Property Manager Release Version 9.1

08/2/2012

Important Notices for v9.1 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 9.1.  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.

Jump down to:

Major Enhancements

Repayment Agreement Enhancements

Maintenance/Work Enhancements

Conversion Detail

Minor Enhancements

New Windows/Tasks to be set in Security

Major Enhancements:

Fix Next Recert Date:

This new task is available from Household  > General to address a common data fix request from many customers for active households.  The task to change a recert date is household driven, not cert driven. The intent is to change the next recert date that is shown on the Household > General tab.  This task allows the user to change the recert date, an alternate tax credit recert date, or both within the wizard. Only certs that match the recert date according to the cert currently in effect will be changed.  

Some validations:

• If an upcoming Annual Recertification, Non-financial Self Certification or Lease Renewal, is in progress, you cannot change the recert date.  First use the Reset AR Process task on the Occupancy and Compliance Detail/Annual Recertification tab to remove the pending activity.   
• The new recert date must be effective on the first of the month and within 12 months of the last annual.   
• If a community-wide recert date is in effect, the new recert date must occur before the next community wide recert date.

HUD EIV transactions – Adding certifications prior to your live date on Bostonpost:

A new task, Add (Conversion) Transaction to Household, is available from Occupancy and Compliance Detail > TRACS > General and allows you to add the original certification(s) that were already transmitted to a Contract Administrator and/or HUD from your prior software, without generating accounting entries for the old cert.

• Enter all the certifications for the household (some exceptions apply) that cover the period of time you are going to adjust.
• If your Contract Administrator requires that the original certifications be transmitted as well, transmit them from the Household/Transaction tab, Build Single Transmission file.
• Next, using the normal wizards in Bostonpost, enter new and/or correction certifications to be transmitted.

If you made a mistake, use Delete Transaction from the Household/Transactions tab to delete the cert.  You may need to Undo the transmission of the certification before Delete Transaction is made available.

Please contact GPS if you need to handle a Unit Transfer in the period prior to implementing Bostonpost

GPS capability for Custom Reports:

With 9.1, you will now be able to request Custom reports that can be completed by our GPS team.   When a completed report is delivered to your database, you will be able to add it to a Custom folder under Customer Favorite Reports using the Manage Custom Report Groups task.   For more information or to request a report, please contact gpsrequests@mrisoftware.com.

Repayment Agreement Enhancements:

Create Unsigned Promissory Note:

A new task has been added to the Household Detail > Transactions tab to Create Unsigned Promissory Note.  When there an unsigned certification (and subsequent unsigned certifications, if any) that has been created because a household had misreported income and a correction has been done to correct that, this task will be available to create a Pending (unsigned) Promissory Note based on the total amount of the adjustments that will come when the unsigned certifications are signed.

• The Pending Promissory Note will display on the Household Detail > Accounting > Promissory Notes tab.

• If the unsigned certifications need to be corrected again before the Promissory Note is signed, delete it from the Household Detail > Accounting > Promissory Notes tab and the related certifications will be available to be maintained.

• No accounting adjustments are created with the Pending Promissory Note and will only be created when the Promissory Note has been signed.

Once the Promissory Note has been signed by the household, then you can use another new task to Sign Promissory Note and Related Certs.

Changing the Terms:

A new task has been added to the Household Detail > Accounting > Promissory Notes tab to Change Terms for Selected Note.  This task allows you to change terms to existing Promissory Notes for the household in context.  You will set the effective date for the new terms to take effect.

• In addition to the unbilled balance of the selected note, you can add new open items to it.
• You can change the amount and frequency of the payments going forward as well as setting any amounts to be retained.
• Upon completion of the task, the existing note will have been expired and a new note with the new terms will have been added.

Print Options Step for Promissory Note Creation Tasks:

The Transfer Receivable(s) to Promissory Note task on the Household Detail > Accounting > Receivables tab, the Convert Subsidy Due to Promissory Note task on the Household Detail > Accounting > Subsidy tab and the Change Terms for Selected Note & the Maintain Selected Promissory Note tasks on the Household Detail > Accounting > Promissory Notes tab have been updated to include a Print Options step.  The Print Options Step will include any documents included in the “Promissory Note” document group at System Administration > Maintain Documents - Maintain Document Groups.  Along with this enhancement a new Document Source, Data for Promissory Note, has been added along with a new merge fields document called Merge Fields for Promissory Note.

Maintenance/Work Enhancements:

These enhancements to Work Orders, Inspections and the Maintenance Work Flow represent Phase II enhancements that build on what was released with version 9.0, including Lead Paint/Asbestos, filling out Fixed Asset capabilities and Inventory capabilities.  Minor bug fixes and enhancements are displayed below in the appropriate location under Minor Enhancements.

Lead Paint and Asbestos:

When Work Orders are created for Locations and/or Location Items that have Lead Paint and/or Asbestos present, they are sent through a more complex work flow.  Proper paperwork is necessary.  More comprehensive evaluations are performed.  Only qualified individuals can work in these areas or perform the evaluations.  When a Location and/or Location Item are given a Lead Paint and/or Asbestos Deficiency and a Work Order is subsequently created for it, the Location and/or Location Item must be evaluated before the work can be scheduled.  Work is placed on Hold.

Deficiencies, including Lead Paint and Asbestos, are now noted on each Location Item that has them (one assumes that this means that the Location Item has the deficiency defined as a possible deficiency).  When in the Record Inspection Results task and an Inspection Line Item is set to “Pass with Exception”, a Work Order is not created to fix the exception, but a the exception will be added as a Deficiency to the Location Item that was inspected.  That deficiency is noted on the Location Item being inspected for the Maintenance Definition of the Location Area it was inspected for (Community, Building, Unit, Amenity).

Once a Location Item of a specific Location in a specific Location Area has a Deficiency designated for it, a new task is available on the Maintenance Definition tab for each Location Area’s (Community, Building, Unit, Amenity) Maintenance > Maintenance Definition tab.  With the task Maintain Deficiencies for Selected Item, you can maintain deficiencies such as Lead Paint, Asbestos or any other possible deficiency defined for the Location Item at System Administration > Maintenance Setup - Location Item Definition for the selected Location Item without requiring that it go through the Work Order process.  You can remove existing deficiencies and/or add new ones to the selected Location Item.

Once a Location Item has either the Lead Paint or Asbestos Deficiency designated for it any subsequent Work Order created for that Location Item will follow a more specialized work flow.  For this functionality to work, the following setup must be in place:

• Skill - Create skills for Lead Paint and Asbestos at System Administration > Maintenance Setup - Skill to handle the evaluations of these conditions (Inspection Templates) or perform the work on Location Items that have these conditions.

• • Lead Paint Certified, Asbestos Certified

  • These Skills can then be given to the appropriate Employees at System Administration > Employees and/or vendors at Vendor Detail > Vendor Locations - Maintain Goods and Services.

• Location Item Definition - All possible Deficiencies are added to each Location Item at System Administration > Maintenance Setup - Location Item Definition, and Lead Paint and/or Asbestos should be added to each Location Item where it might exist.

• • Each of these Deficiencies need to have the appropriate Alert Condition set for them: Lead Paint or Asbestos

• “Work Area” - create a generic “Work Area” Location Item with specific deficiencies for Lead Paint and Asbestos.  This Work Area Location Item will be used in the Inspection Templates instead of having to create templates for each and every Location Item that may have either of these conditions.

• • The Work Area Location Item needs to be included in every Location Type where either Lead Paint and/or Asbestos may possibly be.

  • • I.e. - Exterior - Building, Interior - Unit, etc.

  • If you do not use a generic Location Item such as Work Area, you will need to create Inspection Templates for every possible Location that might have Lead Paint and/or Asbestos present.
  • The Deficiencies you create for this Location Item will define how pervasive he condition is.
  • Set each deficiency with an Alert Status of Lead Paint or Asbestos, respectively.
  • Should be set for a Location Item that is general in nature and Standard for the Location Areas where the inspection could occur.
• Inspection Template - Create Evaluation Inspection Templates for both Lead Paint and Asbestos that will be used to create the Evaluation Inspections when either of these deficiencies is found.  For the Inspection Template, you need to set the:
• • Source to Lead Paint (LP) or Asbestos (AB).
  • • When either of these sources is used on an Inspection Template, the Inspection that is created will require that the user indicate Yes or No for each possible deficiency the Inspection covers.  The Inspector must explicitly indicate whether or not lead paint or asbestos exists for each location and location item being inspected.
    • When creating an Inspection Template that uses either LP or AB as its source, a new Yes/No rating scheme will be used.  Under this rating scheme a Work Order will not be created when Lead Paint or Asbestos is found, but will cause Work Orders created for the Location/Location Item the inspection had been done on to be tagged to alert that one of these conditions exists.
  • Skill to the skills defined above for each type of evaluation.
  • Location Item to the Work Area Location Item created above.
• Event Template - From System Administration > Maintenance Setup - Event Templates you will define which Inspection Template to use when a Lead Paint or Asbestos Evaluation is needed when work is to be done on a Location Item where either of these conditions are present.
• • Two Events have been added to System Administration > Maintenance Setup - Event Templates for Lead-Based Paint Evaluation and Asbestos Evaluation.  Only Inspection Templates with the Source LP or AB will be available to be triggered from the Create New Work Order task when Lead Paint or Asbestos is involved.
  • The Event Template for either of these conditions is triggered and an Inspection is created when a user is in the Create New Work Order task and creates a Work Order Line Item for a Location Item that has either of these Deficiencies present.

With the above setup in place, creating a Work Order for a Location Item that has a Lead Paint or Asbestos deficiency will cause that Work Order to go through a more complex work flow to ensure both of these deficiencies are handled properly.

• Upon completion of the Create New Work Order task for a Location Item with a Lead Paint or Asbestos Deficiency:
• • The Work Order will automatically be placed on Hold.
  • Work Orders that include a line item or line items for a Location Item with Lead Paint or Asbestos associated with it, will include Alerts for those conditions on the Work Detail > General Information - Work Order tab and on the printed Work Order.
  • An Inspection will be created from the Inspection Template selected for the Event Template for Lead-Based Paint Evaluation (LP) or Asbestos Evaluation (AB).
  • • The originating Work Order and the Lead Paint or Asbestos Evaluation will be linked to each other via an automatically created Project (Maintenance Detail > Projects).
    • A hyperlink will be on both the Work Order and Inspection to get you back and forth between each.
    • The Lead Paint and Asbestos Evaluation Inspection will produce an appropriate Printed Inspection.
  • You cannot schedule or dispatch a Work Order that has an open LP or AB evaluation.  The schedule and dispatch steps of the Create New Work Order task will be skipped.
  • You cannot use the Undo Hold or Cancel a Work Order that has an open LP or AB evaluation.  You will receive an error message.
• When the Lead-Based Paint Evaluation (LP) or Asbestos Evaluation (AB) is closed, the following will occur depending on whether Lead Paint or Asbestos is found to be present:
• • If all Inspection Line Items has their Result set to ‘No’ in the Record Inspection Results task, the originating Work Order will be released of Hold with an appropriate Transaction stating why the Work Order was released and that Lead Paint or Asbestos procedures do not apply.
  • If at least one Inspection Line Items has their Result set to ‘Yes’ in the Record Inspection Results task, the originating Work Order will be released from Hold with an appropriate Transaction stating why the Work Order was released and that Lead Paint or Asbestos procedures must be followed.
  • • The face of the Work Order will also display an alert stating that Lead Paint or Asbestos procedures must be followed.
    • Two columns have been added to each To-Do List Activity on the Maintenance Detail > General Information tab for Lead Paint and Asbestos.  A Work Order will have one of these indicators as a result of its status which is determined by the results of the related Inspection with the source of LP or AB.
    • The Find Work popup has been updated to be able to find Work Orders that must follow a Lead Paint Procedure or an Asbestos Procedure.

Inventory Management:

• Materials are now linked to Vendors by Material Type.  Each Material created at System Administration > Maintenance Setup - Materials is given a Material Type.  The list of Goods and Services maintained at the Vendor Detail > Vendor Locations tab in the Maintain Goods and Services task now contains these Material Types.

• • When a Material with a particular Material Type is selected on a Work Order, the list of Vendor Locations will default to those vendors who supply materials of this Material Type.

Fixed Asset Tracking:

• Building Detail > Maintenance now has a tab for Fixed Assets.  From here you can Add Fixed Assets to a Building, Maintain Selected Fixed Asset For Building and Delete Selected Fixed Asset For Building.

Location Item Definition:

• A step has been added to the Close Selected Work Order task allowing you to review any of deficiencies of the Location Items included in the Work Order.  This step allows you to remove any deficiencies that no longer exist for the selected Location Item.
• • Asbestos and Lead Paint cannot be removed with this step.  When these 2 deficiencies are present by following Lead Paint and/or Asbestos Procedures outlined above.
  • Deficiencies are added to a Location Item when an inspection item is updated with Pass With Exception and an deficiency identified.  Any existing deficiencies are visible in the Maintenance Definition list of items after selecting the Location.
• When a Work Order is created for a Location Item that is not defined for a Location of the selected Location Area and the task of the Work Order Line Item is to install or otherwise add the Location Item to the Location, the completion of the Close Selected Work Order task will add that Location Item to that Location Area’s Maintenance Definition (Community, Building, Unit, Amenity).
• • If the Location the Location Item is added to is also not defined for the Location Area, the Location will also be added to the Maintenance Definition.

Conversion Detail:

• Changes have been made to simplify the tenant data entry process and enable some features so you can make corrections during the implementation process.

• Two new tasks have been included through Conversion Detail.

• • Fix Next Recert Date allows you to enter a new recertification date and a new tax recertification date in the current certification, unless the certification is already in process.

  • Detach Household allows you to detach a household from a unit when the community is in the tenant setup phase. This action cannot be undone. Use Detach Household to undo the household/unit assignment completed by the Add Household to Unit wizard. The household member and income/expense data is saved.  You can search for the household to reuse the information in the Add Household to Unit wizard to correct any mistakes.

Minor Enhancements:

§  General

• The issue with being able to print more than one PDF document from the Print Options step of many tasks has been resolved.  You will no longer receive an error message when more than one PDF document is included in a print group.
• Communities that are in implementation now list the status within the context band and will either say "Implementation Community Setup in Process" or "Implementation Tenant Setup in Process".

§  Household Detail

• General Information
• • The View Household Activity Log task on the Household Detail > General Information tab has been updated to improve the layout.
  • • Each item with the same action date will be grouped together and separated from other action dates by a line.
    • The User and Host Name columns have been moved to right of the Household ID (HH ID) column.
    • When you use the Printer icon to print the log, the report will be printed landscape with column headings included.
  • The system is now able to print the names of multiple residents on refund checks. In households where there are multiple lease signers in a unit and they are owed a refund, the names of the primary resident and all co-residents can be printed.

o    A new task, Fix Next Recert Date has been added on the Household Detail > General Information tab which allows you to enter a new recertification date and a new tax recertification date in the current certification, unless the certification is already in process.

• Waitlist
• • While in the Run Resident Screening for Selected Waitlist Entry task, you will no longer receive an error if you remove the Move-In date that was previously entered.

§  Community Detail

o    General Information

o    Facilities

o    Program Groups

o    Program Info

o    Contract

o    Unit Turnovers

o    Maintenance

o    Maintenance Definition

§  Building Detail

§  Maintenance

o    Maintenance tabs that allow editing directly within the window will now prompt you to save when you navigate to another tab before saving any changes you have made.

§  Unit Detail

• General Information
• • The View Unit Activity Log task on the Household Detail > General Information tab has been updated to improve the layout.
  • • Each item with the same action date will be grouped together and separated from other action dates by a line.
    • The User and Host Name columns have been moved to right of the Household ID (HH ID) column.
    • When you use the Printer icon to print the log, the report will be printed landscape with column headings included.
• Maintenance

o    Maintenance tabs that allow editing directly within the window will now prompt you to save when you navigate to another tab before saving any changes you have made.

§  Amenity Detail

• Maintenance
• • Maintenance tabs that allow editing directly within the window will now prompt you to save when you navigate to another tab before saving any changes you have made.

§  Accounting Detail

§  General Information

§  Payments

§  Accounts Payable Detail

§  General Information

o    While in the Receive Utility Bills task on the Accounts Payable Detail > General Information tab in the Prepare Invoices To-Do List Activity, when the Invoice Account Type is defined for the selected Vendor Account Holder to only require an End Date, the Bill Month/Year field will calculate correctly.

o    The Synchronize Vendors task on the Accounts Payable Detail > General Information tab will now update changes to MRI for existing vendors in addition to adding new ones.

o    There is a new configuration for Reverse AP Refund events. Security can be configured separately from Reverse Selected Event task if a selected event is a Refund Credit and it has the automated AP component. This allows system administrators to configure by role which users are able to reverse AP Refund events.

§  Occupancy and Compliance Detail

• General Information
• • When the Funding Program is USDA and approval for move-in, transfer and/or annual recertifications is required at the Community Detail > Program Groups tab and a households income increases by $1,200 or the value of assets changes by $1,000 or more, the certification will be in the Approval To-Do List Activity on the Occupancy and Compliance Detail > General Information tab (move-in and transfer corrections) or on the Occupancy and Compliance Detail > Annual Recertification tab (annual and unscheduled recertifications) with a note describing the change in income and/or asset value.
• Annual Recertification
• • The Create Certification task has been updated to include the Recurring Charges step for Non-Optional Charges where applicable.
  • Attachments can now be managed directly from this tab and the Create Certification task.
• Leases
• • The Lease Change, Lease Renewal and Batch Lease Renewal tasks have been updated to include the Recurring Charges step for Non-Optional Charges where applicable.
• TRACS

§  HAP Requests

• • The second step (Build Status) of the Build New HAP Request task on the Occupancy and Compliance Detail > TRACS > HAP Requests tab includes counts of households for items that will be transmitted.  Double-clicking each count will open up a popup with a list of those households.  Click the Printer icon to print out this list.
• LIHTC

§  The Tax Credit Transmit WBARS Export Type (System Administration > Export Setup) has been updated to correctly report the Subsidy Type for each household, including the various outside voucher programs that are available.

§  Maintenance Detail

§  General Information

§  Projects

§  Work Detail

• Find Work

o    The Item criteria now allows you to select <None> for this filter criteria in the Work Detail > Find Work popup after you had selected a specific Item to find work on.

• General Information

o    Work Order Summary

§  The Undo Close Work Order and Undo Cancel Work Order tasks on the Work Detail > General Information - Work Order Summary tab will now work with Material Only Work Orders (ML) that had been created with the Purchase Material task.

• Billing

o    You can now enter a zero (0) in the Quantity field on the Work Detail > Billing tab or in the Close Selected Work Order task for each Work Order Line Item.  Entering a zero allows for the Work Order Line Item to be included in an AR Invoice on the Maintenance Company Detail > Create AR Invoice tab that should be billed as zero on the AR Invoice.

o    The Rate field on the Work Detail > Billing tab or in the Close Selected Work Order task for each Work Order Line Item will now default to the rate specified for the selected Task from the System Administration > Maintenance Setup - Location Item Definition table.  This field is an editable drop down list which will include the Default Rate for the task, as well as the hourly rates for the specified skill of any assigned employee.

§  Vendor Detail

• AP Vendors
• • The Maintain Vendor Account Holders task on the Vendor Detail > AP Vendors tab has been updated to allow you to change the Invoice Account Type of a Vendor’s Vendor Account Holders.

§  System Administration

§  Maintain Documents

o    A new parameter has been added to the System Administration > Maintain Documents tab under Document Details.  The Priority parameter gives you a way to prioritize the selected document ahead of other documents that may be selected when a user is in one of the many tasks with a Print Options step.  This parameter is a way of forcing the sorting of documents to be printed.

§  This is especially helpful when documents for one funding program a household participates in should be printed ahead of the documents for any other funding programs the household also participates in.

o    A new merge field for <<prorate_contract_rent>> has been added to Data for Letters and Data for Lease at System Administration > Maintain Documents.

o    A new merge field for <<pm_username>> has been added to Data for Letters, Data for Lease and Data for Letter - Basic to allow you to include the first and last name of the user currently logged into Property Manager in various documents.

§  Maintain Lookup Tables

o    A new parameter has been added to the Business Constants Lookup Table at System Administration > Maintain Lookup Tables to require attachments to certification transactions before they can receivable approval.

§  With this parameter selected, certifications will not be allowed past the approval To-Do List Activity on the Occupancy and Compliance > Manage Vacancies or Annual Recertification until they have at least one attachment (Manage Attachments).

·         Approval is only required for these Occupancy and Compliance activities if specified on the Community Detail > Program Groups tab.

o    A new parameter has been added to the Business Constants Lookup Table at System Administration > Maintain Lookup Tables to set the prefix to be used when household Vendor IDs are created as part of the Tenant Payable Interface process when Property Manager is set to auto-create vendors on export of tenant payables to MRI or Bostonpost Financials.

§  By default this is set to HH.

§  This parameter governs all household Vendor IDs created database wide.

o    A new Lookup Table for Certification Denial Reason has been added to System Administration > Maintain Lookup Tables.  This table allows you to add custom reasons as to why a certification failed the approval process under the Occupancy and Compliance > Manage Vacancies (Review Certification for Approval task) and Occupancy and Compliance > Annual Recertification (Review for Approval task) tabs.

§  For each reason you can set whether or not a comment is required.  If a comment is not required, the comment field will automatically populate with the description of the denial reason.

§  Accounting Setup

o    Export Information Setup

§  The Description and Active columns on the System Administration > Accounting Setup - Export Information Setup window are no longer maintainable.  The Description is derived from the Community Name on the Community Detail > General Information tab and the Active status is calculated based on whether or not the community is still active.

§  A new column has been added to the System Administration > Accounting Setup - Export Information Setup window for “Last Vendor ID”.  Entry in this column for each Community Export Setup allows you to set the starting value for the sequential Vendor IDs generated through Tenant Refunds and Accounts Payable application. The Vendor ID is created as Site ID plus a 4 digit number.

§  This column is only available for the MRI Web Services Export Type.

§  This column will update as vendors are added to Property Manager from Vendor Detail > Vendor Locations.

§  Maintenance Setup

o    When using the Add a Template task from System Administration > Maintenance Setup - Templates - Work Orders and selecting the Default Vendor or Default Employee, the drop down lists will now be filtered by the community selected.

o    When in the Add a Template, Modify Selected Template or Modify Selected Template Schedule tasks on the System Administration > Maintenance Setup - Templates - Work Orders tab and you click the Generate Work Now hyperlink, you will be prompted to set schedule information if it has not already been done.

o    The Maintain Selected Material task at System Administration > Maintenance Setup - Materials now allows you to make a material inactive.

o    The Materials That Go With Items and Materials That Go With Tasks Maintenance Setup tables have been enhanced to include Select All/Deselect All links to aid in the maintenance of these tables.

o    The Work Order Code Maintenance Setup table has been enhanced to include Activate All/Deactivate All links to aid in the maintenance of these tables.

New Windows/Tasks for Security:

IMPORTANT:

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.