Focus Micro Systems would like to introduce you to V40 in

celebration of our 40th Year Trading Anniversary!


Brand New & Updated Features for this Version

Uploads

With a complete re-design of both the look and functionality within our upload’s features, marketing your properties has never been so effective! You are now able to upload instantly to a variety of portals with the latest technology: Real Time Data Feed. These new portals consist of:

  • Zoopla
  • OnTheMarket
  • Boomin
  • Rightmove

We have also combined all fields you can upload into one BLM format, so you can upload this to any portal you would like.

In addition to the above, we have added the ability to upload Key Features to give an overview of the property, and Virtual Tours for renters to have a visual viewing at the click of a button.

We have improved the security when uploading your files to a marketing portal with the brand-new availability of using an SFTP (AKA Secure FTP).

Tenant Payment Screen

One of our most used features has now been given a re-design. It now has a much more attractive and enlarged screen with our signature blue background.

Not only visual improvements, but we have added a View Transactions button which will show you all transactions for the current tenant record.

We are also now displaying all features which are available on the tenant payment screen, but they will remain greyed out if you do not have the features enabled.

Service Charges and Ground Rents

We have implemented a whole load of new features to assist our service charge clients:

  • You can post Ground Rent & Service Charge dues from the Property level.
  • You can now copy an existing tenant’s categories and allocations to another tenant of your selection with the “Duplicate Tenant Allocations” feature on the Tenant tab of the Service Charge File.
  • We have improved functionality of the Additional Service Charge Posting feature, you are now able to select the service charge year number that the additional service charge dues will be posted for, and when you haven’t set your additional service charge apportionments for all tenants of the property – you are able to use the following screen to set the apportionments manually.
  • Added a button to “View Transactions for this Service Charge Year” on the property service charge file.

Tradesman Invoice Commission Feature

If you charge commission to your Landlords or Tenants when raising a tradesman invoice, we now have the perfect feature to do this for you. The new Tradesman Commission feature will allow you to add an additional fee on top of your tradesman invoices and produce an invoice which you can send to your landlord if you would like.

Reports

We have now updated over 40 report descriptions to help you choose the exact report you need, and if this isn’t enough you are now also able to search by report description opposed to just the name.If you use our Company Codes feature, we have added a report category which will only display reports which can be run by Company Code, this will avoid any confusion with what reports can be run utilising this feature.

FCP Agent Banking

You can import and export transactions between your online bank and our software using our latest Online Bank Import and Export facility. This saves time typing out manual information such as the date, description and amount and greatly reduces the risk of human error compared with entering transactions manually.

Other Features now Available

You are now able to search for an invoice number and service charge year through the transaction screen.

Tenant other charges now has a VAT rate setting for each item, and you can specify an end date so one-off charges can be made (or a specific number of charges).

Added a “Tax Details” button to the landlord file, allowing you to manually adjust tax retention amounts held and percentages.

New and Updated Manual Sections

We have added the following sections to the manual:

  • Uploading Your Properties to Marketing Websites
  • FCP Agent Banking
  • Landlord Payment Routine
  • Unallocated Monies
  • Password Levels
    We have also made updates to the following manual sections:
  • Summary of Accounting Procedures
  • Detailed Summary of Accounting Procedures
  • Advert List Production
  • Tradesman Invoice Attachment Feature
  • Paying Rents Due
  • Entering Tenant Deposits
  • Saving Statements, Invoice, Credit Notes and Demands to the Tenant Diary
  • Transfer Fees to Office Bank Account
  • Administration Charges
  • Other Charges
  • Features of the Transactions Screen
  • Date Range Deleted Transaction Feature
  • Conduct Transaction Entry
  • Payments made using the Bank Export Function
  • Glossary
  • Index

Bug Fixes

  • Improved the speed of the landlord statement routine in single and batch for the LS01 landlord statement type.
  • Stopped the software from requiring a reset when searching within the nominal file straight after using the Go To Record feature
  • Printing of the listed advertised properties from the Advert List Production screen now includes all properties listed.
  • Locked the transaction screen when carrying out the landlord cleardown procedure to ensure the procedure completes before any other actions are carried out stopping the software from requiring a reset.
  • The batch Tradesman Invoice import using an Excel document will now not require a reset if using a spreadsheet which does not contain all the available fields.
  • Locked the landlord statements routine in single and batch to ensure that when each part of the procedure is run, you cannot move elsewhere within the software.
  • Stopped the space bar from being clickable during the batch landlord statements routine and during the single landlord cleardown routine.
  • Start date of the dates covered is now correct for payments of Rent if the paid up to day before date was empty before posting the transaction.
  • When posting a credit note, the outstanding amount on the transaction created will now correctly be set to £0.00
  • If a service charge expense year number is changed using the trans-action viewer it will now update the actual expenditure amounts correctly within the service charge file and on any reports.
  • Reserve fund payments now link correctly to the associated due transaction and show the “View Linked Transactions” button on the transaction viewer.
  • Expenditure Analysis, Expenditure Summary, and Certificate of Income and Expenditure reports now show figures against service charge categories if they have been changed from one year to another.
  • Expenditure Analysis and Expenditure Summary reports now accept descriptions of service charge invoices over 255 characters.

Please also see our other post celebrating the 40th Anniversary of Focus Micro Systems: www.focus-property.co.uk/celebrating-40-years

If you would like to find out more about any of our New Features, Manual Sections or Bug Fixes then please contact a member of the support on 0871 250 0021 or email support@focus-property.co.uk.