Rentec Direct

We’ve just completed the addition of a new feature based on your requests.  When viewing any report, statement, invoice, or receipt in the upper-right corner there is now an option to email this report to one or more recipients.   Better yet, when you enter the send email screen, once you begin typing the recipient the system will automatically search through the email addresses of all your tenants and owners and give you a selection to complete the entry thereby saving time.  You can also send to multiple recipients by adding a comma between the addresses.

Reports now include your contact information in the upper right to help differentiate and identify your reports. This has been a direct result of user feedback to our support department. Keep up the great suggestions and our developers will keep improving the software to better meet your needs.

To setup your name and address, visit Settings, Your Contact Info.

A new setting option has been added to Accounting Defaults which allows for fine tune adjustment of printer calibration when printing checks.  The vast majority of printers works great with the default settings; however, if when you print checks the text prints a little too far up, down, left or right, you can make adjustments to these within Rentec Direct.

Using the universally recognized X, Y coordinate system (see image right), you can move the text in any of four directions.  Each value represents 1/100th of an inch; therefore a value of 50 is 1/2 of an inch.  A few examples:

• To move all text down 1/4 inch, enter -25 in Y.
• To move all text up 1/4 inch, enter 25 in Y.
• To move text 1/4 inch down and right, enter -25 in Y and 25 in X.

To make use of this new feature, visit Settings, Accounting Defaults.  You’ll find the option right next to the other check printing settings.

We are officially launching and making available dedicated merchant accounts to all property managers and private landlords.  One of the major benefits of having your own merchant account tied to Rentec EasyPay is being able to pay owners via ACH.  But that’s not all.  Setting up a merchant account has these benefits too:

• Quicker turn-around on funds.  ACH funds typically are in your bank account in 3-5 business days.  Credit card funds 1-2 business days.
• Lower per-transaction fees on both ACH and credit card transactions
• Ability to use and process your own ACH authorization forms
• And of course, the ability to pay owners via ACH

Sounds great huh?  How To Get Setup. To get setup with your own merchant account, just login and visit Settings, Setup EasyPay.  At the bottom of the screen is a link which will provide you a new application to get your own merchant account setup.  Once setup, paying owners via ACH is extraordinarily simple.  You’ll right click on the owner and choose Send Money.  Then fill in their bank account information, the amount, and click Send.  It’s as quick and simple as that (see screenshot below)!

We’ve expanded the EasyPay system to now accept credit card payments.  Any tenant wishing to pay with a Visa, MasterCard, or Discover can now use the tenant portal to make those payments.  Once logged into the tenant portal, a tenant will click the EasyPay tab, which now gives them the option to pay by check (ACH) or by credit card.

By default, accepting credit card payments is off.  You must enable it by going to Settings, Setup EasyPay.  Select the type of credit card payments you wish to accept, then save your settings.  Most landlords should select all three(VI/MC/DISC).  In order to pay for processing costs, Rentec Direct will add a 5% convenience fee to the charged amount.  Then the full charge amount, minus the convenience fee, will automatically deposit into your checking account.

If you already are setup with EasyPay all you have to do is enable credit cards, nothing more.  If you aren’t yet enrolled in EasyPay, there is no cost to get setup, just visit Settings, Setup EasyPay and return the application.  ACH transactions using Rentec EasyPay are a flat $2.00 and credit card payments are just $0.50.

More exciting news! We’re now accepting a limited number of applications into the merchant service program!  This program sets your property management operation up with a merchant account which allows all EasyPay transactions to go directly to your checking account without interacting with ours.  This shaves valuable days off the clearing process for ACH transactions and for larger volume accounts has a much more compelling fee structure to save you processing costs on both ACH and credit card transactions.   To inquire, please email easypay@rentecdirect.com and we will reply with the necessary information and documents to you.

Being a property manager is one of the more challenging professions.  Whether it is to let out some steam, or discuss the next great idea when it comes to property management, it’s great to have colleagues to share ideas with.  I’m asked frequently, is there a property management social network?  Good news because there is.  I’ve seen groups on facebook and other real-estate related sites which sometimes have discussions about property management; however, letstalkpm.com is exactly tuned for property managers.

Membership is free and there are nearly a thousand members in the community discussing a wide range of topics all related to property management.  Click the Let’s Talk Property Management image on the right to visit their site.

We’ve added some great new search tools to Rentec Direct to help you quickly navigate the interface.  At the top of the Tenants and Properties tabs you’ll now find a Search bar.  Begin typing into the bar and the system will automatically narrow down the list of tenants or properties based on your search.  It’s a huge timesaver.

Try these timesaving tips:

1. Posting rent for a tenant?  Click the tenants tab, type in the first few letters of their first or last name and the interface will immediately narrow down the list to just those that match.  Now just click the green dollar sign to post the payment.
2. Posting an expense to a property?  Click the properties tab, type in any part of the address to narrow down the list to just that property and post the expense by clicking the red dollar sign.

We would also like to at this time share a tip with our users.  Since Rentec Direct uses some of the latest, greatest, web technologies such as video and AJAX; we have found, and so many of our users have confirmed, that both Firefox and Chrome web browsers work much better than Internet Explorer and both are completely free.  Click the links to go directly to their home pages.  Firefox is quickly becoming one of the world’s most popular browsers and is both very fast and very safe.  Chrome is created by Google and is blazing fast.  You also get some great modern features in these browsers that Internet Explorer doesn’t offer.  One for instance is the automatic highlighting of your search terms when searching.

We have updated our EasyPay agreement for Landlords to version 1.03 which includes the following updates:

1. Section 4 is broken into 4a and 4b, which specify different text for landlords who have a merchant account vs landlords who do not.  This change is in preparation for landlord merchant account capabilities.
2. Section 6 is broken into 6a and 6b, which specify different costs for landlords who have a merchant account vs landlords who do not.  Additionally fees for processing credit cards have been added.

The changes introduced do not impact or have any changes for existing users of Rentec EasyPay system, they only apply to new products and services that will be available shortly.

The full text of the agreement is available at:  http://www.rentecdirect.com/legal/easypay_agreement.pdf

Another time-saving feature we’ve rolled out this month is the ability to print all tenant statements with a single click.

This is a HUGE time saver for property managers and landlords who manage more than just a few properties.  Visit Reports, Renter / HOA Reports, choose the property or owner you wish to print statements for, and click the new All Statements report.

This is a free update for all Rentec Pro, PM, and Association users.

You’ve asked and we’ve listened.  We want to save you time in your day-to-day actions, and we’ve done it again.  When posting payments for tenants, you will automatically be asked if you want to print a receipt for the tenant.  This saves entering the ledger and printing it from there.

For property managers who don’t ever, or very rarely, print receipts you can turn this feature off at Settings, Program Defaults.