Category: ReleaseNotes

We have revised our Works Order facility based on client feedback and today we are proud to announce the revised version is available for all Resident users.  

– Independent process for approval and work cycles with a detailed log and option to retract every action 

– The system automatically creates a unique reference number for each Works Order in numerical order across your Agency  

– You can download all your quotes on one template 

– Section 20 notices (Statement of Intent & Notice of Estimates) can now be sent via an editable cover email with the Notice as a pdf attachment. Alternatively the pdf Notices can be downloaded to post using our mail merge facility to create a bulk cover letter. 

Please follow the link below to our Knowledge Base for a more detailed description:
Works Order Manual

We are constantly striving to improve our software to meet our clients expectations and needs with future product enhancements in our development roadmap.

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An End of Year pack can now be generated for each Financial Period / Service Charge year on every Block. It is generated from Company/Company Info/End of Year Pack. Each Pack will contain the following set of documents.

• All Service Charge Statements for each unit (single pdf file)
• All Service Charge Demands with due date in the selected Period (one pdf per invoice group)
• Cashbook for each Bank Account (multiple excel files)
• List of all Supplier’s Invoices with attachments (one excel file with list of Invoices and attachments in whatever format they were originally uploaded)
• All Budgets linked to that Period
• Budget vs Expenditure Report
• Trial Balance
• Previous Year Accounts Please follow the link below for more details:

End of Year Pack

Our training modules help you maximise your time and get the most from the Resident® platform.

From £500 + VAT for a half day or £850 + VAT for a full day onsite training. Please email kate@resident.uk.com to arrange.

We have made 3 functionality improvements this week:

1. Calendar date.

You can now update the calendar date by simply typing the desired date instead of browsing through a calendar although this option with the calendar is still available.

If you would like to know how it all works please follow the link below:

Selecting a date

1. Confirmation alerts

All messages from Resident such as ‘All changes applied’ or ‘Error: Missing fields’ will now appear in the bottom right corner. This change came from our users’ feedback and software design best practices.

1. You can now easily send us your feedback.

Our software was born from the everyday experience of block managers and their feedback. That is why we highly value our customers’ opinions as they are the best way to improve our product. If you would like to share your opinion with us you can easily do it now using the new Resident feedback option. Simply click on the ‘smiley face’ icon in the top right corner next to the blocklist icon.

This week’s piece of ‘know how’ knowledge – Change of Ownership

Whenever a property is sold and you have the new owner’s details you need to update them in Resident. In most cases, you just need to follow a few simple steps.

• Access Owners tab under Unit – Using ‘Edit Ownership’ button put an end date to the last ownership – In the Owners tab use ‘Add Ownership’ at the bottom of the page to create new period – Once that is done you can add the new Owner/s. Just ensure you add the new owner to the correct period. – The last stage which might not always be necessary is to transfer any invoices/credits to the new ownership in the Statement tab Please follow the link below for more details:

Change of Ownership Article

Improved monitoring of the Arrears process:

Resident shows you the status of Arrears for each Leaseholder: Pending, Due, In Progress, Settled.

Each opened process has a full audit trail and record of all generated documents which can be easily reprinted or re-emailed.

After each Message is sent a Reminder is created automatically for a follow up.

Please follow the link below for more detail:

Arrears process in detail

It is all up to you and your requirements:

You can now design the whole Arrears process yourself to suit your individual requirements.

You decide how many Steps you want to have, how your Letters look and when you want to receive a Reminder.

Please follow the link below for more details:

How to design your own Arrears workflow

Each process is Category specific:

You can now have separate Arrears processes for each revenue Category which allows you to send Letters which are designed in a different way for Ground Rents to those for Service Charges.

Please follow the link below for more details:

Category specific Arrears process

Leaseholder statements can be now downloaded or emailed for selected Calendar periods:

When you press the download or email button you can select the dates you would like the statement to generate from and to. 

Please follow the link below for more details:

Generating updated statement

Generate leaseholder statements by Category:

Enjoy the flexibility of generating statements specific to Service Charges or Ground Rents or another revenue category of your choice for any time period you need.  Simply access the ‘Statement’ tab under Units and on the right-hand side select the category of your choice.

Please follow the link below for more details:

Statement per category

Unreconcile button now available under Unit – Statement – Actions:

If you spot a mistake or need to change the invoice against which a  transaction has been reconciled, you can unlink the transaction directly under the Unit Statement tab – Actions.

Please follow the link below for more details:

New Unreconcile Option

Our training modules help you maximise your time and get the most from the Resident® platform.

From £500 + VAT for a half day or £850 + VAT for a full day onsite training.
Please email kate@resident.uk.com to arrange

Automated Client Account Bank Feeds

Our new bank feed option automatically imports transactions direct to Resident® from all your individual client bank accounts. Once each account is connected you will no longer need to import CSV files or manually input transactions, you will see real time bank data on demand. Reconcile away with a few clicks, saving many hours of essential admin.

A new Customisable Arrears Workflow

Create your own bespoke arrears workflows per Client. Arrears templates can be created for each client by category be it service charges, ground rents, rent etc…

Customize how many steps to your arrears workflow per client – be it one chasing letter or an eight stage process – you choose & create bespoke to you.

Every step in your workflow can include a customisable attachment template and a cover letter / message template. You also have the option of including a leaseholder statement as an attachment.

And finally you can customise the time period for the system to remind you to follow up each step – create this as a task and assign the task to a user.

And a really nifty new feature – after generating the arrears letters / emails you will receive a pop up confirming which were sent by email and which need to be printed and posted – which can then be downloaded to post 🙂

Status tabs give you a snapshot of the arrears status for each leaseholder.

Coming soon – Leaseholders can create Direct Debits and make online payments by a simple click of a button on their invoice without the need to log in……

To arrange a demo of Resident®, a member of the RICS Tech Affiliate Program, please telephone 0203 7515 628 or email jon@resident.uk.com

Update on Credits:
When a credit is created on a unit it will behave as follows:

• Opening balances and Credit Notes will show on Leaseholder Statements only and not impact Bank Balances
• A payment adjustment will show on both the Bank Balance and Leaseholder Statements. You will be also able to reconcile them against Bank Transactions.

All old credits which were not opening balances or credit notes have been converted to Credit Notes.

Refunds:
You can now add Refunds as separate items on Leaseholder Statements (in More Actions). This item is a debit which will behave in the same way as a Payment. It will be listed on Leaseholder Statements and reconciled against a Debit Bank Transaction.

Ground Rent:
The Ground Rent value and frequency can now be set against Leaseholders. Invoices are created automatically by the system on a chosen date or a number of days before it. You can set this up in Unit/Owner/Edit Ownership.

Maintenance:
You can now pay Supplier Invoices directly from a list of invoices. Click the Invoice payment button, directly on the Invoice List (both for suppliers and units). It is the ‘note’ icon under Actions in the list.

Global lists of Invoices 
A Global view of Unit Invoices and Supplier Invoices is now accessible from Branch Finances/Units Invoices or Supplier Invoices.

New views for Tasks, Notes and Files
This includes tag filtering and has more information available. For Tasks, users can see their Tasks, Tasks they’ve delegated and Tasks that are assigned to their Group.

Support Tickets
We have a new Ticketing system. You can now submit and monitor your support requests directly from Resident. They are all kept in My Work/Tickets on your left hand side Navigation menu.

Supplier page updated
All related invoices and works orders are on the supplier details page. You can also check supplier account balances for each block. To do that you just need to access the supplier’s profile either from Branch/Suppliers (top right corner ‘tools’ menu) or when you are in Block Contacts/Suppliers (left hand side Navigation menu).

Updates User page
All related invoices to individuals are on details page now. Similar to Suppliers you just need to access the user profile from Branch or Block/Contacts level.

Improved ledger item
You can now assign multiple ledger items against one bank transaction in Transactions/Bank reconciliation e.g. if a leaseholder paid their service charge and ground rent as one payment you can now allocate part of it against a demand and the balance against the ledger category ‘Internal transfers to Ground Rent Account’.

Supplier Credits
Credits can now be added to Supplier accounts on the Supplier profile under the tab called Statements. Before you do that you need to select the bank account you want this credit to be linked to. This also assigns the Credit to the block.

Option to assign custom ID
Custom Id can be assigned on Suppliers, Clients, Blocks, Units, Tenancies, Invoices and Works orders. The system will alert you  if the Custom Id is repeated. 

This is useful for third party integration with other products, such as Sage, as well as for searching especially if you have leaseholders with the same name.

Invoice recurrence
Invoices can be setup with a recurrence frequency. The system will automatically create new invoices as per the recurrence configuration that you set such as Utility bills that are received on a quarterly basis for a fixed amount, or Managing Agents fees that are received on a quarterly basis for a fixed amount.

After eight months of full time work by our technical team, we’re excited to announce the upcoming major release of Resident® V3. Due in the next few weeks, here’s a summary of the new features and improvements:

• User interface: a brand new look and feel, built to be cleaner, more intuitive and work faster. Using the latest web technologies, you’ll feel as if you’re using a desktop program, but in a web browser.
• Full tasking system: we’ve made it even easier for you to see, assign and track tasks,  across all blocks, and against your budgets. 
• Improved messaging: you can now see all messages across all blocks, add attachments, track your messages against related topics, and even from automatic emails.
• Logging: see all your data updates – who did them and when, against any item, such as your units, budgets, invoices, and blocks.
• Improved work orders management: multiple quotes against single works order, and improved work progress tracking.
• Custom categories: Set at Block level so you can add new categories or hide existing ones.
• Supplier list: Set at a branch level, you can set a supplier and use them across all your blocks.
• Low level permissions management: you can customize every page, every item (block, unit, invoice, etc.) against every role. This allows you, for example,  to let a Leaseholder view but not edit the budget.
• Branding: you can brand invoices, statements and other attachments easily by adjusting Word templates.
• Individual databases for agencies: each agency gets it own ‘sandboxed’ database, which means  increased data security and direct access for advanced reporting should you so wish.
• User registration: To make it as user friendly as possible, new accounts have the option to sign up using their Facebook, Google or Microsoft accounts.
• Recurrent invoices: the system, if you set it, can automatically create recurrent invoices, such as utility bills.

We are also launching a new, fully searchable, self service knowledge base, which will include updated video guides. We are sure it will all be second nature in no time, as we have tried to make the new interface as intuitive as possible.

New Features & Enhancements 16th June 2016

Import functionality

We have released two new features which will help new users migrate their data into Resident, and existing clients enter new business.

–        Import Unit and Owner information

Import all the unit information, owner information, ownership start dates and any opening balances in one go, via a CSV file.

This will substantially simplify and speed up setting up a block.

–      Import Schedule and Unit contributions

This new feature allows for bulk imports of service charge schedule unit contributions, i.e. how much each unit contributes to a schedule (% upto 6 decimal places).

This feature also works as an update. So, if you have tens or hundreds of units in one block, and find updating the contributions easier in Excel, you can do just that!

Both these functions can be found on the Configuration page.

Show unreconciled payments in the transactions page and cashbook

Following client feedback, we have decided to go back to displaying payments in the Transactions page.

Reconciled payments, i.e. payments that are linked to a transaction, will be displayed inside the transaction. Whilst unreconciled payments will display as stand-alone.

This make Resident less prescriptive about how you should manage your payments, bank statement imports and financial reconciliations.

No functionality has changed, only how the data is displayed.

All the improvements and new features have been direct requests from our clients.

Here is the list of those improvements and features. We will update the user manual and generate a blog post in the near future, with further documentation to come and video user guides to help you along.

Mail merge extract

To allow mass email or bulk printing to your block contacts, you can now extract a Microsoft Word compatible extract of your contacts. 

Download the extract in your block’s Contacts page and follow this manual. This allows for greater flexibility, since you can format your Word document anyway you want, which makes it perfect for introduction letters and the like.  

We provide one extract with the contacts details and another with the unit and owner details. We also include their role (director, owner, etc), so that you can filter on the contacts you wish to use.

The Resident team are happy to assist you in creating various templates as part of your on boarding experience as new clients.

Delete data

After much feedback from our clients, we have decided to change the paradigm and allow all data to be deleted by our users.

With this release, you’ll be able to delete budgets, service charges, invoices, payments, credits and bank transactions.

Improved budgeting/service charge functionality

The new budget page allows for the user to immediately visualize the values being charged per unit and per period.

You can now have several budgets per financial year, and set a revenue category against them. You can also assign a bank account to a budget or service charge, which will trickle down to your invoices. Multiple bank accounts can be used.

By editing a Schedule, you can set what Categories relate to that schedule. On the budget, you’ll only find these categories in the schedule tab, making the budget pages cleaner and easier to use.

Assign credit to invoices

You can now assign credits to an invoice. Just navigate to the invoice and you’ll be able to assign any credit (related to the owner(s)) from the credit’s tab.

Re-assign invoice to different unit owner

You are now able to change the unit owner related to a specific invoice. This allows for smoother unit owner transitions.

Improved financial reconciliation

Each transaction is saved individually. This allows for an easier interaction with the list of transactions to reconcile.

You can now also assign the bank transaction to your general ledger, giving it a category and some extra information. This allow bank transactions to be reconciled, whilst not relating to an invoice.

Improved credit system

We have changed a lot here.

Under “Credits and Adjustments” in the unit page, you can register opening balances, bank transaction adjustments, payment adjustments and credit note items. These can all be assigned to an invoice. Although you can make them negative, we recommend you keep them positive, and raise supplementary invoices for situation where the owner is in debt.

Bank transfer adjustments can be created directly from the financial reconciliation page, and are meant as a credit from an overpayment from a bank transaction.

Credit notes have temporarily disappeared. But we are working on getting them back for invoicing to clients. Any feedback you have on how we can improve on this is most welcome.

Bulk download of owner statements in arrears

To allow an easy way to communication with all owner in arrears, in the Units page, you can download all the owner statements who are in arrears.

New reports

We have included a number of reports our clients requested, and we have many more planned.

• Debtors report –  displays the list of owners and invoices in arrears
• Creditors report – displays all supplier invoices which haven’t been paid
• Budget vs. Expenditure – displays, by category, the amount budgeted and invoiced
• Annual charges – displays all charges applied to each unit on a yearly basis

Additional fixes and tweaks

• Maintenance invoices are set to paid, regardless of how payments are registered
• Maintenance invoices details can be changed, even if the status is paid.
• You can edit reconciled bank transactions
• Added unit address to a statement
• Renamed “New tenancy” to “New ownership” in the unit page, owner tab
• Moved “Add new ownership” button to top of the page
• Created a new button on unit page, to download a current owner statement
• Fixed an issue with Expenditure reports, where a schedule was not being populated correctly
• Fixed an issue with apportionment reports, where a schedule was not being populated correctly
• Fixed an issue with payments reports, where payments from supplementary invoices were not showing
• Aligned arrears values in the dashboard, units and arrears pages to use the same calculation formula

Lastly…

Thank you for your invaluable feedback, it really is appreciated and the team at Resident will continue to adapt and enhance the system with our Clients feedback and ideas.