With Summer in full swing, property managers and landlords are sure to be busy between seasonal maintenance, fire safety, and trying to fill those last remaining vacancies.
Rentec Direct understands the challenges and stresses that come along with being a property manager or landlord and strives to make your job easier and, on occasion, a little more fun.
The Rentec Direct Development Team is tasked with creating, testing, and rolling out major feature updates based on feedback from clients like you. This quarter, Rentec Direct developers have been busy creating several exciting features that focus on automation, time-savings, and increasing your security.
While your Development Team works on these major feature updates and rollouts, it’s equally important to address smaller issues and software updates. The developers work closely with the Client Success Team and our clients to find out what fixes and enhancements need to be done in order to make the software better and more efficient for you.
In house, the team refers to smaller updates as a bug fix, QuickFix, HotFix, or issue report, and large updates as Features or Enhancements. And while we don’t report every fix or update to you, you can be assured that your success and development teams work together to evaluate helpful updates that will improve your workflow and save you time.
Here’s a look at what the Development Team has been working on during the second quarter of 2023.
RENTEC DIRECT FEATURE UPDATES, FIXES, AND ENHANCEMENTS
MADE LIVE IN Q2 [April, May, and June] 2023
*Features/Enhancements*
- Feature 2974 – Add new permission for sub users to prevent permanently deleting data
- Feature 2959 – Use Open AI to generate a marketing description based on property information
- Enhancement 2915 – Allow recurring credits to apply to properties (recurring transactions with a negative balance)
- Enhancement 2923 – Text change: security key to passkey
- Enhancement 2932 – Warn users when Edge, Chrome, FF, and Opera are out of date
- Enhancement 2934 – Term Change: Swap Assignee with Payee
- Enhancement 3041 – Enhanced enforcement of password security
*Bug Fixes*
- Bug Fix 2914 – Allow recurring transactions to be connected to a bank without a property.
- Bug Fix 2916 – Property Nickname should show on Owner reports.
- Bug Fix 2954 – Allow Subusers with appropriate permissions to edit Owners.
- Bug Fix 2941 – Eliminate duplicates results in global search.
- Bug Fix 3054 – Allow tenant instant payment if move-in date is in the future.
- Bug Fix 3042 – Prevent tenants from making instant payments if not moved into property.
- Bug Fix 3044 – Restore missing renter ACH accounts in renter Post Income form.
- Bug Fix 2956 – Instant ACH payments not showing tenant name on bank reconciliation.
- Bug Fix 2957 – Sent emails were showing as from First/Last instead of Company Name.
- Bug Fix 3032 – White screen of death when submitting Online Payments form with One-Time or Recurring Transactions enabled and deleted account selected.
- Bug Fix 3043 – Restore the $features content in our gpt description generator.
Notable Product Update Recap
Each small update can go a long way to ensure that you have a great experience in your software. That said, we know there are a few notable updates that can be more exciting each quarter. These exciting updates were announced separately, but we don’t want you to miss the news!
Have any questions about these updated features? Your amazing Rentec Direct success team is just a phone call or chat away!
Industry First: AI Listing Generator Powered by OpenAI
Rentec Direct’s major product updates from Q2 of 2023 features integration with OpenAI, the company behind the popular ChatGPT. The AI Listing Generator powered by OpenAI was first introduced to Rentec Direct clients in June 2023. Rentec Direct is the first property management software to incorporate ChatGPT’s technology to help property managers and landlords.
This industry-leading integration will take your property’s basic features, like the number of bedrooms and amenities, and generate a compelling description for a rental ad. You can use this rental ad for vacancy listings on your website and syndicate the listing to top rental listing sites.
See it in action in the below demo and check out the original announcement for more information on this industry-first integration.
Learn more: New Feature: Instant Property Descriptions for Rental Listings
Notable Features for all of 2023:
Major feature updates and products always get announced on the Rentec Direct Blog and shared in the System Update section of your Summary page when you first log into the software. In case you missed any of the announcements, here’s a glimpse at what came out of the Rentec Direct developers’ office so far in 2023.
- Jan 18, 2023: Feature Update | Tenant Online Payment Improvements | Rentec Direct
- Jan 25, 2023: Feature Update | Rentec Direct Brings a Fresh New Design to Owner Portals
- March 15, 2023: Announcing the Upgraded Rentec Direct Affiliate Program
- March 29, 2023: Rentec Direct Releases Automated Email Notifications for Owner Payments
- April 11, 2023: Tenant Email Failure to Deliver Notices
- June 14, 2023: New Feature: Instant Property Descriptions for Rental Listings
- June 22, 2023: New Subuser Permission Enhances Security and Protects Account Data for Rentec Direct Property Management Software Clients
Upcoming New Features
The Rentec Direct Development Team has several exciting new features that will be released soon. You might even recognize a feature or two as one you requested!
Keep an eye out for new links to the Product Updates section on the Summary page of your software, which is one of the best places to learn about feature updates in Rentec Direct. You may also notice new options on your reports and updates in the Knowledge Base articles as these updates get released.
Rentec Direct Mobile App
The long-requested mobile app of Rentec Direct’s property management will allow you to seamlessly access your Rentec Direct account and data from any mobile device. Rentec Direct’s property management software mobile app will be fully functional, meaning all features, tools, and data that you are used to using on desktop are usable within the app (compared to competitors mobile apps with limited functionality).
This app will allow you to:
- Conveniently manage your Rentec Direct property management software while you are on the go from your phone or mobile device
- Receive the same notifications found in your Rentec Direct software
- The option of forwarding text messages responses
The Rentec Direct mobile app is currently in beta for Rentec Direct Insiders and will be available to all clients soon.
Group Tenant Applications and Bulk Add Group Tenants to a Property
Currently, when an application is received online, only the primary applicant can be added to your list of tenants automatically.
Building on the current feature, soon you will be able to:
- Add all applicants automatically as a group with the primary applicant as the main tenant
- Add all applicants automatically ungrouped, allowing you to select the primary tenant
- Add all tenants grouped and placed in the property
Automated Owner Reports
Keep your owners informed of important property updates or payment details, but creating a schedule that will email relevant reports to your owners automatically.
This new feature will allow you to schedule recurring emails to be sent to owners with reports that you choose.
These software updates are the result of valuable feedback and input from our awesome clients. If there is a new feature or a software enhancement you would love to see added to Rentec Direct, let us know.
About Rentec Direct
Rentec Direct is an award-winning property management software serving landlords and property managers across the United States. Features include online rent payments, tenant and owner portals, one of the industry’s largest vacancy listing syndication networks, full property, tenant, and owner accounting, 1099-MISC reporting and more. Rentec Direct was recognized as Real Estate Company of the Year in the 2022 American Business Awards®, and was named the Most Customer Friendly Companies of the Year in the 2022 Best in Biz Awards, has been named to the Inc. 5000 List of Fastest-Growing Private Companies for six years in a row.