SPACE MANAGER
Help/FAQ Document Number: 100008
How do I use the new features in Version 1.40D?
New feature - 10 Character Size Codes
After updating the Space Manager Database, sizecodes can now be up to 10 characters in length.
New feature - Manual Addition of Contract Numbers
For new sites, converting from an existing system, problems have arisen when entering contracts generated by the original system. When adding contracts to Space Manager, the contract number is issued automatically, and it was therefore necessary to enter the existing contracts in the correct order, manually changing the last contract number issued within the parameters when required.
For this type of installation, a facility has now been added to allow the required contract number to be entered as part of putting the existing contract onto Space Manager. However, Space Manager still requires these contract numbers to be unique and so this facility must only be used by qualifies personnel and with considerable caution.
If you would like to make use of this facility, please contact RADical Systems for instructions.
Addition - Earliest Update Date on Contract Price Update
When making a contract price update, it is better if the change to the contract rate does not occur in the middle of a contract period. This is because, if the customer was to vacate during that period, then the system would calculate the vacation on the basis of the updated rate and not the rate that was originally charged.
The preferred method is to set the date that the new rates come into effect as the first days of the next period to be invoiced. Even if automatic invoices are generated in advance of this date, Space Manager will see that there is a price update waiting that covers the whole of the period to be invoiced and will use this new rate. So far so good.
The first problem is that it would be very time consuming to manually set the date the proposed update should come into effect to be the same as the contracts charged to date (plus one day) for each contract. To solve this problem, you can already simply leave the date to activate the price update blank and Space Manager will automatically set this date.
The second problem is that you may want the price update to come into effect after a particular date, but some contracts may be about to have their next invoices generated prior to that date.
You now have the facility to set the earliest date that a price update should occur. If a contract is about to be invoiced and the start of the period is before this earliest date, then Space Manager will work out what the invoice period start date would be for the next invoice. If this too is too early, it will work out what period the next invoice after that one would cover, and so on until the 'earliest' start period start date is reached.
For a fuller explanation of Contract price updating, please see the FAQ/help section with the Space Manager Support section of RADical Systems Web site - Contract Section: DOC#070902: How do I increase my Contract Prices? for more information.
New Feature - Issue Next Contract Invoice Immediately
Rather than waiting until an invoice is due to be produced automatically, or manually amending the number of lead days before production, to cause it to be generated early, the option to issue the next contract invoice immediately has been added to the Edit Customer/Contract option.
When editing customer contracts, pressing <I> will issue the next invoice, giving the user the usual options to hold or accept the new invoice and to add miscellaneous charges to it.
Once the invoice has been issued, the system will automatically update the contract charge-to date.
Update - Contract Price Update for Hire and Insurance
A minor error has been corrected within the contract price update system when updating Hire or Insurance rates which could result in incorrect functioning of the global update utility, requiring some of the updates to be entered manually.
New feature - Print Mailshots to file
The Mailshot facility now allows the user to print the mailshots to file rather than a printer. This allows the resultant mailshots to be checked before using the necessary paper stocks to print them out. Also, they can be imported into other applications, such as MS word, for additional format changes to be made, prior to printing etc.
Addition - More details on Transaction report from Customer/Unit Enquiry
Once displaying a customer's full transaction list, within the Customer/Unit Enquiry system, it has always been possible to print a report showing the customer's full transaction history by pressing <P>.
This can be further refined by filtering the transaction list to display the required transaction type, before printing the report (Please see the FAQ/help section with the Space Manager Support section of RADical Systems Web site - Account / Unit Enquiry System: DOC#010740: Account Unit Enquiry: What does 'ABCDFILRV' mean? for more information).
Now this report will also display the period covered by the charges on an invoice, and a list of the invoice numbers directly allocated to a receipt.
Additional Parameter - Startup Routines
Up until now there has only been a single option to view both automatic Late Charges/Letters and Invoices on startup or make the generation of both documents automatic.
The existing Parameter option has been amended to cover just Late Charges/Letters and another Parameter has been added to control the viewing of automatic Invoices before generation. This means that the user can choose to view Late Charges/Letters on startup, but not Invoices. Or vice versa.
Addition - Full Summary Report
Additional information has been added to the Full Summary Report:
Update - Access Control Interface
After the introduction of an updated interface system by PTi, the Space Manager PTi Access Interface has been updated to ensure complete functionality.
New Feature - Marketing Response on Move In/Out Report
It is now possible to add an extra column to the Move In/Out Report by Unit which will display the response to a selected Marketing Question by the Customer who moved in/out.
In order to use this facility, open Windows NOTEPAD ensuring that it starts showing an empty new page (the title bar should say 'Untitled - Notepad') if it does not, select the File Menu and 'New'.
On the first line of the page, enter the number of the marketing question whose response you would like to show. They are numbered in the same order in which you answer the questions when editing and adding a new customer. For the first question, type a '1', for the second a '2' etc. (remember NOT to type the quote marks!).
Now select the File Menu and 'Save'. Save the file in the C:\SM directory and call it: SMMIMOQ.DAT.
Now when you run the report, you should see the extra column titled 'Q1' or 'Q2' etc. If you do not, contact RADical Systems for assistance.
New Feature - Set Default Customer Payment Method
When adding new customers to Space Manager, it may be useful to set a default payment method, to save you having to change it each time. This is only of value if, more often than not, the displayed payment method is the wrong one.
The default payment method can only be set to 1 (Cash), 2 (cheque), 3 (Credit Card), 4 (standing Order) or 5 (BACS via optional BACS module). User defined payment methods cannot be set by this method.
To set the default payment method, open Windows NOTEPAD ensuring that it starts showing an empty new page (the title bar should say 'Untitled - Notepad') if it does not, select the File Menu and 'New'.
On the first line of the page, enter the number of the payment method you would like as the default.
Now select the File Menu and 'Save'. Save the file in the C:\SM directory and call it: SMCUPAYM.DAT.
Now when you add a new customer, the default payment method should be set. If it is not, contact RADical Systems for assistance.
New Feature - Browse Customer Comments on Startup
It is now possible to browse a customer's comments whilst viewing an automatic Invoice or Late Charge/Letter during the running of Space Manager's startup routines.
Error Correction - Rounding
A minor error has been corrected which occasionally resulted in a contract paidto date not being automatically advanced when a payment was taken as part of putting onto the system the original contract.
This was a rounding error in the procedure that controlled whether the paidto date should be altered automatically and at no time did it cause any errors on the customer's account.
Update - Automatic Refunds
If the system has been set to issue an automatic refund on generation of a Refund Notice, the user is now asked to confirm the payment method to be used by the refund. This will ensure that the refund is given and accounted for using the correct payment method.
New Feature - Printing Refund Notices by Payment method
When printing Refund Notices, Space Manager will use the Refund Notice Document Template called REFUND.FRM.
However, it is now possible to set up different refund notice templates for different payment methods. This allows for the use of different paper stock depending on the requirement of the payment methods, such as cheque printing (see item below).
To use this facility simply create a new Refund Notice Template for a particular payment method and call it REFUND[Payment Ledger Code].FRM. So a refund notice template for Cheque payments should be called REFUNDC2.FRM. When printing the refund notice document, if a payment method specific template is found, it will be used in place of the usual default template.
This facility requires a database update.
Addition - New Access System Interface
An access interface has been added to allow user to interface with the new SAS Access Control System supplied by Knighthood.
New Feature - Crediting Forfeits
Users can now credit a forfeit transaction, created when a reservation deposit is withheld.
Update - Access Control Interface
On startup, when the system is running the automatic routines and denying users access to Units due to non-payment, the program will 'collect' the Unit numbers for which access should be denied. Once the routine has finished, the system will now send these Unit details to the Access Control system all at once, rather than on a Unit by Unit basis.
New Feature - Cancel Mistaken Refund
The facility to cancel a mistaken Refund has been added to the system under the 'Refund' option on the Problem Functions Menu. Cancelling a refund generates a Reversal transaction, on the customer's account, with a negative transaction amount.
New Feature - Display a Unit's History
A new feature has been added to the Customer/Unit Enquiry option on the Standard Functions Menu. It is now possible to enter a Unit number and rather than display Customer records for whom there exists a current contract, display a list of all contracts for the Unit whether Current or Terminated.
To display a Unit's history, simply enter the Unit number and press <Down Arrow>.
For the Unit's History list, selecting a current or terminated contract will display the appropriate Customer / Unit Enquiry Current Contracts or Terminated Contract screen.
Whilst in the Customer / Unit Enquiry screens, pressing <U> after having selected a current or terminated contract will display the Unit History for the highlighted contract.
Error Correction - Manual Mail Shot
A minor error has been corrected within the Mail Shot system, manual customer selection.
New Feature - Store Payment Card Details
A new feature has been added which allows payment card details to be stored with a customer record (credit, debit cards etc.). Payment card details are added via the Edit Customer / Contract option from the Problem Functions Menu. Card details are NOT displayed within the Customer / Unit Enquiry.
To activate this facility, the appropriate database file must be downloaded from the RADical Systems Web site and saved in the C:\SM directory (for a non-network installation - for assistance contact RADical Systems).
The required file can be download from http://www.radicalsys.com/smccard.exe.
To install;
Update - Automatic Discount Settings
It is now possible to set the third Automatic Discount settings within the Parameters to Zero, rather than having to repeat the second one to ensure a discount is correctly given to the customer.
Error Correction - BACS Deletions
A minor error has been corrected which occasionally resulted in BACS transactions marked for deletion, not being deleted when file management was run.
Additional Parameter - Grace for BACS payments
Now, in addition to being able to set a number of days grace for Standing Order payers before generating Late Charges, users can set a number of days grace for BACS payers. A database update is required to use this facility.
Additional Parameter - Automate BACS transactions
A parameter has been added which allows for the generation of BACS transactions to be fully automated without any user input required.
Update - BACS Interface File Generation
The BACS interface file generation utility will now make a backup of ALL BACS interface files generated during a day, rather than just the last one.
Update - BACS Interface File Creation
When generating a BACS interface file, the Processing Date on all BACS transactions must be at least two days into the future for BACS to accept the transaction. When users were selecting the transactions to process by entering a date range, a paradox could occur.
Users could opt to generate a BACS file for a proceeding date range that extended less than two days into the future. Space Manager would identify current transactions to process by the fact that their current processing dates fell between the dates selected, but on validation would have to move these transactions processing dates outside the date range selected to meet BACS date requirements. Thus the user would end up with a blank BACS interface file.
Now, when entering a date range to process, Space Manager will only accept a range where the end date of the range is at least two days ahead.
Error Correction - BACS Interface File
A minor error has been corrected which occasionally resulted in the BACS Interface File.
New Feature - BACS Module options
Within the BACS modules, Display Current BACS Transactions Menu Option, users can now change a transaction's 'send' status and print a full current transaction report.
New Feature - New and Updated BACS Reports
The BACS report 'Reconciled But No Receipt' has been updated so that it does not include Rejected BACS transactions. A Parameter setting has been added that can allow this report to cover a selected date range only.
A new BACS report has been added, 'Rejected BACS Transactions'. A Parameter settings has been added that can allow this report to cover a selected date range only.
Update - BACS Interface File Generation
When generating the BACS interface file, the system will now ignore all transactions where the Send Status is set to NO and the transaction is incomplete.
Additional Parameter - Vacation Routine
A new parameter has been added to the Vacation Section of the parameters. When set, Space Manager will ALWAYS charge up to the end of the current invoiced period, what ever the vacation date.
New Feature - Parameter Passwords Encrypted
A new feature has been added that helps in ensuring that the Parameter settings are not changed by unauthorized personnel, when a password has been set to protect them.
It had been drawn to our notice that some individuals were attempting to access Space Manager's data files outside the program, in order to identify the systems passwords. To make this more difficult, Space Manager now encrypts the parameter password.
New Feature - Euro Conversion
To assist those of our customers whose currency will be converting to the Euro on the 1st January 2001, Space Manager now includes a full Euro currency conversion routine.
This routine will convert all numerical fields within Space Manager by multiplying them by the entered exchange rate. The system can then automatically make various adjustments to customer balances and transaction detail amount to account for any rounding errors which might occur and result is balanced which do not tally.
Please note that, if used, this auto-adjustment routine will not make any amendments to customer accounts or transaction details if the variance is greater than 0.05 cents.
The utility will display samples of the effects of the conversion before the user selects to continue, and it will not effect either local tax rates or Insurance rates.
New Feature - Marketing Analysis Reports
A new feature has been added to Space Managers Market Reports. It is now possible to display marketing analysis for customers whose Analysis PostCode contains the selected characters. If more than one postcode is required, individual postcodes or part postcodes can be entered separated by commas.
Update - Bank Tally Report
The Bank Tally report now reliably prints the second page of the report to the correct page length.
Update - End of Report Stamp
Space Manager prints a 'Check Number' at the end of all reports, so that when comparing reports, a user knows that the reports were generated using exactly the same data because all reports have the same check number. The version number of Space Manager, which generated the report, has also been added to the end of the check number, to allow user to confirm that the correct version of Space Manager was in use.
New Feature - When Editing Customer Contracts
It has always been possible to select a new Rental Ledger Code when editing a contract's details. It is now possible to select a new Insurance or Hire ledger Code if the contract contact either of these two ledger types
The user is asked to complete and exception item if they edit any of a contract's detail ledger codes.
Additional Document Print Markers
A Large Number of additional Document Print Markers have been added. To download an updated Space Manager Print Markers booklet, please go to the File Download page of the Space Manager Support Section of RADical System's Web Site at http://www.radicalsys.com.
Whilst we always try to ensure that this above document is as up to date as possible, the following Print Marker were added very recently and may not be included in the Print Marker Booklet yet:
Late Charge/Letter, Invoice, Credit Note and Refund Notice Templates
Late Charge/Letter Template
End of Document