Preferences
Click on ‘Preferences’ in the ‘Overview’ screen
A new window will then appear. On this window there are a number of tabs along the bottom.
Tab 1 - General
Refresh Balances:
This setting will allow Decorus Essentials to refresh any on-going changes whilst using the software.
Raise Transactions:
This option will allow you to define how many days in advanced you wish your transactions to be raised.
Use built in WP: If this option is selected, when opening or editing any documents inside Decorus Essentials, such as tenancy AST documents, the software will use a built in word processor instead of prompting additional software to open such as MS word.
Documents:
From here you can change any predefined documentation within Decorus Essentials as well as add your own desired documents. To access pre-existing templates click on Document icon. You will be provided with the Mail Merge window which contains all document templates used by Decorus Essentials . You can select any of the built in documents, edit any selected template and apply any changes to your own liking. To do this, single click on any document template, then click on the ‘Edit Template’ button You may also create a new template from blank by clicking on ‘New Template’.
User Definable Fields:
This option will let you add your own specified fields into property, agreement or contact records, which will appear in ‘Information Bar’ under ‘Other Information’.
Update VAT Rates:
This option will let you change ALL default VAT rates for every company you have in Decorus Essentials (use with care).
Applicant Referencing:
You can define which way you wish to receive applicant references - you can chose whether the reference is online or a physical documentation etc. You can configure your reference documents to whatever you desire such as character or bank references and so on. You may also print any of these documents. You can also adjust under the “Applicant Settings” button how far in advanced you wish Decorus Essentials to look for potential tenancies and set how long you would like them to stay on the system before automatically been removed from database.
Allow 2nd Applicant:
Use this option if you want to assign more than 1 applicant into a single property in a single contact record. To activate, click in box at side to enter tick To add a second applicant go to a current contact or create a new contact, in the “Contacts” screen click on the “2nd App” button to add details. Fill in all the 2nd applicant information and click on “Exit” - “Save and Exit”. The second applicant details will now show when you add the primary applicant to a tenancy.
Tab 2 - Property
Default Property:
You can select the default property type you own or manage, for example if the majority of your properties are commercial, once this option is chosen each time you create a ‘New Property’ it will automatically default as ‘Commercial’.
Property Availability:
This will allow you to view properties by multi-let on the availability list.
Quick Swap:
This option enables you to switch tenants between rooms on a multi-let without having to end a tenancy and create a new one.
Feature 1 / 2 / 3:
Allows the user to set specific tab names for marketing information in the property tab.
Tab 3 - Tenancy
Default Agreement Term:
This option is normally selected on implementation of your software, but will allow you to dictate what is the default tenancy term when changing an applicant into a tenant, although you can still change the term agreement when creating a tenancy if your desire.
Default Rent Frequency:
This option is normally selected on implementation of your software, but will set the default rent frequency as the desired selection. (Such as weekly, 4 weekly, monthly etc).
Default Tenant Invoice: Select this option if you wish sage to create a printable invoice on each posting per tenant.
Auto Post Invoices: This option is selected as default to automatically post invoices into sage when transactions are raised in Decorus Essentials which will then be displayed on the audit trail.
Housing Benefit: This option will show 3 totals in the ‘Tenancy’ overview screen, rather than showing just “Balance” there will be 'Tenant, Benefit and Balance (total)'.
Tenant Process: This button allows the user to set up or change the process for each stage of tenant’s agreements, from start to finish. When you click the icon you will be presented with “Process Setup”, from here you can add/edit or delete any process you wish. As standard you will have a default process already. You can create any process you desire and assign (Act on) to any stage of the tenancy you need. You can create new documents from the “documents” button on the ‘General’ tab of the preferences screen.
Rent Day: This is where you can set what day you wish to charge the tenant when you want to receive rent from them, as default this is set to the ‘Start’ date the tenancy is set active but can be changed to a specific day for all tenancies.
Early / Later Completion Narrative:
You can define the description Decorus Essentials will give on the posting of early or later tenant completion payments.
Activity Days:
This will define under the “Activity” tab of Decorus Essentials of how many days any financials will be displayed under each tenancy, you can chose from (All / 30 days / 60 days / 90 days or outstanding) this will be set to all activity as standard.
Show Expiring Tenancies:
This option will let you default when a tenancy will show as expiring, type in the box to define the chosen amount of days.
Notice Period:
Default is set to N/A but can be set if desired to display on the overview screen to display tenants as noticed given within the desired number of days. i.e. if the notice period is 60 days but the tenant has given 90 days it will not display until the 60 days milestone.
Charge Rent / Charge Benefit:
You can define when you wish your transactions to be raised in Decorus Essentials as default ‘Rent’ is set to ‘in advance’ and ‘Benefit’ is set to ‘in arrears’.
For more information please See attached document