| Brett | email | Apr 12 2017, 06:11 PM |
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I've been put through the ringer when it comes to property management software. Over the years I've had the opportunity to use a variety of different software packages and I always end up disappointed. The issues I've experienced include poorly written software that contains many bugs, non-existent technical support, poor upgrade path, upgrades that don't work and corrupt your data, slow application performance, inability to easily dump out your data to a file so that I can massage it into a report that might not be available in the application, etc. My solution was to use a type of hybrid band-aid. Along with using the property management application, I would also keep my data in various spreadsheets to ensure I would catch any corruption the application may cause. This has gotten so unwieldy, I had to find a better solution. I looked at a couple of the lower cost desktop solutions, watched a number of the videos, and downloaded the demo software. I ended up picking landlordMax and have been using it a little over one week now. That might not seem like a very long time, but during this short period I've entered lots of historical data into the system. I'm pleasantly surprised! LandlordMax has been fairly easy to learn and any questions I've had have been answered quickly. I will admit to spending quite a bit of time reading through the manual and many of the threads on the discussion forum. I like to say that you need to put in a bit of effort to get results. If you are a new user to the software, it's worthwhile to go through the discussion forum to see what issues other people are having and the answers/suggestions that were given. Anyways, my tip is as follows: With any application, especially an application that stores it's data in a database like a property management solution, your data is your lifeblood. If you loose your data or it becomes corrupt, you could easily be out of business. Since I'm new to this application and I'm entering historical data, I need to be sure how to enter the different account entries. What I'm talking about is understanding and using the different features of the program without corrupting your data. LandlordMax allows you to automate different accounting suggestions, create partial payments, copy entries, enter payments as non-sufficient funds (NSF), etc. If you are not familiar with how the different buttons are used and the different features of the program, it all can appear daunting. A great feature of landlordMax is that there is no limit on the number of buildings/units you can configure. What I did is configured (1) unit as my "test" unit. Anytime I want to test out a feature or enter an accounting entry to test something, I assign it to my "test" unit. That way. I know my production data will not be influenced by any testing I'm doing. Here are the basic steps to setup a "test" unit: Maybe choose something with a theme 1. Create a new building. All we need is a single residence 2, Create a new tenant and assign him to the building, change status to current 3. Create a new Account called "Test Account" So, if I was using a Seinfeld theme, I'd create: Building: Monk's Cafe Tenant: Art Vandelay New Account --> Name: Test Account, Description: Account For Testing Transactions Now, anytime I want to test something, I create an accounting entry and assign it to the "Test Account". I can use the data filters and just focus on Account = "Test Account" Hopefully others will find this somewhat helpful. PS: a second quick tip You might want to create a new Payment type for automatic bill paying for example: Payment Type Name: ACH Payment Description: Automatic Bill Pay |
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| Stephane Grenier | email | Apr 17 2017, 10:38 PM |
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Hi Brett, It's great to hear that you've been putting LandlordMax through the ringer. And thank you very much for your glowing review, it's really appreciated!! Thank you as well for the suggestions for new people to the software, this is also appreciated. Hopefully people can leverage from your experience and be better off for it. Thank you Brett. Regards, Stephan Grenier Founder LandlordMax Software Inc. http://www.LandlordMax.com http://www.FollowSteph.com |
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| Debbi | email | Jun 19 2017, 01:45 PM |
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Hi Guys, nice to hear your opinion of Landlord I too have been "thru the ringer" w/Landlord software...I have in the past received much help from Mr. Stephane Grenier as he would explain where to go in the manual & the why his company does not have phone call assistant as to the fact ...it would be a much more costly investment...& as you have stated it appears you too have had many monies invested... Ok...here's today's dilemma. January's accounting was inputted a while ago everything went fine....I had to wait until today to input February's....after the monies were in via the scheduled vehicle..my totals were not matching w/Landlord..,.I went down to the Report tab asked for a print out...my entire data window froze..(as you can see Thank God my computer is not frozen) That particular window holding the report and input will not move--will not budge......I have tried several different things....HELP PLEASE |
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| Stephane Grenier | email | Jun 19 2017, 09:55 PM |
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Hi Debbi, Have you tried to restart your computer and/or software? I ask because we have no reports of any freezes with the software and the first thing we want to confirm is that it's not an issue with your PC rather than something with the software. A simple reboot of everything will rule out any issues with the software. If after a reboot you're still having any issues please let us know and we'll investigate the issue with you right away. Regards, Stephan Grenier Founder LandlordMax Software Inc. http://www.LandlordMax.com http://www.FollowSteph.com |
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