Version 9.3 has arrived

You can download this update by going to the help menu inside RentMaster and choose Download RentMaster Update.  If you have any problems downloading the update automatically, you can also download it manually from http://www.rentmaster.co.nz/update.aspx

Main Highlights

The main change in this release is the ability to have multiple tenant contact details on the one tenancy record.  So now for example you can add the mobile phone number or email of both the husband and the wife.  Each entry will also be added to the phone book screen automatically.

What else is new?

• The tenant details screen now allows multiple contact names, each with their own phone and email details.  A primary contact can be specified.  During the upgrade, the currency tenant details will be entered as the primary contact.
• Automatic extra fees associated with an expense group can now be defined as a fixed value.  The option to enter a percentage is still available.  You can't specify both.
• A new Disbursement Preview report has been created which lists all the undisbursed transactions associated with an owner and show how a disbursement would be calculated if one was to be done right now.  This can be used to diagnose a disbursement value which looks to be incorrect.
• The phone book and print button on the tenant details screen will print or show each contact as entered on the tenant details screen.
• A new feature has been added which enabled you to turn off functionality you don't use.  This includes holiday homes, depreciation, disbursements, inspections and mortgages.  During the upgrade, all options are turned on by default.  Features can be turned on and off from the Maintenance/Options menu.
• Automatic fees and automatic extra charges will no longer generate for closed owners or tenants.
• The Rent Status report now has an option to filter by owner.
• The Trial Balance report now excludes closed owners who have a zero balance.
• During the last release, a change to the way the cashbook screen was updated means the running total was not being updated.  This has been fixed.
• On the Bank Reconciliation report the running total has been made wider and the transaction group narrower.
• When windows are opened, if they out outside the view of the current main window size, the window will be moved to the top left corner of the screen to bring it back into view again.

As a result of the recent change to include multiple contacts on the tenant details screen, flow on changes have been made to the phone book and the tenant print functions.

The phone book now includes all contacts listed on the tenant details screen.

Also the print button on the tenant details screen, which prints a comprehensive report on everything to do with the tenant, will also prints the full list of contacts as well.

This has been asked for often, so it is finally here.  On the tenant details screen you can now load multiple contact names.  Each contact can have their own separate name, description, email address, home phone, work phone, mobile and fax number.

You can use this feature to store separate details for the husband and wife, as they may have different mobile and work phone numbers and email address etc.

You can also choose one of the contacts as the primary contact.  The details of the primary contact are used in the Tenant List report, as well as work order contact details, the inspection schedule report and the SMS/TXT message sending mobile number.  The email address of the primary contacts is also used when sending receipts and tenant statements.  So the primary contact works in a very similar way to the single contact details RentMaster has always had.

When you upgrade to RentMaster version 9.3, the current contact details will be automatically migrated to be the primary contact if the current tenant details contains at least one of home phone, work phone, mobile, fax or email.  If the existing tenant does not have any of these fields set, a default contact record is not created.  For people with a lot of tenants, you may notice a slow down when you run the program for the first time as the new contact records are created.

Note - a contact is not a separate tenancy.  The contact does not have a separate rent amount.  Multiple tenants with separate rent amounts would still be handled by creating multiple separate tenant records.

RentMaster has an automatic extra fees and automatic extra charges feature.  This allows you to define a regular occurring transaction such as monthly broadband internet charges etc.

As of version 9.3 of RentMaster, automatic extra fees for owners and automatic extra charges for tenants will not apply if the tenant or owner are closed.  In the case of tenants, the option to keep open for transaction entry only will still not apply automatic extra charges.

Sometimes people forget to delete these automatic transactions, and they are continued to be applied when they shouldn't.  So this should help.