Please see below some of the features and enhancements released over the last 12 months. Many more options are available, although some may not be applicable to your portfolio or may not be compatible with your current settings. A full listing is available in the features section. The selected features and enhancements are as follows:-

• Budget comparison reports
• Forward funding budgets
• Automatic expenditure
• General system improvements

Budget Comparison reports
The service charge budgeting facilities have recently been extended to allow the comparison of budgeted expenditure against actual expenditure at any point throughout the year.

You can generate the comparison reports as follows:-
Budget Comparison By Month – This will show all expenditure budgeted for each month and the actual expenditure spent so far. You will see the difference in monetary terms (i.e. whether you have spent more or less than budgeted in a particular month) and also represented as a percentage.

This report will also let you compare previous years’ expenditure and previous years’ budgets.

Budget Comparison By Description – This will show all expenditure budgeted for each description and the actual expenditure spent so far. You will see the difference in monetary terms (i.e. whether you have spent more or less than budgeted for a particular description) and also represented as a percentage.

This report will also let you compare previous years' expenditure and previous years' budgets.

 

Year End Variance – This will show all expenditure budgeted and how this compares to actual expenditure spent so far (variance as a percentage). It will also compare your current budget to the previous year’s actual expenditure and show the variance as a percentage. 

If the service charge is ran on a scheduled basis the comparison reports will show the cost category, as determined by the RICS service charge code of practice.

Forward funding budgets
The service charge budgeting facilities have recently been extended to allow you to setup a forward funding budget for expenses that will cover work carried out and accounted for over more than one service charge year and you can enter into the system how much you are budgeting in total, as well as per year, breaking down the forward funding for different types of expenditure if required. 

Automatic expenditure
The expenditure facilities have been extended to allow the set up of regular payments that come out of your bank account and for the system to automatically post these transactions, following authorisation. When authorising the payments the system will automatically post the expenditure against the appropriate client or property, updating all necessary areas of the system.

General system improvements

• Improvements to system resilience, including a new level of fault tolerance which is particularly useful for systems operating over a network.
• Upgraded logging facilities to allow more efficient responses to Support queries.
• More detailed error reports to enable us to investigate and resolve potential bugs swiftly.

All of the features listed above are available free of charge to all users currently subscribing to Software Support (subject to compatibility with your current settings). If you would like to discuss any of the options or request an option to be included on your next update, please speak to Support.