Acquaint has the ability to create a bulk payment file that allows you to pay all landlords or contractors in bulk rather than one by one in your bank.

The increase in efficiency in processing rent is substantial when our clients have implemented this.

For example: If paying one landlord takes 3mins in the bank and you pay 50 landlords, this takes 150mins. You can upload one file in 3mins to pay these so that is 50x quicker.

Step 1 – OIN

Here is how to add your OIN into Acquaint.

Step 2 – SEPA Format

Note: AIB is SEPA 1.0 and BOI is SEPA 1.1

Here is where to pick the correct SEPA format.

Step 3 – Add Bank Details

In order to be able to make these payments, you need to make sure that you enter the bank details for the contacts you are going to pay. Here is how to do this in Acquaint.

Note: These only has to be done once and is saved for all future payments

Step 3 – Generate the Bulk Payment File

Once the above is done you will be able to generate the bulk payment file. Here is how to do this in Acquaint.

You can check out our full suite of training videos. If you need any more guidance or if you have any questions, please don’t hesitate to email us on [email protected].

Useful Links: Latest articles and webinars | Request remote support

Add
Landlord

Your landlords are your clients so I would start with getting their details into the system first.

If you have their mobile enter it (that will allow you text them through the system) and I would strongly recommend entering their email too. They should be marked as type – landlord and also enter their home address on the bottom of their contact record.

Add
Property

Once a landlord is added and you click save, it will ask you to add their property now. Click yes and then fill in the property information.

I would recommend adding all properties you are currently managing initially, and then add any new properties from the day you get Acquaint.

Letter of
Engagement

Fill in the details of the property including info on details 3 page of property. Once done you can then produce a letter of enagagement through the system.

You can produce letters either from the property or contact record by clicking on the letter icon (top right). It produces the document in word so you can make any edits if you need to. There is no need to save this document on your PC, as it will be saved on the correspondence page of the landlord and property.

E-Sign Letter
of Engagement

In Acquaint you can send your Letters of Enagagements, leases and any documents you wish to get signed electronically*.

• Right click on Letter of Enagement in correspondance and select send to signable.

• Choose the contacts you wish to send to.

• Track on the homepage.

Check out our E – Signature page here for more details.

*Esignatures require credits

Market the
Property

Once you have gotten the instruction it is time to start marketing the property. If you fill in the pictures and other details Acquaint can help you market the property.

Email – You can email the property details+ pictures if you select the Property Details email template.

Feed online – Acquaint has the ability to send listings directly to online sources (e.g Daft/MyHome/Facebook etc), contact us for more info on this.

Physical Marketing – Acquaint can also create brochures/window displays, see below.

Appointments (Viewings)

If you open up the diary page you will see all of your team’s calendars. If you click on a time slot, a list of appointment types will appear. Choose one and then you will need to add contacts and the property to this appointment.

You can then send confirmation emails to all attendees by clicking “send” down the bottom on that dialogue box. This will also jump into your Gmail/outlook calendar once you sync it here.

Adding Certs
(e.g Proof of ID)

When you have chosen the tenant/tenants for the property you can then add their documents (e.g Proof of ID)

Open up the certificate list and then right click and add new.

Linking
Tenants

If there are multiple tenants in a lease you need to link these tenants together.

1. Add all tenants as a contact.
2. Pick a primary tenant, the rent dues will go against their name.
3. Go to each “secondary” tenants profile >advanced>link to and choose the primary.

Set up
a Tenancy

Make sure to have property added, tenants added and tenants linked before setting up the tenancy. To set up a tenancy go to the tenancy list, right-click and add new tenancy and go through the steps.

Important: If the tenancy has been running for years just make sure to change the months of the tenancy so the end date is in the future. Also, you may not want to account for previous rents so select to suppress them.

Generate a
Lease

Once you have entered the details of the tenancy then you can generate a pre-populated lease. Go to the property record, select letter and choose residential tenancy agreement.

Note: You can also get this esigned in the same fashion as the Letter of Enagagment perviously

Hopefully, this gives you some good guidance on setting up a letting in Acquaint. You can check out our full suite of training videos here. If you need any more guidance or if you have any questions, please don’t hesitate to email us on [email protected]

Note: Please make sure your client account is set up on Acquaint before proceeding with below.

Accepting Rent

When you set tenancies up in Acquaint it asks you about the frequency and amount of rent for each one. This will generate rent due prompts for all tenancies on the homepage once the rent is due.

Click on rent due and tick off the rent as it appears in your actual client account making sure you select the received date, payment method and amount received.

Maintenance

Has any maintenance taken place in the property, have you received an invoice from the contractor? If so mark the work order as closed and billed so that amount of rent can be set aside for the contractor. See the maintenance process here for more detail on this.

Other charges

There may be additional charges that you need to pass on to the landlord for example if you had to buy a fridge for the property. This should be added as a charge as you wish to reimburse yourself for this expense.

You can do this by going into the landlords record, account>add a charge>fee

Paying the Landlord

Once you have marked the rent as paid that landlord will appear in the landlords to pay section. Tick the landlords you wish to pay and the date you actually paid them and then click run.

Top Tip: The Report at the bottom of that page can be a great report to give to the colleague to show who you have paid or who they should pay (if that is their task).

The next page that appears will allow you to print or email the statement in bulk. There is also an option to create a bulk payment file that will allow you to pay all landlords in seconds through the bank.

Pay Contractors

On the homepage there is a list of contractors to pay. These will appear here once a work order is marked as closed and billed. You will only be allowed pay them once there is cleared funds to do so.

The process is the very same as paying landlords (covered above) and you can email statements and pay via bulk via in the exact same way too.

Transfer Fees

Once all the above is done then your own fees ( e.g Management fees, Let fees) will appear in the transfer fees section.

Tick and run the fees from this list once you take them from your real client account.

Hopefully, this gives you some good guidance on setting up a letting in Acquaint. You can check out our full suite of training videos here. If you need any more guidance or if you have any questions, please don’t hesitate to email us on [email protected]

Note: Please make sure you have your tenancies set up before using work orders, see how here.

Log the Issue (internally)

Go to the work order page in Acquaint, right-click and select New. Then fill in the details of the job and select the contractor to do the job.

Get Tenants to log the Issue

Alternatively you can get your tenants to log the issue directly through your website.

Communicate work order to Landlord and Contractor

Once the work order is entered, you can send it to the landlord for permission and then the contractor to request the work to be done.

Progress
Work Order

Changing the status of the work order will move it through a pipeline. This will allow you to track what is not done, completed, and invoiced. It is best practice to record any notes along the way.

Close and Bill Work Order / Undo Bill

Once the job is completed and the contractor’s invoice has been submitted, you should move the status of the work order to closed and billed.

Note: Attach the contractor’s invoice either in correspondance or on first page of closed/billed process.

Paying Contractors

After you have accepted rent and paid the landlord, funds are then available to pay the contractor.

Hopefully, this gives you some good guidance on the maintenance process in Acquaint. You can check out our full suite of training videos here. If you need any more guidance or if you have any questions, please don’t hesitate to email us on [email protected]

Note: You must have credits to use this 3rd party function, they can be purchased in Acquaint. Help>Purchase signable credits

Make it
a Signable Document

In order to make your document available to signed electronically, the document must have Esignable tags in it. This should be entered for any person you want to sign the document. A few things to note:

• The agent’s tag is called User Signable Signature

• Vendor tag is used for Landlord too.

• If you want it to be available for multiple vendors/landlords to sign then choose Vendor 1, Vendor 2 etc.

The below video is a guide and how to do this, it does not have sound.

Generate
the document

Once you have editted the document to contain the tags, then you simply create the document as normal.

Most of you will know how to do this but here is a video below if you need it : )

Send it
to get Esigned

To send your document to get Esigned you must right click on it in the correspondance section. Then you select send to signable. This will then ask you who you want to send it to. If you want to send it to someone not on the list you have options to assign another contact if you wish.

Tracking
Esigned Docs

Once sent you can then track the progress of this document on the homepage or send reminders to sign it. When signed by all parties then the document will jump straight back into the contact/property correspondence, while also flagging it on the homepage as a returned signed document.

You can check out our full suite of training videos. If you need any more guidance or if you have any questions, please don’t hesitate to email us on [email protected].

Useful Links: Latest articles and webinars | Request remote support

Add Property

To start you must have the property record entered into Acquaint:

• Make sure the property has a price, picture and brief description at the very least.

• Only available properties can be matched to suitable applicants.

• The Area on the main details page is the area used to match.

Top Tip : Adding “New Homes” as a area group and your developments as areas will allow you to mark interest in applicants requirements.

See how to add add areas and area groups here.

Add Applicant’s Requirements

If you open an applicants record you will see a requirements tab. Here is where you can enter what they are looking for (area , price, bedrooms etc):

• Agree on a standard within the team ( e.g must at least fill in price, area, bedrooms).
• For commerical – floor area requirement is useful.
• For land – land area requirement is useful.

GDPR Marketing Preferences

You will be prompted to send a GDPR marketing preferences email to any new contact you enter into Acquaint (with an email address). This will ask them if it is ok to send them emails/sms/letters etc. Once they tick any of those boxes their profile in Acquiant updates automatically. Only contacts who have given you permission to email with be sent marketing emails.

Matching
from a Contact

Click Match on a contact and send them a branded email bulletin with suitable properties.

Matching from a Property

Click Match on a property and email that property to all suitable applicants.

Match and
Market

Click Match and Market and send all suitable properties to all suitable applicants. (who have not been sent that property before)

You can check out our full suite of training videos. If you need any more guidance or if you have any questions, please don’t hesitate to email us on [email protected].

Useful Links: Latest articles and webinars | Request remote support

Note: Please send us an updated version of your new logo so we can update this for your database.

Changing
Site Details

Change
Letterhead

Update your
Brochure

Marketing Email
Designer

You can check out our full suite of training videos. If you need any more guidance or if you have any questions, please don’t hesitate to email us on [email protected].

Useful Links: Latest articles and webinars | Request remote support

Note: This may be a bi – weekly process if you don’t do a lot of management.

1. Look at
the Bank

The first step is to look at your physical bank account. Here is where you will see what monies have come in. Some people print this off or simply have it open on another screen. This makes it easier to start posting into Acquaint.

2. Post in Acquaint

Post rents received through the “Rent Due” screen or receive any booking deposits into the purchaser’s account.

3. Identify any
Unknown Transactions

You may get rent in without a reference so it is best to try identify these as soon as you can.

Top Tip : Share these transactions with the whole team and get them to help identify.

4. Record Cash and Cheques

It is best practice to have a shared spreadsheet to record cash/cheques to track what has been lodged and not.

5. Close and Bill
Work Orders

Once the job is completed and the contractor’s invoice has been submitted, you should move the status of the work order to “closed and billed”.

Note: Attach the contractor’s invoice either in correspondence or on the first page of closed/billed process.

6. Post any
Other Charges

If there are any other charges, make sure to post them against the relevant contacts in Acquaint (e.g. charging a landlord for a new washing machine).

7. Pay Landlords
in Acquaint

Once you have marked the rent as paid that landlord will appear in the “Landlords to pay” section. Tick the landlords you wish to pay and the date you actually paid them and then click “run”.

There is also an option to create a bulk payment file that will allow you to pay all landlords in seconds through the bank.

8. Pay Contractors
in Acquaint

After you have accepted rent and paid the landlord, funds are then available to pay the contractor.

Note: If using the bulk payment file, generate file and save on pc.

9. Pay any Solicitors
or Vendors

If you have closed off a sale and are going to pay the remainder of the deposit over to a Solicitor or Vendor today, then close off the sale in Acquaint.

10. Transfer Fees
in Acquaint

Once you have paid everyone who is due to be paid in Acquaint then you can run “Fees to Transfer” to take your own fees. Tick what fees you are taking and click “run”.

11. Run Cashing
Up Report

The cashing up report will show you all incoming and outgoing transactions to your client account for the dates you choose. This is a great report to print off before you make the transfers in your physical bank account.

12. Make Payments
in the Bank

The cashing up report will identify the payments you need to make to all clients, contractors, and what to transfer to your office account. Make these payments through your internet banking or upload the bulk payment file if you have this facility.

Financial Best Practice

We have created a financial best practice document covering daily, weekly, and quarterly processes. Click below to view.

You can check out our full suite of training videos. If you need any more guidance or if you have any questions, please don’t hesitate to email us on [email protected].

Useful Links: Latest articles and webinars | Request remote support

Add
a Vendor

Add a
Property

Generate
a Letter of Engagement

Get Letter of Engagement E – Signed

Acquaint is integrated with Signable which allows you to get your Letters of Enagagements/Leases and any docuement you wish esigned. See our help topic on this here.

Produce a
Brochure

Upload Property

Acquaint has the ability to upload your listings to various online sources such as Daft, MyHome, PropertyPal and also the likes of Facebook and Twitter. If you would like more info and setting these feeds up, contact us here.

Add Viewings

If you open up the diary page you will see all of your team’s calendars. If you click on a time slot, a list of appointment types will appear. Choose one and then you will need to add contacts and the property to this appointment.

You can then send confirmation emails to all attendees by clicking “send” down the bottom on that dialogue box. This will also jump into your Gmail/outlook calendar once you sync it here.

Log an
Offer

Receive a
Booking Deposit

Progression

Hopefully, this gives you a good idea of the basics of Acquaint. You can check out our full suite of training videos here. If you need any more guidance or if you have any questions, please don’t hesitate to email us on [email protected]

BEST PRACTICE TIMELINE

Ensure you leave enough time to plan properly for going live. This will vary depending on your knowledge of Acquaint, the complexity and volume of your transactions, how much time you can spare etc. But as a general rule of thumb, allow 4-6 weeks.

Step 1 (week 1-2)

Operational training with Ciaran and Eleanor, which includes processing transactions and running statements.  Get comfortable with processing transactions, and how to correct mistakes etc.

Haven’t booked this in yet, click here

Step 2 (week 3-4)

Get first hour’s training on client account and bank reconciliations with Orla, then do a parallel run processing all transactions over a week or two, including completing your own bank reconciliations.

Haven’t booked this in yet, click here

Step 3 (week 4-5)

Prepare to go live. Agree cut-off date, prepare client balance breakdown on cut-off date.

This is the format you will need your opening balances in.

Step 4

Live date!

Old transactions are wiped, insert opening balances.  Further training on doing the first live bank reconciliation, including the client bank account balance report to ensure all transactions are correct. Start as you mean to go on!

When you decide to use the financial side of Acquaint for processing transactions and all the client account capabilities, please follow these steps to ensure you are fully prepared and the transition will be as smooth and hassle-free as possible.

TIMELINE

Ensure you leave enough time to plan properly for going live. This will vary depending on your knowledge of Acquaint, the complexity and volume of your transactions, how much time you can spare etc. But as a general rule of thumb, allow 4-6 weeks.

Week 1 and 2 – get comfortable with processing transactions, including training and practicing transactions;

Week 3 and 4 – get training on bank reconciliations, and do full parallel run on all transactions;

Week 5 – get ready for going live;

Live date – old transactions are cleared, insert opening balances and start as you mean to go on!

WEEK 1-2 ENSURE YOU’RE COMFORTABLE WITH PROCESSING TRANSACTIONS

• Read the document “Acquaint Financial Processes”. This gives an overview of the steps you’ll need to take daily/weekly/quarterly to keep on top of everything.

• You need to be fully up to speed on the processing of all types of transactions and completely comfortable with them and with the way Acquaint works.  If you’re not quite there yet – organise some training and allow a few weeks to practice them first.

• Initially, just choose just a few clients and replicate all the transactions for a week or two, comparing the transactions, statements etc. on Acquaint with your current records. Make some mistakes and learn how to correct them.

Helpful videos

Rent Processing

Adding a Booking Deposit

Closing a sale

WEEK 3-4 BANK RECONCILIATION PROCESS, FULL PARALLEL RUN

• Organise some training on completing bank reconciliations.

• Next step is to do a full parallel run, ideally for a few weeks, and compare to your current records. You should investigate anything different or unexpected and ensure you’re comfortable with fixing/deleting/editing transactions to ensure they are correct.

• This should include doing bank reconciliations for this period, running the bank account balance report, and investigating anything different or unusual.

Helpful Videos

Bank Reconcilation

Bank Account Balance Report

WEEK 5 GOING LIVE

• Decide on the cut-off date

• At least a week before the cut-off date, look at the client account breakdown, make sure it ties to the bank and clear up any anomalies;

• Try to transfer all fees, maintenance charges etc. on the final day, to minimise the volume of opening balances you’ll need to input;

• Arrange in advance for 4Property to clear all transactions up to that date.

LIVE DATE

• Compile a full breakdown of the client account bank balances that need to be input into Acquaint;

• 4Property to clear all transactions;

• Then enter opening balances – follow this procedure:

PROCEDURE FOR INSERTING OPENING BALANCES  

(i)  Create one full list (preferably in Excel) of the breakdown of your client account as at the cut-off date, with a total figure that agrees to the bank account balance.  This list should be further broken down by category (e.g. list of tenant deposits held, money due to landlord etc.), and should include Name, Property and Amount.

(ii) Update Acquaint with these balances in line with advice given by Acquaint support.  Use the cut-off date as the transaction date for all balances.

(iii) Run a “bank account balance” report immediately for the cut-off date and ensure that it’s all correct, the total agrees, and there is no variance.

(iv)    Do a bank reconciliation for this day, preferably with the help and guidance of Acquaint support. There should be no variance and no unreconciled items in Acquaint, of any kind.

(v) Then you can start inputting transactions (with transaction date after the cut-off date).

(vi) Do a bank reconciliation for the first full week (or shorter time period if there are a lot of transactions).

(viii) From then on, do a bank reconciliation every week and ensure that any unreconciled transactions are dealt with as soon as possible.

Did you know that Acquaint can calculate Pro-Rata rents?

Letting agents and managers, including internet intermediaries, of premises must file a Form 8-3 return to Revenue. This return must contain details of payments relating to managed premises.

The Form 8-3 must be filed annually in conjunction with the annual Corporation Tax or Income Tax return.

The return must be filed through Revenue’s MyEnquiries in the myAccount facility under the category ‘Third party returns’.

Here is help guide on how to produce a google form to collect any outstanding data you require from your landlords!

Below is how to email all landlords in bulk to request the info from them through AcquaintCRM.

Letting agents and managers, including internet intermediaries, of premises must file a Form 8-3 return to Revenue. This return must contain details of payments relating to managed premises.

The Form 8-3 must be filed annually in conjunction with the annual Corporation Tax or Income Tax return.

The return must be filed through Revenue’s MyEnquiries in the myAccount facility under the category ‘Third party returns’

Not to worry, your AcquaintCRM system already has the ability to pre-populate this form for you! Check out the video below…

In our latest webinar we cover Template Configuration. Including editing and adding

– Letter Templates

– Signable Tags

– Email Templates

– SMS Templates

Our latest webinar focuses on Financial transactions, primarily

– Adding Charges

– Invoicing

-Paying Charges

-Adding Products

-Allocating Credits to Debits

-Undoing Transactions

This webinar covers:

– Generating Management Reports

– Generating Custom Reports

– Generating Reports from any Screen

– Generate Reports from Homepage Prompts

In our latest webinar, Ciaran discusses processing new homes on Acquaint.

The webinar covers:

-Setting up New Homes

-Copying Properties

-Generating New Homes Reports

The latest in our training Webinars focuses on the admin functionality of Acquaint.

The webinar covers:

Appointments

Tasks

Notes

Keys

This training webinar looked at the various ways you can match properties and customers in Acquaint, including:

Match and Market

Matching Properties to Buyers

Matching Buyers to Properties

This is a great webinar to watch if you want to learn how to utilize the marketing capabilities of Acquaint.

This Webinar looks at some of the common questions we receive every day. It includes:

Closing a Sale

Linking Contacts

Undoing a Statement

Undoing a Bill

Updating Email Settings

This Webinar looks at the lettings process. Topics covered include:

• Setting up Tenancies
• Linking Contacts
• Attaching Proof of ID
• Extending Tenancies
• Updating Rent/Commission

This weeks webinar takes a look at invoicing.

It includes :

• Adding charges
• Generating/ Emailing Invoices
• Receiving payments
• Generating/Emailing Receipts
• Producing Statements
• Producing Yearly Statements
• Adding Bank Details to Invoice
• Adding Headed paper to the above