Rentec Direct

We’ve just released an update to make increasing or decreasing rent much easier.  To edit the rent charge amount, simply edit the tenant (Tenants Menu, right-click tenant, choose Edit).  In the lower right of the tenant edit window choose ‘edit rent’, and adjust the dollar amount accordingly.  All future rent charges will be based upon the new amount entered.

That’s it!

The following new email notification options have been added to Rentec.  This will improve the experience for all property managers using Rentec’s tenant ach solutions by notifying you immediately if a tenant makes any changes.

• When a tenant de-activates a MultiPay or SinglePay that is setup for processing.
• When a tenant activates a new MultiPay or SinglePay ACH schedule.
• When a tenant removes authorization for ACH transactions.

A tenant can make changes to their ACH schedule or authorization via their tenant portal.  When they do, if you have an email address in setup (at Settings, Setup EasyPay) within the system, an email notification with the details of the change will be dispatched immediately.

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In addition, we’ve added a new option to the EasyPay configuration (rt-click on tenant, choose EasyPay).  Next to the account number is a link [ remove ].  This option will de-authorize the account from future ACH transactions and remove the tenant’s ACH data from the system.  If you have an EasyPay Merchant account, your option to disable has not changed.  It is necessary for the property manager to do this upon tenant request, and good practice to do this when a tenant is no longer an active client to minimize liability for retaining their account information.

We’ve added a new option within the user accounts permissions.  The new feature (right up at the top) is designed to make a user account read-only.  Meaning they can read data from your account, but not modify anything.  This feature is great for:

• Property Managers or Landlords providing access to an accountant or adviser so they can review records and/or run their own reports directly from the software.
• New employee training.  Provide new employees a read-only account so they can familiarize themselves with the property portfolio and the system without the worry of them breaking anything.  When they are ready, just turn read-only off.
• Associations can provide the board read-only access to see all financial transactions and owner status.
• Providing access to any other individual who needs to be able to see the data, but should not be making any changes.

To use this new feature, go to Settings, Manage User Accounts.  Create a new user (if you haven’t already), then click the permissions link for the user.  The new option right up top, when enabled, will turn the account read-only.

There’s a new report available designed to print out a complete deposit ledger for tenants.   To get to the report, visit the tenant deposit ledger by clicking the Tenants tab, go into their ledger by clicking their balance, and enter the deposit ledger by clicking the deposit balance in the upper-right corner.  Now in the tenant deposit ledger, there’s a new printer icon in the upper-right.  Click this to open up the familiar report window where you can print, email, or save as PDF.

As you may or may not recall, depending on how close-knit you are within CPA circles, there was a significant new tax consequence and reporting requirement introduced for landlords within the Small Business Jobs Act and the healthcare reform bill passed in 2010.

This new reporting requirement was introduced to help the IRS better monitor landlord property expenses by requiring a 1099 to be filed for all independent landlords for payments during the year to any vendor or individual exceeding $600.  Examples of 1099 recipients would include: gardeners, landscapers, contractors, property managers and repair services.

Earlier this year with support from Realtors, landlords, and landlord associations such as the NARPM all contacting their representatives to object to this over-reaching reporting requirement;  both Congress and President Obama got the message and decided the filing burden was too great for smaller landlords.  The requirement for rental property owners to file 1099′s was repealed in May of 2011. The senate voted 87-12 to approve the repeal and it was signed shortly thereafter by Obama.

This is good news for landlords, your 2011 taxes just got a lot easier as you do not now have to collect tax information from your vendors, nor report it on the 1099-MISC form as proposed in the Small Business Jobs Act.

We’ve providing you more ways to customize your property management experience using Rentec.  At Settings, Program Defaults, you’ll now see a new link in the top right hand corner labelled “go to advanced settings”.  Within the advanced settings you’ll find numerous new ways to customize the application.  Here’s a summary of the options to date.  Surely there will be more in the future as we receive great feedback from property managers using Rentec.

1. An option to enable the transaction memo within the ledger report.
2. An option to remove the “this is a copy” message on emails copied to owners and managers.
3. An option to enable printing check numbers on the ledger report.
4. An option to show tenant contact information as well as property statistics (br/ba/sqft) on the rent roll report.
5. An option to suppress your contact information on all reports.
6. An option to show property statistics (br/ba/sqft) on the properties tab.

These options are a direct result of the great feedback we receive from Rentec subscribers.  Keep em coming and we’ll keep adding on the features to make the program as useful as possible for you and your staff.

Reconciling your bank accounts can forever more be hassle-free thanks to a new feature we’re rolling out this week.  Assisted account reconciliation is now available for all Rentec users managing their bank accounts through Rentec property management software.  If you’ve ever used products like Quicken or Quickbooks, you’ll feel right at home with the new reconciliation features.  Just have your bank statement handy, enter the account ledger you want to reconcile and click the new Reconcile button at the top.

For those not familiar with the account reconciliation process, click the link to see our knowledge-base and complete instructions on how to get started reconciling your accounts..

We’ve increased the flexibility of both the management fees (for property managers) as well as the late fee functionality (for landlords and property managers).

• Management Fees can now be automatically charged based on a percentage of tenant payments.  This can incorporate rental income, late fees, or any other inbound dollars from tenants.  To use this new feature, edit your management fees, and specify a percentage in the “Percentage of Tenant Payments” as displayed in the screenshot below.  You can also specify multiple fees via this interface and each selected fee will be charged.
  
• Late Fee functionality has also been improved.  There is now a new option to charge a percent of overdue as the late fee.  For instance, if the overdue balance is $1000 and you specify 5% as the late fee charge, it will automatically post a $50 late fee after their grace period expires.
  
  

It is now easy to quickly locate a tenant, property, owner, bank account, or even individual transactions from anywhere in the application.  Just click the search icon in the upper-right corner.  The layout is familiar and easy to use.   Simply start typing what you want to search for and click Search.  That’s it!

Here’s some example uses of the new search.

• Want to find tenant “Joe Smith” quickly?  Type in Joe Smith into the search bar (or just a portion of his name) and click Search.
• Trying to figure out what the $95.23 charge on your bank statement was?  Just type in 95.23 in the search bar and it will bring up every transaction in the system matching that amount.
• Want to find the tenant with phone number 541-690-8667?  Just type in 8667 into the search bar, and optionally filter only by tenants and it will automatically search by phone numbers.
• Need to find the expense for check number 1022?  Type in 1022 into the search.

To the right of your results will be quick actions you can take.  For properties and tenants you can edit, enter ledger, post payments and charges right from the search results (see icons on the right).   Transaction matches give the option to edit the transaction from the search results, and owners/accounts give edit and ledger quick actions from the search results.

Note: The match ’123′ above matched numerous entries that don’t have ’123′ in their names.  This is because those entries had the value ’123′ somewhere within.  For example, the transaction for ‘Rental Income’ matched because the check number entered was check number ’123′.  You can use the filters to reduce the results in your searches too!

After a brief delay in taking new merchant applicants, we are now again accepting EasyPay (with merchant account) applications.  We’ve updated our vendor for merchant accounts to a vendor very familiar with the property management industry.  This amounts to lower per-transaction costs, and a more stable platform for property managers.  Along with ACH, you can also accept payments by credit card for both rent and rental application payments.

The cost structure has also been simplified and per-transaction costs reduced.  Here’s a sample of what the cost structure looks like:

Monthly: $19.95
ACH Per Transaction: $0.75
CC Per Transaction: $0.10 + 2.5%

With your own merchant account, ACH payments fund to your account in 4 business days, while CC transactions are even sooner.  Compared to a traditional EasyPay account, this can be as much as 10 business days sooner.

To get setup with your own merchant account, login, then visit Settings, Setup EasyPay.  Download the application, and return all the supporting documents as explained on Page 3.