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Letting Management Software

Our Letting Management Software comprehensively covers a wide variety of functions and useful features to manage your monthly rentals and your Trust Account including being able to: list landlords and tenants in detail; record notes and set reminders; sms and eMail capabilities; market your listings within DataTrac and on the internet; prepare brochures for prospective Tenants; match Tenants against management rental properties; detailed trust account administration system; detailed reports suite.

Click on the links below to view summaries of the individual categories comprising our Letting Management Software.

Control Screen

The Control Screen, as the name indicates, allows you to control the features, utilities and database management of your Management Rentals software through easy to use toolbar buttons and menu options.

After a short while, you will be able to easily select the appropriate options from the Control Screen through training provided by us on a one to one basis over the Internet.  We provide detailed initial training and ongoing training and support.

Note the version number of the software below the DataTrac logo. Our software is being continually improved and the latest files can be downloaded by clicking on the Updates button in the toolbar which is an automated process.

Management Screen Datatrac

Management Rental Screen

This screen appears when you click on the Managed button in the toolbar of the Control Screen and is used to create, edit or delete Landlord records and carry out certain other funtions.

The screen is made up of various frames or tabs with self explanatory headings allowing you to comprehensively store information on the Landlord, notes, list the property for rental purposes together with photo management, financial info, current and historical maintenance of the property. Additionally, you can communicate with the Landlord via the SMS and eMail buttons.

Notice that we also cater for Group Accounts in the Property Details frame allowing you to provide your Landlord with one account for all of the properties that he has given you to manage, showing the income for the individual properties (sub accounts) and expenses that you have paid on his behalf for the entire portfolio. This is a very convenient feature and will help you to close more prospective Landlord deals.

Also notice that there are various tabs in the screen above and for your info, we provide screenshots below of what these look like in our program, the content of which is self explanatory:

Notes Tab:

Special Tab:

Letting Tab:

Features Tab:

Photos Tab:

Financial Tab:

Maintenance Tab:

Tenant Information Screen

This screen appears when you click on the Tenants button in the toolbar on the Control Screen and is used to create, edit or delete Tenant records.

The screen is made up of various frames or tabs with self explanatory headings allowing you to comprehensively store information on the Tenant, record notes, profile the Tenant and match his / her requirements against properties in the rentals pool and, financial info. Additionally, you can communicate with the Tenant via the SMS and eMail buttons.


Notice that there are various tabs in the screen above and for your info, we provide screenshots below of what these look like in our program, the content of which is self explanatory:

Notes Tab:

Special Tab:

Financial Tab:

Tenant Criteria Screen

After you have listed and advertised your Management Rental or Placement Rental properties, you will begin receiving enquiries from prospective Tenants. The screen below allows you to create, edit and delete enquiries and to store information on the Tenant's requirements. Note you can also record notes, set action dates and reminders for the enquiries. What is most important is that this screen enables you to filter your available properties based on the requirements given by the prospective Tenant, and produce detailed brochures that can be printed or emailed.


Notice that there are two tabs in this screen. An example of the Profile Info tab is as follows:

After you have created the enquiry which shows in the display on the left of the screen, you will want to check which properties match the enquiry.  You do so by clicking on the Filter Data button (right bottom corner) which displays the Filter Guest Prospects screen.

In this screen, you have the flexibility to remove listings in the top table should you feel that they don't suit the Tenant's enquiry, view details of what the accommodation offers and print or eMail listing sheets or brochures on the properties.

An example of a listing sheet is as follows:

When the program prepares the brochure, it simultaneously prepares a PDF file which is the screenshot that you see above, opens our eMail Message Library for you to be able to select a suitable covering message and inserts the PDF as an attachment, all of which is geared towards convenience and saving time.

This concludes our brief coverage of the marketing capability of our software. We now return to the financial aspects of our Letting Management software.

Combo View Screen

The Combo View screen is used more frequently than any other screen due to the information that it displays and its functionalities. It allows you to see the key information for both landlord and tenant in one easy to use screen and if you wish, you can set the program to load this screen when you start DataTrac. What’s more, you can also view the different financial Ledgers being the Tenant, Landlord, Trust Account and General Ledger via the MLV button.

In the Combo View, you can eMail, sms and record notes for both Landlord and Tenant and additionally carry out the functionalities show in the toolbar at the top of the screen.

Notice that you can access the Control Screen and Landlord and Tenant screens from the Combo View's toolbar.

We now cover some of the other buttons in the toolbar:


Recurring Charges

This is a very important screen which allows you set and store the Recurring Charges for your Landlord and Tenant respectively. These charges form the basis of your invoicing and also determine how monies received from your tenants will be allocated.


Lease Renewal

This is also a very important screen which allows you to easily manage your lease renewals according to the circumstances of each deal. All the fields in the Future Vaues column are editable, thereby giving you flexibility to adjust the values if needs be.

We also provide a variety of reports that allow you to print details of leases that are coming up for renewal. You can also display this info on screen by changing the month selection in the left top corner of the above screen.


Multiple Ledger View

This feature in DataTrac is extremely useful and allows you to see in one screen, all the relevant ledgers that make up the financial records of a typical Management Rentals transaction which will be illustrated in the invoicing and cash book processing sections below.

In this first screen of the MLV, the Tenant and Landlord ledgers are shown.

Next, we view the Trust and General ledgers and then Deposits.

Multiple Ledger View Trust Ledger
Multiple Ledger View General Ledger
Multiple Ledger View Deposits Ledger

Invoicing

Tenant Invoice

There are two methods for generating invoices:

  1. 1. Once-off or Ad Hoc Invoices via the Combo View screen for the selected account which opens the Tenant Invoice: Processing Screen, on which you click the New button,
  2. 2. By using the monthend checklist where a lot of the steps are completely automated. This method employed when doing your Tenant monthend processing.

The following screenshot is an example of an ad hoc invoice in which two line items have been manually inserted:

Note that on this screen, you can also view previous invoices, print and eMail ad hoc invoices, print batch reports and view the Multiple Ledger View and Report Viewer which are discussed later.

For your info, the Tenant Invoice screen looks as follows:

The above example of an invoice applies when you wish to generate a once-off or an ad hoc invoice which is the first method for generating invoices.

We now show you the second method which is used when you wish to batch import invoices for all your tenants at once i.e. when you do your Tenant monthend.

You do this by clicking on the Import Invoices button in the Tenant Invoice: Processsing Screen which displays the following screen:


The checklist enables you to track your progress while busy with your monthend. Each step has a Go button and a checkbox. You click the go button to either complete the step yourself, or let the program do it for you automatically. After you have completed a step, tick the checkbox for that step. Note step 8 is the step where all your Tenant Recurring Invoices are imported. Step 9 is where you add the ad hoc charges to the relevant invoices followed by updating them.

We now turn to processing of Landlord Invoices.


Landlord Invoice

Similarly, to Tenant Invoices, there are two methods for generating invoices:

  1. Once-off or Ad Hoc Invoices via the Combo View screen for the selected account which opens the Landlord Invoice: Processing Screen, on which you click the New button
  2. Automatically through the Pmt Allocations procedure which we cover in Cash Book section of this presentation.

The following screenshot is an example of an ad hoc invoice in a line item has been manually inserted:

Cash Book Processing

Cash Book Processing entails three easy to use steps:

  1. Import Bank Statement - downloading and importing your bank statement data
  2. Cash Book - transferring the data into the cash book.
  3. Pmt Allocations - allocating the monies received which includes automatic creation of the landlord invoice and payments to the landlord and thrid parties.

Import Bank Statement

As you are no doubt aware, your Bankers allow you to download your banking data in CSV format. This data is then imported into DataTrac via the Import Bank Statement screen which looks as follows:

When this screen loads, the program automatically checks if the description of the entry on the bank statement matches any of your Tenants' account numbers and if there is a match, the Account Number and Name fields are populated. Further to this, we have a build in mapping system which allows you to map bank statement descriptions to a specific Account Number which looks as follows



This should be used when the same description is being used every time

All that is then required in this screen is to tick the checkbox "Transfer to Cash Book" for all the items that you with to transfer, followed by clickiing on the Process button which transfers the entries to the cash book, clears the Import Bank Statement table and shows the transferred entries in the Cash Book Preview table.

Then click on the Cash Book button which opens the Cash Book in which the transferred entries will show.


Cash Book

All that you have to do in the Receipts tab of the Cash Book is to highlight the entry that you wish to process, followed by clicking on the PMT ALLOCATIONS tab which opens the following screen in which you will generate the landlord invoice and payments to be made to the various parties.


Payment Allocations

This is very useful screen which allows you to allocate the Tenant receipt against whichever invoices you like, generate the Landlord Invoice and the necessary payments to the various Parties.

When you have fully allocated the Tenant receipt and the Unallocated Balance is zero, you then click on the Process button which does the following automatically:

- Updates the descriptions for the Tenant's receipt to show how the funds have been allocated;

- Updates the Landord Invoice;

- Transfers the proposed payments to the Payments tab of the cash book, as shown below.

Receipts Payment Allocations Datatrac Rentals Management
Payment Allocations Datatrac Rentals Management

All that is then required before you update the entries shown above is to make the internet banking payments.

To conclude our coverage of Cash Book Processing, we mention that you will hardly ever actually insert entries in the Cash Book screen itself since the Receipts and Payments entries are automatically generated as briefly discussed above. There are numerous benefits arising from this automation being accuracy and speed of processing receipts and payments.


Payments Manager

Notice that there is a button called "Payments Manager” on the Payments tab on the Cash Book. The Payments Manager can also be accessed via

When you click on the "Payments Manager" button, all the payments on the Payments tab, regardless of them being ticked or not, will be transferred to a preparation screen. You now need to tick the checkboxes next to the payments you which to process. We suggest that you separate your batches by processing all Fees together (Business Account), all Deposit transfers together (Investment Account), and all other payments together.

After you have selected the payments, click on the "Process" button, which will display a confirmation message that will do the following when you click "Yes" to confirm:

  1. create batch number: " XXXXXX " for the selected payments;
  2. generate a CSV file for the batch;
  3. write the selected transactions to the Processed Transactions table which cannot be changed;
  4. update 'Fee' payments, if applicable, in the cash book;
  5. delete 'all other' payment types, if applicable, from the cash book, and delete all payments in the screen that you are presently viewing;
  6. open the folder in which the CSV file has been stored so that you may copy it to your local system for uploading to your bank
Bank Reconciliation Datatrac Rentals Management

After you have processed your Payments, they will be transferred to the Process screen as show below.

Bank Reconciliation Datatrac Rentals Management

Once the payments have been confirmed and are reflecting in your bank account, you can move these transactions to the History screen, by selecting the Payments then clicking on the “Move to History” button.


Bank Reconciliation

When you have finished processing all your transactions for a particular day, it is strongly recommended that you check the Bank Reconciliation screen by clicking on the Bank Recon button on the Combo View or the Cash Book. This is done to make sure that you are balancing with your bank account at all times.

Bank Reconciliation Datatrac Rentals Management

Reports

Now that we have generated and updated invoices for Tenant and Landord transactions and processed cash book entries and updated them, we can turn our attention to reporting which includes bulk eMailing of invoices and statements to the Tenants and Landlords.

Logically, we would have sent these eMails before any payments were made by the Tenant, as discussed above. Let's therefore cover this first before we look at the reporting capabilities of our software.


eMailing of Tenant Invoices & Statements

The bulk eMailing of invoices and statement is handled in the Report Viewer which can be accessed in various places in our software with the most popular being the Control Screen and the Combo View screen and looks as follows:

Report Viewer Datatrac Software Solutions

To generate PDF's for your Tenant Invoices, click on the Tenants menu option followed by Invoices which displays the following processing screen:

Next select the accounts that you wish to process or highlight "Select all in list" if appropriate, select your date range and tick the PDF File checkbox, as shown in the following screenshot, followed by clicking on Print Preview:

We then repeat process for the Tenant Statements with the selection screen looking as follows:

Report Viewer: Tenant Statement Screen Datatrac Software Solutions

When done, click on the eMail menu option which displays the following processing screen:

Report Viewer: Email Screen Datatrac Software Solutions

Notice the covering message on the left of the screen which you change whenever you see fit.


Notice

  • the covering message on the left side of the screen which you may customise and change as often as you like;
  • the list of eMail recipients and the checkboxes alongside their names for selection purposes;
  • the Attachments window indicating the annexures that will be attached and which may be viewed before you send the eMails by double clicking on them.

To send the eMails, simply selecting them individually or in any order that you like or select all by clicking on the relevant checkbox followed by clicking on the Send button.

eMails that are sent through DataTrac actually go out via Outlook so that your Outlook records are not compromised.

eMailing of Landlord Invoices & Statements

This follows the same procedure as eMailing your Tenants.

We now illustrate the different categories of report writing that are accommodated in our Report Viewer:

Report Viewer Tenant Options
Report Viewer Trust Account Options
Report Viewer General Ledger Options

In addition to the above four key ledger categories, the Report Viewer also accommodates VAT returns and under Miscellaneous, we have a report called the Audit Trail Report. This report is very useful and provides in one report for either auditing purposes or resolving of queries, a complete breakdown with details of all transactions for the selected account or accounts, as the case may be, for the selected timeframe, as illustrated below.


Report Viewer Audit Trail Report Detailed Page1
Report Viewer Audit Trail Report Detailed Page2

This concludes our summary of the Report Viewer.

Utilities

SMS Sending

SMS sending is a key feature in all our software packages.

The SMS utility allows you to send single and bulk SMS'es, and to create and store template SMS messages that you can use repetitively which is both convenient and time saving. We provide you with SMS credits at competitive rates.

SMS'es sent through DataTrac are saved in the Notes for the record concerned which is very useful for recording ongoing communication with your Clients and are also separately stored in a database so that you know what SMS'es were sent to whom, when and the content thereof.

SMS Screen

Email

Our eMail utility is an essential part of our software and is accessible in many screens throughout the program, the screen of which is shown below.

Notice the Message Library button in the left, top corner. The Message Library allows you to create and store template eMails that you can use repetitively which is both convenient and time saving.

Our eMail utility allows you to send single and bulk eMails. eMails sent through DataTrac are saved in the Notes for the record concerned which is very useful for recording ongoing communication with your Clients. Furthermore, all emails sent via DataTrac will be stored in your Sent Items in Outlook.

Email Screen

Reminders

Our Reminders utility is accessible from many screens throughout the program, and caters for four categories of reminders as the tabs in the screenshot below indicate. Reminders work on a similar basis to Outlook and give you the flexibility of actioning what needs to be done without having to leave or close DataTrac.

Reminders Screen

Backup Utility

It is vitally important to do backups on a regular basis so that you do not run the risk of losing your valuable data for whatever reason. With this in mind, we have incorporated a Backup Utility in our software, the screen of which is shown below.

You have the choice of backing up your databases or the entire directory housing the DataTrac files.

In addition, we provide automated backing up of your key databases when the program opens and functionality to manage your backups via DataTrac's Control Screen.

Backup Utilitiy

PDF Viewer

Our PDF or Document Viewer utility enables you to view documents that have been created within our program, scanned and saved by you in the various directories shown in the left panel of the following screenshot. This is a convenience feature allowing you to quickly access documents and / or images, as the case may be, without having to leave your desk or close DataTrac.

PDF Viewer

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Datatrac Software Solutions
Phone: 044 533 5757
Email: mail@datatrac.co.za

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044 533 5757