Getting a Headstart on 2012 Have you put together your year-end checklist?
RMS books reservations 3 years in advance, so getting ready for your new year may mean you want to be sure your 2013 calendars are ready and published for booking. When you run the utility to change your calendars in RMS, the booking calendar for the oldest year tracked drops off and the new year is added. If you want to book reservations for 2013, you may be tracking 2011, 2012 and 2013. Be careful when running this utility. Give Support a call if you have any questions or if you need extra assistance with your OLB calendars.
Another item on your list should be checking your rates. You can list your rates by running the Unit Rates listing report. You may also be interested in the Unit Nights Booked report to assist you in evaluating the rental success of a unit. This report prints a summary of the number of nights booked for each rental unit and reports by reservation type. Both of these reports may be found under Unit Reports on the Main Reports Menu. While rates are not the only factor as to why certain units booked more than others, you may find this report beneficial. Remember to change rates in the Rates File. If you are changing the dates that the rates will use you need to do that in the Seasons File.
The Advertising Report may also be of interest to you during your year end evaluation. This report may influence your ad budget for next year.
Another end of year procedure, which comes around all too soon each year, is running the Owner and Vendor 1099's. These are found on the Reports Menu, Owner reports. Forms for 1099s become available in January. More and more vacation property managers file electronically. An electronic filing method is available in RMS.
RMS also has a tax report under Management reports of the Main Reports menu.
FAQs: Frequently Asked Questions About HTML Owner Statements
We have had a lot of people asking questions about some new Owner features in RMS. Here are some of the FAQs:
Can I email my owner statements? RMS can email a link to owners so that they may view their html owner statement online using the new Owner Login. Owners will click on the link and then access their html owner statement with a user login and password so that their financial information is secure!
Can an owner print the Online Owner Statement that they view? Yes. They can also print their rental calendar.
Does my company have to use RMS Online Booking to use the new Owner Login and allow owners to see html owner statements online? No. The new Owner Login module in RMS is separate from RMS Online Booking. The new html owner statements do take some additional set up before you start using them and the owner form letter that contains the link. When using the new Owner Login module with html owner statements, owner statements are published to the secure website and the owner email notifications can be automatically sent out.
Does my company have to use the new Owner Login module to use the new owner statements? No. The html owner statements can be printed just like old owner statements and sent via U.S. post office.
Is there a charge to use the new Owner Login feature? Yes. There is a one time set up and installation fee and a monthly service fee. There are many other features that owners can use such as viewing current and past statements, viewing their calendars and booking their own reservations.
When can I start? Right away! Just give us a call so that we can schedule your set up and installation. We recommend you begin the month following your set up date. For example, if you want the owners to have their January statements available to view online, call us in December!
