Let's start off by customising the control panel and configuring the system.
Personalise
1. Into the Control Panel and select Personalise
2. Enter in your company details such as your office address, phone, email, website URL, privacy policy (if any) and the direct URL links to your social medias
3. Provide us with your logo
4. Save
Branch
1. Back into the Control Panel and Select Branches
2. Edit your branch and enter in your details:
enter in your company name and branch name
set a branch code (I normally shorten the city i.e LON = London)
enter your full branch address
website
email
branch colour (you can use a colour picker to grab your hex code)
branch registration number and VAT (if applicable)
3. Enter in your client bank details (this would be the account that you want rent or invoices to be paid into)
4. You can set automatic alerts when certain events have happened, such as when a new property or contact has been added.
SMS credits
The system as the ability to send out SMS alerts which is very useful for appointment confirmations and reminders.
You will need to purchase SMS credits through the Control Panel via Worldpay or jump on a chat with us and we can arrange for alternative payment method! 👉🏼
Text messages sent from Gnomen can come from either a mobile number or a name/title:
1. Control Panel > Users and groups > User > Mobile number
2. Control Panel > Configuration > SMS from number. You can enter a UK mobile number or name (i.e company name)
Please note, only 11 characters are permitted and no special characters or spaces allowed.
Please note if the SMS is sent from a name, the recipient will not be able to respond back.
The system will use the mobile number stored against the user sending out the SMS. If there is no mobile number set against the user, the system will send out the SMS from the name/title/number stored within the Configuration.
GDPR email trigger
We have created a trigger that can send an automatic email notification to any new contacts added on Gnomen.
In compliance with the GDPR law, this is to notify your clients that their data is stored within your database and gives them access to update their communication preferences.
Before enabling the trigger please ensure that you have the URL link to your privacy policy within the Personalised section.
You may also wish to tweak the content of the email to do this navigate to the Control Panel > Configuration > Automatically email new contacts > Edit Template
Switch on RFT to change the interface so that you are able to amend the HTML template.
Once you have saved any amendments on the template you are ready to enable the trigger. To do so, go back into the Configuration page and change Automatically email new contacts to Yes.
Properties Configuration
Let's set default options within the property module, navigate back to the Control Panel > Properties > General Configuration
Letting properties tenure
Choose how you wish to display rental prices, in either PW (Per Week) or PCM (Per Calendar Month). The option you choose here will affect how property prices are displayed on your marketing materials, website and portals.
Note: Even though a PW or PCM frequency is specified here, it is still possible create tenancies with varying frequencies, be it weekly, fortnightly, 4 weekly and quarterly etc. Portals will also display conversions, so even if you upload as weekly, you will be able to see monthly prices, and vice versa. It is also possible for us to implement a script on your website to display both weekly and monthly rent.
Send property - from email address
Set the email address you wish to automatically send property email alerts from:
Default commissions
Set your default fees that will be populated when you add a new landlord/vendor.
If your fee vary, you are able to manually set the fees when adding a new landlord/vendor.
Set your default category and transactions.
Enter in your default fee for Sales and Lettings. Please note, to feed properties to the portals it is a requirement that the admin fee is filled in.
You can enter in just a "." to fill this field in if you don't have any admin fees
Manage your Sales Process
You may wish to add several processes to progress a sale, according to the type of sale. For example, commercial or overseas sales, will have a different process and steps to progress to residential.
When creating a new sale to progress, you will be given the option to choose which process you wish to follow. Each step in the Sales Process is like a to-do task. Create steps according to your workflow.
To add your sales process, navigate back to the Control Panel > Sales > Manage sales processes.
You have the option to add a new process and the steps or amend the standard process we have as a default within the system by clicking into the name:
Lettings configuration
Lettings process
Same process for Lettings, create different processes according to the type of tenancy.
To add your lettings process, navigate back to the Control Panel > Lettings > Manage lettings processes.
You have the option to add a new process and the steps or amend the standard process we have as a default within the system by clicking into the name:
Work order payment method
Set your default payment method through Control Panel > Lettings > General Configuration > Works order completion method
There are 2 methods of how the transaction is managed:
1. Contractor invoices us, means that the contractor issues an invoice/bill to you. That is then declared as an Expense in your P&L. You then invoice the landlord, adding any necessary admin fees for the total, i.e. the work + admin fee. The invoice goes in your P&L as Income. The admin fee will not be visible in the statement, showing only the total amount.
2. Contractor issues invoice to landlord or tenant. In simple terms, this is like the contractor is invoicing the landlord. You are then simply passing this receipt on to the landlord. The contractor account will go in credit, and landlord will be debited, but this is a transaction from the contractor to the landlord and thus, your P&L will not be affected. You then have an option to add an admin charge to the landlord which will be visible as 2 separate fees. Or, you can invoice the contractor for the admin fee. Only the admin fee will be declared as profit in your P&L, since the contractor bill was passed onto the landlord (even though you may have collected it on behalf of the landlord
Please view our Work Order article for a more detailed information:
Accounts configuration
Enable your VAT
If you are VAT registered please ensure that you have enabled the VAT. To do this navigate to the Control Panel > Accounts > General Configuration > Enable VAT
Please note, this field is only visible to users that are assigned to groups that have access to enable VAT. Refer to the article on how to set up your users and groups:
🎓 Set up your users and groups article
Advance rent payments
When you receive advance rent, you will have the option to either hold onto the money until rent is due or pay it over straight to the landlord. Set your default option within the "Charge auto rents for advance rent payments" field:
Auto statement from user
The system allows you to automatically send out statements to your landlords, select which user the statements will be sent from:
You have now successfully configured your system, let's move on to setting up your users and groups 👉🏼