to print the view in a formatted report.04/13/2010
These release notes are broken down into 2 sections for major and minor enhancements to the application. A third section lists all new windows and tasks that have been added where your organization’s System Administrator will need to set security in order for you to have access to them.
This is a summary of enhancements made with 8.1. Details of each enhancement are described in the appropriate sections of the Help documentation, which you can get to by clicking the links for each of these enhancements.
Please note that for tasks that are made obsolete or have moved to a new location with this new version of Property Manager, the task will appear on the Task List, but will have a different color (olive text). If the user clicks on it, they get a message stating: "This task has moved. Please check 'What's New in this Release', available under the Help menu, for further information." Specific tasks that have been removed or made obsolete are noted below.
The Install for Version 8.1 has 2 versions. One for 32 Bit Systems (Full Setup x86) and one for 64 Bit Systems (Full Setup x64). To determine which Windows System you are using:
For Windows Vista:
Open the start button and select Control Panel
On the Control Panel select System
On the System Window under the System Heading, the System Type will say whether you have a 32-bit Operating System or a 64-bit Operating System
For Windows XP:
Use the 32 Bit Install unless otherwise noted on the General Tab of the System window on the Control Panel.
When Installing to Windows XP, you will be installing 2 components: SQL Client Interface Install and then Property Manager.
Jump down to:
Tax Credit - Self Certification TICs
New Windows/Tasks to be set in Security
Property Manager now supports a new funding program called Rent Regulation (RCS). This program is prominent in New York City and is growing as an option for other communities as well. The program provides protections to tenants in addition to limitations on the amount of rent charged. Tenants are entitled to receive required services, have their leases renewed, and may not be evicted except on grounds allowed by law. Leases may be renewed for a term of one or two years, at the tenant's choice. If a tenant's rights are violated, DHCR (Division of Housing & Community Renewal - New York State) can reduce rents and levy civil penalties against the owner. Rents may be reduced if services are not maintained. In cases of overcharge, DHCR may assess penalties of interest or damages payable to the tenant.
The funding program has conventional compliance behavior with restrictions on rent increases as dictated by DHCR.
There are no Income Eligibility Requirements for households moving into a Rent Regulated unit, but you still have the ability to enter their Income & Expense worksheet information.
There are no compliance Mins or Maxes.
There are specific forms for the Vacancy Lease at Move-In, as well as for the Lease Renewal.
The Lease Renewal is the primary certification after Move-In.
There is no annual recertification process.
There is an annual transmission requirement to DHCR, but this does not involve transmitting certifications.
Rent Calculations at move-in at lease renewal is dictated by the Rent Guidelines Board of DHCR.
Rent Change changes at lease renewal or unit turnover.
Gross Potential Method should be set to Actual Billed Rent + Subsidy or Actual Billed Rent + Subsidy w/ Vacancy.
Vouchers are allowed in a Rent Regulated Funding Program.
See discussions below regarding SCRIE and DRIE vouchers specific to Rent Regulation.
Rent Plans are not required for DHCR, but setting up Rent Plans with Market Rents would allow the owner to carefully set rents at levels below what is legally allowed (preferential rents) when necessary.
It is unlikely that waitlists would be used at a Rent Regulated property.
When RCS Rules Apply, the funding program has conventional compliance behavior with restrictions on rent increases as dictated by DHCR.
Property Manager maintains Rent Regulation (RCS) Jurisdictions. The main Jurisdiction being New York City.
Jurisdictions are assigned to Contracts at the Community Detail > Contract tab, and units are assigned to a Contract with the Add New Units task from the Community Detail > Facilities tab.
Jurisdictions are used to assign Rent Class Delta Limits.
Property Manager maintains Rent Class Delta Limits that are stored in Property Manager by RCS Jurisdiction by effective date.
These Rent Class Delta Limits are what the owner of a community may charge based on guidelines promulgated by the applicable Rent Guidelines Board.
DHCR Fact Sheet 26 - Guide to Rent Increases for Rent Stabilized Apartments in New York City
The Rent Class Delta Limits are broken down for 1 year & 2 year leases and for when the owner provides heat or not as part of the lease.
Past DHCR Orders for prior Rent Class Delta Limits are kept in Property Manager to handle any retroactive activity that may occur, and new DHCR Orders for the next Rent Class Delta Limits will be loaded to Property Manager when they are made available.
Different Types of Rent Increases include:
Vacancy Lease Rent Increases - when a household rents a vacant unit for the first time.
Renewal Lease Rent Increases - household signs a renewal lease for the unit currently occupied.
Major Capital Improvement (MCI) Rent Increases that are approved by DHCR for building-wide improvements made in the community.
Individual Apartment Improvement (IAI) Rent Increases not requiring DHCR approval for improvements (i.e. - install a new appliance) made to a specific unit.
Amenities rented in a Rent Regulated funding program are also subject to rent increase guidelines of DHCR.
When a Rent Regulation (RCS) Funding Program is created for your database. The “RCS Funding Program supports Rent Stabilization.
Rent Regulation (RCS) Funding Programs have two layers (Community Detail > Contract tab, Income Layers data window).
Rent Stabilization or
Exempt
The Exempt layer is used for units that are involved with Rent Regulation, but not under Rent Stabilization (Rent Controlled units or exempt units)
The Exempt layer is the “ineligible layer”.
Units will be moved into the Exempt layer when they are no longer Rent Regulated.
Vacant Units are deregulated when they rent reaches a certain upper limit (currently $2,000).
Units are deregulated when the households living in the unit have annual income exceeding a certain limit (currently $175,000) for each of the two preceding calendar years and the rent charged has reached a certain upper limit (currently $2,000).
Property Manager has a new Rent Calculation Method for the Rent Regulated Funding Program. This new method supports calculation of rents for Vacancy Leases and Lease Renewals, and incorporates increases due to MCI’s, IAI’s, etc.
Property Manager maintains unit level information that is stored for each unit that is in a Rent Regulation Funding Program to ensure that rent is calculated according to regulations and that the proper annual reporting is provided for to DHCR.
Among other things, the unit level data to be maintained includes:
If there is an exemption, that unit’s exemption effective date.
Whether the exemption is temporary or permanent.
Legal Rent
Actual Rent
If unit is restricted to 421a rent.
Property Manager maintains household level information that is stored for each household living in a Rent Regulated Unit.
New certification forms have been added for Rent Regulation and will be on the Household Detail > Transactions tab.
For a Move-in (MI), this certification form is the Rent Stabilization Lease Rider (RA-LR1).
For a Lease Renewal (LR), this certification form will display the Renewal Lease Form. (RTP-8)
Gross Rent Change (GR) (i.e. - from an MCI Increase applied to a unit, from an IAI Increase applied to a unit, from rent reduction applied to a unit), this certification form will display a calculation from the Prior Legal Rent and adjustments applied to get to the New Legal Rent.
Property Manager will handle SCRIE and DRIE vouchers through outside vouchers setup at System Administration > Maintain Lookup Tables - Vouchers. A new parameter has been added to the Voucher Source Details to mark the outside voucher as “SCRIE/DRIE”.
DHCR Fact Sheet 21 - Special Rights of Senior Citizens (SCRIE)
DHCR Fact Sheet 20 - Special Rights of Disabled Persons (DRIE)
When an SCRIE or DRIE outside voucher is added to a household using the Add/Modify/Terminate Voucher task on the Household Detail > General tab, the “subsidy side” will create a GL Entry to record the Tax Abatement Credit (TAC) without creating a subsidy open item on the household.
Merge Fields under System Administration > Maintain Documents have been added to allow for the proper reporting on leases created under the Rent Regulation Funding Program
lawful_sept30_rent_increase_adj_1yr
lawful_sept30_rent_increase_adj_2yr
lawful_regulated_rent_1yr
lawful_regulated_rent_2yr
signed_ind
heat_included_ind
RCS_pref_rent_ind
notice_sent_date
voucher_rent_amt (SCRIE/DRIE)
Our conversion process to bring new communities onto Property Manager has been updated to bring on communities with Rent Regulation Funding Programs.
Historic MCI data can be entered for each Rent Regulated unit.
Ability to enter Other Scheduled Charges for households living in the unit at the conversion date.
Ability to enter required data for calculating rent at conversion date and setting up rent increases for the next lease renewal.
Click here for more details on the Rent Regulation Funding Program
With Version 8.1, the Eviction and Late Notice Processes have been consolidated into a single Legal Process. You now have the ability to manage this Legal Process at either the Community Level (Occupancy and Compliance Detail > Legal) or at the Household Level (Household Detail > Legal). With a new Legal To-Do List and transaction processing, you will be able to:
Quickly identify households that have outstanding balances (owed after a specified date)
Generate batch notices and other correspondence
Track all relevant dates and document milestones related to the legal process
Facilitate the eviction during the household move-out process and other related accounting tasks.
Customize the workflow for the Legal Process to your needs
Occupancy and Compliance Detail > Legal
Four Activities are displayed on the Legal To-Do List:
Any active household for the community in context which meets the criteria of the Send Late Notice Method (which has been moved to a new Lookup Table under System Administration > Maintain Lookup Tables - Legal Method from the old Late Notice Method Table)
Available Tasks:
Send Late Notice - Late Notice Notes will be added to the household’s Household Detail > Notes tab with the late notice sent date indicated
This task replaces the Print Late Notices task that was located on the Accounting Detail > General tab under the Assess Late Charges To-Do List Activity, as well as the Print Late Notice tasks that were available from the Community Detail > Accounting and Household Detail > Accounting > Summary tabs.
Households will remain in this To-Do List Activity until the household has been sent a Late Notice, has paid their rent (or rent and other balances depending on the Legal Method) or until the household meets the criteria to move into the Send Notice to Quit To-Do List Activity. When a Late Notice is sent to a household for the current month, that household will be removed from this To-Do List Activity. They will be added back to this To-Do List Activity when they have new unpaid receivables as defined in the Late Notice section of the Legal Method. Sending Late Notices is not a preliminary step to Sending a Notice to Quit. Sending Late Notices is independent of the Legal Process.
Late notices may need to be sent each month regardless of where a household is in the Legal Process. Therefore, it is possible to have a household in more than one To-Do List Activity. For example, a household may meet the criteria for being sent a Notice to Quit or to have a Formal Eviction filed against them, but if they have new receivables that qualify them for receiving another Late Notice, then they will be in both the Send Late Notice To-Do List Activity, as well as in the Send Notice to Quit, File Formal Eviction or Track Legal Proceedings To-Do List Activities.
This To-Do List Activity is the start of the Eviction Process for the nonpayment of rent, for a lease violation or for failure to recertify.
Sending Late Notices is not a preliminary step to this process. Sending Late Notices is independent of the Legal Process.
Any active household for the community in context which meets the criteria of the Notice to Quit Method maintained at System Administration > Maintain Lookup Tables - Legal Method.
Available Tasks:
A historical view of all Send Notice to Quit activity is available on the household’s Household Detail > Legal tab.
Households will remain in this To-Do List Activity until the Notice to Quit has been sent to the household, the household has paid their rent (or rent and other balances depending on the Send Notice to Quit criteria in the Legal Method), the household has moved out, or the household meets the criteria to move into the File Formal Eviction To-Do List Activity.
Any active household for the community in context which meets the criteria of the file Formal Eviction Method maintained at System Administration > Maintain Lookup Tables - Legal Method.
All households must have been sent the Notice to Quit, be still living in the unit, have not resolved their lease violations (including payment of rent) or haven't recertified in order to be included in this To-Do List Activity.
Available Tasks:
A historical view of all File Formal Eviction activity is available on the household’s Household Detail > Legal tab.
Once the File for Eviction task is run, the household will be moved into the Track Legal Proceedings To-Do List Activity
Any active household for the community in context for which the File for Eviction task has been run will be included in this To-Do List Activity.
Available Tasks:
This tab page replaces the Household Detail > Evictions tab. This tab page shows all the Legal Transactions that have occurred for this household, whether created from here or from the Occupancy and Compliance Detail > Legal tab. Selecting any Legal Transaction in the top half of the window will display that transaction’s details in the lower half of the window. The actual tab will include a count of the number of evictions (# of times the household has received a Notice to Quit) the household has been through for all of the units the tenant has lived in. The Household Detail > Legal tab is a printable data window, just click the print icon to print the view in a formatted report.
Available Tasks:
Changes to other existing Property Manager Windows/Processes:
Where possible all in-process Evictions when your database is upgraded to 8.1 will be placed in the appropriate Legal Activity. For any evictions that can’t be assigned to a Legal Method (i.e. - community funding program group does not have an existing Late Notice Method), will be placed in a “DUMMY” Legal Method so that these evictions are not lost during the upgrade.
New To-Do List items have been added to the Dashboard Object - To Do List for each To Do List Activity on the Occupancy and Compliance Detail > Legal tab. These include Send Late Notice, Send Notice to Quit, File Formal Eviction and Track Legal Proceedings.
The Terminate Assistance/Begin Eviction task on the Occupancy and Compliance Detail > Annual Recertification tab in the Send Notices To-Do List Activity has been updated to follow the new Legal Process. This task is similar to the Send Notice to Quit task, except the Eviction Type is set to Failure to Recertify.
A new table has been added to System Administration > Maintain Lookup Tables for Legal Transaction Sub-Types. These Sub-Types are used in the Add a Legal Transaction task. You can set Legal Transaction Sub-Types to require a follow-up date and to have a note added to the household's Household Detail > Notes tab when the Legal Transaction is added.
4 Document Groups are available at System Administration Detail > Maintain Documents - Eviction: File Formal Eviction, Eviction: Miscellaneous Documents, Eviction: Resolve Eviction, Eviction: Send Notice to Quit. These document groups can be added as necessary to the Legal Process tasks at the Occupancy and Compliance Detail > Legal and Household Detail > Legal tabs.
Also, a new data source "Data for Legal" has been added to Property Manager to facilitate the necessary merge fields necessary for documents needed for the different Legal To-Do List Activities.
The old Evict Household task that was available on the Household Detail > General tab is no longer available. All tasks regarding the Legal Process are on the 2 new tab pages.
Notes with the Note Type “Litigation” can still be added from the Household Detail > Notes tab, but Litigation Notes also come from Legal Transactions which are created on the Household Detail > Legal and Occupancy and Compliance Detail > Legal tabs.
Litigation Notes that come from Legal Transactions cannot be modified from the Household Detail > Notes tab.
The user has the option to have Notes that are added to Legal Transactions to be included on the Household Detail > Notes tab through Legal Transaction Sub-Types which are maintained at System Administration > Maintain Lookup Tables.
A new Note Type called “Late Notice” has been added, and notes of this type will be created when the Send Late Notice task is run from the Occupancy and Compliance Detail > Legal and Household Detail > Legal Tabs.
When using the Receive Tenant Payment task on the Household Detail > Accounting > Summary tab or using the Start New Payment Batch task on the Accounting Detail > Payments tab, an Eviction in Progress message will be displayed for all households who are currently in the Eviction Process, which starts after the Send Notice to Quit task has been run.
If the Legal Method defined at System Administration > Maintain Lookup Tables specifies that payments are not allowed while a household is under eviction, then you will also see the message "Payments Not Allowed" and you will get an error message preventing you from completing the task.
When using the Start New Payment Batch from a File task on the Accounting Detail > Payments tab, payments for households currently in the Eviction Process (Send Notice to Quit task has been run) will be left as unapplied payments and not applied to rent.
Also, if the household is in the Eviction Process for non-payment of rent and a payment is being applied against this outstanding rent using the Start New Payment Batch or Start New Payment Batch from a File tasks on the Accounting Detail > Payments tab, the user can indicate that they wish to resolve the Eviction Process by posting this payment. Posting this payment will also create a Legal Transaction for the household indicating how the Eviction was resolved.
The Legal Method defined at System Administration > Maintain Lookup Tables also specifies whether or not payments can be accepted from a tenant during eviction.
Choices are:
Never - when in the Start New Payment Batch or Receive Tenant Payment tasks, you will see the message “Eviction in Progress. Payment Not Allowed”
Always - when in the Start New Payment Batch or Receive Tenant Payment tasks, you will see the message “Eviction in Progress. Payment Allowed”
Choose when starting eviction - when in the Start New Payment Batch or Receive Tenant Payment tasks, you will see the message “Eviction in Progress. Payment Sometimes Allowed”
When using the Confirm Move-Out task from the Household Detail > General tab or the Occupancy and Compliance Detail > Manage Vacancies tab and the household is in the Eviction Process, the user will be required to indicate that the move-out will resolve the Eviction. Confirming the move-out will create a Legal Transaction for the household indicating how the Eviction was resolved.
When using the Record NSF for Selected Payment task from the Household Detail > Accounting > Receivables, Deposit or Promissory Notes tabs for households currently in the Eviction Process, completing the task will create a Legal Transaction.
The Eviction History Report at Reports > Select Report has been updated to properly reflect the new Legal Process in Property Manager.
On upgrade to 8.1 where only one eviction can be in process for each household, if you have more than one open Eviction for a household, all but the most recent open eviction will be given a status of “Unknown”. If there is an open eviction for a household who has since moved out, these open evictions will also be give a status of “Unknown”. These old open evictions won’t be removed, but they will be inactive with this “Unknown” status.
Property Manager has been updated to handle the self certification process now required by many states.
On the Community Detail > Program Info tab in the Funding Program Detail data window, a Self Certification drop down list has been added right after the Certification Form drop down list which includes self certification TIC forms.
These self certification TIC forms have the naming convention State Abbreviation plus Self TIC (i.e. - CA Self TIC)
On the Community Detail > Program Info tab in the Annual Recertification data window, the words “Cert Schedule” have been added above the drop down list for selecting either Tenant Anniversary, Same Date for All Tenants or Alternate Date for Tenant, to make it clear you are selecting the date of when the self certification will occur for the households living in this community/funding program group.
On the Community Detail > Program Info tab in the Funding Program Detail data window, a new field has been added for the Full Recert Schedule indicating when the full certification process needs to be done for an AR.
This field will be based on various state regulations for what your choices will be. I.e. -
None (Full TIC at MI only)
First AR Only
Etc.
When multiple Agency Rules apply in a Funding Program Group, the Agency with the most stringent rules will govern what can be selected for the Full Recert Schedule.
For example, if HUD or USDA are involved in the funding program group, the Full Cert Schedule field will not be visible because HUD and USDA dictate that the certification must be done annually.
If one funding program requires a full cert each year, then a full cert will be done for Tax Credit as well.
For the benefit of Tax Credit funding programs that allow Self Certification TICs, the Occupancy and Compliance Detail > Annual Non-Financial Update tab is now called Occupancy and Compliance Detail > Non-Financial/Self Cert and has been updated to handle this process. The schedule for self certifications is relative to the initial move-in TIC date. So in any given year, a Tax Credit tenant would appear either on the Occupancy and Compliance Detail > Annual Recertification tab or on the Occupancy and Compliance Detail > Non-Financial/Self Cert tab.
On the Occupancy and Compliance Detail > Non-Financial/Self Cert tab, the Update Non-Financial Information To-Do List Activity is now called Update Information.
In the Send Notice To-Do List Activity a column has been added to the left of the “Update Due” column to be able to sort the view by tenants who are either a PHA Flat Renter tenant, a HUD Market Renter tenant, or a Tax Credit Self Cert tenant.
The Send Notice and Reprint Notice tasks also have this column to be able to sort tenants by each of these types. These tasks also have a filter to display all tenants or one of these 3 categories of tenants.
The existing Annual Non-Financial Update task remains for PHA Flat Renters and HUD Market Renters, but a new task, Create Self Certification will be available when the household is a Tax Credit Self Cert tenant.
The following Self Certification TICs forms have been added and are available for selection in the Self Certification Form drop down list in the Funding Program Detail data window on the Community Detail > Program Info tab when LIHTC (Tax Credit) rules apply:
California (CA) Self TIC
Indiana (IN) Self TIC
Maine (ME) Self TIC
Michigan (MI) Self TIC
Missouri (MO) Self TIC
Montana (MT) Self TIC
Pennsylvania (PA) Self TIC
South Dakota (SD) Self TIC
Texas (TX) Self TIC
Utah (UT) Self Cert TIC
Washington (WA) Self Cert TIC
Spectrum Self TIC
General Enhancements
Some tasks in Property Manager produce a report at the end of the task (i.e. - Occupancy and Compliance Detail > TRACS > HAP Requests - Build New HAP Request, Accounting Detail > Payments - Start New Payment Batch, etc.) These reports can be previewed in a popup Preview Window before they are printed. These Preview Windows are now sizeable, making it possible to see an entire report, or at least more of it depending on the size of your computer monitor, by making the Preview Window bigger.
Household Detail
General
When you complete the Request Transfer task on the Household Detail > General tab that involves a household who has a Utility Reimbursement on both in Out and In units, confirming the transfer will apply any offsetting open items for Utility Reimbursement that are effective in the same month and combine those open items with an Apply Credit event. So once the Unit Transfer is complete, you will be left with Net Utility Reimbursement Open Items for each month impacted by the transfer.
The Interim Recertification (W/O Verification) task on the Household Detail > General tab can now be used for the Tax Credit funding program when there is a change in family size. If the membership change occurs in the 1st year of occupancy or if no original members change, the initial certification rules will apply.
Income and Expense
The Household Detail > Income and Expense tab, as well as, on the Income and Expense Summary step in various tasks has been updated.
The Adjusted and Gross radio button has been changed to a drop down list to select between each Agency Rules Apply (HUD, USDA, LIHTC, PHA, RCS or CONV). Your choices will be limited to the Agency Rules in effect for the Community/Funding Program Group.
If only one Agency Rules apply to the Funding Program Group that the household is in, this drop down list will not be visible.
Each Agency Rules selection will display Income and Expense as follows:
HUD - current adjusted (includes expenses and deductions)
USDA - current adjusted (includes expenses and deductions)
PHA - adjusted plus PHA exclusion plus EID allowance plus deduction totals
LIHTC - Gross plus the alternate income display if enabled on the Community Detail > Program Info tab.
See Discussion of “Alternate Annual Income for Tax Credit” below under the Community Detail > Program Info heading
RCS - Gross
CONV - Gross
Eviction - See the Legal Process enhancement discussed above.
Transactions
A new task has been added to the Household Detail > Transactions tab to View Approval History for a selected transaction/certification. This task will display all the approval steps a certification has been through (pending, rejected, approved). This task will only be available for certifications that require approval. Required approvals for Move-In and Annual Recertification certifications are set at the Community Detail > Program Info tab, and are performed at the Occupancy and Compliance Detail > Manage Vacancies and Annual Recertification tabs, respectively.
Accounting
Receivables
When viewing Event History in Full Detail on the Household Detail > Accounting > Receivables, Subsidy, Deposits and Promissory Notes tabs, you will now see the GL Batch ID for the GL Batch processed from the Accounting Detail > General Ledger tab. With the GL Batch ID being displayed, you can now trace the GL Entry for any Event into the GL Batch that was sent to your general ledger.
Deposits
A note has been added to the Forfeit Deposit step of the Household Moveout Accounting Activity task that is available on the Household Detail > Accounting > Deposits tab and the Occupancy and Compliance Detail > Manage Vacancies tab under the Move-Out Accounting To-Do List Activity. The Note reads “Do not use this option if deposit is to be applied against tenant charges. Use only if no refund is due to the tenant and they have no outstanding charges.”
Promissory Notes
When a household who either moves out of a unit or transfers to another unit, any existing Promissory Notes on the Household Detail > Accounting > Promissory Notes tab will continue to bill in relation to the old unit.
Community Detail
Program Info
A check box has been added to the Community Detail > Program Info tab for “Alternate Annual Income for Tax Credit”. When selected, the alternate income field for Income and Expense will be editable and the results will display properly on the TIC form created with the other funding program certification.
Low Income Housing Tax Credit rules require that household income be determined as is done for HUD Section 8. The IRS understands this to mean the types of incomes that are included or excluded but not the exact methods used to estimate incomes.
In some states, the requirement is to enter the highest possible income for a household on a TIC, even if that number is greater than the amount that would appear on a certification for another funding program. Release 8.1 of Property Manager adds a way for an income to have one value for a HUD, PHA, or USDA cert and a different value for tax credit purposes. If your state requires the use of this feature, you can turn it on and produce the correct numbers for both your certifications and TICs. If you have a pure tax credit community, the option is not needed and not visible.
A new parameter has been added to the Rent Calculation under Funding Program Details on the Community Detail > Program Info tab. The “Apply annual COLA adjustment between full certs” parameter is only available when the Funding Program selected is one that has PHA (Public Housing) Rules applied. When this parameter is selected and a household in the Funding Program has no wage income (household is on fixed income), there rent will be increased in non-AR (annual recertification) years by Percent Cost of Living Adjustment (COLA). The adjustment increase is a percentage of existing tenant rent, not the unit rent on the rent plan.
New and Updated LIHTC TIC Forms available in the Funding Program Details data window on the Community Detail > Program Info tab when LIHTC (Tax Credit) rules apply:
The Alabama (AL) TIC has been updated to match the current version.
The California (CA) City of Los Angeles TIC has been updated so that all columns are populated correctly.
The Colorado (CO) TIC has been added to Property Manager.
The Florida (FL) TIC has been updated to match the current version.
The Idaho (ID) TIC has been added to Property Manager.
The Indiana (IN) TIC has been added to Property Manager.
The Michigan (MI) TIC has been updated to match the current version from MSHDA.
The Montana (MT) TIC has been added to Property Manager.
The New Hampshire (NH) TIC has been updated to match current version from NH Housing.
The New Mexico (NM) TIC has been updated to match the current version.
The Spectrum TIC has been updated to the current version and the Spectrum HI TIC version has been added as well. The Spectrum HI TIC differs only in that it has X’s through SSNs.
The Utah (UT) TIC has been added to Property Manager.
The Washington (WA) TIC has been updated to match the current version.
Rent
The Rent Limits data window on the Community Detail > Rent tab has been updated to show the rent limits for 0 bedroom apartments. Efficiency units usually have zero bedrooms, and this enhancement allows you to see the rent limits for those types of units.
The Rent Plan data window on the Community Detail > Rent tab has updated with a new column for UA Type (Utility Allowance Type) for each unit class. The UA Type is required information on several state TICs and annual reports for Tax Credit Funding Programs. UA Types are added and/or maintained from the Rent Plan and Utility Allowance tasks on this tab. Utility Allowance Types are maintained at System Administration > Maintain Lookup Tables - Utility Allowance Types. The default list of UA Types are as follows:
RD - Rural Development assisted buildings
HUD - HUD assisted buildings
PHA - Public Housing Authority Estimate
LUCE - Local Utility Company Estimate
ECM - Energy Consumption Model
HUSM - HUD Utility Schedule Model
HCA - Housing Credit Agency
Unit Detail - No Changes with Version 8.1
Amenity Detail - No Changes with Version 8.1
Accounting Detail
General
After you complete a task from any of the To-Do List Activities on the Accounting Detail > General tab, you will be brought back to the To-Do List Activity you launched the task from.
When using the Add New Receivables task from the Accounting Detail > General tab, a running total has been added to the bottom of the Households data window. The total will update as households are selected/deselected and amounts to be charged are added/changed.
For the Add New Receivables, Add New Scheduled Receivables and Change Non-Certified Schedules tasks on the Accounting Detail > General tab, the way Charge Types are displayed in the drop down list has changed so that Charge Types that are inactive in a given community cannot be used in that community.
If any of these tasks are opened with a community selected in context, only the Charge Types that are active for the selected community will be included in the drop down list to be selected.
If any of these tasks are opened with <All Authorized Communities> selected in context, all charge types that are active in any one of the communities that the user is authorized to see will be displayed. If charge types happen to have their description customized for any community/funding program group in context (Accounting Detail > Account Maintenance), then the description displayed for the charge type will be one entered at System Administration > Accounting Setup - Charge Type Setup.
After a charge type is selected, the list of households will be limited to only those households in the community/funding program groups where the charge type is active.
The Funding Program Group descriptions have been added to the list of households to make it clear where the household is counted and which accounting applies.
A new task, Billing Export, has been added to the Accounting Detail > General tab. This new task creates an export file that can be sent to a third party company that provides statement generation. Currently only an Ocius XML export is supported. The task will only be displayed when an Ocius Export has been setup on the System Administration > Export tab for the community selected in context.
General Ledger
You now have the ability to Filter Pending GL Batches on the Accounting Detail > General Ledger tab by GL Report Month or by Effective Date. By filtering Pending GL Batches by GL Report Month, it is easier to select all for any given month to be processed together with the Process Selected Batches task.
A user will be prevented from using the Reset Selected GL Batches task from the Accounting Detail > General Ledger tab when a Processed GL Batch contains multiple communities and the user doesn’t have access to some or even one of the communities contained in the GL Batch.
Occupancy and Compliance Detail
General
After you complete a task from any of the To-Do List Activities on the Occupancy and Compliance Detail > General tab, you will be brought back to the To-Do List Activity you launched the task from.
Manage Vacancies
When the Funding Program is PHA, you will be required to enter the household’s “Zip Code before Admission” on the Certify Move-In Step of the Create Move-In/Transfer Certification task on the Occupancy and Compliance Detail > Manage Vacancies tab while in the Certify Move-In/Transfer To-Do List Activity. The entry in this field will default to zip code entered for the household when they were put onto the Waitlist for the Waitlist Group with this Funding Program in it.
If a Move-In Certification has already been through the Review Certification for Approval task on the Occupancy and Compliance Detail > Manage Vacancies tab while in the Approve Certification To-Do List Activity and was rejected, the next time into the task, the first step will be a view of the certification’s Approval History. If a certification hasn’t been through the approval process yet, the first step of the task will be to View the Certification.
Currently move-ins can cause a unit to change funding program groups based on the statistics and waitlist group/funding program group selection using the unit's eligibility. With 8.1 you can have a flag set to prevent this from occurring. With the flag set, you will be prevented from making a funding group change from the Occupancy and Compliance Detail > Manage Vacancies tab. Instead you will need to use the Swap Counted Group task from the Unit Detail > General tab to reconfigure your units.
If you want this flag set, please contact Bostonpost Client Support at myMRI or contact a Client Support Analyst directly at (877) 579-8896 to set it for you. This setting cannot be changed from Property Manager.
This only became available with 8.0 when we provided the waitlist groups based on unit eligibility.
Annual Recertification
The Terminate Assistance/Begin Eviction task from the Occupancy and Compliance Detail > Annual Recertification tab is now available for households in a PRAC funding program. The certification created from the task is a TR (Termination Cert) and it will be DNX (do not transmit) because TRACS does not expect anything on this type of transaction. PRAC households that fail to recertify are charged the higher of contract rent or 30% of household income and the eviction process begins.
If an Annual Recertification has already been through the Review for Approval task on the Occupancy and Compliance Detail > Annual Recertification tab while in the Approve Certification To-Do List Activity and was rejected, the next time into the task, the first step will be a view of the certification’s Approval History. If a certification hasn’t been through the approval process yet, the first step of the task will be to the View Certification.
Annual Non-Financial Update - tab name changed to Non-Financial/Self Cert. See discussion for the Tax Credit - Self Certification TICs major enhancement above.
Leases
A new task has been added to the Occupancy and Compliance > Leases tab for Batch Lease Renewal. This task is available for Conventional Funding Programs and will manage both Lease Renewals and Lease Changes.
TRACS
HAP Requests
A new category of TRACS Response has been added to the Review All TRACS Responses task on the Occupancy and Compliance Detail > TRACS > HAP Requests tab. In addition to Rejected, Informational and Unknown, you will now see Serious TRACS Responses.
A Search Criteria Filter has been added for these categories.
All
Rejected - Fatal Error Messages
Serious - Discrepancy Messages
Informational
Unknown
Rejected & Serious
The MAT errors, where possible, are now displayed in human readable format.
The data window that displays the HAP Request Reconciliation Report available from the Reconcile Selected HAP Request task has been enlarged so you no longer have to scroll across the horizontal to see the entire width of the report.
Accounts Payable Detail
General
When in the Receive Invoice task, the list of GL Accounts in the Expense/Accounting Code drop down list is now limited to only GL Accounts that have the Account Type (System Administration > Accounting Setup - GL Account Setup) of Expense and Other Current Liability.
When using the Receive Invoice task to receive an invoice with Bill Line Items, the number of decimal points in the Usage field has been changed from 4 to 2.
The Load to Accounting task available in the Export Invoices To-Do List Activity on the Accounts Payable Detail > General tab can now create A/P Export Files for the MIP Export Type setup at System Administration > Accounting Setup - Export Information Setup.
The Load to Accounting task available in the Export Invoices To-Do List Activity on the Accounts Payable Detail > General tab can now create A/P Export Files for the Yardi Export Type setup at System Administration > Accounting Setup - Export Information Setup.
Invoice
In the Invoice data window on the Accounts Payable Detail > Invoice tab, the user that loaded the A/P Invoice to your accounting system will now be displayed next to the Date Paid. The Date Paid being the date that the A/P Invoice was loaded to your accounting system using the Load to Accounting task.
Work Order Detail - No Changes with Version 8.1
Business Detail
General
The Communities... button on the Business Detail > General tab will now filter the Vendor Search Popup in the Receive Invoice and the Receive Credit Memo tasks on the Accounts Payable Detail > General tab if you select a community to filter by.
This is helpful, for example, when you have a different Home Depot vendor for each of your communities and you want the user responsible for Community A to be able to easily find the Home Depot vendor that is used by the community or communities they are responsible for.
If Communities... are selected/specified for a vendor at Business Detail > General, then they will be in the Vendor Search Popup for the communities selected and not in the list for the communities that were not selected.
If a Vendor doesn't have any communities selected on the Communities... popup at the Business Detail > General tab, the vendor will be considered available for all communities and displayed for all communities in the Vendor Search Popup.
Maintenance Company Detail
Create AR Invoice
When you navigate to the Maintenance Company Detail > Create AR Invoice tab, the Choose Vendor drop down list will default to the vendor that has been selected on System Administration > Maintain Lookup Tables - Business Constants.
System Administration
Maintain Documents
You now have the ability to load PDF documents to System Administration > Maintain Documents. When inserting a new document, just select PDF as the File Type. This gives you the ability to view and print PDF documents from any Print Option tab in Property Manager as you would with Word merge documents.
The Merge Field "scan_line" which is used for printing bills for lockbox processing is now available in the Data for Late Notice data source.
A new Data Source has been added, Data for Tenant Chargebacks, which include Merge Fields that bring in the Tenant Chargeback Open Items and Line Item information from the associated Work Order(s), in addition to the Merge Fields that are also in the Data for Letters - Basic Source Document.
The Data for Moveout Accounting Data Source has been updated to include the Merge Fields for Tenant Chargebacks and the Line Item information from the associated Work Order(s), in addition to Merge Fields for the HUD Contract # and the Move-Out notification date.
Maintain Lookup Tables
Business Constants
If you have the S.S. Business set to None on the Business Constants table under System Administration > Maintain Lookup Tables, the Process Application task on the Occupancy and Compliance > Prospects and Household Detail > General tabs will not automatically create a Social Security reference for you. The S.S. Business default must have a business selected for the Social Security Reference to be automatically created.
Referral Source
The length of the Description field on System Administration > Maintain Lookup Tables - Referral Source has been increased to 50 characters so that you can better describe your Referral Sources that are used on the Occupancy & Compliance Detail > Prospects tab.
Rent Change Method
Under Options for the Utility Allowance changes on the System Administration > Maintain Lookup Tables - Rent Change Method, the description of the option “Change on Next Change” now shows as “Change on Rent Chg. Renewal or Turnover.” This makes it clearer on when a Utility Allowance change occurs.
Accounting Setup
Export Information Setup
A new Export Type has been added and can be selected under System Administration > Accounting Setup - Export Information Setup. The new Export type is called Blackbaud and can create export files that can be loaded to the Blackbaud Financial Edge accounting application.
A new Export Type has been added and can be selected under System Administration > Accounting Setup - Export Information Setup. The new Export type is called ACCPAC and can create export files that can be loaded to the ACCPAC accounting application.
Database Analysis - No Changes with Version 8.1
Reports - No Changes with Version 8.1
Following are new tabs and tasks for which your System Administrator must set security before they will be available in Property Manager and in Task lists. This is set on the Property Manager > System Administration > Define Access Tab. While on this tab select the "Show only Undefined Objects" parameter to filter the list by these new objects.
|
Found in Path on Define Access Tab |
Task Name |
|
Household Detail > Legal
Legal is new tab page that replaces the Eviction tab page. |
Send Late Notice Send Notice to Quit Undo Notice to Quit Add a Legal Transaction Reprint Notice to Quit File for Eviction Undo File for Eviction Reprint File for Eviction Resolve Eviction Undo Resolve Eviction Complete Follow-up Manage Attachments |
|
Household Detail > Transactions |
View Approval History |
|
Community Detail > MCI
MCI is a new tab page |
Add MCI Request Maintain MCI Request Delete MCI Request Apply MCI Rent Increase |
|
Unit Detail > Maintenance > Fixed Assets |
Apply Fixed Asset Rent Increase To Unit |
|
Accounting Detail > General |
Billing Export |
|
Occupancy and Compliance Detail > Non-Financial/Self Cert |
Create Self Certification |
|
Occupancy and Compliance Detail > Leases |
Batch Lease Renewal Batch Lease Renewal (Rent Regulated) Reprint Leases Print Multiple Leases |
|
Occupancy and Compliance Detail > Legal
Legal is new tab page. |
Send Late Notice Send Notice to Quit Undo Notice to Quit Add a Legal Transaction Schedule Move-Out File for Eviction Undo File for Eviction Resolve Eviction Undo Resolve Eviction Print Legal Documentation Complete Follow-up Manage Attachments |