Monthly Archives: February 2008

Possible incorrect 'Paid To' dates

Posted on February 26, 2008

The Paid To date shown may be incorrect in some rare situations.  I would say that probably about 95% of tenants would be correct, but there may be some which are not.

This relates to the way rent arrears are now being calculated.  The arrears are being calculated the new way, but the paid to date is still using the old method of calculating arrears and is basing the paid to date on that arrears value.  More information on the new calculation method can be found here http://www.rentmaster.co.nz/blog/2008/01/Please-read-before-updating-to-version-80.aspx

The program will be changed in the next version to calculate the paid to date using the same method the arrears calculation is using.  But for now, if you have an incorrect paid to dates then download the following program ...

http://www.rentmaster.co.nz/installs/rentanalysis.exe

... and run it on your computer.  When running it, select the tenant you want to fix, and press the Fix This Value button.  This wont have any impact on the rent arrears values.  This program does the same thing the old 'Reallocate' button used to do before it was removed.

New in 8.1 - Database version checking

Posted on February 23, 2008
If there are multiple computers on the same network using the same database, then a new version checking feature has been added to the software.  Each time a computer downloads a new version of the software that version number is inserted into the database.  All the other copies of RentMaster on the network will check if the version of the software on their computer is at least as high as that version in the database.  If it isn't, then it indicates that the computers are running different versions.  This is not a recommended configuration.  All computers should have the same version.  The version check will warn the user that errors could occur if they continue to use mismatched versions.

New in 8.1 - small cosmetic change

Posted on February 19, 2008

This fix relates to the importing of bank statements.

If there is an import rule being applied, and the transaction is an income transaction, the system may enter a tenant code against the transaction in the imported transaction list, even if the income is not a rent payment or extra charges payment amount.  In these cases a tenant is not required.

This issue was purely cosmetic because the transaction once imported had no impact on the tenants balance.  It just looked a bit strange on screen.  Now if a tenant is not required, the tenant selection combo box will be disabled.

New in 8.1 - Rental calendar extra charges

Posted on February 19, 2008

There are 2 issues here.  One is a fix and the other is an enhancement.

The fix applies to situation where you have multiple tenants with the same name.  This can apply quite often when you are using the rental calendar because often a tenant will come back and stay multiple times.  The issue is related to the LinkTo button and linking to Extra Charges.  Currently the system cant differentiate between 2 tenant with the same name, so if you are adding extra charges after using the Link To button the extra charges might get added to the wrong tenant.  The next version will be able to differentiate between them.  The short term solution is to always create tenants with unique names.

The enhancement is also related to the rent calendar screen.  If you double click an entry in the calendar it will now Edit the selected tenant.

 

New in 8.1 - Rent Periods Editing

Posted on February 10, 2008

In the last version the method of calculating rent arrears was changed. As a result of that a previous feature is now redundent and has been removed.

Previously the rent period screen would allow you to edit the Rent Due This Period, Rent Paid, Extra Charges Paid and Amount Due this Period. Because the anount owing is now always calculated from the sum of the transactions, there is no point in editing the Rent Paid, because it will be ignored anyway. So to remove confusion this is now no longer editable, and is instead displayed as a label rather than a text box. The same applies to the Extra Charges Paid. The Amount Due This Period is also non-editable. The only field left as editable is the Rent Due This Period.

New in 8.1 - Vacant days

Posted on February 10, 2008

This is another request from last years survey. The request has been for the Vacant Properties listed on the events screen to show the number of days the property has been vacant for. This only applies when the current tenancy end date has expired (i.e. not properties which are about to become vacant) and also where the property has at least one previous tenant.

I assume the idea is that property managers would like to know which properties have been vacant longest so they can find a tenant for them as soon as possible.

 

While on the events screen, this screen now opens on the same tab it was on when it was last closed. This is in response to a customer who says that they have a favourite tab (cant remember which tab it was) and they always wanted that tab to be open when the screen first opens. So it now remembers which tab you were on, which is probably your favourite one, and goes back there when it is opened again.

Note for people using a multi-user setup.

Posted on February 3, 2008

If you have your RentMaster set up for multiple users across a network, then it is important that each computer is using the same software version.  Dont update one computer and not the others.  The reason is because when the software is updated to a new version, there are sometimes changes made to the database, which all computers are sharing.  However the software using the older version does not know about that database change, and so the data that is being saved on the older version may not be compatible with the new database setup.

In the next version I will try to find some way of limiting the operation of the software if the database is a newer version than the current software installed on the computer to stop this occurance from happening.  But for now you as users will have to be careful.  Just go to the help menu and choose About Rentmaster to find out the RentMaster version on that computer.