Property Manager V7.0 User Guide

Transcription

1 Property Manager V7.0 User Guide

2 Contents 1. Overview of Property Manager 2. Quick Start 3. Property Details 4. Tenants 5. Landlord Accounts 6. Letting Agent Accounts 7. Property Maintenance 7.1 Maintenance Jobs 7.2 Suppliers 8. Insurance 9. Communicate Through Property Manager 10. Online Marketing 11. Administer Property Manager 12. Activating Property Manager 2

3 1. Overview of Property Manager Property Manager is designed to assist letting agents and property managers in the day today marketing and management of their rental property. The software is designed to make light work of marketing property details through online portals, managing property accounts, maintaining key property details, tracking and recording property maintenance schedules (e.g. gas or electrical work), managing tenancy agreements, including payment schedules, storing supplier details, generating standard letters (e.g. tenant statements), and recording and tracking property insurance details. These key activities can be accessed through the main menu, illustrated below: The home screen automatically shows all the events occurring across your property portfolio. Through the alerts, you can easily see which items require your attention. A brief overview of each menu is detailed below: Property Details The Property Details menu allows you to store and retrieve key information on each property including: Key building details Purchase details 3

4 Owner details Inventory details Utility details Generate summary reports by building, flat or property including a summary of current tenants, scheduled maintenance jobs, active insurance policies., property inventories and owner details. Generate property availability reports based on your tenant requirements. Automatically generate property management agreements that can be customised to your requirements. Automatically generate property brochures. Property Maintenance Menu The Property Maintenance Menu allows you to schedule and track property maintenance jobs (or in fact any task), store supplier details and record quotations for work, as detailed below: Maintenance Job Menu Schedule and keep track of maintenance jobs by property including mandatory gas inspections, electrical inspections and any other routine maintenance or task. Produce various reports allowing you to see future maintenance schedules or alternatively, maintenance history to date. Produce reports of equipment requiring service (including frequency) by property. These are based on the property inventory. Supplier Menu Track all of your supplier details, including contact details, service levels and view transaction history reports by supplier. keep track of which suppliers hold which keys. Tenant Menu The Tenant Menu is used to manage your tenants, including tenancy agreements, tenant payments schedules, deposits and personal details such as references. Key features include the ability to manage: Tenant Enquiry details Tenant, guarantor and reference details Rental details including rent, deposit, contract start & end dates and utility meter details Create and track custom payment schedules, for individual tenants, e.g. create a monthly payment schedule. Automatically produce tenant letters and reports including tenancy agreements, account statements, overdue rent reminders, tenancy summary reports, payment history details, reference requests, etc. You may customise our standard letters and easily add your own. Multiple tenancy agreements can be associated with an individual property, thereby allowing for sublets for example to students. 4

5 Communicate with your tenants through Property Manager, ing them statements or other letters or send them immediate SMS mobile phone message through the powerful Communicator screen. Accounts Menu The Accounts Menu allows you to record income and expense transactions against your properties and tenants and then generate a variety of income, expense and profitability reports: Record income and expense transactions against individual properties and tenants. Classify transactions by expense type (eg gas maintenance) Classify transactions as either operating or capital expenditure Assign properties to specific bank accounts Produce various financial reports including: Tenant Payment Schedules (historic and future) Income & Expense reports by bank account, property, tenant, month & expense type Profitability reports by property & month Capital Investment reports by property & month The financial reports can be limited to retrieve details, specific to a property, tenant, or time period. Reconcile Property Manager with your bank statement through the built in worksheet and reports Insurance Menu The Insurance menu allows you to manage a variety of insurance policies for your properties. Minimizing the risk of policies expiring without alternative insurance being put in place. Communication Menu The communication menu allows you to easily generate your tenant and landlord letters and contracts. In addition, you can or send instant messages to your tenants, suppliers and landlords both for administrative purposes but also for marketing new products and services. Online Marketing Property Manager allows you to hold all your property marketing details in one location (for both property sales and lettings) and automatically upload the details to the leading UK property portals such as RightMove, Findaproperty.com and Zoopla.co.uk Administration Menu The Administration menu allows you to customise Property Manager as well as perform critical routine maintenance such as backing up your data. Other Features Property Manager brings important information to your attention through the use of colour coding. This allows you to immediately identify key information without having to wade through the detail. The home Diary screen allows you to see a consolidated view of important upcoming events, across your entire property portfolio. For example, you can see what rent is becoming due, 5

6 tenancy agreements due to expire and maintenance jobs that are due to complete. At a glance, you can see the status across all your properties. Property Manager provides detailed reporting within each of the menus, highlighting events that are due to occur, such as a property becoming vacant. In addition, Property Manager will automatically generate all of your standard letters (eg tenancy agreements). The Property Manager standard letters may be customised to meet your requirements. Through Property Managers Quick Search feature (which is like Google Search), you can instantly retrieve a snap shot of a property including current tenant details, maintenance history and landlord details. This is very useful when you need to quickly look up some information for example if a tenant phones up with an query. Property Manager improves your productivity through simplifying the input of key data. For example, dates are simply entered through a pop up calendar rather than requiring the traditional

7 2. Quick Start In order to get up and running as quickly as possible, we suggest that you follow these steps: 1. Setup Your Company Details. Within the Administration Menu, select the "My Company Details" option and record your trading name, address and contact details. These will appear in all letters and statements that are automatically generated. Within the Network & Setting screen, add your details. These will be used to send out any s such as statements. If you use MS Outlook, you can copy the settings from the Outlook Tools > Account Settings screen. 2. Add property details. Before entering tenant, contract, accounting, maintenance or insurance details, you need to add the property details (including owner details if you are an agent). This allows the association, tracking and reporting of accounts, maintenance jobs, etc, against an individual property. 3. Add Tenant details including their reference and guarantor details if required. 4. Add Tenant Contracts This will create a payment schedule by tenant, allowing you to track and manage the receipt of rental income. 5. Record income and expense transactions as required. 6. Tenant and financial reports will be available based on the information entered. See the tenant reports screen to generate invoices, statements and rent reminders. 7. Add additional information as required, such as supplier details, maintenance schedules, equipment inventories and insurance policy details. 8. The diary screen is a work bench that highlights events that need your attention. Simply click on an event to be taken to the event update screen. Hover the mouse over each event and you are shown additional details. 9. Use the Communicate Menu to communicate with your tenants, landlords and suppliers via or SMS. You can also generate all your standard letters such as welcome letters or overdue rent reminders. 10. Through the Online-Marketing screen, you can quickly add marketing details for each property. Once setup, these can then be automatically uploaded to the portals. 7

8 3. Property Details The Property Details menu allows you to setup, store and retrieve property specific information, such as address, marketing, room, equipment, utility, landlord and purchase details. All of your property details are immediately available, bringing together various pieces of information in one place. In addition, you may use the Property Search feature to identify suitable properties for prospective tenants. Property Details Menu The Property Details menu includes the following options: Add New Property To record your building or property details, select the Add New button. Enter the property details in the blank boxes. Click on the information that you have entered. button, to save the 8

9 At the top of the screen, you will see a number of tabs, which allow you to record and retrieve additional property information: Note: The amount you enter in the average rental income box will appear on the property availability report. As such, you may wish to make this a monthly equivalent amount for all your properties. That way, when searching for properties on rental amount, you will be comparing similar periods. To store a picture of a property, click on the below a picture box and select the appropriate image. Note: We suggest that images are saved in the JPG file format and sized to 160 x 160 mm in order to speed up the loading of the files. Property Manager creates a link to your image files, thereby minimising the size of the database. Click on the tabs to add additional details. Record Marketing Details Property Manager allows you to record marketing details for each property. Once added, you can then upload the marketing details to the leading UK portals, ensuring your properties get the maximum internet exposure. Simply fill in the screens, adding in as much marketing detail as you wish to record. 9

10 Note that you may add PDF brochures, floor plans, add up to 10 pictures and record up to 10 features which will be prominently displayed at the top of the property details. You may also attach HIP's, EPC's and provide the link to a virtual tour if available. Once the details have been added, click on the Save button to record the details. Recording Inventory and Equipment Details You may record as many inventory items as you wish. Simply fill in the inventory form and click the save button for each item. You may export the inventory to Excel if required (eg to perform an inventory review) by clicking on the button To add a new location, click on the button and enter the new location. By entering the equipment inventory and specifying how often the item must be serviced, you will be able to generate reports of equipment that requires servicing by property such as gas appliances, that require an annual service. Once you have entered all the equipment, click on the or a choose another Tab to enter additional details button to close the screen 10

11 Adding Owner Details Property Manager allows managing agents to record owner details, including commission charges and any late rent charges that will be applied to tenants. Landlords may also use this screen to record the late rent charge for each property. Simply fill in the form to record the details. Adding sub units or flats Property Manager allows you to add sub units or flats to an existing property. By setting up this structure, you may generate consolidated reports for a building in addition to the standard property reports. Once you have recorded the main building details, simply click on the Configure Flats/ Units button. Within this screen, you will be able to record the specific unit details such as flat name, furnishing details, etc. To add other details like inventories, go to the Modify Property screen. 11

12 View Property Details To see a properties details, click on the Modify button and select the property from the list of available properties. This will retrieve the selected property details. Click on the Tabs at the top of the screen to see additional property details. All screens can be updated if required. Property Search The property search feature allows you to easily find properties for your tenants. You may limit the report to those that are available for rent, in a certain location, with so many rooms, etc. 12

13 Reports Screen Equipment Inventory Report An equipment inventory report is available. This will display the inventory listed by house. Those items that require servicing are highlighted, indicating the frequency of the required servicing. To determine when the property was last serviced, visit the Property Maintenance, Maintenance Job Menu. Property Summary Report This report immediately gives you a snapshot of a property including the current status of active tenancy agreements, scheduled maintenance jobs (including 1 years history useful for mandatory inspections), property insurance details, room specifications along with equipment details. Property Availability Report The Property Availability search allows you to perform searches for prospective tenants against your portfolio of properties. The search can be restricted to a particular town, number of bedrooms, maximum rent, landlord or availability date. Landlord Summary Report The Landlord Summary report shows the landlord owner details for each property. 13

14 4. Tenant Details The tenant menu is used to record and manage tenant leads, tenant details, tenant contracts, reference and guarantor details as well as to generate standard tenant correspondence such as tenant statements. In addition, a key feature of Property Manager, is the ability to automatically generate payment schedules for each tenant, for example monthly rent. As payments are received and recorded in the accounts module, the tenant payment record is automatically updated allowing you to see at a glance, the tenant payment history to date, current tenant account balance and the future payment schedule. Through the tenant payment schedule, it is also possible to forecast future income. Through this automation, you can be sure of knowing exactly what has been paid and what is outstanding. The Tenant Menu includes the following options: Tenant Enquiry Property Manager helps you manage the tenant leads or enquiries that you receive from your marketing efforts. By recording and tracking each lead, you can easily see which tenants are actively looking for property. You can also see where the leads are coming from, helping you refine your marketing effort. Add Enquiry In order to record a new tenant lead or enquiry, simply fill in the form entering the tenants name, contact number, address and requirements. Click the Save button to record the details. Edit Enquiry Through the Edit Enquiry screen you can filter all the leads on various criteria such as status (eg open). That way, you can easily follow up with the prospective tenants. Double click on a tenant enquiry to see and update the details. 14

15 Delete Enquiry To remove any old enquiries, simply go to the delete enquiry screen and select the enquiry you wish to delete. Enquiry Reports The Enquiry Reports screen allows you to generate various reports on your tenant leads. The report can be filtered by status, town, advertising medium, etc. The report can be exported to Excel or PDF format. Add New Tenant This screen allows you to record key tenant details such as name, contact, employer and reference details. Record as much detail as you need. Additional details can be recorded on the tenant tabs such as previous landlord details, guarantor details and bank details. Generate various reference request by clicking on the request button. Edit Tenant Menu As above, allows you to review and modify an existing tenants details. Tenant Contracts Menu 15

16 Click on the Tenant Contract Menu to setup and manage your tenant contracts, payment schedules and manage your tenant deposits. It is also used to communicate with your tenants. The menu will extend to allow the addition of new contracts as well as maintenance of any existing contracts: Add New Lease Once you have saved a new tenant, click on the Tenant Lease Menu. Select the Tenants name, select the property and enter the rental start date, end date, rental charge and payment frequency. Then click on the disk button to save the contract. Property Manager will automatically generate the tenants payment schedule. Note that payments can be scheduled daily, weekly, fortnightly, monthly, every 4 weeks, quarterly, every 6 months or annually. If these frequencies do not meet your requirements, simply select the closest frequency. You may then manually edit the Payment Details tab and customise the payment schedule as required. Click on the "Generate Tenancy Agreement" button to automatically generate a tenancy agreement. The MS Word tenancy agreement template can be found in the C:\Property Manager\Templates folder. This can be customised as required. 16

17 Click on the Generate Lease Expiry button to automatically generate a letter that advises the tenant that their tenancy is due to expire and inviting them to extend the agreement. The MS Word tenancy agreement template can be found in the C:\Property Manager\Templates folder. This can be customised as required. Note that if an address is provided for the tenant, you may automatically the agreement or lease expiry notification to the tenant through the Communicate screen. The Communicate menu allows you to generate a number of standard letters for your tenants such as overdue rent reminders, lease expiry notification, Section 21, etc. You may add in your own standard letters as required. All the underlying templates may be customised to meet your requirements. Payment Details Tab The Payment Details tab allows you to record deposit details as well as view and modify the existing payment schedule. Note that when entering payments through the accounts menu, you select the appropriate tenant and payment period from a drop down list. Once the transaction has been entered, the tenant payment schedule is automatically updated with the received amount and date of the payment. As such, payments should not be entered directly into the Received column. All payments should be entered through the Accounts Menu > Record Income screen. 17

18 Payments are colour coded. Green payments have been received as expected, yellow payments are due in the next 30 days and red payments are overdue. Enter the deposit details as required. Additional payments such as a monthly cleaning bill, can be added to the schedule through the Add Other Payments box. Enter the start and end date for the expense, a brief description such as Cleaning, how much the expense will cost and the frequency of the payment. Once you have entered the details, click on the button. You will now see the additional expense items added to the tenant payment schedule. Note that you may modify any of the individual payment schedules by editing the individual rows in the payment schedule. Property Meter Details Tab The Property Meter Details Tab is used to record the opening meter readings at the start of the tenancy agreement and also to hold the final meter readings at the end of the tenancy. You may automatically generate a notification to the utility provider advising them of the tenant arrival or departure by clicking on the appropriate notification button. Note that you will need to have the utility provider details recorded in the Property Details > Utility Details section. This is where the supplier name and address are taken from for the correspondence. Contact Tenant Tab 18

19 One of Property Managers key strengths is its ability to help you communicate with your tenants, suppliers and landlords. The Contact Tenant tab allows you to easily send an instant message to the tenants mobile phone or their address. Simply select the tenant you wish to communicate with and fill in the Subject and Message body. As soon as you press Send, the message is sent. Review Tenant Details From the Tenant Menu, click on the Edit button followed by the Tenant Contract Tab. You can then select the tenant contract that you wish to view. Once selected, you will be able to view the tenant summary, current payment details (actual payment history to date including the future schedule), personal, deposit and property meter details. Modifying the payment Schedule In the event of a tenant vacating a property early, update the tenancy end date on the Summary page. The payment schedule will automatically remove any scheduled payments beyond the end date. If a tenant wishes to extend the rental period of a property, simply extend the contract end date. The payment schedule will automatically track the extra due payments. Otherwise, you may edit the payment schedule, modifying dates, amounts and descriptions. 19

20 Tenant Summary Table - Deleting a Lease The table allows you to view all contracts in a table format, sorted by property address and contract start date. Here a contract can be deleted if required. Simply highlight the row by clicking on the box to the left of the contract and click the delete button. If a contract is deleted, their payment schedule will also be deleted, along with the accounting records. Tenant Reports A number of tenant reports are available that can be limited to a tenant, property or landlord for any time period or combination. Tenancy Lease Summary Report this report provides a snapshot of all tenancy agreements, sorted by tenancy end date. The report shows any outstanding balance by contract. As you can see below, it also includes contract value and whether the property is managed by an agent or not. 20

21 Payment Schedule Report by month - Provides a summary of payments due each month including whether the payment has been received or not. 21

22 Note that scheduled payments with a red date are overdue. Payment with a yellow date are part paid and payments with green dates have been paid in full. Payment Schedule Report by tenant Provides a tenant account statement including payment history and current balance. Generate Tenant Statements - Automatically generate statements for your tenants over any time period (historic or future). Note that you can upload your own logo and have it displayed on correspondence. 22

23 The statement can be saved in Word format or Adobe PDF format. Reports Screen The Reports screen allows you to easily invoices and statements to your tenants. You may send individual s to specific tenants or send s to all active tenants in one go. The message can be customised and saved as required. 23

24 Generate Tenant Invoice Generate invoices for your tenants over any time period. 24

25 The invoice can be saved in Word format or Adobe PDF format. Generate Overdue Rent Reminders Property Manager allows you to automatically generate overdue rent reminders. The letters will be generated for all tenants with overdue rent, including the total of the amount due. Generate Late Rent Charges - This screen allows you to automatically generate late rent charges for any overdue rent. Charges can be applied individually, at a tenant level or to all tenants with overdue rent. These charges are then added to the tenants payments schedule. 25

26 5. Landlord Edition Accounts One of Property Managers key features, is its ability to manage your property accounts, allowing various income and expense reports to be generated by property or over a certain period of time for example, over a financial year. If you are a property management agent then please see section 6. Agent Accounting. Depreciation Expense transactions can be entered and classified as either capital expenditure or as an operating expense. In Property Manager, operating expenses are taken from rental income to give the overall profit of a property. Capital expenditure is seen as a long term investment in the property and as such not classed as an operating expense that affects the profit or loss of a property. At the date of publication of this document, the UK government allows an individual to either claim an ongoing 10% depreciation on all rental income to cover depreciation (on previous capital expenditure) or to directly charge the capital expenditure against rental income subject to the Inland Revenue conditions. In the event of using the 10% depreciation calculation, we suggest that you simply add an additional expense transaction of 10% of rental income at the end of the financial year. Alternatively, if you wish to directly claim capital expenditure against the rental income, simply enter the transactions as operating expenses. We strongly suggest that you seek independent financial advice from qualified accountants to determine which depreciation method is most suitable for your circumstances and what the current rules and allowances are. The Accounts Menu has the following options: Record Income Property Manager allows you to record income through either a worksheet screen, which is designed to make it quick to record your tenants payments. Alternatively, you may use the Record Income screen, which gives more flexibility in recording the income. 26

27 Record Income Worksheet Within the worksheet, simply tick the payments that have been received. Property Manager will then automatically update the accounts and the tenants payment schedule to record the transaction. If the tenant has made a part payment, simply enter the amount received in the "Amount Paid" box. The balance will then remain outstanding. Note that you may edit or delete any of the scheduled payments if required. Record Income Screen Select the property, to which the transaction belongs and then select the tenant (the tenant list will be automatically limited to tenants with an active contract at the property) and the appropriate rental period. Once selected, the transaction date and amount will be automatically filled in. Modify as required and click on the disk button to save the transaction. 27

28 The Rental Period listing, illustrates the payment schedule. When you select a rental period, you will see the amount owing for that period - including any part payments that still remain if an initial payment has been made. Having recorded the income, the tenants payment history will be automatically updated. If you have received a part payment, simply select the correct rental period and change the amount received accordingly. When you receive the balance, record the transaction and select the same rental period. This will ensure that the tenants payment history is accurate. If you have received an exceptional payment from a tenant, simply select the tenant name and leave the rental period blank. To save the transaction click on the button. Record Expenses Property Manager allows you to record one off expenses, such as property maintenance costs or alternatively to setup and record recurring expenses, such as weekly cleaning costs. Non Recurring Expense Selected the property which is to be charged, from the Property Address filter. Fill in the date, enter the expense amount and any transaction description you wish to record. 28

29 Select the appropriate Expense type, e.g. gas maintenance (through classifying expenses you may generate a number of expense reports which give you useful information. For example, how much have I spent on decorating a particular property). By selecting the supplier, the payment was made to, you will be able to generate supplier payment history reports. For example, this would allow you to calculate how much has been paid to a maintenance company over the course of a year. If the expense is a capital purchase, tick the capital purchase box. Likewise, if the transaction includes VAT, tick the VAT included box. By default, the expense is charged to the Property however within the Allocation section, you have the opportunity to allocate the expense to the tenant (in which case it will appear in the tenants payment schedule) or both tenant and property if you wish to reconcile the expense against the income. Recurring Expense Select the property which is to be charged, from the Property Address filter. Fill in the date pattern, enter the expense amount and any transaction description you wish to record. 29

30 View / Modify Transaction Table This screen allows you to review, sort, modify or delete transaction details in a spreadsheet type format. 30

31 Edit the transaction detail as required. The changes are automatically saved. To delete a transaction, click on the box to the left of the transaction to highlight the row, then click the delete key on your keyboard. Property Manager will ask for confirmation that you wish to delete the transaction. Confirm to delete the transaction. Accounting Reports The Financial reports are broken into four categories: Income Reports allow you to generate various reports based on rental income, for example income by month or income by property. Expense Reports allow you to generate various reports based on expenses incurred in the running of the properties, for example expenses by month, by property or by expense type. Profitability Reports allow you to view reports based on income less expense, by month or by property. Capital Transaction Reports allow you to generate investment reports by month, by property or by expense type. VAT Reports allow you to generate Value Added Tax reports on both expenditure and income. Bank Reconciliation Report - allows you to reconcile Property Manager transactions with your bank statement, keeping a record of all unreconciled transactions. 31

32 In addition to the various reports, a report filter is provided that allows you to limit the reports to a property, time period (e.g. financial year) or tenant. See example reports below: 32

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35 35

36 6. Managing Agent Accounts One of Property Managers key features is its ability to manage your business and clients property accounts. It allows you to automatically generate various client income and expense reports, over a certain period of time - for example, over a financial year as well as generate income, expense and profit and loss reports for your own business. Property Manager allows you to setup multiple bank accounts and associate each property with a particular bank account. Transactions are automatically posted to the correct account allowing you to easily generate financial reports by property, bank account or landlord over any time period. Depreciation Expense transactions can be entered and classified as either capital expenditure or as an operating expense. In Property Manager, operating expenses are taken from rental income to give the overall profit of a property. Capital expenditure is seen as a long term investment in the property and as such not classed as an operating expense that affects the profit or loss of a property. At the date of publication of this document, the UK government allows an individual to either claim an ongoing 10% depreciation on all rental income to cover depreciation (on previous capital expenditure) or to directly charge the capital expenditure against rental income subject to the Inland Revenue conditions. In the event of using the 10% depreciation calculation, we suggest that you simply add an additional expense transaction of 10% of rental income at the end of the financial year. Alternatively, if you wish to directly claim capital expenditure against the rental income, simply enter the transactions as operating expenses. We strongly suggest that you seek independent financial advice from qualified accountants to determine which depreciation method is most suitable for your circumstances and what the current rules and allowances are. The Accounts Menu has the following options: Record Income 36

37 Property Manager allows you to record income through either a worksheet screen, which is designed to make it quick to record your tenants payments. Alternatively, you may use the Record Income screen, which gives more flexibility in recording the income. Tenant Payment Schedule Worksheet Within the worksheet, simply tick the payments that have been received. Property Manager will then automatically update the accounts and the tenants payment schedule to record the transaction. If the tenant has made a part payment, simply enter the amount received in the "Amount Paid" box. The balance will then remain outstanding. Note that you may edit or delete any of the scheduled payments if required. When recording the receipt of income, Property Manager will automatically generate and apply commission charges, saving you the effort of manually calculating and applying the charges. The charges are based on the commission charge set against the property within the Landlord details section. Record Income Screen Select the property, to which the transaction belongs and then select the tenant (the tenant list will be automatically limited to tenants with an active contract at the property) and the appropriate rental period. 37

38 Once selected, the transaction date and amount will be automatically filled in. Modify as required and click on the disk button to save the transaction. Agency Fee's On the right hand side of the screen you will see the "Agency Fee" section. This displays the agreed property commission charge (e.g. 10%) and automatically calculates the fee. Note that you may alter the fee by entering a new value in the "Edit Amount" box. Set this value to "0" if there should not be a charge. The Expense Type should be set to "Property Management", "Commission Charge" or any other expense type that begins with "Property Management". These charges will then be treated as income to your Property Management business. If you wish to add Value Added Tax (VAT or GST) to the transaction, tick the VAT box. Note that you set the agent commission rate in the Property Details > Owner Details screen. Each property or flat may have a different rate. Having recorded the income, the tenants payment history will be automatically updated. 38

39 Record Expenses Property Manager allows you to record one off expenses, such as property maintenance costs or alternatively to setup and record recurring expenses, such as weekly cleaning costs. Non Recurring Expense Selected the property which is to be charged, from the Property Address filter. Fill in the date, enter the expense amount and any transaction description you wish to record. Select the appropriate Expense type, e.g. gas maintenance (through classifying expenses you may generate a number of expense reports which give you useful information. For example, how much have I spent on decorating a particular property). By selecting the supplier, the payment was made to, you will be able to generate supplier payment history reports. For example, this would allow you to calculate how much has been paid to a maintenance company over the course of a year. If the expense is a capital purchase, tick the capital purchase box. Likewise, if the transaction includes VAT, tick the VAT included box. By default, the expense is charged to the Property however within the Allocation section, you have the opportunity to allocate the expense to the tenant (in which case it will appear in the tenants payment schedule) or both tenant and property if you wish to reconcile the expense against the income. Recurring Expense 39

40 Select the property which is to be charged, from the Property Address filter. Fill in the date pattern, enter the expense amount and any transaction description you wish to record. Having selected the property and date, enter the expense amount and any transaction description you wish to record. View / Modify Transaction Table This screen allows you to review, sort, modify or delete transaction details in a spreadsheet type format. 40

41 Edit the transaction detail as required. The changes are automatically saved. To delete a transaction, click on the box to the left of the transaction to highlight the row, then click the delete key on your keyboard. Property Manager will ask for confirmation that you wish to delete the transaction. Confirm to delete the transaction. Accounting Reports The Financial reports are broken into a number of categories: Income Reports allow you to generate various reports based on rental income, for example income by month or income by property. Expense Reports allow you to generate various reports based on expenses incurred in the running of the properties, for example expenses by month, by property or by expense type. Profitability Reports allow you to view reports based on income less expense, by month or by property. Landlord Reports - allow you to generate landlord income, expense and statement reports. Capital Transaction Reports allow you to generate investment reports by month, by property or by expense type. VAT Reports allow you to generate Value Added Tax reports on both expenditure and income. 41

42 Bank Reconciliation Report - allows you to reconcile Property Manager transactions with your bank statement, keeping a record of all unreconciled transactions. In addition to the various reports, a report filter is provided that allows you to limit the reports to a property, time period (e.g. financial year) or tenant. See example reports below: 42

43 Example Tenant Statement 43

44 Example Landlord Statement 44

45 Example Income Report 45

46 Example Income Report 46

47 Example Summary Income & Expense Report 47

48 Internal Financial Reports The internal reports are broken into three categories: Income Reports - allow you to generate income reports based on direct income to your business - such as commission fees. Cash Flow Report - The Future Income Projection report calculates future commission income based on current tenancy agreements. VAT Reports - allows you to calculate inbound and outbound VAT attributable to your business. 48

49 7. Property Maintenance The Property Maintenance Menu allows you to manage your suppliers and all maintenance activity across your property portfolio. The Maintenance Job Menu is used to schedule and track property maintenance for example gas inspections, fire safety inspections or routine maintenance jobs such as fixing the roof. The Supplier Menu once you have clicked on the Maintenance Menu, a tab will be seen on the top menu that allows you to select the supplier menu. Here you can add, modify or delete suppliers. 7.1 The Maintenance Job Menu Schedule any type of maintenance activity or task that you wish to track to completion. Maintenance activity is managed through the following menu: Add Maintenance Job To add a new maintenance job, select the "New Job menu option 49

50 Select the property the maintenance activity relates to and complete the description details, type of maintenance job, scheduled date, select the service company and enter the estimated cost. Note that you can add a new Service Company (Supplier) by clicking on the Add New button. If required, you can also assign inventory items and specific workers to a maintenance job. Work job sheets can be automatically generated and ed to the workers. Click on the disk button to save the record. From this point, the maintenance job will appear in the schedule reports and on the diary screens. If the job has already completed, simply enter the completion details. When entering the completion details, the transaction will be automatically recorded in the accounts. Recurring Job The recurring job screen allows you to setup a job that repeats a number of times - such as an annual gas inspection or monthly cleaning job. The job frequency pattern can be changed as required. Annual Frequency: 50

51 Monthly Frequency Weekly Frequency Daily Frequency Update Maintenance Job From the Modify Job screen, select the property and specific job that you wish to update. Modify the planned service date if required or enter the date the job was completed along with any service reference numbers (for guarantees or proof of service) and costs. If certificates should be issued as part of the service, we suggest that you leave the Date Service Completed Date blank until the certificates arrive. Otherwise the job will be dropped off any exception reports. When entering the completion details, the transaction will be automatically recorded in the accounts. Maintenance Schedule 51

52 This screen shows a diary view of all jobs. The jobs are colour coded to indicate if they are complete (green), upcoming (yellow) or overdue (red). If you hover the mouse over each diary event, the event details will be displayed. Maintenance Table The Maintenance Table displays a list of all jobs in a spreadsheet like screen. The jobs can be sorted by clicking on the column headings. The jobs can be edited or deleted as required. Maintenance Reports The Maintenance Report screen allows you to generate various maintenance reports such as, work orders, reports by property, by supplier, by job type or over a date range. The reports show both historical jobs as well as jobs scheduled for completion. 52

53 7.2 The Supplier Menu The Supplier menu allows you to keep track of all your supplier details including company name and address, contact names, phone numbers, and web site address. You may also track and manage the release of keys to suppliers. To access the Supplier Menu, click on the Maintenance Menu and then on the Supplier tab. When transactions are entered through the accounts menu, they may be linked to a supplier, allowing you to generate supplier transaction history reports. Suppliers can be classified by expense type, allowing you to generate reports by expense type, eg decorators in Hull. The Supplier Menu provides the following options: Add New Supplier Details Enter the supplier details on the form, as illustrated below 53

54 When entering supplier details, select the appropriate Expense Type (eg Decorator) from the drop down list. If there is not an appropriate expense type available, click on the button and enter the expense type name. Once entered, you may select the new expense type from the drop down list. If the supplier is VAT registered, tick the VAT box. When deciding on which suppliers to use, you may generate a report showing all suppliers including their VAT status. With this information, you may choose to use the non VAT registered suppliers, thereby saving the tax. If the Supplier is a property agent, tick the Property Agent box. The agent may then be selected to manage properties or tenants. Click on the disk button to save the record. Modify Supplier Details From the Modify Supplier screen, select the supplier you wish to retrieve, from the drop down list see example. You may amend any of the supplier details and save the changes. Supplier Transaction Reports 54

55 To see a suppliers transaction history, select the "Supplier Transaction Report" from the Supplier Menu. This report allows you to see the payments made to a particular supplier, thereby facilitating negotiation discussions or assisting in the resolution of payment queries. Reports can be limited to a particular supplier, expense type, time period or combination. For example, all decorating suppliers could be retrieved. Alternatively, leave all selections blank and click on the "Generate Report" button to retrieve all supplier transaction history. See example below: Supplier Contact Details by company name Accessed from the Supplier Menu, this screen provides a summary table listing of all supplier details, sorted by company name, in alphabetical order. 55

56 You may change any of the details in the table. If you click on a column heading, the data will be sorted on that column. Supplier Contact Details by expense type This form provides a summary table listing of all supplier details, sorted by expense type and town. For example, all decorators in Reading, would be grouped together. You may update any of the details in the table. If you click on a column heading, the data will be sorted on that column. Add / Modify Expense Type Expense Types are used to classify a supplier or transaction, typically by trade, thereby allowing for improved reporting. For example, if you use a letting agent to manage your property and have a letting agent expense type, then reports can be generated on both suppliers that are letting agents and expenses paid to letting agents. To view the existing expense types, click on the Administration menu, followed by "Customise Property Manager" option. Select the "Modify Predefined Types button. In this screen, you can modify all of the Property Manager drop down listings. Select "Expense Types". You will then see all the expense types. You may rename any of the existing expense types if required or you may add a new expense type by entering the new Expense Type in the blank cell in the bottom of the table. Alternatively, to add a new expense type, simply click on the Add New Expense Type button and enter the new expense type. Note that if you delete an expense type, you will loose the ability to produce expense reports based on the old expense type (the transactions will remain in the accounts, however the expense type field will be blank). 56

57 Key Management Property Manager allows you to book keys out to a supplier and then to book them back in again so you can keep track of who has your property keys. To book keys to a supplier, click on the Book Keys Out menu. Select the Property and Supplier and enter the "Handing Over Time". Click on the button to record the entry. You may generate a report that shows who has been issued keys for a property (or clear the property address to see all properties) by clicking on the Key Management Report button. To book keys back in, click on the Book Keys In screen. In this screen, you can select the property followed by the supplier. You will then see when the keys were issued. Update the receiving time to complete the record and click on the button to save the details. 57

58 8. Insurance The Insurance menu helps you to manage a variety of insurance policies for your properties. Any type of policy can be recorded but typically you might record buildings, contents and rental insurance. Property Manager records the key policy details, allowing you to retrieve existing policies and alerts you to policies that are coming up for renewal. The Insurance Menu has the following options: Add New Policy Details To enter a new policy, simply complete the form, filling in the details: 58

59 Select the property that the insurance policy applies to and enter the insurance details. Note that you may customise the Insurance Types drop down selection list through the Administration Menu. Click on the disk button to save the record. View Existing Policy Details Through the Modify Policy button, you may retrieve any of the policies, through a drop down selection box. The details may be amended as required. Insurance Table The insurance table provides a summary view of all policies. These can be sorted into any order by clicking on the column headings and edited as required. Insurance Reports Reports can be limited to a particular property, insurance type, time period or combination. Alternatively, leave all selections blank and click on the Generate Report button to retrieve all insurance details. 59

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61 9. Communicate Menu Property Manager allows you to automatically or send instant SMS message to your tenant, landlords and suppliers. In addition, you may generate a number of standard letters and statements that can be sent to tenants, referees and utility providers. Each of the letters or statements has an underlying Microsoft Word template, which may be customised to your requirements. You may customise and save a standard message against the standard letter template. To send an , simply select the tenant, supplier or landlord and click the "Get Addresses" button. You may then fill out the form and include any attachments as required. Send SMS Menu - Instant Messaging Property Manager allows you to send instant messages to the mobile phones of tenants, landlords and suppliers. The message is normally delivered instantly to the recipients phone. This can be very useful to send reminders to contractors, request keys, chase overdue rent, etc. 61

62 As the SMS network uses the mobile phone network, a small cost is charged to send each SMS message, you will need to ensure that you have enough SMS message credits to use this service. The credits can be purchased online through In the Generate Standard Letter screen, select the property and tenant that you wish to generate a letter for. Select the letter or template and click the "View" button. If you wish to send the letter as an , click on the "Send " button. The Add New Standard Letter screen allows you to copy any of the existing standard letters and customise it. For example, if you have different AST agreements for residential, commercial or retail tenants, you can copy the included AST agreement and customise each one to meet your requirements. Click on the "Add New Template" button and navigate to the C:\Property Manager\Templates folder. Select the template that you wish to copy. Enter the Template Name and click the button. Property Manager will make a copy of the file in the Templates folder. You may then customise the new template as required. Customising Standard Letters 62

63 Property Manager allows you to automatically generate a number of standard letters through MS Word. Each letter has its own template that can be customised to meet your requirements. Your trading name and address is taken from the My Company Details form within the Administration Menu. These appear on all letters (indicating who the letter is from). The following letters may be generated: Tenant - Application Form Tenant - Bank Reference Request Tenant - Personal Reference Request Tenant - Employment Reference Request Tenant - Guarantor Request Tenant - Old Landlord Reference Request Tenant - Standing Order Mandate Tenant - Deposit Receipt Tenant - Assured Shorthold Tenancy Agreement Tenant - Commercial Tenancy Agreement Tenant - Lease Due to Expire - Tenant Enquiry Tenant - Overdue Rent Reminder Utility Provider - Water Provider Notification of New Tenant Utility Provider - Gas Provider Notification of New Tenant Utility Provider - Electric Provider Notification of New Tenant Landlord - Lease Due To Expire - Landlord Enquiry Utility Provider - Water Provider Notification of Departing Tenant Utility Provider - Gas Provider Notification of Departing Tenant Utility Provider - Electric Provider Notification of Departing Tenant Tenant - Section 21 - Notice for Possession Tenant - Section 8 - Possession Order Landlord - Property Management Agreement between Agent & Landlord (PRMGMT.INI) Landlord - Notify Landlord Taking Reference Landlord - Notify Landlord Tenancy Agreed Landlord - Property Maintenance - Central Heating Drainage Landlord - Property Inspection Report Note that the Tenant Statement and Landlord Statements are generated by Property Manager, not by MS Word due to the complexity. Modify the template through the C:\Property Manager\Templates folder. Right click on the file and click on Open. That way you will be able to edit and save your changes to the template. Note that you may add as many additional standard letters as you wish, through the Add Standard Letter screen. 63

64 10. Online Marketing Property Manager allows you to automatically upload your property rental and sales details to the leading UK property portals such as RightMove, Findaproperty.com and Zoopla.co.uk. Note that you will need an existing account with the portals in order to upload your details. One of Property Managers key strengths is that it allows you to upload the full range of marketing material to the portals for each property, including: Property Summary Details The Detailed Description allows text formatting such as bold, underline and italic. Attach up to 10 images for each property - including a description against each picture Record up to 10 property features that will be highlighted at the top of the property marketing details on the portal web site Attach a PDF brochure, floor plan, HIP an EPC certificate as well as a virtual tour for each property if available. The Online Marketing screen allows you to select properties to upload as well as to add or edit a properties marketing details. Note that the screen automatically selects the properties that are available to let. 64

65 To perform the upload, simply select the properties that you wish to upload, select the portals you wish to publish the details to and then click the Generate and Upload Marketing Details button. Property Manager will then automatically create the files to upload to each portal and will then automatically upload each file. A progress indicator will be displayed. Once the upload is complete, if there has been any problems with the upload, you will have the option to view a report that shows which portal had a problem with the upload. You can then resubmit the upload to just this portal once you have fixed the issue (eg if there is an invalid password for the portal upload). Note that you need to add the portal upload details through the Administration > Online Portal details screen. This allows you to record the upload details as well as your branch ID. In the first instance, we recommend that you upload to the portals test site so that you can ensure everything is set correctly before uploading to the live site. To edit a properties marketing details, simply fill in as much or as little detail as you wish to record and click on the Save button. 65

66 11. Administration Menu The Administration menu allows you to setup your company trading name and address, configure your settings, perform routine maintenance such as backing up the database, customising Property Manager drop down lists, setting up new users and networking the program so multiple users can share the same database. My Company Details This screen is used to record your trading name and address. It should be completed before generating any standard letters (in order to populate your company name, address, etc in the letters). In addition, the form also stores a mobile phone number. This is not displayed on any standard letters however it is used when sending SMS instant messages. If the recipient replies, the reply is sent to the mobile phone. Delete Property from Property Manager To remove a property from Property Manager, for example if you have sold a property, select the Delete Property from Property Manager option. Note that ALL related details will be removed including accounts, maintenance history, insurance policies, etc. PLEASE NOTE THAT IF YOU DELETE A PROPERTY YOU WILL NOT BE ABLE TO RETRIEVE THE DELETED DETAILS. Backup Property Manager Property Manager should be backed up on a regular basis to ensure that your data is kept safe and can be restored should the need arise. In addition to the Property Manager backup option, we recommend that you consider a total computer backup through a regular Windows backup program, such as Backup Exec 66

67 ( These programs can typically be scheduled to perform an automatic full backup or your computer (daily, weekly or monthly). Click on the "Backup" button, within the Backup screen to perform a backup of the Property Manager database. Note that this will not backup your property images or letters. A separate backup file will be created, called "PropertyManager_Backup.ZIP". The file will be located in "C:\Property Manager\App_Data". We suggest that you copy the backup file, picture and letter folders to a CD or backup tape for safe keeping. The pictures and letters are stored in: C:\Property Manager\Images C:\Property Manager\Templates\ - pictures - letters Please note that each time you run a backup, the previous backup file will be overwritten. If you wish to keep a copy of a particular backup, rename the file. We also suggest that you copy or archive the backup file to compact disk or other backup media. Restore Property Manager Restoring a previous backup of Property Manager will restore all data from the last backup. Any data entered since the backup will be lost and need to be re-entered. To perform the restore, copy the backup file to the "C:\Property Manager\App_Data" folder. Click on the "Restore" button to restore the data. Once the restore has completed you will immediately have access to the previous data. Edit VAT Settings In the UK, companies may charge Value Added Tax for services and equipment supplied. Equally, companies renting out properties, may wish to charge VAT on rental income. In either case, you may enter the current VAT rate which allows you to generate VAT reports on expenditure or income (if the VAT box is ticked in the transaction entry screen) from within the accounting reports To enter the rate of 17.5% you simply enter Click on the record the details. If you wish to generate VAT statements for your tenants, tick the "Display VAT on landlord and tenant statements" box. You may also set the VAT rate for individual expense categories - for example some items may have a lower rate of VAT, such as fuel. Set Property Manager Alerts The diary screen provides you with a consolidated view of important upcoming events across your entire property portfolio. For example, you may wish to see what rent is becoming due, tenancy agreements due to expire and maintenance jobs that are due in the next few weeks. At a glance, you can see the status of all your properties. Each of the following events appear in the diary: to 67

68 * overdue and upcoming rent * overdue and upcoming maintenance jobs * tenancy agreements due to start or end This screen allows you to customise what appears in the diary. If you do not wish to see certain events in the home diary screen, untick the item. Network / Settings Property Manager may be networked so that multiple users can share and work on the same database at the same time. Simply network share the C:\Property Manager folder on the main PC or copy the folder and contents to a shared network drive. The remote PC's then need to go to: 1. Start Property Manager and go to the Network Property Manager screen 2. Click on the browse button and navigate to the network shared folder \\PCName\Property Manager\App_Data\ and click on the PropertyManager.vdb3 file. Click "Open". 3. Click "Test Connection" 4. Click "Attach Database" The program will then be attached to the network database. In order to send s, you will need to add your settings. These settings are used to send any from the program. The settings are the same as you would enter into Microsoft Outlook or any other Windows based program. Simply enter your display name, address, password and mail server details. Portal Settings In order to upload your marketing details to each portal, you will need to enter the portals connection settings as well as your unique branch ID. Each portal will provide these connection details. Simply click on the portal in the list and update the details. Click on the Save button to record the details. Note that you may add other portals, as long as they support the RightMove version 3 format of automated upload feed (most do as its almost a UK portal standard). To delete a portal from the list, simply double click on the portal to select it and then press the delete key. Secure Property Manager Activate the Property Manager logon access control to secure your data. 68

69 You can setup any number of users to have access to Property Manager. Simply add their username and password. You may restrict a user so they only have access to certain menus and within each menu, you can limit access to "no access", "read" (in which case they can not update or add any records) or "write" which allows the user to update, edit and delete records. Property Manager is provided with an Administrator account. The logon ID is "admin" and the password is "admin". You may wish to change this to something more secure. Customise Drop Down Lists Many of the Property Manager drop down lists can be customised so the reporting is consistent with your business processes. Here are the drop down lists that can be customised: Bank Account - Add multiple bank accounts Payment Methods - add multiple payment methods eg cheque or direct debit Deposit Scheme - to hold tenants deposits Expense Types - eg cleaning, annual gas service Maintenance Job Types - eg gas inspection or gardening Property Types - eg detached, terraced, flat Property Categories - eg residential or commercial Insurance Types - eg buildings, contents 69

70 Click on the Customise Property Manager screen and select the "Modify Predefined" Types tab. For example, you may wish to add a new expense type called Mandatory Gas Inspections so that you can log expenses against the new expense type. Once added, you will be able to generate specific reports based on the expense type. The default job, expense and insurance lists can be added to or replaced with your preferences. 70

71 11. Activating Property Manager In order to activate Property Manager, please go to the "My Company Details" screen and select the "Activate Property Manager" button. As Property Manager is licensed for each PC it is installed on, please enter your address in the " " box and then click "Generate Installation ID" If you then copy and paste the installation ID into an and send it to we will then you back your license number. You need to copy and paste the license number into the "Enter License No" box and then click Register Now. Property Manager will then be activated. If you have any questions or are unsure on how to activate Property Manager, please do not hesitate to contact our support team at