Below are the release notes for the recent enhancements and bug fixes to your Expert Agent software.  

 

W/C 01/02/21

Email

Bug Fix: Email

When an html letter had been saved to a record, and you created and sent an email from this saved letter, the event was not being recorded against all relevant parties (landlords, tenancies and maintenance jobs). This has been resolved.

 

Content - Earlier Releases

W/C 23/11/20

W/C 28/09/20

W/C 29/06/20

W/C 11/05/20

W/C 27/04/20

W/C 13/04/20

W/C 30/03/20

W/C 16/03/20

W/C 02/03/20

W/C 17/02/20

W/C 03/02/20

W/C 06/01/20

2019 Releases

2018 Releases

 

W/C 23/11/20

Properties

Enhancement: Improvement

To allow you to continue working in Expert Agent while you wait for photos to be uploaded, the uploads are now queued. Upon selecting the photos you want to upload and clicking save, you will now see a message advising that they have been queued.

Once complete, you will receive an alert in your Expert Agent messaging window. When opening the message, you can navigate back to the property to arrange the photos as necessary.

 

W/C 28/09/20

Finance

Enhancement: Improvements

Ahead of planned changes to hardware, we have improved the performance of allocating funds against invoices on the Landlord Only option.

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W/C 29/06/20

Properties

Enhancements: File uploads

When uploading a file to a property in Expert Agent that isn’t supported, you will now see a message to advise of the types of file you can upload. For property photos, the supported file types are jpg, jpeg, png, bmp, and gif. For floorplans, all of the above are accepted as well as wmf files. For files added to the Links tab, all of the above are accepted as well as doc, docx, xls and xlsx. Any other type of file will not be accepted for upload.

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W/C 11/05/20

Properties

Bug Fix: TinyURL

Some customers were experiencing problems with generating a short URL. This has been resolved.

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W/C 27/04/20

Applicants

Enhancements: Communication preferences

When an applicant marks all forms of communication preference as ‘No’ in the consent portal, they will be notified that this means they are opting out of all communication with you as their agent and asked to confirm this is their intention. Upon confirmation, this will automatically mark the applicant as inactive in Expert Agent. Within Expert Agent, if you mark all communication preferences as ‘No’ for an applicant, you will be asked if you would like to make them inactive at this point.

 

Portals

Enhancements: New LonRes portal feed

There is a new portal that you can choose to feed properties to if you wish. To start feeding properties to LonRes, please contact them directly.

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W/C 13/04/20

Mobile

Bug Fix: Appointments on Expert Agent Mobile

When opening an appointment from the diary on Expert Agent Mobile, the details of the appointment now load as expected, and any internal notes left can be viewed.

 

Bug Fix: Searching on Expert Agent Mobile

When clicking the magnifying glass icon to initiate a search, the search is now performed against the type of record that corresponds to the tab you are on. Previously this was always just searching for properties. Now, if you are on the tenancies tab, for example, clicking the magnifying glass will search and return tenancies.

 

Letters

Bug Fix: HTML letters from the tenancies grid

When generating HTML letters from the tenancies grid, an error message is no longer displayed if any of those tenancies do not have tenants associated. For all tenancies that do have tenants, the letters are produced as expected.

 

Bug Fix: Event template triggered from Maintenance Job

When a letter template is triggered from either ‘Book Maintenance Job’, ‘Maintenance Job Changed to in Progress’, or ‘Maintenance Job Changed to Complete’, contractor details are now merged into the letter as expected.

 

Appointments

Bug Fix: Applicant last viewing date

When creating a viewing and then adding an applicant to the viewing, the applicant’s last viewing date is now updated as expected on saving this appointment.

 

Websites

Bug Fix: Online Valuation Tool for Expert Agent Websites

The emails that are generated from the Online Valuation Tool on Expert Agent websites now contain the contact details for the lead.

 

Bug Fix: Request a viewing email from Expert Agent websites

The email that is generated when an Expert Agent website visitor requests a viewing now always contains the property reference number, whereas for some websites this was not included on the email.

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W/C 30/03/20

Finance

Enhancement: Making Tax Digital

From 1st April 2020, HMRC had planned to introduce further changes to Making Tax Digital for VAT which was to affect how you transfer your accounts data between software packages. In the current climate, they have decided to defer this for a year, but we would like to give you early access to the new functionality so that you are able to make use of it now.

Expert Agent is providing you with an export in a format that will allow you to transfer your accounts data digitally. Super users will be able to configure the financial accounting software being used, along with other parameters that will determine the format and content of the CSV file. This will ensure that the file can be imported into your financial accounting software without any manipulation of data.*

See our Learning Centre page for more detail and links to all relevant chapters that refer to Making Tax Digital.

*Supported formats are Xero, QuickBooks, and Sage.

For more information on the new legislation visit the HMRC website and discuss the implications for your business with your company accountant.

 

Enhancement: Crediting a Sales or Purchase Invoice

When crediting a Sales or Purchase Invoice, raised prior to implementing the Making Tax Digital changes, you will now be prompted if there is no valid VAT rate type on the selected invoice as follows…

 

Please speak with our Finance support team who will be able to assist or advise.

On clicking on OK you will be returned to the Credit Invoice window to continue with another credit, should you wish to, or you can close that window as normal.

 

Enhancement: Import Statement Reconcile Payment

We have applied a date filter to the credits screen which will default to the date of the payment on the bank statement. This is to further assist you in finding the corresponding transaction and to allow the screen to load more efficiently.

 

Properties

Enhancement: Include Post Preference on Vendor tab for Sales Properties

We have re-introduced the ‘Post’ contact preference tick box for Vendors, in line with Landlords. With this in mind, on generating an HTML letter from the Properties grid you will now be presented with a popup window asking you to select which entity you intend to send the letter to. We are then able to check the relevant preferences and merge the appropriate records with the selected template.

 

Property Grid

Bug Fix: Labels from the Property Grid

When producing Labels to Landlords from the Property Grid, the print preview would appear without any results merged. This has been resolved.

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W/C 16/03/20

Feed

Enhancement: On The Market feed

The number of bathrooms is now included in the scheduled feed to On The Market so that it is represented accurately on the property listing and in their Facebook Marketplace service.

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W/C 02/03/20

Configuration

Enhancement: Send SMS From

It is now mandatory to complete the ‘Send SMS From’ field when creating or editing a staff profile. On saving, if the field is blank you will be prompted to complete it. Previously, if this field was not populated, an error would occur when trying to send SMS from the user and other users in the branch.

Bug Fix: Leaderboards

On setting up a Leaderboard, when selecting departments as part of the configuration, an error was returned and the changes not saved. This has been resolved.

 

Applicants

Enhancement: Right to Rent Expiry field

We have included a ‘Right to Rent Expiry’ field on the Details tab of an Applicant record to allow you to record the expiry date for each applicant. You will be able to filter on this field in the grid in order to review those that are due to expire.

 

 

Offers

Bug Fix: Visual Chain

When editing an external chain element, there was an issue where existing dates were removed in error upon saving. This has now been resolved.

 

Grids

Bug Fix: Grid Pre-set

When editing a grid Preset and selecting Save, the changes to columns were not saved as expected. This has been resolved.

 

Landlords

Bug Fix: Landlord portal

We have improved the ‘Export to CSV’ option within the Landlord portal so that a progress icon will now appear, to indicate that the file is being created for you. We have also resolved an issue which intermittently prevented the file from being produced.

 

Tasks

Bug Fix: Template tasks

We have had reports of two tasks being created when a letter is sent by email, and the template is configured to create a task to a specified user. We have decided to continue creating two tasks, to accommodate the scenario where a letter is created and saved without being emailed, and then emailed at a later time. However, where the task is created as a result of the sending of the email, this has been corrected to assign the task to the user specified in the template, rather than the user sending the email.

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W/C 17/02/20

Finance

Enhancement: Negative values on Sales Invoices

It is no longer possible to enter negative values on sales invoice items as this was causing issues when trying to allocate payments against them. To raise a credit note in the system, right click on the record and select ‘Create a Credit note’ via the Financial option. Further information on raising a credit note is available via our Learning Centre: https://learningcentre.expertagent.co.uk/ea-manual/lettings-financials-advanced/creating-credit-notes

Enhancement: Sales receipts

When receiving a payment against an invoice, you will now only be able to enter a value up to 2 decimal places. Entering a value with more than 2 decimal places was causing errors when allocating receipts and running reports as it was not possible to settle any outstanding amounts caused by decimals.

Enhancement: Purchase Invoice VAT

You can now set whether or not a contractor is VAT registered on their contact record.

This will then pre-populate the VAT rate when creating a purchase invoice. The VAT and Total figures will calculate automatically for you based on the Net amount entered and the VAT rate selected, as with sales invoices.

Further information on this enhancement is available via the following links:

https://learningcentre.expertagent.co.uk/ea-manual/contacts/adding-a-contact

https://learningcentre.expertagent.co.uk/ea-manual/lettings-financials-the-basics/purchase-invoices

 Bug Fix: Quick Links

On making changes to the list of Finance quicklinks and saving they were duplicated in the list. This has been resolved.

 

Properties

Enhancement: Board Movements

When sending a Board movement request the event created against the Contractor now includes details of the content of the email for reference.

 

Appointments

Enhancement: Appointment Confirmations

When confirming a viewing via SMS or Email, depending on an entity's communication preferences or whether all branches have lettings enabled, it was not always clear who the confirmation messages were being sent to - particularly on lettings properties.

We now confirm the recipients at the top of the Send window as follows..

 

Matching

Bug Fix: Match emails non-responsive on mobile devices

There were reports that match emails were not behaving as expected on certain devices, in particular using Outlook on Android. This has been resolved.

Bug Fix: Deletions

An error would be returned when acknowledging failed deletions. This has now been resolved.

Bug Fix: Property File

When saving the Property File account under Business Configuration an error was being returned. This has been resolved.

Bug Fix: AML checks

When the status of a check is updated to ‘Abandoned’ the details mismatch pop up will no longer be displayed. 

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W/C 03/02/20

Enhancement: Anti-Money Laundering Checks now available through Experian via PropertyFile

From today, you can access both Identity and Impersonation checks, by enabling a new free module in PropertyFile. Each check will cost £1.50 and provides you with a score and a document with details of the result, which you can access through Expert Agent, saving you time and effort in complying with legislation. For the full details on this fantastic new feature, check out our Learning Centre page.

Enhancement: MoveIt Closure

The MoveIt referral network is now closed and is no longer available in Expert Agent. You can no longer retrieve your MoveIt history. The Superuser access to the Admin Panel via Tools > Business Configuration has been removed.

We thank you for using MoveIt and apologise for any inconvenience this may cause. If you have any queries regarding this change please email This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it..

Enhancement: Warning message when setting consents and preferences

The warning message has been removed that previously appeared when saving preferences as ‘yes’ for email, SMS and post, where no email address, mobile number, or address are stored for the individual. In some scenarios it was displaying when it shouldn’t, and we had feedback that it wasn’t particularly helpful as a warning, so it has been removed.

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W/C 06/01/20

MoveIt

Enhancement: MoveIt Closure

The MoveIt referral network is now closed and will no longer be available in Expert Agent. Any referrals that are not concluded by 31st December 2019 will be exported as a spreadsheet and sent to the agent. In view of this we have added a download feature to help them to retain their MoveIt history. The following can now be downloaded as reports from MoveIt:

• Last 6 months Quote History
• Live Referral Pipeline
• Full payment history (Remunerated tab)
• All previous Self Bills (Billing menu)

A Superuser will have access to the Admin Panel via Tools > Business Configuration, however all other references and access points to MoveIt have been removed.

 

Brief Your Market

Enhancement: Brief Your Market

We no longer send Multilist Received properties in the Brief Your Market feed. Only two agencies are affected so we will communicate this change to them directly.

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2019 Releases

Scroll down for earlier releases in 2019.

 

W/C 09/12/19

Email

Bug Fix: Logos on mass emails

When sending an email out from a grid to multiple recipients the logo now appears at the top of the email, as expected.

 

Bug Fix: Emailing a Landlord on a 'Lettings' property

On sending an email to a Landlord on a Lettings property (where full Lettings functionality is not enabled) you will be presented with the email address on the Landlords tab, as expected.

 

Bug Fix: Sending an email from a ‘Sales & Lettings’ property

When emailing from a property which is assigned to a ‘Sales & Lettings’ department, both Vendor and Landlord are now available as possible recipients.

 

General

Bug Fix: Accessing EA via Internet Explorer 11

There was an issue with Expert Agent not displaying correctly when accessing it via an Internet Explorer 11 browser. This has been resolved.

 

Bug Fix: HOTFIX (Live) - Deleting images from reordering modal

When updating the order of photos and assigning them to rooms it is now possible to delete them, as before.

 

Properties

Enhancement: Feeding exchanged properties to portals and websites

Super users have the ability to configure to 'Show Exchanged Properties' on portals and websites. From today, this setting can only be used to send your exchanged properties to an Expert Agent website, if you have one. If you previously displayed exchanged properties on your Expert Agent website and would like to continue, email This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it. (charges may apply).

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W/C 25/11/19

Applicants

Bug Fix: Properties loading on applicant portal

When viewing the weekly property update on the applicant portal via a mobile device, the property listing displays all available properties in a continuous scroll as it does when viewed on a desktop.

 

Properties

Bug Fix: Property Wizard

When adding a new property to Expert Agent, there had been reports of slowness to save. This has been resolved.

 

Enhancement: Property image deletion

When you choose to delete an image from Expert Agent, we will be retaining a small version of that image so that we can retain any existing links you have to that image, but at a lower resolution.

 

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W/C 11/11/19

eSigning

Bug Fix: Sign on behalf of...

When sending an esigning document which requires the Agent to sign, or a Negotiator to sign on behalf of the Landlord, where previously there were issues where multiple negotiators shared the same email address, this has been resolved so that it is sent to the selected member of staff.

If a document for esigning is sent to a Landlord with the negotiator signing on their behalf, when an amendment is processed, the amended document is sent to the assigned negotiator as with the original document, rather than the Landlord.

 

Bug Fix: Amend an esigning document

When sending an amendment to an esigning document, it is now possible to select additional recipients to receive the standard (non-esigning version) of the document. It is not possible to select further recipients for esigning.

 

Finance

Bug Fix: Standard Invoices

On configuring new standard invoices and selecting Save, the standard invoice was duplicated. This has been resolved.

 

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W/C 28/10/19

 

General

Bug Fix: Password reset on Firefox

It is now possible to reset your password when accessing the system via Firefox. If you do not have a password reset email address set in the system you will be prompted to enter on login, as in other browsers.

 

Bug Fix: Server Error when sending Word document

A server error was displayed when sending a Word document via email with a PDF attachment that has been sent previously. This has been resolved. A server error was displayed when sending a Word document via email with a PDF attachment that has been sent previously. This has been resolved.

 

Finance

Bug Fix: Change handling of invalid email address in Landlord Statement Processing

Agents are now notified, using the existing internal message system, if a Landlord Statement email has failed to send due to an invalid email address. In addition to this any requests that are queued but fail to send are removed so that once the Landlord email address has been corrected, the previously unprocessed requests (now out of date) are not also included in the email.

 

Properties

Enhancement: Limit size of uploaded images

In order to help you keep the size of the images you upload to a reasonable level we will automatically resize images over 3MB.

Images with a greater dimension than 7000x7000 megapixels will be deemed too large and will not be uploaded. You will be notified following an upload if either of these has taken place.

 

Bug Fix: Format HTML characters when merging with word (single directional quotes)

Single directional left and right quotes are now merged into Word documents as expected, rather than as their HTML code equivalents.

 

Tenancies

Bug Fix: Grid error on Tenancy Grid

We have removed confusing error messages when a filter on the Tenancy grid doesn’t return any results.

 

Tenant Portal

Bug Fix: Tenant portal applicant error

There were intermittent errors when submitting an applicant form for a tenancy from the Tenancy Portal. This has been resolved. The portal no longer returns and error and the application is visible on the Event that is created on submission, as expected.

 

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W/C 14/10/19

 

General

Enhancement: Password Reset: Security Alert Email

When a change to a Password Reset Email Address is requested a ‘Security Alert’ email will be sent to the existing reset email address to confirm the request. This is in place to inform the user of the activity, should it be malicious. If you receive the email and have not requested a change to your password reset email address change your password immediately or contact your Superuser for further assistance.

 

Bug Fix: Underscore and hyphen in email address

Our email validation now allows for the use of underscores and hyphens if they form part of the email address.

 

Bug Fix: Morning Meeting Email

Applicant Status items displayed in the Morning Meeting Email are now derived from the parent branch (rather than the agency that the record is assigned to) to ensure they are consistent with the status items available from the drop downs on the applicant record.

 

Portals/Feeds

Enhancement: Brief Your Market Feed

The following fields have been added to our regular feed to Brief Your Market: Enquiry Source, Enquiry Method, Valuation Creation Date, Hot Lead Flag, Applicant Last Viewing Date (confirmed appointments only), Next Appointment Type.

 

Tenancies

Enhancement: Tenant/Landlord Names

When a Tenant or Landlord is removed from the Tenant/Landlord tab on a pending tenancy, you will now be promoted to ensure that the 'Names for Correspondence' field is updated to reflect the change.

 

Bug Fix: Scroll Bar on Utilities for smaller resolutions

For those using a smaller resolution when assessing the system (1024 x 768 or similar) both horizontal and vertical scroll bars will appear on the Utilities tab when viewing within a Property or Tenancy record to ensure all information is visible.

 

Bug Fix: Maintenance Job - Events Tab

Previously, the Events tab was not immediately accessible following the saving of a new maintenance job. This has been resolved.

 

Bug Fix: Maintenance Job Template Trigger on Save

When saving a maintenance job (or saving having changed the status of a maintenance job) the letter that should be triggered when saving now appears as expected.

 

Reporting

Bug Fix: Sales Pipeline

We have improved the efficiency of the database when loading the Sales Pipeline to minimise the occasions when it may not load due to a time out. If a time out does occur, you will now be presented with a message prompting you to retry.

 

Applicants

Bug Fix: Applicant Grid -> Advanced Selection Filter on Property Age

Previously there was an issue when filtering the Applicant Grid using Advanced Selection and including Property Age, resulting in an empty grid. This has been resolved.

 

Marketplace

Bug Fix: Field titles to suit both Vendor and Landlord Requests

When placing an order with Marketplace, the contact field names have been updated so that they are relevant for both Vendor and Landlord clients.

 

Properties

Enhancement: Save Previous Bank Details in Events

If bank details are copied across from a Landlord to a Proeprty record, the previous bank details are now saved to an Event so that they can be referred to if necessary.

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W/C 30/09/19

 

Applicants

Bug Fix: Applicant Portal Property Images on a Mobile Device

Previous, on some mobile devices using the safari browser, property images did not appear as expected. This has been resolved.

 

Password Reset

Enhancement: Validate Email Includes Username

If you add or amend your password reset email address, an email is sent to the new address so the user can validate they can access that account. We strongly encourage that the password reset email address is unique to the specific person and only accessible by them. However, because we know this is not always possible, we have included the Expert Agent username of the account that added or amended the password reset email address, so the user can be identified if the email address is shared.

 

Enhancement: Reset Email Address on Staff Form

The agency staff form now includes the password reset email address for the individual in a read only field. Superusers can then assist staff with issues receiving the reset email.

 

Powering and Website

Bug Fix: Map and Streetview Images not Displaying

A version of our properties listing integration was not displaying the map and streetview images correctly. This has now been resolved.

 

Tenancies

Enhancement: Ending a Tenancy

When ending a tenancy you will now be presented with Show on Website, Show on Portals and Match This Property tick boxes (as you do when you Cancel an Offer). These will be ticked by default to ensure that a property is marketed again once the tenancy has ended. You can untick one or all of these when ending a tenancy if you would rather not market them immediately.

 

Enhancement: Tenant Portal Email

If your tenant needs to reset their password in order to access the Tenant Portal the newly renamed 'Reset Password' button on the Tenant Portal tab will now send them a temporary password to allow them to login and then reset their password. You will no longer be presented with a preview of the content of this email, ensuring that the tenant's login credentials remain confidential.

 

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W/C 23/09/19

 

Properties

Bug Fix: Email Recipients from cloned Lettings Property

When cloning a sales property to a lettings property, the vendor has now been removed as a possible recipient to an email. Only the Landlord is available to select, unless Sales tabs are switched on.

 

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W/C 09/09/19

Password Reset

Enhancement: Password Reset

We have implemented a password reset function within the system. For a more detailed explanation please click here to view the chapter in our Learning Centre.

 

Enhancement: Disable Login

It is now possible, as a Superuser, to disable a user’s login.

The ‘User Account Disabled’ option is still available and will remove the user’s name from any drop down menus and disable their login. In addition to this we have added the ‘Login Disabled’ facility to only disable the ability to login but leave the user’s name as available to select from the drop down menus.

 

Finance

Bug Fix: Payments to Make

The timeout on the Export to CSV and Print actions on finance reports has been extended to accommodate instances where there is a large amount of data.

 

Bug Fix: Payments to Make - Bank account details included

The payments to make report now includes and is filterable by the bank account that the payment was recorded as being made from to assist with making payments from the bank.

 

Multilist Properties

Bug Fix: Resend Photos

There has been an issue when resending photos on Multi-listed properties which has now been resolved.

 

Applicants

Bug Fix: Portal Applicant Import

When applicants register via a property portal, but the enquiry does not refer to a specific property a 'General enquiry' event and task will be created against the record in Expert Agent. If the enquiry has been placed via a property for either further details or a potential viewing, the event logged in Expert Agent will be either a 'Details request' or 'Viewing Request', and will not create an additional General enquiry event.

 

General

Bug Fix: Support Tickets

When logging a support ticket, the black menu bar no longer disappears; it is no longer necessary to refresh the window once the support ticket is logged.

 

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W/C 12/08/19

MoveIt: Closure

The MoveIt referral network is closing and will no longer be available in Expert Agent. We have removed Sign Up for agents not yet registered to MoveIt. For those that have signed up to it, we have removed consent by default and any workflow triggers you may have configured. You will now see messages informing you of the closure in any areas that current refer to MoveIt.

Any referrals that are not concluded by 31st December 2019 will be exported as a spreadsheet and sent to you. We thank you for using MoveIt and apologise for any inconvenience this may cause.

If you have any queries regarding this change, please email This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it..

 

Enhancement: Vendor Portal

As part of ongoing password improvements, we have removed the option for agents to open the vendor portal from the property record. There is no change to the way vendors access the portal.

 

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W/C 29/07/19

Configuration

Bug Fix: Property Links - Saving Issue

When saving Links within Configuration -> Property Configuration, the Rightmove Type selected against item 12 is now saved as expected.

 

eSigning

Enhancement: 'Negotiator required to eSign' tick box

When creating a document for eSigning, which requires the Agent’s signature, users now have the facility to sign ‘as the Agent’. Once a recipient has been selected for esigning a tick box will appear above the Edit email box 'Negotiator required to eSign' along with confirmation text. Once this tick box is ticked, the confirmation text is replaced with a dropdown of all negotiators from the logged in branch. We have made a new esigning merge code available to cater for this {negotiator_esignature_block} which you will need to include in your templates if you would like to use this facility.

 

Finance

Enhancement: Financial Defaults - VAT Rates

You will no longer be able to add or edit VAT Rates within the Financial Defaults section of Finance Configuration. Zero Rated, Exempt and Standard will be available to you by default (any already created will be retained) but if you do require any additional rates please contact our support team who will add them for you.

 

Enhancement: Making Tax Digital

As you are aware, in preparation for Making Tax Digital, we have recommended that Super Users within your business update the VAT rate in your configuration for each invoice item you have set up. We have now reached the deadline for completing this. If you have not re-selected the VAT rate for all invoice items on a standard invoice, you will see a prompt when using that standard invoice to indicate that we could not identify the VAT rate, as follows: 'Unrecognised VAT rate. Please re-select the item's rate.' You will need to manually select the VAT rate before continuing by clicking on the 'Edit item' option. This will only assign a VAT rate to this instance. To prevent the message appearing every time you use the Standard Invoice your Super User will need to set the VAT rate in your configuration for each invoice item you have set up. Those that need to be configured will be coloured pink.

 

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W/C 15/07/19

eSigning

Enhancement: 'Locked' merge codes for eSignatures

The structure of the original eSignature merge codes was sometimes being altered by MS Word during document formatting and spell checking. This resulted in the merge codes not being recognised and prevented users from sending these documents for eSigning. To resolve this, we have 'locked' the merge codes so they cannot be impacted by MS Word formatting or spell check.

Prior to editing a merged documents a prompt will appear. By clicking here, you can watch a short video guiding you on how to format the document after it has been merged, if needed.

 

Making Tax Digital

Enhancement: FINAL REMINDER

As you will be aware, in preparation for Making Tax Digital, we are making changes to the way financial transactions are stored. We need to record the VAT rate so it can be recalled later when you export to CSV.

So that we can store the VAT rate when you create charges from Standard Invoices, a Super User from your agency will need to reset the VAT rate in your configuration for each invoice item you have set up. This will only need to be done once. Those that need to be configured will be coloured pink.

If this is still outstanding, Super Users for your branch will now be prompted, on accessing the system, to update the VAT rate with immediate effect. We recommend that this is completed by the end of July.

 

Properties

Enhancement: Safety Check Expiries Grid

We have added a new Safety Check Expiries grid to the Property drop down menu.

This will enable you to manage safety check renewals that may have expired or are due to expire across all properties.

Here you can filter on Safety Check Type, Management Type, Branch, Staff and Expiry Date. These is a checkbox to show only those with a Let Tenancy and an Export to CSV facility.

The Safety Check Types included are Gas Safety, Electrical Safety, Fire Safety, Carbon Monoxide Safety, Legionnaires' Safety and Smoke Alarm Safety.

 

Bug Fix: Instructed on Date

When adding a new property to the system with a marketed status (On Market/ Available to Let, Under Offer/Under Negotiation, Sold STC/Let STC), the 'Instructed On' date will now automatically populate as it would if you were to change the status of the property to Marketed within Expert Agent.

 

Tenancies

Bug Fix: Create New Tenancy via Appointment

When creating a new Tenancy record via the Appointment window, the modal will now close and the Tenancy will be created as expected.

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W/C 01/07/17

Emails

Enhancement: Email address validation

We have improved validation on email address fields in Expert Agent, to reduce the likelihood of typing errors and incorrect formatting. You will be notified with red error text if there is a problem with the format of the email address, or the domain is not recognised. You will still be able to save if you choose to, but you should amend it before saving to ensure your emails send successfully.

 

eSigning Merge Codes

Bug Fix:

There have been some reports of eSigning merge codes not pulling through the signatures. Editing the document or formatting the text can sometimes cause this. If you need to amend the format of any eSigning document, ensure your text selection does not include any of the eSigning merge codes. If you try and amend the formatting of any text that includes an eSigning merge code, word will disable many of the formatting features. Please click on the following video link for more details: Editing an Esigning document.

 

Properties

Enhancement: Additional date fields

We have added merge codes for HTML and Word templates for the following new date fields:

• Fire Safety Expiry
• Contents Insurance Expiry
• Buildings Insurance Expiry
• Carbon Monoxide Safety Expiry
• Legionnaires' Safety Expiry
• Smoke Alarm Safety Expiry
• EPC Expiry

In addition, the system now includes Quick Links to monitor these expiry dates and can be added to your Property and Tenancy Dashboards as well as the right hand toolbar.

 

Offers

Bug Fix: Marking an offer as accepted/cancelled – tick box behaviour

When marking an offer as accepted, the option to 'Mark the Property as Sold STC' is ticked by default, and the Show on Website, Show on Portals, and Match Property check boxes (marketing checkboxes) are unticked. Saving this will remove any ticks from the equivalent checkboxes on the property record. However, if you choose to untick the Mark the Property as Sold STC checkbox, the marketing checkboxes on the property record cannot be amended by changing the state of these checkboxes on the Offer Accepted modal. Therefore, they will disappear if Mark the Property as Sold STC checkbox is unticked, and any amendments will need to be done directly on the property record.

Similarly when marking an offer as cancelled, the option to 'Mark the Property as On Market' is ticked by default and the marketing checkboxes are unticked. If you choose to untick the Mark the Property as On Market checkbox any amendments to the marketing checkboxes will need to be done directly on the property record.

 

Text Messages

Bug Fix: SMS - ampersand character appearing incorrectly

Previously if an SMS included special characters such as ampersand, they would appear incorrectly (as '&amp') in the message. This has been resolved.

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W/C 17/06/19

Finance

Enhancement: Preparation for Making Tax Digital - action needed!

In preparation for Making Tax Digital, we are making changes to the way financial transactions are stored. We need to record the VAT rate so it can be recalled later when you export to CSV.

So that we can store the VAT rate when you create charges from Standard Invoices, a Super User from your agency will need to reset the VAT rate in your configuration for each invoice item you have set up.  This will only need to be done once.  See How do I re-save the VAT rate for my Standard Invoices?

We recommend that you complete this within the next 2 weeks, so that you can continue to use standard invoices as normal.  A prompt will appear to remind you when raising an Invoice or Credit Note against a Landlord or Tenancy.  From the point we release the changes to store the VAT rate, if you have not re-selected the VAT rate for all invoice items on a standard invoice, you will see a prompt when using that standard invoice to indicate we could not identify the VAT rate.  

To prevent users from accidentally adding an invoice to Standard Invoices rather than just saving, the 'Save as Standard Invoice' button has been removed.  Super Users still have access to create new Standard Invoices via Configuration -> Lettings Configuration.  

 

Letters/Templates

Enhancement: Updates to brochures appearing on websites

Changes to brochures will now appear shortly after they are saved in Expert Agent, rather than being subject to delay.

 

Portals

Bug Fix: Rightmove Feed

We have updated the feed of properties to Rightmove to now include the Tenure Type, and area for Commercial properties. We have also resolved an issue that so,e reported with regards to orientation of Streetview.

Bug Fix: Zoopla Feed

The feed of properties to Zoopla has been updated to include Tenure Type.

 

Properties

Enhancement: Additional Date fields

We have included the following fields on the Dates tab of Lettings properties:

• Fire Safety Expiry
• Contents Insurance Expiry
• Buildings Insurance Expiry
• Carbon Monoxide Safety Expiry 
• Legionnaires' Safety Expiry
• Smoke Alarm Safety Expiry

On the Dates tab of a Sales property, the dates that are only relevant to Lettings properties have been removed and EPC Expiry date has been added.  Where a date field has already been populated, these fields will continue to display.  We will very shortly be providing a bespoke grid for you to manage these expiry dates centrally.  In the meantime, these columns are available to select when choosing columns on the Property Grid via Choose Columns or Column Picker.  

 

Website & Powering

Enhancement: Applicant welcome email configuration for website registration

For agents with one of our responsive websites, it is now possible to configure whether or not Expert Agent will send a Welcome Email when clients register via your website by selecting or de-selecting the tick box 'Send Applicant Welcome E-Mail automatically on website registration' within Configuration -> Output Configuration -> Applicant Welcome Email.

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W/C 10/06/19

eSigning

Enhancement: Increase in the number of recipients that can be included in an email for eSigning

When sending a document for eSigning with more than 9 recipients, an error message was displayed to advise the request could not be processed. The maximum number of recipients has been increased to 99 so this error should never occur.

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W/C 03/06/19

eSigning

Enhancement: Validation added to subdomain field when setting up a PropertyFile account

The part of the PropertyFile subdomain that can be entered/amended has a minimum and maximum length. Validation has been added to this feidl so that if the entry is too short or too long, an error message is displayed. Expert Agent will also no longer pre-populate the subdomain field for any offices that have a name that is too short or too long to meet the validation rules. The Super User will need to manually enter a subdomain in this case, ensuring it meets the minimum and maximum length rules.

Bug Fix: Problems with enabling eSignatures resolved

There was an issue for some agents enabling eSignatures where the branch that created the PF account was not set as the main office. This has been resolved.

 

Facebook

Enhancement: Retry failed Facebook posts

If a Facebook post has been added to a queue for processing and is subsequently unsuccessful, it will be attempted again until either it is successful or the configured number of attempts has been reached (set to 6). At this point, if the post continues to be unsuccessful, a message is created in Expert Agent for the staff member who attempted to post. The message is tailored to the cause of the problem: API connectivity issues - 'We have been unable to post your property to Facebook due to problems communicating with their service. Please try the post again later.' Forbidden post - 'There was a problem posting to Facebook because we did not have the required level of access to your account/page. Please try again, selecting Yes for 'Manage your Pages' and 'Publish as Pages you manage', when asked what Expert Agent is allowed to do.'

 

Finance

Bug Fix: Landlord statement negative balance wrapping

On a Landlord Statement, where the balance figure was negative, the minus sign was displaying on the line above, which was unclear. This has been resolved so that it is always shown directly before the value.

Bug Fix: Reallocation of balances with deposit funds

It was possible to reallocate deposit fund balances between a Landlord's properties, but as this should never been done, Expert Agent has been changed to prevent this.

 

Letters/Templates

Enhancement: Notification when a Word to PDF conversion has failed

When the Word to PDF service fails to successfully convert a Word document to a PDF, a message is now created in Expert Agent for the user who attempted to email the Word document. The message is "A Word document you attempted to send via email has not been delivered because we could not convert it to a PDF." A link to the document is provided in the message so the relevant document can be identified. If this occurs on a document for eSigning, the status of the document now shows as error.

Bug Fix: Multiple click of send button when emailing

It is no longer possible to click "Send" repeatedly when sending an email, which was resulting in the same email being sent multiple times. Only one click of the button is now possible, and the button will disappear once clicked.

 

Properties

Bug Fix: Scotland Lookup for Council Tax band

The Scotland Lookup for council tax band now send the Postcode through without spaces so that it populates in the Scottish Assessors Association website and can be used for the search.

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W/C 20/05/19

Lettings

Enhancement: Tenant Fees Act 2019 - Introduction of Tenancy Deposit warning message

A warning message has been introduced to help you comply with the Act in respect of the amount of tenancy deposit held. For more information on this and the other changes made to support the Tenant Fees Act 2019 please see HERE

Enhancement: Tenant Fees Act 2019 - Removing the prompt to 'Charge Initial Fees' when marking a tenancy as Let

When marking a tenancy as Let, there is no longer the option to 'Charge Initial Fees' as part of the workflow. For more information on this and the other changes made to support the Tenant Fees Act 2019 please see HERE

Enhancement: Tenant Fees Act 2019 - Configure default text to appear on Portals for all Lettings properties

Super users can configure text regarding charges an other general tenancy information, which will be applied as the default for all lettings properties (users can choose between all properties or only properties where this field is currently blank), and this will be included in the upload to portals and Powering3 Websites. For more information on this and the other changes made to support the Tenant Fees Act 2019 please see HERE

 

Emails

Enhancement: Prevent an invalid entry being made in document page range when sending a letter via email

If any of the following actions are performed in the 'Pages To Send' fields when sending a Word or HTML letter via email, an error will be displayed on attempting to send:

• enter 0 in to 'To' or 'From' field
• enter any non-numeric character in the 'To' or 'From' field
• enter a value in the 'From' field that is greater than the 'To' field.

 

Finance

Bug Fix: Cancelled transactions on a contractor statement

As a result of the recent changes to the contractor statement tab, when a user ticked the 'show cancelled transactions' checkbox on the contractor statement tab, all the transactions disappeared and the statement went blank. This has been resolved so that any transactions you have cancelled can now been seen.

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W/C 06/05/19

Enhancement: Maintenance job summary request

Users will now see the job summary on the maintenance tab of a property record so that they can see a brief description of the job and do not have to rely on the notes.

 

Bug Fix: Contractor statement Export to CSV error

There have been some reports of the Export to CSV button not working as expected on the Statement tab of a contractor record. This has been resolved.

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W/C 29/04/19

eSigning

Enhancement: eSigning with PropertyFile

Expert Agent now has eSigning functionality to allow you to send documentation for electronic signature.

 

Built into Expert Agent via an integration with PropertyFile, it’s easy to set up, and you’ll get instant email alerts when a document is signed. You can use quick links to get a list of documents that haven't been signed by all parties so you know who to chase, and you can even set up automatic reminders for those who haven't signed.

 

For all the detail on how to use the new eSigning feature please click eSigning with PropertyFile

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W/C 22/04/19

General

Enhancement: Key Data When Data Sharing

It is now possible to view Loaned Keys, Reserved Keys and Overdue Keys for other agencies in your group who share their data with you.

Enhancement: Template Updates - Gross Fee Merge Code

The following two default letters have been updated to use the gross fee merge code rather than referring to a new amount, so that you can advertise your fees inclusive of VAT: EA - Confirmation of Marketing a Property and Post Valuation (Sales) Confirmation.

Enhancement: 073 Numbers not receiving text messages

We have added the following prefixes to the validation on mobile numbers: 071, 072, 073 to accommodate these new mobile numbers. The comprehensive list of prefixes now includes: 071, 072, 073, 074, 075, 076, 077, 078, 079. +044 will also work successfully.

Enhancement: Prevent saving a zero columns option on column picker

It has been possible previously to save a preset in the Column Picker with no columns selected. However, it is not possible to apply a preset that has no columns assigned so this has been corrected to prevent the saving of a preset without columns. There have also been some small tweaks to the navigation of presets.

Enhancement: Link to EA Conveyancing Removed

The link to EA Conveyancing via the Offers top menu has been removed as this refers to legacy functionality.

 

Grids

Bug Fix: Advanced Selection -> Departments on Properties or Landlord Grid -> Runtime Error

There are reports of a Runtime Error when selecting a specific department via Advanced Selection on either the Properties or Landlord Grid and then re-selecting ALL departments. This has been resolved.

 

Landlord Portal

Bug Fix: Total Selection on statements missing from Landlord Portal

The 'Bought Forward' and 'Carried Forward' balances were omitted from the Statements tab on the Landlord Portal. These have now been included, and added to the export to CSV. We have also added an export to PDF, which will use a template that can be specified in the Landlord Portal Configuration, on a new tab called 'General Configuration'.

 

Properties

Bug Fix: Always populate property record created from Landlord with Lettings department

When creating a new Property from a Landlord record, the department will now always populate with 'Lettings' rather than the Default department configured and then refreshing back to 'Lettings'.

 

Statistics

Bug Fix: Advanced Statistics summarise by date

When setting up a New Profile within Advanced Statistics, if the date range spanned a month end (e.g. Apr 27th - May 11th) and the Summarises by Date -> Month By Month were selected the grid would display the first month only (April) but the total figures would reflect the date range correctly. This has been resolved and all months included in the span are now displayed as expected.

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W/C 01/04/19

Templates

Enhancement: Gross Fee Merge Code

We have made improvements to the [prop_gross_fee] merge code so that it can cater for both Fixed Fees and Percentage Fees when quoting Fee inclusive of VAT in your documentation. Previously we have advised using [fee_estimate_VAT] for a Fixed Fee and [prop_gross_fee] for a Percentage Fee in your templates. You can now use [prop_gross_fee] for both types of Fee.

 

Finance

Enhancement: Guaranteed Rent

The Guaranteed Rent tab will now load with the 'Next Due Date' field pre-populated, as expected. This date will also be repeated in the popup window presented when clicking on 'Edit'. The Set Up Guaranteed Rent pop up also included the Tenant Names and the number of Days Delay until the next payment date, when associated with a specific Tenancy.

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W/C 18/03/19

General

Bug Fix: tinyURL and QR Code

There have been a few reports of the saving or creating of Properties being slow which we have attributed to the external service used to generate the tinyURL and QR code. We have changed the source of the generator to resolve this.

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W/C 11/03/19

Applicant Details

Bug Fix: Applicant Portal - Streetview API

There were a few reports of the Streetview maps not loading on the Applicant Portal. We have changed the way we retrieve maps from Google to resolve this.

 

Contact Details

Enhancement: Contacts Grid

It is now possible to Create Reports from the action menu on the Contact Grid. We are planning to include an Export to CSV option and a Default Contact report in a future release. Until then, Superusers can create a new report for Contacts in Configuration -> Template.

 

Finance

Enhancement: Agency Payment Improvements

We have improved the efficiency of the Agency Payments screen by loading it without items displayed by default. You will now be able to filter by a date range before Refreshing he screen to display the relevant results.  Please click HERE for more information.

Enhancement: Purchase: Invoice Split

It is now possible to raise a Purchase Invoice, split across multiple landlords, in the same way as Sales Invoices. Please click HERE for more details.

Enhancement: Filter Initial Load of Contractor Statement Tab

The statement tab will now load with an initial set of data extending back 3 months from the current date, to improve the efficiency of the tab loading time. There are 'From' and 'To' date filters to alter this range should you wish to.

Enhancement: The Letting Centre Letters - Merge Codes

In preparation for releasing our new eSigning functionality, we have added signature merge codes to the relevant Letting Centre letters ({apllicant_esignature_block}, {associated_party_esignature_block}, {landlord_esignature_block} depending on what is required for each particular letter). Until the eSigning functionality is released, these merge codes will not be useable. They will be automatically stripped out when converting the document to a PDF, so you can send these letters via email as normal without taking ant corrective action. However, if you want to print and post these letters, you will need to edit the merged letter to remove these merge codes before printing.

 

Homepage

Bug Fix: Statistics 'Set' button on Homepage

Having selected the statistics you would like to see and clicking 'Set', the system will now store these settings against your login and they will remain in place should you navigate away from the Homepage or logout of the system.

 

Offer Details

Bug Fix: Chain Elements

When adding or editing a new chain entry, on the Date Tab, fields that are not yet populated with a date now display as blank. Previously they displayed as 01 Jan 1900.

 

Website and Powering

Enhancement: Valuation Confirmation - Remove Price Change date

The Price Change date will now only populate if the property value is updated via the Right Click action menu, Change Price. Previously it updated when confirming a valuation which was misleading. The following message will now appear if you select to Confirm a Valuation when a property is already marketed. This property is currently marketed. If you need to update the value of the property, please select the Price Change option from your right click action menu. You are able to dismiss this prompt and continue or select to adjust your workflow in line with the message (at which point the price change date stamp WILL be updated).

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W/C 25/02/19

GDPR

Bug Fix: Subject Access Request warning to check file for third party personal details

A message is now displayed when selecting to export a Subject Access Request warning that the zip file may now contain commercial sensitive data or date belonging to other third parties which should not be disclosed to the data subject. This serves as a reminder to check the content of the file before sending it on to the customer, to avoid breaching GDPR. A further reminder is also included in the email which accompanies the zip file.

 

Properties

Bug Fix: Always populate property records created from landlord with lettings department

When creating a property from a Landlord record, the department will automatically default to Lettings as expected.

 

General

Bug Fix: Facebook Integration Issues

There have been some reports of properties posting to Facebook with incorrect main images or not posting successfully. This has been resolved by creating a short delay between posting to your website and posting to Facebook.

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W/C 11/02/19

Appointments

Bug Fix: Appointment type not displaying correctly on Tenancy and Landlord Events tabs

Appointments now display on the Events tab for Tenancies and Landlords with the relevant Appointment Type displayed (Viewing, Property Inspection etc) rather than 'Appointment'.

 

Configuration

Bug Fix: Images added into the weekly email configuration do not display correctly once emailed

Previously, it was necessary to manually correct the file path (within the HTML tab) for images included in the Weekly Email text to ensure that they appeared in the Email. This has now been automated so images can be inserted via the Image Manager as before and no further editing is required.

 

Finance

Bug Fix: NRL Tax rate not adjusting on Configuration

On changing the default NRL tax rate in Financial Defaults to another other than 20%, this will now be picked up when tax is deducted from the Landlord payment - assuming the Landlord is set to have tax deducted at the default rate.

Bug Fix: Agency Payments failing to load

The timeout period has been increased for the loading of the agency payments screen from 30 secs to 60 secs.

Bug Fix: NRL Fields disappear

Previously the dynamic field under the NRL tick box on the Financials Details tab of a Landlord record (that appears once you select the Landlord as non-resident) would disappear if you tried to save the record without entering the 'NRL From' date. This has now been fixed.

Bug Fix: Cannot print or email Landlord Statements from the Landlord Payments screen

It is now possible to print/email the Landlord Statement from the Landlord Payments screen.

 

Grids

Bug Fix: Auto Refreshing Dates - 'Yesterday' not working

When filtering the grids on a date field and selecting 'yesterday' from the Auto Refresh dates, the system will now display records dating back to midnight at the start of the previous day.

Bug Fix: Advanced selection grid filtering incorrectly on communication preferences

There were inconsistencies using the SMS/EMail/Post filters on Advanced Selection across grids, leading to incorrect records being returned. This has been resolved.

 

Landlords

Bug Fix: Server error adding Property from Landlord

It is now possible to add a Property to Landlord records, including Preferences, as expected.

 

Offers

Bug Fix: Board Movement Email/SMS does not send on Exchange/Completion

On marking an Offer as Exchanged/Completed any board movement requests are now communicated via Email/SMS to the contractor as expected.

 

Properties

Bug Fix: Property Event Display Issue - text not wrapping

If an Event on a Property has extensive notes they now wrap within the Events Tab rather than scroll out of sight to the right, affecting the display of other Events on the tab.

Bug Fix: When adding an existing Landlord to a Property via the New Property Wizard the behaviour of the fields is now correct

Within the New Property Wizard, when adding an existing Landlord, the fields displayed are now complete and read only. Postcode lookup no longer appears as it is not relevant when adding an existing Landlord.

Bug Fix: Files uploaded to the Links tab on a Property record with an apostrophe in the filename would not open

It is now possible to view files uploaded to the Links tab on a Property when the filename contains an apostrophe.

 

Support Tickets

Bug Fix: Prevent images being copied into Support Tickets

It is no longer possible to copy and paste images directly into your Support Ticket. You will be prompted to use the Upload facility.

Bug Fix: Support Grid not loading on small screen

This has been resolved.

 

Vendor Portal

Bug Fix: Vendor 1 Portal details being sent instead of Vendor 2

When sending Vendor Portal emails to Vendor 1 and 2, the login credentials were not unique for each individual. This has been corrected. Existing login details will still be valid - should either Vendor 1 or Vendor 2 request that they are sent again, they will be issued with a new unique password.

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W/C 21/01/19

Websites

Bug Fix: Close All Tabs button

When changing the market status of a Property to Completed via the Manual Status change option (rather than via an Offer) the listing is now updated on Rightmove and Expert Agent Powered websites as expected.

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2018 Releases

Scroll down for earlier releases in 2018.

 

W/C 11/12/18

General

Bug Fix: Close All Tabs button

On clicking the blu cross to close all tabs you will now be presented with "Are you sure you want to close all tabs? You will lose any unsaved changes". This is to prevent you from accidentally closing all tabs without saving first.

Bug Fix: 7995

Some actions which were not behaving as expected on Safari (Mac and iPad) and Edge (Windows 10 PC) have been resolved as follows:

1. When configuring preferences for a Landlord/Property/Applicant, if you omit the mobile/email/address and get the "You have not entered.." prompt, on clicking "ok" the pop up window now closes and preferences are saved as expected. 
2. When deleting documents, SMS and uploaded files as part of the GDPR changes, clicking "Delete" on the confirmation popup window now removes the items as expected.  

Bug Fix: Incorrect wording in alert when receiving in more funds than are due via Outstanding Transactions

If you receive in a rent via Outstanding Transactions and edit the amount you are receiving to be more than the amount owed for that rent, a prompt which appears now reads as "The Amount entered is greater than the Outstanding Amount. If you continue, the excess will be left as unallocated funds."

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W/C 04/12/18

Legacy Landlord Portal

With a view to migrating Landlords over to the improved Landlord Portal, which is now well established, we have removed "Open Landlord Portal" and "Send Landlord Portal Email" from the Right Click Action Menu on the Landlord Record.

Landlords will still be able to access the legacy portal via their original emails. However, for those that request that login details be issued, or for new Landlords, you will now need to send access details via the Landlord Portal Tab -> Activate. Your clients will still have access to the same information as in the legacy portal but presented in an updated layout and greater flexibility as to how the portal ties in with your company branding etc.

If you haven't yet taken advantage of the improved Landlord Portal please find below a link to the relevant article: Landlord Portal Configuration & Usage

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W/C 27/11/18

General

Enhancement: New Release Alert

When a new release goes live, a pop up window will be presented at Login, outlining details of the release. 'OK' will close the window. On selecting 'Do not show this message again' the window will not appear again until a new set of release notes is published. This will usually be once a week.

Enhancement: Delete All in Expert Agent Messaging

We have included a 'Delete All Messages' option within the Expert Agent Messaging window, to allow for the deletion of all messages on the Received tab, across all pages. As with individually deleted messages, these will move to the Deleted Tab.

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W/C 07/11/18

Configuration

Bug Fix: Expand all options available on Activity Report

When looking at the detailed view of the Activity Report, there is an option to expand all the rows by clicking on the arrow in the header bar.

General

Bug Fix: Beta Column picker presets error resolved

The error that appeared when saving presets on the beta column picker has been resolved so that presets can be configured and added with no issues.

Bug Fix: Same record cannot be opened twice

A number of weeks ago, changes were made in Expert Agent to make the opening of new tabs more consistent. This had the side effect, in certain circumstances, of allowing a duplicate instance of a record to open, rather than directing you to the existing tab for that record. This has been resolved so that duplicate tabs are not created.

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W/C 30/10/18

Properties

Bug Fix: Performance Improvements on Events Tabs for Properties

By restructuring the background processing, we have improved the loading speed of the events tab of the Property Record.

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W/C 24/10/18

Website & Powering

Enhancement: New column in Online Valuation Grid

For customers who have the Online Valuation Tool on their Expert Agent website, they will now see a new column called Appraisal Request in the Online Valuations Grid in Expert Agent. If a potential vendor/landlord has completed the section on the Online Valuation Tool to request a date and time for a face to face market appraisal, the date and time they have requested appears in this column. This is in addition to the task being created.

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W/C 18/10/18

General

Bug Fix: Performance Improvement When Filtering On Communication Preferences

Improvements have been made in regards to communication preferences, so that when you select to filter on Communication Preferences from a grid, this now loads faster rather than timing out and presenting an error.

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W/C 11/10/18

Configuration

Bug Fix: Sales Chasing Configuration changes now saving correctly

The intermittent issues with saving changes to the Sales Chasing Configuration have been resolved. Changes that are saved now persist across relevant screens, including field names and ordering.

General

Bug Fix: Add Leaderboard Configuration Resolved

It is now possible to set up a new leaderboard with the name pulling through to the Edit Leaderboard screen and the chosen elements draggable to the right hand panel.

Bug Fix: Book Training link fixed

The Book Training menu option under Help was not working. This has now been resolved so that training can be booked using this link.

Bug Fix: Learning Centre Window

On opening the Learning Centre via the Help menu, for some users the pop-up window opened larger than the active window. This has been altered to ensure it opens neatly, centred within the dimensions of the screen.

Bug Fix: Minimum character validation on Send SMS From Field

Further validation has been added to the "Send SMS From" field, in addition to the special characters and spaces validation, so that at least three characters are present. This ensures the SMS sends successfully. The validation message has also been amended to read, "Send SMS From must contain at least 3 characters (numbers and letters), and cannot contain spaces."

Tenancies

Bug Fix: Tenant Application email now sends when clicking send icon

On selecting Manage Tenancy Application on the right click menu within a Tenancy record, the Tenant Application Email was not sending when clicking the send icon. This has been resolved.

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W/C 25/09/18

Contact Details

Bug Fix: 'New' option available for job status filter

The job status drop down that appears on the maintenance tab of a Contact Record now has 'New' as an option for filtering.

General

Bug Fix: Ad Blocker Prompt.

When logging into Expert Agent with ad blocking software on your machine, a prompt now appears to advise that Expert Agent should be added as an exception for it to fully function. See How do I allow pop-ups for EA? or How do i ensure AdBlock does not interfere with EA? for more information.

Bug Fix: New Tab search results open in further New Tab

When opening a new tab in Expert Agent, running a search, and clicking a search result, this now opens in another tab to ensure the original search result list remains available.

Financial

Bug Fix: Contractor name now displaying on a landlord remittance

The contractor name displays in the description of the remittance in the same way as it does on a statement.

Properties

Enhancement: Image Rotation Correction

When uploading a digital photo to Expert Agent, the metadata supplied with the image is now read and applied, so that all photos, regardless of orientation, appear the correct way up.

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W/C 06/09/18

General

Enhancement: Notification of an invalid entry in "Send SMS From" field

The "Send SMS From" field that appears in both the "Edit My Profile" and "Configure Staff Member" screens has a limit of 11 characters and only alphanumeric characters can be used (spaces are NOT alphanumeric). Previously, the field would allow you to enter more than 11 characters and non-alphanumeric characters but would not notify you of an invalid entry. Now, if an invalid entry is made in the field, you are notified of this.

Bug Fix: New Record always open in a new tab except when New Tab is selected.

The New Tab enhancement that was released W/C 13/08/18 contained a bug whereby clicking new tab and then completing any other action other than selecting a Navigation History item would open in a further new tab. This has been resolved so that any navigation following a New Tab creation stays within the new tab.

Offers

Bug Fix: Visual Chain showing dates as 01/01/1900 now resolved.

The dates in the visual chain are not showing as '-' rather than 01/01/1900 when there is a blank entry in any target or actual dates recorded against an Offer.

Reporting

Enhancement: Additional Functionality on the Activity Report

The Export to CSV option in the Activity Report is now available on the detail reports as well as the Summary Report. The button called Generate is now called Show on Screen, and the option to Export to CSV is available immediately, you do not need to Show On Screen (generate) first.

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W/C 13/08/18

Financial

Bug Fix: Prevent unstructured date entry in NRL Tax.

The transaction date on the NRL Tax page is now only editable via the calendar icon where a formatted date can be selected. It is not possible to free-type into the date field, to prevent a server error when running 'Pay Tax'.

General

Bug Fix: Tools Menu Reordered

The options that appear when you hover over the Tools option in the top menu have been rearranged for Super Users of an Agency going through Implementation, to ensure that the Deletions and Implementation options sit side by side rather than one below the other.

Bug Fix: Trailing spaces removed from CSV export.

When exporting a Sales or Lettings KPI report to CSV, it was including white space with some of the figures, which was causing a problem for some customers who were importing this into other spreadsheets with formulae. The white space has now been trimmed out of these exports.

Enhancement: New records always open in a new tab.

Rather than sometimes opening a new record in a new tab and sometimes opening a new records over the previous record, EA will now always open a new tab.

Website & Powering

Bug Fix: Character counter added to metadata fields.

In a property record, under the metadata tab, a character counter has been added to the Meta Title of 60 characters, and the Meta Description has been reduced from 300 characters to 160, both pulling them in line with Google's recommended limits based on what can be displayed in Google search results.

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W/C 16/07/18

Applicant Details

Bug Fix: Auto-Fill has been removed when adding a new record.  

Auto-Fill has been removed when adding an applicant, landlord and vendor, to prevent this bypassing the duplicate check.  We don't expect auto-fill was a useful feature when adding new records as, in a vast majority of occasions, you want to avoid adding someone already in the system.  

General

Bug Fix: Alert Advising to log onto new rack no longer appears in pop up windows.  

If you are in Expert Agent when we release bug fixes or enhancements, you will no longer find that the alert to advise you to log onto a new rack appears in pop-up windows.  It will still appear elsewhere in Expert Agent and you should log on to a new rack as soon as you have saved your work.  

Landlords

Bug Fix: 'Filter By Property' drop down in the Statement Tab of Landlord Record no long duplicating options. 

The options within the 'Filter by Property' drop down in the Statement Tab of the Landlord record are no longer duplicating when saving the Landlord record.  

Matching

Bug Fix: A maximum bedroom number of zero behaves as no maximum set on property presentation screen. 

When performing a match using the presentation screen, a maximum number of bedrooms of zero is treated as no maximum, to ensure properties match where zero is set as the maximum.  

Financials

Bug Fix: Timeout period for Total Trial Balance report extended to 60 seconds.  

To avoid a timeout occurring while the Total Trial Balance report is loading when are are a lot of records to load, the timeout period has been extended to 60 seconds.  

 

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W/C 02/07/18

 

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W/C 25/06/18

Bug Fix: Support ticket action menu icon now active. 

When you are viewing the support ticket and click the action menu icon, the action menu now loads.

 

Enhancement: Ability to configure an applicant import for the Zoopla portal as on or off.  Portal Applicant Import

If you have the Rightmove Applicant Import switched on, you will also receive applicant leads from Zoopla if you are subscribed to the Zoopla portal. You can choose to switch this off, or just have this on and not the Rightmove feed.

 

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W/C 18/06/18

There were two new features that went live on Tuesday evening.  

Consent Configuration - The ability to now configure the text that appears for the different consents on the Preferences Portal (for Applicants, Landlords and Vendors).  

Column Picker BETA - A new, easier way to choose how your Grid Columns appear.  This can run along side the existing Choose Columns option on the Action Menu and both will appear for a while for you to get used to the new feature.  

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May 2018

GDPR - In May, due to the change in the GDPR, we made a number of changes to Expert Agent to help you be compliant with the regulation.  

 

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March 2018

MoveIt - An integration with MoveIt went live in March, giving you the ability to build your own panel of Solicitors for your Sales Progression.  

 

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