Welcome to The New Version of Landlord Vision!

Screenshots of the new Landlord Vision software on mobile, tablet and desktop.

Over the last year and a half or so, we’ve been working hard behind the scenes to improve the software. But rather than redo each section, or give it a facelift, we’ve gone right out and rewritten the whole thing. And now, finally, we are ready to release what we’ve been working on. Whether you are new to Landlord Vision or you are an existing customer, we think you are going to like the new updated version of the software.

This is not just a new front end. It’s a full rewrite from the ground up. So, while you will recognise the main features from before (income and expense tracking, compliance, tasks, documents and e-signing), not everything is the same as it was. This post discusses why we did it, how we did it and just what actually is different.

Why we made a New Version of Landlord Vision

The architecture on which the current version of Landlord Vision is based is approaching the end of its life and soon will no longer be supported. We will still continue to support the existing version and provide bug fixes and other tweaks including keeping the tax report up to date, but we are approaching the limit of what new features we can put into it. And the mobile app reached that point some time ago. Landlord Vision has been serving us well for the last 10 years in its current format, but it is time to move on.

How we made the New Version of Landlord Vision

There were three basic principles we used for designing the new version. It had to have a modern look and feel, be mobile friendly and overall be easy to use. We found a new framework that we could build the software on that supported more modern features and was going to be around for a while. Then we set to work redesigning the software and the workflows based on what we (and you) did and didn’t like about the current software. We have had a lot of feedback about Landlord Vision over the years and we’ve put as much of that feedback as we possibly could into the new software so that it would work better for you, the end user. There were meetings. There were arguments. There were agonising decisions. There was blood (OK, I cut my finger). But ultimately, we’ve come up with something completely new and something that works differently to what we had before while still retaining the same core functionality. And more importantly, it works better.

First off, we rebuilt the accounting engine with an emphasis on making it more user friendly for those on the cash based system. This includes the properties, tenancies, incomes and expenses, bank accounts, P&L and the tax report. This took by far the most time, but once it was done, we were then able to move on to other things like mail merge, safety certificates and documents and suddenly the software started to take shape quite quickly. With accruals support added as well, we then started adding the remaining sections one at a time, including the integrations for things like legal documents and e-signatures, ensuring each section was complete and fully usable before moving on to the next one. This means we are now at a point where we have enough working functionality to go live with it.

So, What’s Different in the New Version of Landlord Vision?

We have been listening to feedback and monitoring the feature request section and we have made some major changes. I will break these down in to three sections, starting with

What Has Been Removed from Landlord Vision

Agent Statements

These were a great idea at the time, but real-world agent statements were just too complicated for them and they became very support intensive. Adding floats, credits, payments to the agent and tracking all of those statements, not to mention unpicking them if you made a mistake made the software appear ‘labyrinthine’ when really that wasn’t the plan. So, we’ve stripped them out and now you just write the payments and expenses to a dedicated agent account instead, thus allowing you to keep a running total of how much your agent owes you at any given time and simplifying many of the processes. And yes, the software still generates the monthly fees.

Payment Schedules

Payment schedules were used in tenancies and mortgages to show when payments were due and when they were made. You set up rules and the software builds the schedule and all you need to do is reconcile it with the bank account. However, many users struggled to get them to do what they wanted and they were quite unforgiving if you made a mistake. So now, we have dropped them and replaced them with repeating incomes and expenses.

Credit Notes

You no longer need to raise a credit note and add a refund to it. Simply raise a negative income or expense instead.

Deposit Scheme

The Deposit Scheme section has gone. It simply wasn’t flexible enough, so we are going to use a different method instead. Raise an invoice for the deposit received and a negative income for the deposit return. And you can receive from and return to as many tenants as you need.

Invoice Types

Landlord Vision now raises invoices. Not deposit invoices, charge invoices, rental invoices and other income invoices, but invoices. That’s it.

The Early Warnings Section

Now, before you get worried, we haven’t stripped out Early Warnings completely. You can still get the software to notify you when things are due to expire, it is just that there is no longer a dedicated Early Warnings area in the left pane of the software anymore. This means that when you click on something on the dashboard, you are taken straight to that section, where you can make your updates rather than to the Early Warnings page.

Some Reports

When you reach the Reports section, the first thing you will notice is that there are significantly fewer reports in there, and there are various reasons for this. One is that by simplifying the software, you can now get most of the information that you need from the data entry screen itself. For example, there is a dedicated section for Safety Certificates, and you can extract a report of everything that is due for expiry from there. Also, the Rental Income Payments and Expenses Payments reports have been replaced by the new cash-based Profit and Loss report. More on that later.

What Has Changed in Landlord Vision?

Allocate Payments

The allocate payments page has undergone a complete overhaul and now looks like the Reconcile page, meaning you have fewer features to learn, as the two of them are the same.

The Dashboard

The dashboard is now a dashboard, not just a list of things. Immediately see how many safety certificates are due to expire in the next 30 days, how much rent is owed, or if the fixed rate period on any of your mortgages is about to end. Press on a dashboard item to go and see what is outstanding and make the required updates. You can even track your portfolio’s performance. All in a quick glance at the dashboard.

Legal Documents

We have changed our legal document supplier to ‘Legislate’ and now we can offer more versatile tenancy agreements. Want to add a break clause? Need to add some sections about pets? Is there no outside space? Well, now you can configure your agreement to cover all of the relevant information and leave out what you don’t need while still having correct clauses written by legal experts and not something you found on an internet forum somewhere. And not only that, but you can also save the settings in case you need them later. The old document only covered standard ASTs, but now we have sole occupancy, HMO and even bedsits.

One Income Section

So long multiple income screens, now everything is on one page. Scroll down the list to see all of the payments made to you or the agent and all of your tenant and non-tenant income all together in one place. You can then use the filters to run a report of what you need without having to go to the Reports section.

One Contacts Section

There is a section called Contacts and no longer a separate tenants area. Manage all of your contacts and their details in one place. Also, contacts work per portfolio rather than being spread across your account.

Easier Navigation

The whole left pane has been simplified. Expenses now have their own dedicated section rather than being hidden in Property Manager and we now have a new Communications area where you can find all of the Mail Merge, e-signatures and other options for communicating with your tenants and anyone else. There are no more sub-pages, so things are easier to find as everything has its own page. Also, by breaking down the sections, once we relaunch the user access controls, it will be much easier to control what your users have access to as each section is more targeted in what it contains.

Some features have also been renamed to aid the navigation flow. For example, we have Bills and Events. Also, the Tenant Journals are now called Diaries to differentiate them from the Accounting Journals.

The Reconcile Page

One of the goals of the new version was for the Reconcile page to become the heart of the software. We have noticed that many users spend most of their time here so we are driving more functionality in its direction. So far, as well as all the usual things you could do on this page, you can now add transfers, overpayments, and refunds without leaving the Reconcile page and there will be more functionality to come in the future.

Document Management

We now have a more intuitive document area for storing your files. It now works more like you would expect a folder system to work.

Mortgages

The mortgages section is now radically different. The payment schedule has gone, and they are simpler to manage. Record an expense and assign it to the mortgage. You can even do this from the Reconcile page.

Also in mortgages, you can tell the software when the fixed rate period ends and get a notification ahead of time.

Portfolio Settings

Each portfolio has its own settings area, to make updating the settings for any portfolio much easier.

Deleting Invoices and Expenses

It is now possible to delete invoices and expenses without having to delete the payments first. And you can still delete them in bulk.

Live Bank Feeds

We have teamed up with ‘Nordigen’ to bring the live bank feeds this time, rather than doing them directly ourselves. What this means is that it is now substantially quicker for us to add a provider, so we won’t need as much demand to add one. We should therefore be able to add more banks to the list of available providers and support more customers.

Billing

We have completely overhauled the billing section. Can’t or don’t want to pay by direct debit? You can set up card payments instead. And we no longer charge from the beginning of the month to the end of the month, so no more confusing pro-rata payments at the start of your plan. Otherwise, the Ts and Cs are the same.

What We’ve Added to New Landlord Vision

The Add Button

Need to add something? Simply press the Add Button in the top left corner and select it from the menu. No need to go hunting through the software for it, the Add button can be used from almost any screen without navigating away from what you are working on.

Block Management Support

We no longer have rooms, we now have units. A unit can be anything that sits within a master building, whether it is a room, a flat, a garage or whatever. Add all of your units in to one single property and run a P&L for the whole building. More importantly, all incomes, expenses, certificates and everything else can be assigned to a unit.

Right to Rent Tracking

Now you can track the right-to-rent status of each of your tenants within Landlord Vision and upload the appropriate documentation. You can also get notifications when the right to rent is due to expire.

Email Multiple People at Once

Our most requested feature finally makes it into the software. Build a message template, send an individualised message to lots of people at once. Relax.

It’s Mobile Friendly

I know many of you have been reading this thinking ‘well what about a mobile version?’ Well, it’s here. There is no app on an app store, simply head to https://www.landlordvision.co.uk on your mobile device, log in to the app from the site and continue from there. In fact, the site can even sit on the taskbar of your laptop or computer. All of the features you know and love from the desktop version are available in the palm of your hand. And you will even be able to take photos of your receipts straight from the software and convert them to expenses, which is what a mobile version is for, right?

Mark as Paid

Tick all of the rents that you know have been paid and select Mark as Paid. And now you are up to date. Easy.

An Even More Simplified Bottom Plan

We built the bottom plan before we started adding the other features, rather than trying to strip down the existing software. Now the Starter plan is a very slick, streamlined system for recording your incomes and expenses and producing your cash-based tax report. In fact, that’s all this plan is for.

While I’m here I might as well talk about the other two plans. Standard contains pretty much all of the features that you will be used to in the existing software. Premium is exactly that and is aimed at our higher-end landlords with lots of extra features to help with managing all of those properties. Yes, most of those features aren’t available yet, but we have a lengthy schedule of work and these will be popping up as we complete them. Some of them are completely new to Landlord Vision. Watch out for notifications about these updates.

Cash Based Profit and Loss Reporting

The Expenses Payments report has gone and now you can produce a cash-based profit and loss report straight from the Reports section without having to adapt the accruals-based P&L or cobble it together from three other reports. One click does it all.

Editable Rental Income Invoices

With the abolition of the payment schedule, you now have more versatility with your rental invoices. Charge for utilities as well as the rent? Now you can set all of that up on one invoice and reconcile it much more easily.

Light / Dark Mode

Light mode too bright? Switch to dark mode.

What is Still to Come for Landlord Vision

We haven’t finished yet. The software is now at a point where we can release it and because we are so excited about how much you are going to like it, we decided to get it out there, but there is still more to come. All of the features you know and love from the current version will make their way into the software over the next few months, including the Cash Flow report, Meter Readings, White Goods and the Tenant Module. There will also be some shiny new features, mostly taken from our Feature Request area. We haven’t forgotten about it, and we are working our way through the list.

And don’t forget, you can still add users, set up 2FA authentication, set up portfolios, landlord ownership percentages and many more features that you are already used to.

Excited? I know I am. Head to the sign up page to get started.