You are sent directly to the Setup Progress page when you login for the first time, or you can access this page by clicking on Setup Progress on the top left. This takes you to the Import Data tool which is used to quickly put in all of your previous information, such as leases, tenants, buildings, and company information.
This tool is similar to Excel. If you already have excel files that have this information, you can simply copy and paste it into this tool. You can also choose to edit your data in an excel sheet and then copy it into the tool when you are ready. Make sure to save your work by clicking Save Data on the top right of the sheet every 5-10 minutes that you are inputting data.
You can switch from page to page by clicking the small circles to the left of the different page names, such as Buildings, Units, Leases, Vendors, and Accounts and Balances. The first page is the Companies page. The Property Management Company is already loaded in the system, so you do not need to include that here. You will include any other companies that you manage or any other companies that you may own that are involved in owning the buildings that you manage. The only required fields here are the Company Name and the Owner's name, and the Ownership %. As you enter in the Company Name and hit enter, it will highlight Red the other required fields.
You can add as much information as you want, and some other useful data to add includes the owner's contact information, such as their email address. If there are multiple owners for a company, click on the Edit Columns button on the top right, and choose to include another Shareholder field. This will add additional columns along the top of the page, which you can access by scrolling farther to the right. You can also add additional phone number and email fields is a single owner has multiple.
The next page is the Buildings page, where you can enter in all of the different properties that you manage. When filling in the Company Name column, drop downs will appear that include the company names you just entered on the Companies page. You can also start typing it in an the same drop down will display and you can simply click the name.
If the same company owns multiple buildings, instead of typing the names in again you can simply drag them down to fill them in. Click the cell you want to copy, then click the small blue square on the bottom right corner of the cell, and drag it down to fill as many cells as needed.
The Website alias will be generated automatically, and you can edit that beginning part of that if you would like. The Lease Profile, Management Profile, and Maintenance Profile are required and should be set to the Default Profile. These profiles can be edited in the system on the Settings page, and should be addressed before this data sheet is imported.
The next page is the Units page, and just like the Buildings page, the Building Name will have Buildings drop down as you previously entered on the last page, and you can drag and fill multiple cells as before if a Building has multiple units. Unit Number, Bedrooms, Bathrooms, and Property Type are required fields. If your property type is not there we can help you add it in Settings.
The next page is Leases, where you enter in the lease information as well as the tenant information. Each lease should have its own line, so if there are separate leases in one unit then they would be separate rows. A start date is required for a lease, and if a unit is vacant then you do not include it in this page. You only need either an End Date or Month to Month, and you can drag and fill the month to month check boxes as well. You can also fill/unfill these check boxes by clicking on the cell and clicking the Space or Enter buttons on your keyboard - which will fill and unfill the checkbox. Billing Day and Due Day are also required. Billing Day is the day you charge them (for most people the 1st of the month), and then the Due Day is whenever you accept the payment by without it being late (Ranges from the 1st-5th, sometimes even longer).
The Edit Columns button on the top right is important for the Leases page for a few reasons. If you have multiple Rent items, such as a Pet fee or a Parking fee every month, you can add those additional columns. Also if you have multiple Security Deposit items. If you have more than one person on a lease, you would add a column for Tenant that will add more columns if you scroll the page farther to the right. For Tenant Role, you would have 1 Primary on a lease and the rest would be Residents. The Primary tenant is the main one responsible for the lease, but the Residents can make payments as well. An email address is needed for tenants who want online access.
The next page is the Vendors page. The only required field is the Company Name, however you may add in as much data as you like and you may want to include contact information if you plan on emailing them or writing checks to them.
The last page is the Account and Balances page. This comes preloaded with 24 existing accounts in the system. You can add and remove accounts as you like. Most people already have a Chart of Accounts, and just copy it into here. You can include your Account Numbers here. The Account Type drives which of the 5 Categories it falls into (Asset/Liability/Equity/Income/Expense). If you have subaccounts, you need to choose the proper Parent Account for it to fall under. If you want an Account to only show up under one Company, then you would Link the Account to that given company.
Please read the Import Tool Labels/Columns Defined article for more specific information about the import tool.