General Comments
From WikiProperty
Just a collection of thoughs but may become more structured
Last signed on' date and time now displayed
If you have signed on and are in the 'Property Management' section, you will see displayed who you have logged on as and the date/time you last logged on. This is an additional security feature. If you believe your last 'signed on date' is not correct please change your password and encryption code and also inform Property Returns. Displaying whom you have signed on as is also helpful for users with multiple user names.
Entries with a '*' beside them
Note that with establishing a holding/property and in other places you only need to enter fields which have a '*' beside them. The reports will be more complete with the more fields you do enter. It is always possible complete these other fields at a later date as required.
How Encryption Works.
I receive emails suggesting that if a hacker did manage to get into Property Returns, they could work out who owns what and how much the properties are worth. Within Property Returns this is not possible. The only identifying information the hacker could discover is the email address. All the property names and identifying information is encrypted and only your encryption key can unencrypted it. A property name encrypted looks something like this 'DFdWPFM1CHwHHgJuVTdRZFI4ACBWMw=='. The hacker could not get hold of your encryption key because it itself is encrypted. When you enter you encryption key, it is encrypted and then this encrypted code is compared to your record. If you can not be identified by your email address, you can not be identified within Property Returns. It is possible to use a 'Yahoo' email address, or if your ISP allows extra email address, to create a new one with your ISP where you identity is not obvious. Possibly one day encryption codes may be crackable but you would need a computer worth many millions of dollars and a team of experts working on it for a few years. If someone really wants to know what you are worth their best approach would be to use some devious means to establish what properties you own and then going to the council to establish the values of the properties.
Invoices split over several tenants
You may receive invoices that cover more than one lease (and possibly are the tenant's responsibility). Examples are insurance and water bills in a multi-tenanted building. How do you handle this in Property Returns? The answer depends partly on how you have set up your details in Property Returns and what you want to achieve. Below I assume that a holding organisation is used and you desire to record all details. If you do not use holdings and are not to concerned about expense analysis, just use below what is appropriate. You should always record details about what you have done in the 'Notes' section to help you and your accountant many moons later.
First you need to record the expense for the holding organisation (normally a company or trust). Make this expense the landlords responsibility as it is the landlord who will be paying it.
Next establish which leases are responsible and for how much. If the floor area determines this you can use the Floor Ratio (%) held in the 'Edit' option on Property Management for each property. Next you will need to raise an invoice for each lease and record a new expense for each property making the tenant responsible.
The dates will need to be recorded when the holding organisation and tenants pay.
Have more than one window open
You can have as many browser windows/tabs open as you wish all using Property Returns. You will need to log on with each new browser window (using the same user name, password etc). There is no enforced limit as to the number of concurrent times you may do this. Opening multiple tags (as in Firefox) does not require logging in each time.
Testers required
For new functionally which is being developed, new and current users are always required. A tester will be required to use a feature then supply feedback. If you are interested please contact us. Please feel free to explore these tools and we look forward to your feedback. Your feedback, even if it is something small, helps us improve the product.
Make 'Fast Entry' your 'bookmark' or 'Favourite'
Once all your holdings and properties are established it is the 'Fast Entry' page which you will normally first go to. Here you will find all the rents, mortgages and expenses you need to enter. First go to your 'Fast Entry' page then add it to your bookmarks or favourites.
You need to set up your 'Fast Entry' page for each rental, mortgage account and expense you want appear. This is done by displaying entered rents, mortgages and expenses for a holding/property and selecting 'Add to Fast Entry'. Rents, mortgages and expenses can be removed from 'Fast Entry' by later selecting 'Remove from Fast Entry'.
Note that once the first rent payment and expense payment have been entered, the next time you need to enter these Property Returns will calculate what the payments should be and the date. Normally this will be correct so all you need to do is check it is correct then select the 'Submit' button.
Do you get an annoying message - 'This Page can not be Displayed
The page you are looking for is currently unavailable. The Web site might be experiencing technical difficulties, or you may need to adjust your browser settings'.
If normally your system including your browser works ok, this error message is possibly because your Internet Service Provider (ISP) is being overloaded. This is especially true if this error message appears very quickly after selecting the requested page. More people are trying to access the ISP's look-up table than can be handled causes this error. To find a page on the internet all users have to go through this look-up table so the internet know where to find the page you have requested. If the error message is not appearing straight away the overloading could be anywhere between you and the computer holding the page you are trying to receive. You could be going through two to twenty or more computers depending where in the world this page is. This error message does appear if the page does not exist, but if you have been to the page before then the most likely cause is overloading.
This error message is only a problem (apart from the inconvenience) when entering data. Hitting the refresh button may re-enter the rent, mortgage payment, expense etc. This is easy to check as once you have entered data, the entered information is always displayed to you to make this obvious. It is then a simple matter to then delete any extra payments etc. This will not cause a problem anywhere else in Property Returns. Once you have entered data, using the back button on your browser, and then selecting the refresh button can also create duplicate data. The above can not be avoided on any internet system and is not normally a problem. As the internet matures this is becoming less of a problem.
What are the 'Email Reminders'?
You can receive email reminders for:
- lease events. When you are setting up a lease you can enter 'lease Events'. These are lease commencement, lease renewals, rent reviews, final expiry etc. You may establish your own lease events (for example temporary rent holiday). When you set up a lease event for a lease you also enter a 'Due Date'. This will be the date when the lease renewal etc is planned happen. You will sent an email 30, 60 and 90 days before the due date (three emails). Because this information is confidential you will need to log in to obtain your details. The direct link is supplied within the email. Within 'Edit your Profile' you can alter when you are to receive email reminders. By default the 30, 60 and 90 days are selected for you. You may alter these settings. If you choose to not select 30, 60 or 90 days you will not receive any email reminders.
- Mortgage Reminders. With any mortgage you have set up, you can enter a mortgage reminder. This can be any comments regarding the mortgage. For example it could be the date that a fix mortgage comes to an end, or a date when you would like to review a certain mortgage. Next to this reminder or comment you can enter an email date. Enter the date on which you would like to receive an email reminder. This can be a date many years in the future. Because this information is confidential you will need to log in to obtain details. The direct link is supplied within the email. If you choose to not enter an email date you will not receive any email reminders.
- Any other thing you want to be reminded about - your mother-in-laws birthday. When you enter details about a contact with someone in your address book, you may enter a 'date for Email Reminder'. Once the date you enter arrives you will be sent an email reminder. This can be a date many years in the future. Because this information is confidential you will need to log in to obtain details. The direct link is supplied within the email. If you choose to not enter an email date you will not receive any email reminders.
