Prospects, and Owners.


This is a licensed feature – reach out to your Sales Rep if you’re interested and they will get you set up.


NEW ENHANCEMENTS

Period Accounting

Many organizations have a fiscal year that is different than a standard calendar year. Now you can run your reporting based on specified periods that you create in the system. If your January begins on January 15th rather than January 1st, you can set up your system to reflect this so that you can breakdown your data to match your periods. When running reports, you will now see the option to select a Date Range that coordinates with the periods you’ve created.

Accounting Close

Prior to Q1 2019, the only option for Accounting Close Dates in the system was a single specified date. Now, you can close separate ledgers at separate times. You’re able to split the Accounting Close Date by AR, AP, and Journal Adjustments. For example, if you operate on a five-day close, but your AP and AR must be closed in two days – you can now appropriately configure the system to match this.

This is also a handy feature to keep your data protected. The sooner you’re able to close these ledgers, the fewer errors you’ll have in the system. For example, if you need to open a ledger to enter a single journal entry for an item but want to ensure nobody will go into AP or AR, you’re now able to open just the Journals/Adjustments.

Text Messaging (licensed feature)

We’ve made multiple updates to our Text Messaging feature for enhanced communication with Tenants, Owners, and Prospects! Users now can send images back and forth via MMS (multimedia messaging service). We’ve also added an “opt-out” function that recipients can use if they wish to not receive text messages from you. All a Tenant, Owner, or Prospect must do is reply STOP and that number will no longer allow Texting. To turn it back on, they need only to reply START and that number will be enabled for Texting again.
You can now assign and manage which phone number Rent Manager will use for texting at specific properties. This allows Tenants to save the phone number to their address book and know it is a message from your property.


This is a licensed feature – reach out to your Sales Rep if you’re interested and they will get you set up.


HONORABLE MENTIONS

Violations

You can now track HOA/rule violations, along with different escalations for each.

Co-Applicants

New ability to allow a primary applicant and sub-applicants, rather than tracking each contact as multiple prospects. This opens many advanced options when conducting the screening process through AmRent.

Available Integrations

This tab on the Admin ribbon gives a quick look at all the available integrations within Rent Manager.

But, Wait… There’s More!
RMU iconCheck out Rent Manager University for the “ICYMI – Releases Q1 2019” webinar to learn more about these latest features, and be sure to join us every Thursday at 2:00 PM ET for our weekly webinars for a deeper dive on each topic.

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