1.1. System requirements

Minimum:

• Pentium II or comparable processor
• 512mb RAM for XP and 1Gb for Vista
• 512mb RAM for Mac OS X
• 16-bit display adapter at 1024x768 or higher resolution
• Windows or Mac OS
• 250mb free disk space

 

1.2. Installation for Windows

You can install LandlordMax with the aid of the installation program you downloaded or received on CD called LLMaxSetup.exe.

To Proceed:

1. Close all other applications.
    
2. Double-click on LLMaxSetup.exe
    
3. The setup program will launch and the following installation wizard will appear: To continue please click Next
   
   
   
   Read the license agreement carefully. If you agree to the conditions then proceed by clicking Next
   
   
    
4. Select the location where LandlordMax will be installed. By default the application will be installed to: C:\Program Files\LandlordMax. When the location is appropriate, click on Next
   
   
    
5. Select the type of products icons you would like created. It is recommended that you leave the default selections and click on Next
    
   
    
6. The installation is ready to take place. A summary of the process is presented, once satisfied click on Install
    
   
    
7. The installation is loading the LandlordMax application to your computer. Once the progress bar is completed the installation has completed, a final screen is presented. This screen signals that the application LandlordMax was successfully installed on the computer. Click on Done
   
   
    

1.3. Patch Installation for Windows

You can also install only the Patch for LandlordMax version 2.12b if you already have installed version 2.12 or version 2.12a. The patch can be found on the downloads page.

To Proceed:

1. Close all other applications.
    
2. Double-click on Patch212b.exe
    
3. The setup program will launch and the following installation wizard will appear. If you installed LandlordMax to its default location (C:\Program Files\LandlordMax) simply click on the Install button.
   
   If you installed LandlordMax to another directory, then click on the Browse button to locate the directory in which you installed LandlordMax. Once you've done this, click on the Install button.
   
   
   
   If your version of LandlordMax is already updated to version 2.12b, then the following warning message dialog will appear stating this and the installation will automatically be cancelled.
   
   
   
   If LandlordMax cannot validate your directory or has determines that do not already have either version 2.12 or version 2.12a installed, you will get the following error message:
   
   
   
   Once the Patch has completed, click on the Close button to terminate the Patch Installer.
   
   
   
   

2.1. Starting LandlordMax

To start LandlordMax, click on the Start button on the lower left corner of your screen and select Programs or All Programs. Then select LandlordMax > LandlordMax.

2.2. LandlordMax Interface

When LandlordMax is fully loaded you will see the Workbench. There are two variations of the workbench, the data list view and the entry view.

The workbench is divided into three main areas. The context menu, the workarea menu, and the workarea.

Context Menu The context menu displays and activates the states which can be utilized for a specified workarea by changing the icons color to orange. In the above image, the possible states and actions are: New, Edit, Save, List, and Print. The data workareas all have similar states while the others (reports, analysis, and extra workareas) are different and will be discussed in the relevant chapters.

Data Item List Workarea When in the list mode, this area displays a list of all the appropriate items. In the new or edit modes it displays the information specific to the selected data item from the list.

Data Sensitive Context The data sensitive context displays similar and/or other actions that may be available.

Version Identification Displays the current version of the software.

Workarea Menu Displays a list of workareas available. The current workarea the application is in remains highlighted in orange.

Workarea The location of all information related to a specific item in the workarea menu. This includes the data item list workarea (or the data workarea if a particular data is selected) and the context menu.

2.3. Entering Your First Data

This section will be a quick tutorial by example of how to enter in your first data. More extensive detailed information about the workareas used in this quick example is available further in the manual under their respective chapters.

Our quick tutorial will consist of creating a new building and tenant. The tenant will then be assigned to the building. The tenant in our example will be John Smith and he will be renting a house at "1111 Somewhere Road".

To begin the process, we suggest first creating the building data item. To create a new building first, we must click Buildings on the workarea menu.

By default, the data workareas are in the List state. Since we want to create a new building, we would therefore click on the New button in the context menu.

Clicking on New results in the appearance of a popup dialog requesting the type of building that will be created. For our example we will create a Single Residence Home which is already selected, so all we need to do to proceed is click on Ok.

The workarea for a data panel consists of the context menu and the general workarea. The general workarea can then be divided into the main data workarea and the tabbed panel workarea, where lists of items relevant to the data item are stored.

In the case of the single residence building, the tabbed panels consist of Accounting, Appliances, Insurances, Mortgages, Notes, Workorders, and Vendors. All tabbed panels consist of a list mode and a data entry mode. In the image following, the tabbed panel is displaying the appliance information in the list mode.

** Warning. Not all tabbed panels allow the creation or deletion of items. Certain tabbed panels only allow a portion of the data to be viewed and modified, and never created from new. These tabbed panels are those that are contained in a full workarea: Accounting, Workorders, Tenants, Vendors, and Buildings.

For our example, we entered the main building information on the upper section of the screen. We have also entered information in the tabbed panel for the appliances described in the Classified Ad field of the main data entry area. To enter the data, we click on the New button in the appropriate tabbed panel. From there we can return to the list view of the tabbed panel by clicking on the List button. Changing tabs requires clicking on the desired tab header. The selected tab’s header will be differentiated by highlighting itself in orange.

If information is created, entered, and/or modified in any section of the workarea (including the tabbed panel) the Save button in the context menu will change colors to green, signifying that a save action is required (the data on the screen has not yet been fully saved to the database). To save the data all that is required is to click on the Save button, which will return it to its original color.

In this example, we are not able to select a tenant for our building since we have not entered any yet. Therefore our next course of action is to create a tenant.

To accomplish this we first begin by clicking on the Tenants button in the workarea menu. This will bring us to the tenants workarea in the List mode as illustrated below.

Again we will want to proceed similarly to the Building Menu. Since we want to create a new Tenant we again will click on the New button in the context menu. This will bring us directly to the tenant workarea for data entry.

Again we will proceed to enter in the relevant information.

To make an association between the tenant and the building, we can now either do this through the tenant workarea or the building workarea. Since we are already working in the tenant workarea, let’s proceed with this workarea. The building selection combo box will display a list of the buildings that have been created and saved in the database. The building selection combo box will display the name of the building, or if it’s a single building with no name it will display the address. For our example we will select 1111 Somewhere Road from the list as illustrated in the image below (** when we select the building, the address information for the tenant will be automatically filled).

Once we have entered all the information, click on the Save button in the context menu just as we did in the building menu.

** Hint: If you are following this example and entering the minimum amount of information, clicking on save will result in the warning message stating that the tenant Status Field is not set to current. You can choose to accept the warning and change the status or ignore it and proceed to save.

Congratulations! You have just saved your first tenant and associated building.

3.1. Creating a New Accounting Entry

To create a new accounting entry, go to the Accounting workarea menu button. A list of all the current accounting entries listed by date will be presented. Press on the New button to create a new accounting entry. You will see the following screen:

The date fields can be entered manually or with the popup calendar. The popup calendar dialog is available by clicking on the icon beside the date fields. If the dates are manually entered they must be formatted mm/dd/yyyy (for example 08/28/2003), otherwise when exiting the field it will be restored to its prior value.

The Category Field is used to group together similar accounting entries for reporting purposes. For example in the reporting workarea, it is possible to create reports showing all expenses for a particular category.

The Category Combo Box is initially populated with a small amount of very general categories. To add a new category directly from this screen, click on the category icon directly to the right of the Category Combo Box. A Category Popup Dialog will appear requesting some information. Clicking on the save button in the dialog will save the category to the database and automatically select it for this accounting entry. Clicking on the cancel button will close the dialog and make no changes.

The vendor, tenant, building, and unit information are retrieved from the database and are automatically updated.

The Type of Payment field can be selected or typed manually entered. The entries provided in the list are the existing type of payment entries in the database.

To enable the Unit Combo Box a multi-unit building must first be selected. The name of the building is directly taken from the name field in the building workarea data entry screen. However, if the building is a single residence building and has not been named, the address will be presented to identify the building.

The accounting entries that are associated with other workarea data such as tenant, building, unit, and/or vendor will also appear in their respective workarea in the related tabbed panel. For example, an accounting entry associated with the tenant John Smith will result in listing this accounting entry in the tenant John Smith’s Accounting Entry Tabbed Panel in the Tenant Workarea

** All information is optional, however the more information you enter, the greater the reporting functionality.

** A Late Fee button is available in the accounting entry context menu only when entering data that is not already a "Late Fee" accounting entry. Clicking on the Late Fee button will create a new accounting entry for you with all the appropriate information entered minus the amounts due and paid.

3.2. Accounting Entry List

The accounting entries list view has a few extra features in addition to what is normally available to help assist you to quickly analyze your accounting entries. The accounting color codes give you a quick indication of how early or late an accounting entry is based on the values in the accounting color codes tabbed panel (described in the next section). The accounting entry filters allows you to filter (and hence minimize) the number of accounting entries you will see in the list, allowing you to better focus on the entries you are interested. The accounting background status color is to determine if a payment is past due (red), due in the future (green), or if it has been partially paid (yellow).

3.3. Accounting Entry List Tabbed Panels

The accounting area is one of only two workareas with tabbed panels presented on the same screen as the list area. This exception is required because these tabbed panels are not associated with a specific accounting entry, but rather with the accounting area as a whole.

The Categories Tabbed Panel lists all available categories for accounting purposes. The Schedule Entries Tabbed Panel lists all recurring accounting entries that are automated and when appropriate appear in the Suggest Entries Tabbed Panel. The suggested entries tabbed panel lists all the accounting entries the application has tried to anticipate from both scheduled entries and Workorders (discussed later). These entries can then be accept or deleted. If the suggested accounting entry is accepted it will appear in the main accounting entry list with all other accounting entries. The Accounting Color Codes Tabbed Panel is a list of all the available accounting color codes to easily identify how early or late an accounting entry is in the main accounting entries list.

To create a new category go to the Accounting Tabbed Panel and click on the New button within that tab.

To save the new or modified category, the Save button within the Category Tabbed Panel must be pressed. If a save action is required, the button will change color to green (similar to the context menu for the data workareas).

** If the workarea is changed without saving the information on the Category Tabbed Data Panel (the save button is green) and the workarea area is changed, there will be no prompt to save and the information will not be loss, but will remain in the same state until it is saved to the database.

This process of creating, listing, modifying, and saving is the same for all accounting tabbed panels.

The Schedule Entries Tabbed Panel allows the user to create automated accounting entries. To create a new schedule click on the New button within the Schedule Entries Tabbed Panel as illustrated in the next image.

The fields of the schedule entry are identical to that of an ordinary accounting entry except for the bottom two fields, Repeat and Starting. The Repeat Combo Box is used to determine the frequency of the scheduled entry (for example monthly for condo fee) and the Starting Field is used as the first possible date that a scheduled entry can generate a suggested entry.

When a schedule accounting entry is saved, the application will determine if any suggested accounting entries need to be created and if suggested accounting entries do need to be created, they will immediately appear in the Suggested Entries Tabbed Panel. Every time thereafter whenever the application is restarted or the accounting workarea is returned to, it will updated if need be the Suggested Entries Tabbed Panel based on the scheduled entries.

The Suggested Entries Tabbed Panel also anticipates accounting entries from the workorder data entries. All workorders that are created will also generate a suggested entry. The date on the suggested accounting entry, which can be modified, will be taken from the workorder Payment Due Date field.

The Accounting Color Codes Tabbed Panel allows you to select the colors in the accounting list to indicate how early or late an accounting entry is. In addition you can add as many new color codes as you like, to potentially get a more detailed view of how early or late an accounting entry is (For example you may wish to know when entries are 34 days late versus 30 days late. To do this you would create a new color code entry for 34 days late). You can also remove any color codes you wish except for the four core entries (Latest, Earliest, On time, and NSF).

To edit the color of the color code, click on the square that is appropriately color (the Color Code Square) This will bring up the Accounting Color Code Color Selector Dialog. To select a color click on the square you wish and click then click on the Ok button. Once you have properly edited your information, save the color code entry as you do the other accounting tabbed panel entries, by clicking on the Save button in the Accounting Tabbed Panel.

4.1. Creating a New Workorder Entry

To create a new workorder, go to the Workorders workarea menu button. A list of all the current workorders listed by workorder number will be presented. Press on the New button to create a new workorder entry. You will see the following screen.

Every workorder created and saved will automatically have a workorder number assigned to it. The workorder numbers begin at the number 1 and increment by one for each new workorder.

The accounting information and the data associations will be used to populate a suggested accounting entry in the suggested accounting tabbed panel when the workorder is saved.

The data associations are also extensively used in the reporting capabilities of the application. Reports can be generated based on a number of criteria maintained by the associations as well as other criteria (example: List all workorders for a specific building grouped by building unit).

Similarly to the Accounting Entry Workarea, the workorders that are associated with other workarea data such as tenant, building, unit, and/or vendor will also appear in their respective workarea in the related tabbed panel. For example, an workorder associated with the tenant John Smith will result in listing this workorders in the tenant John Smith’s Workorder Entry Tabbed Panel in the Tenant Workarea.

** All information is optional, however the more extent the information entered the greater the reporting functionality.

5.1. Creating a New Tenant Entry

To create a new tenant go to the Tenants workarea menu button. A list of all the current tenants listed by name will be presented. Press on the New button to create a new tenant entry. You will see the following screen:

The tenant main data entry area has two fields called Building and Unit. The combination of these two fields is called the building association. The list of buildings is directly taken from the database from the data entered in the building workarea. By associating a tenant with a building and/or unit, the application will assume this represents that the tenant is living in that residence.

The Building Association will display a list of the buildings that have been created and saved in the database. The Building Association will display the name of the building, or if it’s a single building with no name it will display the address. When the selected building is a single residence, the Unit Combo Box will be disabled. If the building is a multi-residence building, a unit must be selected before the application will allow the tenant data to be saved.

** When the building is selected, the address information for the tenant will be automatically filled according to the building information entered. This data can be overwritten by simply typing in the values in the appropriate fields.

5.2. Tenant Tabbed Panels

The tenant data workarea also consists of a Tenant Tabbed Panel. This panel contains lists of information directly related to the particular tenant being edited. To select a Tenant Tabbed Panel click on the Header Title and the tabbed panel will be selected and will change color to orange. The selected tabbed panel will always be colored orange.

None-referential data, that is data that is not associated with another data item (for example a tenant that is not associated to any building, accounting entries, invoices, etc.) can be created, edited, and deleted as desired. Data that is referential (in the tenant workarea for example, the tenant tabs with headers Accounting, Workorders, and Vendors are considered referential as they directly reference other workareas) only allows the functionality of viewing and/or editing the data. The presented data for Referential Tabbed Panels is not a complete representation of the data in the relevant workarea, it is a smaller subset, almost a summarization.

** Important notice: changing the data in the referential tabbed panels will also modify the data within the associated main workarea.

To enter data in a tabbed panel click on the New button illustrated on the image on the previous page as the "New button from tenant tabbed panel". After clicking the New button the tabbed panel (assuming we are on the Employers tab for this example) will change from a list view to a data view for a particular employer as illustrated in the image below.

The data for the Tenant Tabbed Panel is linked to a specific tenant. Therefore when any data is created and/or modified, the Save button for that particular tenant will be green, signifying a save action is required.

To delete a Tenant Tabbed Panel data entry click on the Delete button in the Tabbed Data Buttons Panel illustrated in image above. The Delete button is present in both the list and data entry views of the Tenant Tabbed Panel. Clicking on the Delete button will result in the Tenant Tabbed Panel returning to the list view (if it wasn’t already in that state). The item selected for deletion will appear in the Tenant Tabbed Panel List with a the icon . On the subsequent save action the entries with the icon will be permanently deleted from the database and the items will disappear from the Tenant Tabbed Panel. An example of the tenant tabbed panel list view with 2 employee data items scheduled for deletion is followed.

5.3. Tenant Data List

Once a tenant has been created the data will appear in the tenant list as illustrated in the following image.

To delete a tenant from the database there are is a referential rule which must be met before deletion can happen. The referential rule for deletion is that the data item, in this case the tenant, cannot be referenced by any other workarea data item. That is to say the tenant cannot be referenced in an accounting entry, a scheduled accounting entry, a suggested accounting entry, a building, and/or a unit workarea. If the data item, in this case the tenant, is referenced by another area the following error message will appear.

To surpass this error all references to the tenant must first also be deleted. Unlike the tenant tabbed panels, once the data has met the referential rules, it is instantly deleted from the database.

** Note: Referential data integrity must be maintained by the database otherwise previous entries will be rendered incorrect. For example, deleting a tenant required in an accounting entry will destroy the link and all reports related to accounting for this tenant, thus generating incorrect information.

6.1. Common Functionality

** Note: the tenant, vendor, building, and unit work areas are very similar. Please refer to the tenant workarea section of the manual for all documentation that is common to these areas.

The Vendor workarea is used to store information about vendors used when managing your properties. These can include contractors, suppliers, service providers, utilities, stores, etc. They are used so that not only can you keep a list of your vendors nearby (including their contact information), but also so that you can generate reports based on vendors (for example you can run a report to see how much you paid Bob your plumber over the last year, a month, etc.).

6.2. Creating a New Vendor Entry

Please refer to the section Create new tenant entry in tenant chapter as the functionality is equivalent.

** Note: There are no associations to be made in the vendor main data workarea.

6.3. Vendor Tabbed Panels

Please refer to the section Tenant tabbed panels entry in tenant chapter as the functionality is equivalent.

6.4. Vendor Data List

Please refer to the section Tenant data list entry in tenant chapter as the functionality is equivalent.

7.1. Common Functionality

** Note: the tenant, vendor, building, and unit work areas are very similar. Please refer to the tenant workarea section of the manual for all documentation that is common to these areas. Only unique aspects to the landlord workarea are covered in this section.

7.2. Creating a new landlord entry

To create a new landlord, click on the Landlord workarea menu button. A list of all the current landlords listed by name will be presented. Press on the New button to create a new landlord entry.

Clicking on New results in the appearance of a popup dialog requesting the type of landlord that will be created, as demonstrated in the following image. A landlord type, which will be unchangeable afterwards, must be selected before creating a new landlord.

** Note: The only differences between the Individual Owner and Company landlord types are the fields presented. Individual Owner will present first and last name fields, as well as work and cell phone numbers whereas the company landlord type will present the fields Company and Contact name and no work or cell phone numbers. For the remainder of this section, the Individual Owner landlord type will be referenced as all other aspects are identical.

7.3. Associating a Building to a Landlord

There are two mechanisms within the software that allow the association of a landlord to building (ownership or percentage of ownership of a building by a landlord). The first mechanism is through the Building Tabbed Panel within the Landlord Workarea and the second is through Landlord Tabbed Panel within the Building Workarea. Both of these mechanisms are identical.

** Note: the term associating a landlord to a building represents ownership (or a percentage of ownership) of a landlord to a building.

To associate a building to a landlord in the Landlord Workarea, the Building Tabbed Panel must first be selected in either the list or data entry view as illustrated with the list view below.

To create a new association, click on the Add button in the Building Tabbed Panel. A Building Association Popup Dialog will appear as illustrated below. Select the building you wish to associate from the Building List (only buildings that are not already associated with the current landlord will appear) and enter the percentage amount owned in the Percentage Owned (%) field.

** Note: When a landlord or building is saved, the total ownership for the relevant building(s) is calculated and cannot exceed 100%. If any building(s) exceeds 100%, an error message will appear. The data cannot be saved until this error is corrected to maintain the integrity of the data.

** Note: All other functionality of this Tabbed Panel is identical to all other Tabbed Panels. Please refer to the section Tenant Tabbed Panels of the Tenants chapters of this manual.

8.1. Common Functionality

** Note: the tenant, vendor, building, and unit work areas are very similar. Please refer to the tenant workarea section of the manual for all documentation that is common to these areas. Only unique aspects to the building workarea are covered in this section.

8.2. Creating a new building entry

To create a new building go to the Building workarea menu button. A list of all the current buildings listed by name will be presented. Press on the New button to create a new building entry.

Clicking on New results in the appearance of a popup dialog requesting the type of building that will be created as demonstrated in the following image. A building type which will be un-editable afterwards must be selected before creating a new building.

8.3. Single Residence Building

The single residence and multi-unit building main data workareas are slightly different. The single residence main data area contains more data fields as well as a tenant combo box to make an association between the tenant and the building. The multi-unit buildings make the association between the tenant and the building units in the unit workarea.

** Note: The building selection combo box on other workareas will display the name of the building, or if it’s a single building with no name it will display the address.

The Building Tabbed panels are also slightly different. The single residence building contains the Appliances Tabbed Panel which the multi-unit building does not; rather for multi-unit buildings this tab is located with the Unit Workarea.

8.4. Multi-unit Building

The multi-unit residence contains a Tenants Tabbed Panel which the single residence building does not, because for single residence buildings there would only be one tenant; the tenant is displayed in the Building Main Data Workarea as a combo box. The Tenants Tabbed Panel List is compiled by gathering all the tenants for each individual unit within the building.

When creating and/or editing a multi-unit building, an extra Units button in the Building Context Menu is presented. This Units button is a direct link to the units workarea for the current building (this button performs the identical task of clicking on the Units Workarea Menu Button and selecting the current building from the Building Selection Combo Box in the units workarea (described in the next chapter).

8.5. Associating a Landlord to a Building

Please refer to the section Associating a Building to a Landlord in the Landlord chapter as the functionality is equivalent.

9.1. Common Functionality

** Note: the tenant, vendor, building, and unit work areas are very similar. Please refer to the tenant workarea section of the manual for all documentation that is common to these areas. Only unique aspects to the units workarea are covered in this section.

9.2. Units List

The units workarea list screen is different than the other workarea list screens. The units workarea list screen contains a Building Selection Combo Box at the top of the screen which is used to select the building for which the units will be listed (that is to say it is only possible to see the list of units for one particular building at any one time) as illustrated in the following image.

9.3. Creating a New Building Unit Entry

The units workarea main data entry screen contains two associations. The first is the Building Combo Box Association which tells the application which building the current unit is associated. The second association is with the Tenant Combo Box Association which associates the selected tenant with the current unit. In the illustration below, the unit #555 belongs to the building My Apartment Complex where the tenant John Smith resides.

9.4. Building Button in Context Menu

The Units Workarea Data Entry Screen contains the extra Building Context Menu Button. These buttons behave very similarly to the Unit Context Menu Button in the units workarea data entry screen. Clicking on the building context menu button exits the units workarea and brings the application to the building workarea data entry screen for the building associated with the unit (it behaves identically as clicking on the Building Workarea Menu Button followed by clicking on the edit button in the building context menu while selecting the building in the list that was associated with the unit). In the image below, clicking on the building context menu button will bring the application to the buildings workarea data entry screen for the building My Apartment Complex.

10.1. Common Functionality

** Note: To Do work area is very similar to the other data workareas except that there are no tabbed panels nor are there any associations or referential data. Please refer to the tenant workarea section of the manual for all documentation that is common to this area.

11.1. Reports Interface

The reports workarea interface consists of a Report Section Combo Box to select which section/category of reports to list in the Report Selection Combo Box (for example selecting the section accounting will result in the Report Selection Combo Box listing only reports related to accounting). Reports that relate to two or more sections are presented in the relevant sections, for example a report such as Accounting Entries for a Building will appear in both the Accounting and Building sections. Additionally there is an All section which will display the list of all reports available within LandlordMax. There is no context menu in the workarea.

Below the Report Selection Combo Box is an area called the Report Query Data Area. The Report Query Data Area is the location to enter information specific to the selected report. For example, if the report is Accounting Entries for a Building, the Report Query Data Area will request that a building be selected as well as a date range from which to select the accounting entries.

Beside the Report Selection Combo Box are two buttons, Generate and Print buttons. Once all the Report Query Data Area is satisfactorily entered, clicking on the Generate button generates the report information in the Report Result Table. If no data is available to generate the report, then a popup warning message will appear.

Otherwise, once the report has been generated, the Print button will change colors to green, signifying that the report is ready to be printed and viewed.

If at any point any field is modified after the report has been generated, the Print button will change back to its default color of blue. This means that the report needs to be re-generated before the print action can place.

** Note: The re-generation of the report when modifying the Report Query Data Area is required to keep the printed document, the report, and the Report Query Data Area consistent.

Below the Report Selection Combo Box is the Report Title Field which you can use to customize the name of your report on the printout. In other words, the value you enter here will be the value displayed as the title on the printout of your report. In the screenshot above, the Report Title Field was entered as "My Custom Report Title" (also illustrated below).

This will result in the following printout of the report:

As you can see the Report Title Field value is the same as the title on the report printout.

11.2. Printing the Report

** Note: The printing framework is explained in detail in the printing chapter; please refer to the printing chapter for any information regarding printing.

11.3. List of All Available Reports

List of All Available Reports

• Accounting entries for a building
• Accounting entries for a building unit
• Accounting entries for a category
• Accounting entries for a landlord
• Accounting entries for a landlord (adjusted for % owned)
• Accounting entries for a tenant
• Accounting entries for a vendor
• Accounting entries grouped by building for one landlord
• Accounting entries grouped by building for one landlord (adjusted for % owned)
• Accounting entries grouped by categories
• Accounting entries grouped by categories for one building
• Accounting entries grouped by categories for one building unit
• Accounting entries grouped by categories for one landlord
• Accounting entries grouped by categories for one landlord (adjusted for % owned)
• Accounting entries grouped by unit for one building
• Accounting entries grouped by tenant
  
• Accounting entries grouped by unit for one building
• All accounting entries
• All accounting expense entries
• All accounting revenue entries
• Cashflow
• Cashflow for one building
• Cashflow for one building unit
• Cashflow for one landlord
• Cashflow for one tenant
• Cashflow grouped by building
• Cashflow grouped by building for one landlord
• Cashflow grouped by tenant
• Cashflow grouped by unit for one building
• Expenses for a building
• Expenses for a building unit
• Expenses for a landlord
• Expenses for a landlord (adjusted for % owned)
• Expenses for a tenant
• Expenses grouped by building for one landlord
• Expenses grouped by building for one landlord (adjusted for % owned)
• Expenses grouped by categories
• Expenses grouped by categories for one building
• Expenses grouped by categories for one building unit
• Expenses grouped by categories for one landlord
• Expenses grouped by categories for one landlord (adjusted for % owned)
• Expenses grouped by tenant
  
• Expenses grouped by unit for one building
• Late accounting entries
• Late accounting entries for a building
• Late accounting entries for a category
• Late accounting entries for a landlord
• Late accounting entries for a tenant
• Late accounting entries grouped by building
• Late accounting entries grouped by building for one landlord
• Late accounting entries grouped by category
• Late accounting entries grouped by units for one building
• Late rents
• List all buildings
• List all buildings for one landlord
• List all categories
• List all invoices
• List all invoices for one landlord
• List all invoices for one tenant
• List all receipts
• List all receipts for one landlord
• List all receipts for one tenant
• List all tenants
• List all tenants for one building
• List all tenants grouped by building for one landlord
• List all units for a building
• List all vendors
• List all workorders
• List all workorders for one building
• List all workorders for one building unit
• List all workorders for one tenant
• List all workorders for one vendor
• List all workorders grouped by building
• List all workorders grouped by building unit for one building
• List all workorders grouped by tenant
• List all workorders grouped by vendor
• List of expiring leases
• List of expiring leases for a building
• List of expiring leases grouped by building
• List of security deposits
• List of security deposits for one building
• List of security deposits grouped by building
• List of vacancies
• List of vacancies for one building
• List of vacancies grouped by building
• List of vacancies grouped by building for one landlord
• Rent roll
• Rent roll for a building
• Rent roll grouped by building
• Rent roll grouped by building for a landlord
• Revenues for a building
• Revenues for a building unit
• Revenues for a landlord
• Revenues for a landlord (adjusted for % owned)
• Revenues for a tenant
• Revenues grouped by building for one landlord
• Revenues grouped by building for one landlord (adjusted for % owned)
• Revenues grouped by categories
• Revenues grouped by category for one building
• Revenues grouped by category for one building unit
• Revenues grouped by category for one landlord
• Revenues grouped by category for one landlord (adjusted for % owned)
• Revenues grouped by tenant
  
• Revenues grouped by unit for one building
• Print an invoice
• Print a workorder

As well as the ability to print all the Main Workarea Data Lists and all Main Data Entry Screens for a combined total of over 100 different reports.

12.1. Creating a New Invoice Entry

To create a new invoice, go to the Invoice workarea menu button. A list of all the current invoices listed by invoice number will be presented. Press on the New button to create a new invoice. You will see the following screen.

Every invoice created and saved will automatically have an invoice number assigned to it. The invoice numbers begin at the number 1 and increment by one for each new invoice.

The Invoice Payments Section of the invoice is used to populate the different payments associated with an invoice. Payments can be added from a pre-existing accounting entry from the Accounting Workarea or they can be created only for a particular invoice, edited, and/or removed.

To select a payment from pre-existing accounting entries, first select the tenant for which the accounting entries will be chosen from by selecting the appropriate tenant in the Tenant Combo Box. Once selected, click on the Add button in the Invoice Payments Section. This will generate an Invoice Payment Selection Dialog Window with the associated accounting entries as illustrated in the image below.

** Note: Although you are selecting an accounting entry, there is no link within the software between the invoice payment and the accounting entry. Therefore, changing the selected accounting entries value in the accounting screen will not change the invoice payment entry, or vice versa.

To create a new Invoice Payment Entry, click on the New button. A New Invoice Payment Dialog Window will appear. Enter in the appropriate information and click on the Ok button.

To edit an invoice payment, select the appropriate payment from the list of payments and click on the Edit button. The Edit Invoice Payment Dialog Window, very similar to the New Invoice Payment Dialog Window, will appear. After editing the payment, click on the Ok button.

To remove an invoice payment, select the payment from the payments list and click on the Remove button. After clicking on the Remove button, the payment entry will have an “X” beside it as illustrated in the image below. The “X” represents that this item is scheduled to be deleted when you click on the Save button.

12.2. Invoice List Tabbed Panels

** Note: The Accounting List Tabbed Panel is very similar to the Invoice List Tabbed Panel. Please refer to the accounting workarea section of the manual for all documentation that is common to these areas.

** Note: The Invoice Payment Table in the suggested and scheduled invoice list tabbed panels are identical to the Invoice workarea, with the exception that no Add button is provided to retrieve pre-existing account entries from the database.

13.1. Analysis Interface

The analysis workarea consists of one context for this version, the Amortization Table Context. The amortization table is used to calculate potential mortgages by the application.

To calculate the mortgage and generate an amortization table all the data fields within the Amortization Workarea Data Entry Area must be filled. Once all the data is correctly entered, click on the Calculate button to generate the Amortization Table.

14.1. Database Management

The database management context provides functionality to backup and restore the database from an external source. The database context is divided into main areas, the Database Backup Area, the Database Restore Area, Export to QIF, and Import from QIF, as illustrated in the image below.

** Note: It is highly recommended that the database be backed up periodically as a precaution to an external source (CD-ROM, floppy, etc). If the computer system was to malfunction, the database could be restored to the last correct backup that was performed. LandlordMax is not responsible for any loss data.

There are two mechanisms to backing up the database. The main mechanism is to click on the Browse button in the Database Backup Area. This will result in the appearance of a File Chooser Popup Dialog. Select the location where the database is to be stored within the File Chooser Popup Dialog. In file chooser popup dialog Name field enter a name for the backed up database file. Once satisfied click on the Save button, this will automatically save the database to the specified location with the specified name.

The second mechanism is to manual type in the file location in the Backup to and clicking on the Save button. However this is recommended only for advanced users as the file path must be previously created and there can be no typographical errors.

To restore the database to the state of the backed up file, the exact same process is required using the Database Restore Area instead of the Database Backup Area and the Save button is replaced with a Restore button.

** Note: The database backup file will have a .ran extension to the filename.

The database management section of the application allows you to import Intuit Quicken or MSN Money accounting entries. To do this first you will need to export your data from Intuit Quicken or MSN Money to a QIF file (the standard export file for Intuit Quicken). To import this file, use the same identical approach as the database restore and backup functionality, wherein you click on the Browse button, locate the QIF file, and click Save button once you have located the file. This will import all the accounting entries within the QIF file to the Suggested Accounting Tabbed Panel in the Accounting Workarea. From the suggested accounting tabbed panel you can either accept or deleted the suggested entries from the QIF file.

A similar process is involved when exporting to a QIF file to bring your LandlordMax data to Intuit Quicken or MSN Money. However rather than clicking on the Browse button in the Import from QIF section of the screen, click on the Browse button of the Export to QIF section of the screen. If you wish to only have the accounting entries from a certain date range exported to these software’s, then you can enter the Start Date and End Date before clicking Browse or Export buttons.

14.2. License & Version

The License and Version Context hold the License Documentation, the License Username, the License Key to the software, the Detailed User License Information, and the Detailed Version Information. The locations of these items are illustrated in the following image.

To change the username or license, edit either both or one of the License Username Field or the License Key Field with the proper information. To save the new values, click on the Save button on the bottom right corner of the screen.

The detailed user License Information Area gives the specifics of the user license. If the system was installed for demo purposes the license will show a shareware version with demo expiration date as illustrated in the above image. If a full license was purchased and the valid license information was entered the license information area would then display until what version upgrades were authorized (for example if a license was purchased for version 1.0, the detailed license information text would be License valid until version 1.11 which means that the licensee has authorization to all software upgrades until version 1.11).

14.3. Password Protection

The application has the ability to password protect the application from unauthorized users through the Password Protection Context.

** IMPORTANT NOTE: IF THE USERNAME AND/OR PASSWORD IS LOST, THERE IS NO METHOD (BY THE USER OR BY LANDLORDMAX) TO RETRIEVE THE DATA FROM THE DATABASE THEREFORE USE THIS FEATURE CAREFULLY. LANDLORDMAX IS NOT RESPONSIBLE FOR LOSS DATA.

To add a username and password combination, enter the username in the Username Field and the password exactly in both the Password Field and the Repeat Password Field. The password is repeated for precautionary measures (for example, a typo in the password field). The username and password are case sensitive. To save the entries, click on the Save button. A warning dialog will appear re-stating the above warning regarding loss of information should the username and/or password be lost or forgotten.

To remove the username and password authorization, remove the text from the Username Field and both the Password Field and the Repeat Password Field. Click on the Save button. A warning will appear stating that the password protection is being removed, asking for confirmation.

15.1. Logo/Letterhead

The Logo context provides you with the ability to add your own logo/letterhead to every report printout within LandlordMax. By simply adding the image here, it will automatically appear as the logo/letterhead at the top of every report within the software.

To add a logo/letterhead click on the Get button. This will bring up the Image Chooser Popup Dialog as seen below. This dialog is very similar to the File Chooser Popup Dialog from the Database Management section of the user manual with the exception that it will only allow you to select appropriate image files (LandlordMax support JPEG and GIF image file formats). In addition to selecting the image, the Image Chooser Popup Dialog will show a preview on the right side of the window of the image you currently have selected as can be seen in the screenshot below.

** Logo/Letterheads that contain addresses, multiple images, text, etc., can all be combined into one image accross the top of the page as in the example image below.

 
 

Once you have selected the image you wish to use as your logo/letterhead, click on the Save button. It will now appear in the Logo Image Preview Display Panel as seen below

** If the image is larger than the size of the screen, the software will only shrink the image for display purposes, it will be not modified in any way when used in the printout of the reports, etc.

The next time you Generate a report and Print it, you will automatically see your logo/letterhead appear at the top of the first page.

16.1. Printing Dialog Interface

Pressing any Print button across the application will load the Print Preview Dialog before printing can begin.

The Print Preview Dialog main viewing area display WYSIWYG (what you see is what you get) that will be sent to the printer.

The top of the Print Preview Dialog is composed of a Menu bar where all the functionality of the buttons just below are provided as well as extra features. The row of buttons consists of the Print to pdf button which will create a new dialog to generate the report in a pdf file. The next button, the Print Report button, will print the WYSIWYG (what you see is what you get) report directly to the printer. The next four buttons are used to navigate between the different pages of the report. The last three buttons consist of the Zooming Area which is used to zoom in and out of main view area. These areas and buttons are illustrated in the following image.

16.2. Customizing the printout

** Important Note: It is possible to customize the printout templates to a required layout. However be aware that there is no support for any modifications to the templates.

The generated reports can be completely customized. The report files are stored in the Reports Folder of your default installation folder (for example, if the application was installed to the default directory C:\Program Files\LandlordMax then the report files are stored in the C:\Program Files\LandlordMax\reports directory). All templates for every report and workarea printout can be found in this directory.

The application uses an open source framework called JFreeReport which can be found at http://www.jfree.org/jfreereport/index.html. Please refer to the JFreeReport website for an explanation of the xml report files DTD.

If you are interested in having your reports customize by us, we do offer this service at a rate of $150/hour. For more details you can contact us here at: info@landlordmax.com.

17.1. Pictures Interface

As of version 2.12 you can now add pictures to the Buildings, Units, and Tenants workareas under the Pictures Tabbed Panel.

The Pictures Tabbed Panel behaves similar to the other Tabbed Panels in that it also contains three buttons, an Add, View, and Delete button. The main difference is that the Add and View buttons will display Popup Dialogs rather than display their contents directly in the Tabbed Panel.

17.2. Import Pictures

Clicking on the Add button will bring up the Find Image File Chooser Dialog Window as seen below. This is very similar to a normal File Chooser Dialog Window except that it will display a thumbnail preview of the picture you currently have selected on the right side of the window.

With the Find Image File Chooser Dialog Window you can choose to import one or multiple pictures into LandlordMax at a time. To import just one picture, click on the Add button on the Find Image File Chooser Dialog Window. To select multiple consecutive picture files, click the first picture file, press and hold down Shift, and then click the last picture file. To select multiple nonconsecutive picture files, press and hold down Ctrl, and then click each picture file.

If you import multiple pictures into LandlordMax, as it may take some time to import, you may see the following Importing Images Popup Window which will display a progress bar indicating how many pictures have already been imported and how many still remain.

Once imported, you can then change the Picture Description directly below each thumbnail. To do this, right-click on the selected thumbnail picture. This will bring up the Picture Popup Menu which currently consists of only the rename option as seen in the image below.

Once you've select the rename option, you will be able to type in your new description (in the case of the above screenshots, the description was changed from "Roof Drain" to "North Roof Drain"). Once you're done editing the description, you can press the Enter key to accept the editing, or the Esc key to cancel it. In addition, if you move the mouse to another location, unselecting the thumbnail picture, the editing will also be accepted.

17.3. View Pictures

All pictures are viewed within the Pictures Tabbed Panel as thumbnails. However, you can also view the image in full screen mode by either double-clicking on it, or by selecting it and pressing on the View button. Doing either of these actions will bring up the Picture Viewer Window as seen below:

The Picture Viewer Window consists of two main areas. The top area is where the Previous and Next buttons are located, and the bottom area is where the image is displayed in as high a resolution as possible. Clicking on the Preview and Next buttons allow you to change the picture to the previous and next pictures in your list without having to close and re-open the Picture Viewer Window.

The picture will be displayed on the bottom section of the Picture Viewer Window using as much space as is available. If the picture is smaller than the size of the window, then it will not expand to fill it because this will cause the image to become pixelated. If you change the size of this window, the picture will be automatically re-adjusted (zoomed in or out) to use all the available space again.

Please note that the Picture Viewer Window is a modal window. That is, you cannot access the main LandlordMax window while you have the Picture Viewer Window open to prevent an inconsistent state (for example this is done to prevent the picture from being deleted while it's being viewed).

18.1. Table Sorting

All tables can be sorted by any column within LandlordMax with the exception of reports where the data is grouped into categories (for example the report "All accounting entries grouped by buildings") by simply clicking on the Tble Column Header. Once you've sorted a table, the order will be permanently remembered (even when you quit and restart LandlordMax) until you manually change or remove it.

A table can also be sorted according to multiple columns. To do this, first click on the Table Column Header of the table you wish to have sorted. Then while holding down on the Control key on your keyboard, click on the second Table Column Header you wish to have sorted. A number 2 will appear in that column, meaning that it takes secondary precedence in sorting as can be seen in the screenshot below.