Tenant Pro 7 Adept at Managing All Property Types

CPA Review by Glenn Gordon

Since opening its doors in 1992, Property Automation of Richardson, Texas, has offered feature-rich property management software solutions, including Tenant Pro 6.0. Currently serving more than 20,000 clients, the company has released Tenant Pro 7, an application expanding on the reputation of its forerunner with over 35 new features.

Features
Tenant Pro 7 opens with an attractive new interface, including a customizable toolbar consisting of colorful icons allowing access to frequently used functions.Like its predecessor, Tenant Pro 7 incorporates a seamlessly integrated accounting system created specifically for property management. It includes general ledger, accounts receivable and accounts payable, eliminating the need for double entry. If you choose not to use the feature, export the financial data easily to QuickBooks.

Property Automation designed Tenant Pro 7 for managing every property type, property size and owner configuration. Post transactions to the distinct general ledger account of each property specifying either cash or accrual accounting for that property based on calendar or fiscal year.

Also new: move-in, move-out and tenant payment Wizards simplifying those repetitive functions. It requires the manager first to answer a few questions to complete each process.

To ensure recurring activities are completed on time, the built-in Reminders List and Tasks To Do appear when Tenant Pro is launched—but only if any transactions are due.

Flexibility
The application has more than 120 financial and management built-in reports. Customize reports by adding things like headers, footers and logos. Run them in a summary or consolidated format, and export them to Microsoft Word, Excel, HTML or PDF. Tenant Pro is ODBC compliant, so create limitless combinations of reports and forms through Crystal Reports or other reporting systems.

The company also enhanced the letter-writing feature, integrating with Microsoft Word to produce 45 customizable letters and agreements.

Quick, easy storage and access to information are convenient new attributes of Tenant Pro 7. For example, in addition to storing information for tenant, owner, vendor, unit or property, you also can store pictures in each record and customize field names according to your needs.

All Microsoft Word documents and e-mails sent to tenants are time-stamped for the property manager’s protection. Fully record, track and maintain property maintenance operations for future reference. And here’s a convenience: Send e-mail directly from the Tenants, Vendors or Owners windows with the click of a mouse. In addition, to simplify collecting property management fees, establish the criteria and let the application calculate the fees automatically.

Add-ons increase flexibility by fully integrating functions. For example, e-Pay Plus, a powerful electronic payment processing add-on, allows payment by credit card, ACH or Virtual Electronic Check Truncation. CheckMark Payroll for Windows sets up a complete payroll system. And the Applicant Screening Add-On qualifies applicants through a number of services provided by Registry-SafeRent® to determine credit worthiness and increase the odds they will be paying tenants.

Support
The application features a built-in, window-sensitive help system with step-by-step instructions and screen shots. A two-volume Tenant Pro Training CD Series also is available.

In addition to telephone support available during normal business hours, Property Automation offers a technical support plan including both e-mail access to the technical support staff and online access to a knowledge base of articles and FAQs. Users also can interact in the Tenant Pro User Forum to share strategies and troubleshooting techniques.

Summary
With Tenant Pro 7, Property Automation adds value to an already full-featured product. Designed to handle virtually any property type and owner configuration, the new release expands ease-of-use and flexibility—features bound to win over a number of new users. It is hard to imagine any property management function not addressed by this package.