Property Manager Release Version 8.3

11/10/2010

Important Notices for v8.3 Users:

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 System Administrator will need to set security in order for you to have access to them.

This is a summary of enhancements made with 8.3.  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.

•  For customers who export GL Entries, AP Invoices and/or AR Invoices to QuickBooks, we have updated the XML interface between Property Manager and QuickBooks.  With this update you may be required to give Property Manager permission from QuickBooks to allow the activity to pass to each Company File in QuickBooks.  This is the same process that you had gone through when processing activity for new communities brought onto Property Manager.  Please follow this link for details.

Jump down to:

Major Enhancements

Resident Screening

Tax Credit TIC Form Updates

Multiple Recertification Dates

Vendor Management

Accounts Payable – Utility Invoices & Other Changes to the Receive Invoice Flow

Accounts Payable – Capture Check Details

Repayment Agreements

Accounting Setup – Payment Batch Types

Accounting for Undeposited Funds

USDA Budgets – Bostonpost Financials

Minor Enhancements

New Windows/Tasks to be set in Security

Major Enhancements:

Resident Screening:

This enhancement gives users the ability to interact with their Resident Screening software from within Property Manager when making rent/don’t rent decisions.  For those customers who use SafeRent, a new Export Type has been created at System Administration > Export Setup.  The new Export Type is called FADV SafeRent.  This Export Type allows you to launch a resident screening request at SafeRent from Property Manager, using data entered for the one or more persons in a Household to be screened (credit and/or criminal check).  For those customers who don’t use SafeRent, you can still manually store resident screening decisions in Property Manager and control the workflow on a household based on the resident screening decision for that household.

The Resident Screening Decision can be used to prevent a move-in at the appropriate step of the process, and these screening results can be used in reports for an analysis of the results of the resident screening decision after move-in.

System Administration > Export Setup

When creating a SafeRent Export, the fields that require entry are:

• Export URL:  The URL accessed when Resident Screening requests are submitted to SafeRent

• Export Portfolio Name:  SafeRent User Account (PropertyID)

Export User Name and Export Password are not stored as you will be required to enter these with each Resident Screening request.  This is a requirement of SafeRent.

Community Detail > Program Info

On this tab, you can define whether or not Resident Screening is required.  If it is required, you can further define whether or not the move-in process (Occupancy and Compliance > Manage Vacancies tab) is stopped in the Schedule Move-In/Transfer To-Do List Activity or in the Certify Move-In/Transfer To-Do List Activity.  With this setting you can define if and when the move-in process will be stopped until resident screening has been completed.  Please note that this setting does not have to be made immediately and can be made after you are comfortable that the Resident Screening process is working correctly for you.  Please note that Resident Screening only applies to Move-Ins and does not apply to Transfers.

When Resident Screening is set to “Required at Schedule”, move-ins will only be allowed to be scheduled when the Resident Screen Status is set to Approved.  When Resident Screening is set to “Required at Certify”, move-ins will only be allowed to be certified when the Resident Screening Status is set to Approved.  Depending on which step the Resident Screening is required, the household’s Waitlist Entry on the Occupancy and Compliance > Manage Vacancies tab in the Schedule Move-In/Transfer To-Do List Activity will have icon to indicate that Resident Screening process is required before moving on from this Manage Vacancies To-Do List Activity.  When Resident Screening is required for the Certify Move-In/Transfer To-Do List Activity, then the household’s move-in cannot be certified until their Resident Screening has been approved (signified by the green plus sign (+) in the CR column.  Also, you will receive an error in the Create Move-In/Transfer Certification task stating that resident screening is required and is not yet complete for the selected household.

Also on the Occupancy and Compliance > Manage Vacancies tab, a column labeled CR has been added to all Manage Vacancy To-Do List Activities except Schedule Move-In/Transfer, which will have a green plus sign (+) once the household has been approved.

New Tasks:

The Resident Screening tasks are available from both the Occupancy and Compliance > Manage Vacancies tab and the Household Detail > Waitlist tab.

Run Resident Screening for Selected Entry

• This task is only available if a Resident Screening Export Type (FADV SafeRent) has been created for the selected community at the System Administration > Export Setup tab.

• Task is available after a household’s application has been processed and is on at least 1 waitlist.

• • A new Lookup Table has been added to System Administration > Maintain Lookup Tables for Resident Screening Reports.  This table allows you to add Report Packages that you have available in SafeRent.

  • • This Lookup Table populates the Report Name drop down list under Screening Information on the first step of this task.

    • A Report Package is the package of reports you want to run against the persons for whom the Resident Screening task is being run.  For example, a Report Package could be Credit & Criminal Check, Credit Check Only or Criminal Check Only.

    • The Package Names must match the names they have in SafeRent exactly for the process to work.

• The task displays a required list of applicant details needed for submission of the Resident Screening.  Information for each household will default from the existing application, if available. If not, the data will need to be entered while in this task.

• All adult members of the household will be available for inclusion in the Resident Screening.

• A check box is available to specify that the household is “Affordable”.  When selected you can enter a subsidized amount.

• • For SafeRent, this selection will specify which scoring model (Subsidized Model vs. Market Rate Model) will be used.

• The task will open the SafeRent login screen, and after the login credentials have been verified, an XML Request is submitted to SafeRent.

• • A waitlist transaction is created when the Resident Screening is submitted (Resident Screening Submitted).

• At the end of the task, if the results are known, you can record them here and apply them to one or more waitlist entries.

• • A waitlist transaction is created when the Resident Screening Decision is recorded (Resident Screening Decision).

  • This tab will display a history of all Resident Screening runs for the household to assist you in making your Resident Screening Decision.

Manage Resident Screening Results

• This task is available whether or not you have a FADV SafeRent Export Type setup at the System Administration > Export Setup tab

• This task can be used to enter Resident Screening results already received prior to upgrade to Version 8.3.

• From this task you enter the Resident Screening Status as either Approved or Rejected.

• • If you use SafeRent, you can double-click the View link for any of the screening requests in history to see that request in SafeRent again.

Tax Credit TIC Form Updates:

The way we update Tax Credit TIC Form Updates for Property Manager has been updated to make the update process more dynamic to the user and eliminate the need to download Form Updates for needed changes to TICs.  Instead, as new Tax Credit TICs are added or existing Tax Credit TICs are updated, the new Tax Credit TIC forms will be gathered and distributed to customers as part of the normal weekly release process.