Monthly Archives: September 2008

www.FindARentalHome.com now includes google maps

Posted on September 24, 2008

The www.FindARentalHome.com web site now shows a map of the property after a property is selected.

 To take better advantage of this, the more detailed address you can provide, the closer the map will be to the actual location.  So on the Web tab of RentMaster, when it asks for the suburb, city and country, it would be advisable to provide as much detail as possible, including the actual street address if it will fit in the suburb field.  When the google maps are requested, all 3 parts of the address are used as suburb + city + country.

Purchasing tutorial CD's

Posted on September 18, 2008

This question has come up a few times in emails recently, so I thought I would post a blog about it.

People have purchased the software without the tutorial CD, and are now thinking they should have got the CD as well, and were wondering if it can still be purchased separately.

The answer is yes it can be purchased either with or without software.  You can also purchase it prior to purchasing the software as a way of becoming familiar with the software before committing to buying it.

To purchase the CD separately just go through the normal purchase procedure on the web site, and on the order form just choose the CD as the item to purchase without the software.

 

Version 8.4 update

Posted on September 18, 2008

A new version 8.4.2 has just been released.

For those who got a very early version of 8.4.0, on the contractor details screen the phone number fields were not visible.  This was fixed in 8.4.1.

The new look ahead entry of the combo also caused a problem on some screens like the Add Income screen.  After typing in Rent into the income group box, the tenant combo box should have been enabled to allow entry of the tenants name, but this was not happening.  If you used the mouse you would not have had a problem.  Version 8.4.2 fixes this.

You might also notice that the look ahead typing into the tenant combo box is a bit different to the others.  This will be dealt to in a later 8.5 release.  It still works pretty much the same, but looks a bit different.

Owner account balance now available online at RentRecall.com

Posted on September 10, 2008

A new feature recently added to version 8.4 of RentMaster is an owner account balance on the owner details screen.

The same information available on that screen is now also available online at the home page of the landlord login at RentRecall.com web site.

So now the owner has visibility to see what their account balance is at any point in time.

 

Version 8.4 now available

Posted on September 7, 2008
 RentMaster version 8.4 has been released and is available now

These are the key highlights.

  • On the owner details screen is a new tab which displays account information such as the last disbursement, anticipated next disbursement value and available funds.
  • Look-ahead typing has been added to combo boxes, which means you can type the first few characters and it will find the closest match as you type.
  • The ledger transactions report now includes disbursement payments.
  • The Vacant Property Handout report now optionally can include the properties address.
  • Custom Fields have now been added to contractors, in a similar way to custom fields added to tenants and properties and owners.
  • Long term property rentals have now been added to the booking calendar screen as non-editable bookings.
  • Also other minor changes included in this release include...

  • When editing a previous disbursement transaction, the reserve amount was being zeroed out. Fixed.
  • In the date combo, when the date is set to <None>, if the user types a number e.g. 12, the 1 is being ignored and only the 2 was being retained. Now both characters are retained.
  • On the rent status screen, clicking the last column heading was causing the program to crash. Fixed.
  • Some people with faster computers was getting a reboot when updating to a newer version. This has been reduced.
  • The Last Disbursement report now has column totals.
  • On the Mainteance/Options screen, currency and date format changing has been made easier. It still occurs through the windows control panel though.
  • The Mainteance/Options screen has been rearanged a bit. The Tax tab has been replaced with a Regional tab.
  • If you edit a tenant, the focus is set to the name instead of the property combo box initially. Some people were edit a property, and then scrolling the mouse wheel, which was changing the property associated with that tenant.
  • The booking calendar screen maximum visible property count has been increased from 50 to 100, for people with large enough monitors.
  • On the Owner Transaction Summary report, the word Disbursement has been added to the details column for disbursement transactions.
  • When creating expense transactions via work orders, the Automatic Extra Fee on the expense group was being ignored. Fixed.
  •  

    New in 8.4 - Long term tenants on the booking calendar

    Posted on September 2, 2008

    This has been asked for a few times, so it has now been added.

    The booking calendar screen now includes tenants who are long term tenants.  They will be displayed in a grey colour, and will not be selectable for edit or payment taking etc like the short term tenants, but they will be there.

    This mainly benefits people who have properties that they sometimes rent to long term tenants and sometimes short term tenants e.g. during the holiday season.  Because now you can see when the property is actually available for short term tenants.

    new in 8.4 - Owner Account Information

    Posted on September 1, 2008

    Coming soon in version 8.4 is a new feature designed mainly for property managers.

    The owner details screen will contain a new tab called the Information tab.  This tab will list summary financial details regarding this owner similar to the following

    Last Disbursement Date          xx/xx/xx
    Last Disbursement Amount        xxx.xx

    Since the Last Disbursement...
    Rent Received                   xxx.xx
    Expenses Paid                   xxx.xx
    Anticipated Fees                xxx.xx
    Extra Fees                      xxx.xx
    Reserve to be Retailed          xxx.xx
    Anticipated Next Disbursement   xxx.xx

    Current Reserve Retailed        xxx.xx
    Balance of Account              xxx.xx

    The balance of Account number at the bottom represents the amount of money currently available in the account for this owner which could be used to pay for upcoming expenses.

    This screen provides similar information to what is shown in the Owner Trial Balance report.

    It is anticipated the same information will soon be made available on the landlords login for the RentRecall.com web site, so landlords can see the same information the property manager can see.