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Online payment support has finally made it to Housters!!! The 6.0 release is live on http://www.housters.com, which adds support for sending bank (ACH) payments for various payment flows via our new payment processor, Rotessa.

Supported payment flows:
– Tenants to landlords/property managers
– Property managers to landlord clients
– Landlord clients to property managers
– Landlords/property managers to vendors

To get started with receiving online payments through Housters, go to the Online Payment Settings page (https://www.housters.com/Payments/Settings) and follow the instructions to set up an account with Rotessa. Their monthly fees for processing payments can be found on https://rotessa.com/pricing/. Note that by signing up for Rotessa through Housters, you will get a 30% discount on their fees. For example, if you have 5 tenants paying you rent monthly through Rotessa, the fee will be $6.30 per month ($1.26 per rent payment.)

Once your Housters account is set up for receiving online payments, you can invite your subusers (e.g. tenants) to log in to Housters so they can set up their account for sending payments to you. Both one-time payments and recurring payments are supported. For tenant rent payments, once they settle Housters will automatically generate a rent payment transaction and update the tenant’s rent status in your Housters account. Sending online payments is free for the sender.

Please note that online payments are ONLY supported in the USA and Canada. If Rotessa adds support for more countries in the future then we will obviously open this up in Housters as well.

Housters 5.9 is LIVE, both on http://housters.com as well as the App Store and Google Play Store!!! This was a major release that primarily focused on enhancing the invoicing feature. Previously, a landlord or property manager could invoice a tenant subuser, and a property manager could invoice a landlord subuser. Now a tenant subuser can invoice their landlord or property manager, a landlord subuser can invoice their property manager, a landlord or property manager can invoice their vendor subuser, and a vendor subuser can invoice their landlords and property managers.

Full Release Notes:
– New invoicing feature between vendors and landlords / property managers.
– Enhance existing invoicing between landlords / property managers and tenants to allow tenants to send invoices too.
– Enhance existing invoicing between property managers and landlords to allow landlords to send invoices too.
– Improve design of invoice PDFs.
– Allow branding the invoice PDFs.
– Allow auto-sending invoices not just before but also after a payment is due.
– Allow adding adjustments to closed invoices.
– Add more options to the Add button dropdowns at the top of the list screens.
– Make applicants section more accessible in navigation.
– Make tenant / applicant background checks more visible.
– Update getting started widgets to include all of the latest and greatest features.
– Improve UX when deactivating properties.
– Various bug fixes.

Exciting news!! Housters 5.8, which is a website only release, is now LIVE on http://www.housters.com. This release includes a major redesign of the list screens as well as much more extensive displaying of icons and thumbnails for things like properties, tenants, and transactions. Also included are many features that you all requested, such as daily auto-generation of late fees, customizable vendor types, and being able to associate documents to applicants. Enjoy!

Release notes:
– Redesigned all list screens to better organize the data.
– Display thumbnails next to all properties, tenants, etc…
– Renamed the Collect Rent screen to “Send Invoice”, to better represent what it does.
– Created a new Send Invoice screen for property managers to invoice their landlord clients.
– On the invoice screen, show whether each invoice has been emailed to the tenant or landlord client or not. Clicking on it links to the Send Invoice screen with the appropriate invoice auto-selected.
– Show alert on top of dashboard about using the Taxable Income Report to help with filing taxes.
– Configure auto-generating late fee invoice adjustments each day after rent is due.
– Vendor subusers can now be alerted as to-do list tasks are approaching their due dates.
– The vendor types are no longer hard-coded, you can customize the types.
– Allow associating applicants to documents, e.g. for application documents.
– Add new report option for whether or not to include images.
– Various bug fixes.

Woohoo, another release! Housters 5.7 is now LIVE on http://www.housters.com as well as the Google Play and Apple app stores. The big shiny new feature is push notifications… From the Housters mobile app, head over to the Settings > Notifications screen and choose which Housters alerts you would like to receive as push notifications. Enjoy!!

Full release notes below…

– Android and iOS push notifications for Housters alerts!
– Categorize your to-do tasks into separate custom to-do lists.
– Created a new Branding screen under the Accounts section, where you can customize the branding logo / text at the top of your dashboard, reports, and emails.
– New option on Add Tenant form for logging old security deposit payments.
– When logging a transaction and assigning it to a tenant or landlord, it will prompt asking if they want to add an invoice to bill them.
– The tenant dashboard now shows how many days over or under paid they are.
– For property managers, the landlord dashboard now shows how many days over or under paid they are.
– Improved performance on the Mint import.
– When exporting a report to PDF, it will ask if you want to share the PDF with a certain email address.
– The Occupancy Report now shows a calendar view of when each unit in the property was occupied or vacant.
– Don’t show the user’s billing status on the dashboard if they have an iOS subscription.
– Various bug fixes.

Housters 5.6 is live! This is the biggest release that we’ve had in a long time… When we first rolled out the invoicing feature as the means to track rent or security deposits owed by a tenant, it was easy for the invoices to get out of sync with the tenant’s lease terms and rent payment transactions.

In this release, we’ve remedied that by making invoices read-only rather than allowing you to create, update, or delete them. Every time you add or edit a tenant or their leases, we will regenerate their invoices on each day that rent was due, based on their lease terms. When rent is due in the future, Housters will auto-generate a new invoice, which will make the tenant show as owing new rent. When you save a rent payment transaction, we will automatically update the amount paid on their due invoices up to the rent payment amount. In this way, the invoices will always stay in sync with the lease terms and rent payment transactions. (The same applies to landlord invoices for property managers.)

We’ve also added the ability to create custom adjustments to invoices, for things such as giving a rent discount or charging a late fee. When you add or edit a tenant or their leases and Housters regenerates their invoices, we will preserve any adjustments that you had created and reapply them to the new invoices.

Lastly, for miscellaneous charges to a tenant, we now allow you to create “Other” invoices. These invoices can be created, updated, and deleted, unlike Rent and Security Deposit invoices.

With any update of this magnitude, there are going to be some ramifications. Even though going forward every tenant’s invoices is going to be in sync with their lease terms and rent payment transactions, we had to figure out what to do with the tenants that were out of sync. We decided that the best way to handle it was to keep their rent status the same as before the release, by creating a one-off Rent Payment transaction for the amount they were out of sync by. For example, let’s say that the tenant John Smith has three invoices: $500 due / $500 paid on 8/1/2018, $500 due / $500 paid on 9/1/2018, and $500 due / $500 paid on 10/1/2018. Now let’s say that they have rent payment transactions of $500 paid on 8/1/2018 and $500 paid of 9/1/2018 but they didn’t log a rent payment transaction for October. Housters will create a $500 rent payment transaction so that the tenant still shows as $0 owed, trusting that the rent status was correct.

We hope you enjoy this new release, I believe we’ve finally gotten the rent tracking feature right. For most users, the transition should be seamless. However, if you have any trouble, don’t hesitate to reach out to us at support@housters.com.

Release Notes:
– No more worrying about lease terms, rent payment transactions, and invoices being out of sync!! Rent and Security Deposit invoices are now read-only, as they will be auto-generated with the correct amount due based on the tenant lease terms. Their paid amounts will be auto-updated when payment transactions are saved, which will update the payment status of the tenant.
– Allow creating “Other” invoices for things like pet deposits or one-time charges.
– Add adjustments to invoices, e.g. late fees and discounts on rent.
– Improved Invoice List to be more readable.
– Customize the subject line of the Collect Rent email.
– New filters on recurring transactions list.
– Filter reports by only owned or only managed properties. (Property Managers only)
– Only auto-generate late fees for active leases.
– Various bug fixes.

Housters 5.5 has been released on http://www.housters.com! This is a minor release, featuring improvements to the list pages and also bug fixes. The 5.6 release will be much bigger, completely overhauling the system we use for tracking tenant’s rent statuses and guaranteeing that tenant lease terms and rent payment transactions stay in sync with the rent invoices.

Release notes:
– On list screens, show custom filters set outside of Search Options box.
– Persist list custom filters across page loads.
– Add Load More button to Trip List and To-Do List.
– Be smarter about how we set the default date ranges on each list, based on the data available.
– Added South African currency support.
– Allow exporting individual invoices to PDF from the Invoice List.
– Various bug fixes.

Housters 5.4 is here! This release was all about making it easier to keep your invoices and rent payment transactions in sync. We have also introduced a new landlord subuser account type that can be invited by property managers. Enjoy!

Release Notes:
– Implemented better ways to keep invoices and rent payment transactions in sync when adding, editing, and deleting invoices and rent payment transactions
– New landlord subuser type that property managers can invite to Housters to view their reports, tenant rent statuses, to-do lists, etc…
– Added new ways for property managers to keep their landlord invoices and property management fee payment transactions in sync
– Can now add up to 10 property photos
– Allow mass deleting transactions
– Fixed paid through date calculations
– Added Peruvian currency support
– Various bug fixes

Good news! Housters version 5.3 has been released on the website and will make its way to the mobile apps soon. This release focuses on making it easier to keep your invoices in sync with your payment transactions, as well as more powerful customizations for auto-generated mortgage payment transactions. Let us know what you think…

Release Notes:
– When adding or editing an invoice and inputting an amount paid, prompt to add a rent / deposit payment transaction automatically
– When adding a rent or deposit payment transaction, if Update Invoices is on then show preview of the invoices to be updated and the new tenant rent status
– When editing a rent or deposit payment transaction and increasing the amount, prompt to update invoices
– Allow sending rent or deposit payment receipt when editing a transaction, not just on add
– Transaction imports from Mint and Excel now support the Update Invoices and Send Payment Receipt options
– Property’s auto-saved mortgage payment transactions can now be fully customized in terms of which transaction types to use for principal, interest, pmi, and escrow amounts
– Support bi-weekly mortgage payment terms
– On the transaction list, there is a new option for duplicating a transaction
– Changed verbiage of property modes to Single Unit and Multi Unit so it makes sense for both Residential and Commercial properties
– In user preferences there is now a setting for whether or not to auto-save an expense transaction for the Housters monthly billing
– Trips are now restricted by the Manager subuser’s Accounting permission
– Add link to tenant background screening order to top menu
– Various bug fixes

Housters 5.2 is here! We have a big new feature to tell you about: tenant screening. We’ve partnered with RentPrep to provide background checks for your applicants and tenants. Depending on which package you choose, you can verify their address history / current employment and also check for judgments / liens / bankruptcies / evictions / criminal records / sex offenses / homeland security watch lists. The prices range from $18.95 to $34.95 per report.

Also, we’ve gotten a lot of questions on the new invoicing feature. To that end, we’ve spent a lot of time trying to make it more intuitive and provide easier ways to keep your invoices in sync with your lease terms and rent payment transactions.

Lastly, our higher unit customers will be happy to know that we’re now capping the Housters monthly price to $40/month. This means that if you have 200 units, you will only pay $40/month instead of $200/month like before. For customers who have less than 40 units, your price will remain the same.

Full release notes:
– Tenant screening with RentPrep!
– Cap billing at $40/month for high unit customers
– Many improvements to invoicing feature
– New screen for verifying that invoices match lease terms and transactions
– Improved handling of prorated rent at beginning of lease
– Prettier email formatting
– Control which features your Manager subusers can access (accounting, tenant rent statuses, reports, etc…)
– Allow filtering to-do list report by date range
– Display transaction photos on reports
– Various bug fixes

Housters 5.1 is LIVE on http://housters.com! This is a big one… A lot of the major features that you all were asking for have been implemented, such as a new help section, multiple tenants in one unit support, and enhancements to invoices, security deposits, and property managers. Please note, these changes are ONLY on the website, the mobile apps will be updated in the next few weeks.

Website Release Notes:

– New help section that explains how Housters features work, such as invoices, dashboard summary figures, and property mortgages.
– Property mortgage payments are now much more intuitive, so that Housters can calculate the correct principal / interest amounts for you.
– Support for multiple residents in the same property / unit, either under one lease or separate leases.
– Can now send tenants payment receipts for security deposits.
– Show the update invoices option when logging a security deposit payment transaction, so that deposit invoices stay in sync with deposit transactions.
– Show amount still due for each invoice in list.
– Filter invoice list by date range, added load more button at bottom to view older invoices.
– When logging rent payment transaction and use invoices is yes, if amount is more than existing invoice amounts due, auto-generate next invoice and update its amount paid so that tenant shows as overpaid.
– When enabling auto-generated invoices, be able to input the description that will go in the auto-generated invoices.
– Dashboard widgets now have their heights adjusted better, so less ugly scrollbars.
– Fixed dashboard notes to save correctly.
– Fix issue with message template logo being removed if you save the form without uploading a new logo.
– Enhanced mobile app security.
– Various bug fixes.

Property Management Enhancements:

– Can now send payment receipts to landlords.
– When logging a property management payment transaction, there is now an update invoices option to keep invoices in sync with transactions.
– New landlord actions popup, to quickly log payments, increase payment due, or decrease payment due.
– Ability to deactivate old landlord clients so they no longer show in landlord lists.