Normally a discount is automatically offered on New Rental if the conditions for the initial rental period meet any criteria set in the discount range section of the Parameters (screen 4). However, a parameter is now available which will cause the discount field to appear in a new rental even if the required criteria are not met. This allows a discount to be set for the initial rental period at the user's discretion. The parameter can be found on screen 4.

Ordinarily, when Space Manager generates on-going automatic invoices for contracts, a discount is only applied if the contract conditions meet the criteria set in the Parameters and if Automatic Discounting is not disabled for that contract. However, users now have the opportunity to specify the date that an initial discount should run to. At automatic invoice generation time, the system will look to see it the period being charged to is prior to or equal to this date. If it is, the discount will be applied to the automatic invoice.

By giving users the ability to apply a user definable discount until a specific date, considerable additional flexibility is added to the way promotional discounts can be applied to contracts. For example, a 10% discount could be applied for the first 6 months of the contract only, irrespective of the invoice frequency

This initial discount takes precedence over any automatic criteria based discounting. The system will only look at this criteria based discounting, or whether it has been disabled for the contract, if any initial discount set no longer applies.

To set this feature up on a new rental, a Parameter is available on screen 4, which will allow the use to enter the date the initial discount should run to. However, this date field will not be displayed if no initial discount was set.

The user can set up a discount and the date to which it should run, or amend or cancel an existing discount, from the Edit Customer/Contract option on the Problem Functions menu. After selecting the contract and pressing enter to display its details, pressing <D> will display the discounts screen. An existing discount can be removed by zeroing the percentage discount and then, from within the field in which the user enters the date to applied the discount to, the user can use a combination of the delete key and the left and right cursor keys to delete the contents of the field.

Please Note that any discount set here, if still valid, will only be applied on next automatic invoice.

Under normal circumstances the ledger code associated with a particular Unit rental is determined by the Size Code for that Unit. In turn, this Ledger Code determines whether VAT is applied to invoices generated against a contract for that Unit. However, in some circumstances it may be that the VAT status of a Unit depends on some other factor than the Size Code.

In this case, the facility has been added which allows the user to select the Ledger Code to use at Rental Time. If this feature is enabled, the default ledger code offered will be the one stored within the Size Code information of the Unit. This option is enabled through the parameters, and is located on Screen 5

Space Manager can now store 2 extra customer detail fields. These are a Customer Fax number and the customer's E-mail address. These are added and amended in the same way as any other customer detail within the Edit Customer/Contract option.

The banking tally sheet has now 3 extra features.

1. Space Manager will now prompt the user for confirmation before it closes the banking tally for the current period.
2. The Banking Tally 'Period Labels' can now be set by the user. Therefore, whilst the defaults are still 'This Period' and 'Last Period', alternatives can now be entered within the parameters screens - (screen 13).
3. Banking tally sheet Reports are now automatically numbered sequentially. This will allow easy identification should a Tally Sheet be accidentally lost or mislaid.

The vacation notice report now includes a column that displays the Contract Rate. It will also provide a total of these rates at the bottom of the report.

The Customer Transaction List within the Account/Unit Enquiry will now display the Unit Size code, in addition to the Unit Number, if relevant.

When a user creates a Credit Note within Space Manager, using the Credit Note Option on the Problem Functions Menu, an exception item is created. This is designed to record details of the credit note and requires the user to provide a justification and their initials. A Parameter now exists which allows the user to disable this feature when crediting a Late Charge. It can be found on Parameter screen 9.

Space Manager creates a number of index files in order to allow rapid searching of the information stored within its databases. These files should be re-indexed regularly to maintain the stability and speed of the program.

A facility has now been added to automatically perform this task. Located on screen 1 of the parameters, the option is given to determine how often this function is performed. The initial default is to recreate these files monthly. Whilst this period can be amended, or even disabled, RADical System recommends retailing this default of 1 month.

If the action of Vacating a customer's unit generates unallocated cash, the option to go directly to the Cash Allocation system, once the vacation is complete, is now available. In previous versions of Space Manager, users have had to return to the main menu and select Receive Payment in order to allocate any cash generated. This option is enabled or disabled on screen 7 of the parameters.

In previous versions of Space Manager, the Access Control interface has always searched for a results file after attempting to communicate with the access system. This results file contained information which related to the success of the transmission between the two systems. However, subsequent versions of these access control systems have no longer created this file. In order to top Space Manager from reporting a possible error after transmitting information to the access system, a parameter is available which will stop Space Manager from looking for the Results file.

This option if located on screen 18 of the parameters.

A Space Manager Access Control Interface is now available for the "Doug West Digigate 700 Access Control System". This new interface is supplied as standard with Space Manager.

Space Manager now provides access interfaces for;

Doug West Digigate 700

P.T.I Access Control System

Quikstor Access Control System.

The user now has the option to have the final VAT figure on an invoice calculated in 2 different ways. When multiple items are purchased, Space Manager can be set to calculate VAT on either each individual item, or the net total of total of the items (i.e. Individual rate X quantity) The option is set on screen 12 of the Parameters.

There are some options/fields within the parameters, which must not be altered once the program has been in use. Modification once data has been entered would invalidate this data and corrupt the data files. To reduce the likelihood of modification happening accidentally, these parameters are now highlighted in red and should only be changed under instruction from Radical Systems.

There is now the option to print multiple contract copies. This option is accessed on screen 5 of the parameters and can be set to print between 1 and 9 copies of a contract.

Within Parameters, there is now the option to print the Rental Ledger code description, as entered when the Ledger Code was added or last amended, rather than the standard description, set within Space Manager, when printing appropriate documentation. The standard description is ‘UNIT No. XXX’.

This option is can be found on screen 2 of the Parameters.

If, for any reason, the user changes the system date on Space Manager startup, when the user closes Space Manager down, the program will ask if the original date should be reapplied to the system. This should prevent Space Manager accidentally being run for a future date after a user has temporarily forwarded the date in the Demonstration version.

An additional column has been added to the report which will display the Size Code for a Unit reservation. 

This option can be found on screen 14 of the parameters.

It is now possible to select the Size Codes of the Units that should have a contract price update applied to them, as part of the Contract Price Update system. After selecting the required Rental Ledger Codes, the user is presented will a list of all the Size Codes that use these Rental Ledger Codes. The user can then select which Size Codes they would like the price update to be applied to. <Enter> is used to mark or unmark a Size Code, <M> will reverse the Size Code selection, marking all these not marked, and unmarking these which were marked.

Once the selection is complete, the entered price update will only be applied to the Units which have one of the Size codes selected.

When printing a mail shot, users are now given the option to select individual customers to whom they would like to send a mail shot. This is accessed by entering "S" (Select Customer) then responding to the question ‘Which Customers?’ within the Mail Shot criteria selection.

Space Manger will now allow users to "print" mail shots to File. This allows for single line mail shots to be used to create a standard CSV file (comma separated values) by separating Print Markers by commas. This would allow for information to be imported into other windows applications based upon Mail Shot criteria. An application of this would be to create additional mail shots in MS Word and use mail merge to provide the required customer’s name and address information.

A new print marker "\TC" can now been added to the contract template. This will display the Sum of all the contract items on a contract without the VAT being included. In essence this is the sum of the print markers "\CT" and "\TD"

The following additional print makers have been added;

Space Manager will now support multiple currencies. This is achieved by allowing for users to enter payments and issue Invoices etc. in alternative currencies, as aposed to the ‘Standard’ default currency. However, all amounts are stored within Space manager in the original 'default’ currency, the selected new currency and exchange rate being stored along with the standard transaction information. The exchange rate stored will be the exchange rate entered as being in force at the time the transaction was generated, thus allowing for multiple exchange rates for the same currency.

Thus all reports and data displays are in the default currency, but when displaying a transaction within the Customer/Unit Enquiry the system will also display the currency, exchange rate, total amount and outstanding amount in the select currency.

Entering a new ledger code for each new currency activates multiple currency support. All new currencies (i.e. any currency that is not the default in the user's country) must have ledger codes that begin with the letter "E". E.g. E1, E2, E3. When inputting a new currency the Space Manager requires the following information:

• Ledger Code
• Description of Ledger code (Currency description e.g. French Francs)
• The current exchange rate (against your default currency)
• The symbol for the new currency e.g. FF
• If the system should use the currency adjustment feature (see below)
• Any Currency adjustment text (see below)

Currency adjustment: This feature is to compensate for the unavoidable issue relating to exchange rates and the total of multiple items. Due to the currency conversion being calculated on individual items, it is likely that the totals on invoices and credit notes (i.e. documents with multiple detail lines) will not correspond to the actual total of the displayed items once displayed in the selected currency.

Thus there is an option to turn on the automatic currency adjustment feature, which will display the adjustment figure (normally a very small monetary amount, being the difference between the converted Invoice/Credit Note total and the sum of the individual invoice details) as a detail line on the invoice/credit note etc.. This feature will also display the Currency Adjustment Text set within the Ledger Code information. If no adjustment text is specified but currency adjustment is activated, Space Manager will use its default adjustment text of "Currency Exchange Adjustment". 

Once all the relevant currencies have been entered, it may be necessary to make various changes to the document templates. There are 2 new print markers which are available for use on document templates. Both can be used to print the currency symbol in the most suitable positions. The first, \XU, is used to display the currency symbol on the invoice/credit note detail line and is only replaced by the symbol on those lines that are used. The second, \XS, is used to display the currency symbol in other areas of the template.

However, in order to use these currency symbol print markers, rather than the default symbol placement (and no multiple currency support), they must be enabled within the Parameters, screen 2.

A sample invoice template showing possible placements of these new print markers is shown below.

The multi-currency ledger codes are used by first setting a customers default currency within the customer's detail page, adjacent to the payment method box. This field is set by inputting the relevant ledger code for the currency e.g. E1, E2 etc. This action can be completed through the new rental procedure, for a new customer, or through the Edit Customer/Contract option. Customers who required the systems default currency do not need a preferred currency to be set.

Once a customer has a preferred currency set, as part of the new rental procedure the system will ask for the currency that the contract should be invoiced in. Whilst initially this is set to the same as the customer’s preferred currency, it can be changed at rental time or even removed. Once a contract currency has been set, all invoices/ credit notes etc.. for that contract will be printed in the selected currency whenever the Batch Print options are selected. However, whenever an invoice/credit note etc. is re-printed, users have the option to print the documents either in the appropriate currency or the system default currency.

PLEASE NOTE: All contract and sale items etc. are entered into Space Manager in the SYSTEMS default currency and not the customer’s/contract’s default currency! The only time amounts are entered into Space Manager in the a currency other than the System Default Currency is when entering payments (see below).

When receiving payments on a customer’s account, a user should pay extra attention to the new options listed below:

1. Payment Currency (the actual currency that has been received from the customer)
2. The exchange rate (the program skips this field but can be accessed by using the up arrow on the cursor keys, and should be set to the exchange rate at the time of the receipt of the payment)

Once this information has been inputted, the user must input how much money has been received. This is the money received in the currency specified earlier in the procedure. Once the amount has been entered and return has been pressed it is possible to toggle between the currency specified and the system's default currency by pressing <T>. The invoice amounts and the amount received will then be displayed either in the default currency (in light Blue as normal) or the currency specified (in Red, with the currency symbol displayed after the amounts).

Payments are then allocated against invoices in the normal way. To assist the user, when the receive payment screen is in a different currency to that of the system’s default, a currency caution message flashes in the bottom left hand corner of the screen.

End Document