RentHQ Software Blog

The realm of Artificial Intelligence (AI) represents an emerging technology that, when harnessed judiciously, has the potential to enhance our daily lives and simplify various tasks.

In this spirit, RentHQ has embarked on its journey to embrace AI. You now have the opportunity to leverage AI for the enhancement of your property descriptions, essential for marketing your rental properties. The eloquence of your property description could significantly impact the time it takes to secure your next desirable tenant.

To utilize this innovative feature, navigate to the property details screen and input a basic property description encompassing all pertinent property details. Subsequently, activate the new AI feature by clicking the 'AI' button next to the description, allowing AI algorithms to rephrase your property description. You retain the choice to either adopt the newly generated description or discard it.

For a comprehensive demonstration, we have prepared a training video, available for viewing below.

We have created an update to the inspection schedule report, designed to provide you with greater control and convenience. Our enhanced filtering options empower you to tailor the report according to your specific needs.

Now, you have the flexibility to filter the report by various criteria, including:

Business Entity: If you manage multiple business entities, you can easily view inspections for a particular entity, streamlining your workflow.

Property Manager: Select a specific property manager to focus on their assigned inspections, enhancing your oversight and management capabilities.

Building: Drill down into inspections for a particular building, allowing for more precise reporting.

Specific Properties: You can also handpick specific properties of interest, customizing the report to match your priorities.

This powerful set of filtering tools enables you to refine your inspection schedule, ensuring that you're only viewing the properties that matter most to you. Say goodbye to information overload and hello to a more efficient and effective inspection management experience.

In the latest version update, a series of new improvements have been implemented:
1 The maximum length for email addresses in contacts has been extended to 200 characters. This modification enables the addition of multiple email addresses to a single contact.
2 The speed of photo uploads has been enhanced, leading to time savings during inspection tasks.
3 Access to Import Rules has been expanded beyond statement imports. As import rules are linked to bank accounts, you can now access these rules by navigating to the Functions/Setup/Bank Accounts menu.
4 Default naming for inspection photos has been adjusted. Instead of 'Photo ', the new format is the room name followed by the date and time. This adjustment aims to simplify the process of locating specific photos in the future.

Have you ever been curious about how many photos property managers or landlords typically take during an average inspection? To satisfy my own curiosity, I delved into the RentHQ data and conducted a sample analysis.

In the graph below, I've plotted the data, with the horizontal axis representing the average number of photos taken per inspection, and the vertical axis indicating the number of RentHQ clients who capture that specific number of photos. Numbers are rounded up to the nearest 10



It's intriguing to observe that there are a few outliers who go above and beyond, taking well over 100 photos per inspection. Remarkably, the highest average goes up to an astonishing 157 photos per inspection.

Conversely, the most popular category stands in stark contrast, with an average of fewer than 10 photos per inspection. Surprisingly, 40% of clients fall into this category, showing a preference for capturing minimal photos.

Digging deeper, I found that a significant 90% of all clients take 50 photos or less on average. Moreover, half of all clients take less than 15 photos per inspection, indicating a general trend towards limited visual documentation.

This data sheds light on the photo-taking habits of property managers and landlords, showcasing the diversity in their approach to inspection photography.

Managing payments for completed work orders can become a time-consuming task, especially when dealing with a large number of contractors.

But now, with RentHQ's latest feature, you can effortlessly generate an export file containing all work order payments, ready to be imported into your bank's web portal.

To set up the export, follow these simple steps:

Visit the contractor details page and enter their bank account number.
Create a work order with a 'Completed' status, ensuring that the Invoice Number and Invoice Amount are provided.
Navigate to the Information/Data Export menu and generate the export file.
Once you've successfully exported the work order using this function, it will automatically update the status to 'Paid/Closed,' preventing any accidental double exports.

Enjoy a more streamlined payment process with RentHQ!

RentHQ frequently exchanges data with the RentHQ server as that is where the information is stored. While the occurrence of communication failures over the internet is infrequent, it is a possibility that cannot be entirely ruled out.

With the most recent update of RentHQ, should the system detect an internet communication failure, it will initiate an automatic retry of the operation up to three times before eventually displaying a warning message. In certain cases, this retry attempt proves successful.

Furthermore, if the data being uploaded to the server is substantial, the likelihood of encountering a failure increases. Hence, to address this concern, the latest update implements an automatic scaling down of image files to a smaller size before uploading them to the server.

The Rent Arrears report provides information on individuals who are overdue on their rent payments. This report encompasses both current and past tenants. Recently, an update has been implemented to include the tenancy status, indicating whether a tenant is currently occupying the property (open) or has vacated (closed).

RentHQ has the capability to send emails on your behalf. However, there are instances where you may receive a notification email with the subject line "RentHQ email not sent" after the emails have been sent. This email serves a specific purpose.

To comprehend the meaning of this email, it is important to understand the process involved:

1. RentHQ dispatches the email message to your email server, which could be Gmail, Yahoo, or any other provider. If you receive an email with the subject line "RentHQ email not sent," it indicates that this step was successful. Thus, it confirms the accuracy of your email username, password, and related details.

2. Your email server then attempts to forward the message to the recipient's email server. It is likely that this particular step encounters an issue.

3. Subsequently, your email server sends a message back to RentHQ, acknowledging the receipt of the message but notifying that it was unable to send it and stating the reason for the failure.

4. RentHQ then sends you an email titled "RentHQ email not sent" to inform you that your message could not be delivered. This email also includes the message received from your email server, providing you with additional information.

It is important to note that RentHQ cannot diagnose these errors on your behalf. The error message originates from your email server, and RentHQ does not have access to it for further troubleshooting. It is comparable to using Outlook to send an email—if the message is bounced back, it is not an error within Outlook itself.

The errors could be caused by various factors, including:

- RentHQ's server being located in Singapore. Some email servers, such as Gmail, may consider these messages suspicious due to their origin, as your other messages are likely sent from New Zealand, Australia, or your actual location. Therefore, you may need to inform your email server that this is a valid location.
- Messages being detected as spam.
- Invalid recipient email addresses.
- Recipient's email server being unavailable.
- Recipient's email inbox being full.
- DNS routing issues.
- Other undisclosed reasons. Email servers typically refrain from providing too much information, as it could aid spammers in finding ways to deliver their emails.

In RentHQ, you have the option to allocate various logins to individuals based on their specific requirements.

A recent addition to the system allows for the creation of a login with read-only access. This particular type of user can view data, generate reports, and perform printing operations. However, they will not have the capability to make any modifications to the data as all the Save buttons have been eliminated.

To utilize this feature, navigate to Functions/Setup/Security Logins within RentHQ and generate a new login. On the login details screen, you will find a newly added checkbox labeled 'Read Only Login.'

RentHQ has long offered the capability to send SMS/TXT messages in bulk to tenants or owners through its desktop software. Now, this functionality is also available on the Android and iOS app, enabling users to send messages from their mobile phones. However, it's important to note that there are some notable distinctions. With the mobile app, messages are sent directly from your phone, utilizing its built-in message sending capabilities.

Desktop SMS Details:
- User Interface: The desktop software offers an easy-to-use, large screen user interface that makes selecting recipients for SMS messages convenient.
- Message Replies: If a recipient replies to a message sent from the desktop software, RentHQ records the reply and sends you an email notification.
- Cost: Each SMS message sent from the desktop software incurs a few cents in cost, which is added to your monthly RentHQ invoice.
- Availability: Sending messages to recipients in the USA or Canada is not supported from the desktop software.

Mobile SMS Details:
- User Interface: The mobile apps have a smaller screen size, making it less convenient to select recipients compared to the desktop software.
- Message Replies: If a recipient replies to a message sent from the mobile app, the reply goes back to the mobile phone it was sent from and is not recorded in RentHQ.
- Cost: RentHQ does not charge for the SMS messages sent from the mobile app. However, depending on your mobile phone plan, your phone provider may apply charges for sending SMS messages.
- Availability: Unlike the desktop software, the mobile app allows you to send messages to recipients in the USA or Canada.