Reapit Agency Cloud - Configuration Overview

This guide has been reviewed against our global client base and classed as relevant to the following regions: UK, APAC, UAE

Overview

One of the most powerful and unique features of Reapit Agency Cloud is the ability to configure the application to align to your exact business requirements. Historically, this activity was reserved for Reapit service staff only. In 2020, I reviewed this; the Estate Agency is moving quickly, as businesses you need to be able to adapt quickly to changes and update your business processes quickly. As owners of your own business, you will always have far greater insight and awareness of what you need to do and will have the context of any request - that is invaluable and I passionately wish to empower you and provide autonomy to configure your Agency Cloud instance to your needs. Therefore, I have taken the decision to open up Agency Cloud general configuration options and to follow will be automation configuration.

To support this, we have developed a number of articles to support and guide you when applying configurations that are commonly requested and ones that we feel that you will value from.

Richard Day

Chief Customer Officer

July 2020

Configuration Hierarchy & Options

Summary

Overview

Reapit Agency Cloud has over 1000 configuration options and numerous variations within that, too many to list or document - these have been developed over the long long history of Reapit and a number of options driven through specific client requests over the years. The above image sets out the framework in which these operate in order to provide a context and framework to support you gaining confidence in applying this powerful feature.

Configuration Business Options

Config Menu Option	Functional Scope	Observation	Office Configurable
System Configuration	All	General configuration that influences day to day user experience	All Levels
Setup Areas	Sales / Letting	Define / Setup areas to support targeted applicant matching	Yes
Setup Contact Categories	Sales / Letting		Yes - default all
Default Fees	Client Accounts	Lettings / Client Accounts - relates to fees that are defaulted at start of a tenancy to ease the operational burden and ensure consistency	No
Departments	Sales / Letting	Setup at project stage - do not change as impacts Portal Feed	No
Mailing & Events	Sales / Letting	As stated. Ability to target specific contact categories as well	Yes
Setup Negotiators	Sales / Letting / Client Accounts	Setup your business staff	Yes
Setup Offices	Sales / Lettings / Client Accounts	Create, amend office setup (addresses, contact numbers, portal IDs	Yes
Source of Enquiry, Applicant Position, Viewing Feedback	Sales / Lettings	Supports effective analysis of your customer base to drive process and determine ROI	Yes
Setup Referrals / Leads	Sales / Lettings	Setup and amend referalls that will be presented on Referral Panel	Yes
Setup Tax Rates	Sales / Letting / Client Accounts	Do not change	No
Setup Tenancy Checks	Lettings	Pre/Post Tenancy Checks, Break Clauses, Allowances, Renewal Options	Yes- Default all

General Config Overview

Supporting notes:

DO NOT CHANGE is stated where adjustments to values stored can create instability/data corruption within your Agency Cloud system. Where stated, these values are very rarely changed by Reapit once setup
PROJECT DEPLOYMENT is stated where enabling an option is associated with project delivery. Normally due to data migration and setup, coordination of a number of tasks to support a successful launch
THIRD PARTY INTEGRATIONS. Are setup and deployed by Reapit Services team - these cannot be undertaken by customers currently (Marketplace will enable this) - and you should request via the Reapit Service Portal

Config Option	Summary	Most Common Usage
Add-in Settings	Generally, setup up during project phase and will contain client-specific variables (branding, bank account information). Used to configure integrations such SMS and will list all technical integrations deployed to the client at the level of config selected)
Applicants	Options to influence the handling of applicant management	Inter-Office referrals enablement
Applicant Status	Ability to define default values for the applicant - also to define your own applicant status	Default status, buying position 'bespoke list' enablement
Auctions	DO NOT CHANGE - Requires Professional Services to enable
Contacts / Companies	Options to influence management of contacts	Configuration of Check ID Setup (AMR Checks)
Custom Lists	Extend the categorisation of various 'lists' used across Agency Cloud	Setup new Certificates types - which can then be added to Property Management Power Organisor Panel for example. Commonly used to refine types to client-specific requirements
Custom Grids	Define columns shown by default dependant on the object being viewed	Adding specific columns as used by a client (differs for all clients) - Warning do not create new fields that are not stored against the object in focus as causes significant performance issues
Diary	Ability to define default values for Diary Management	Addition of new Diary Entry types - note, some types drive integrations (SMS = VW, SmartView = SV)
Email / Word / Excel	DO NOT CHANGE - Determines the behaviour of Microsoft integration from Agency Cloud
File Paths / WebDav	DO NOT CHANGE - Use as a reference point only
General	Company level defaults - Should not need to be changed	Enable referrals for organisation appears in Referral Panel for properties/applicants
House Keeping	DO NOT CHANGE
International	DO NOT CHANGE
Landlord Statement	DO NOT CHANGE
Lettings Accounts	Only update by Client Accountant / Accountant	Default allocation of nominals to charge/cost lines
Lettings Payments	Only update by Client Accountant / Accountant
Lettings / Tenancies	Ability to define default values for management of tenancies	Default Inspection Value (Days); enable Inspection value to be set at Tenancy level (post initial)
Market Place	DO NOT CHANGE - Relates to Foundations migration
Matching	Ability to define matching defaults/tolerances	Do not enable 'geocode' matching - requires professional services to deploy
Offers	Ability to define how Offers are managed/presented to Users	Order of Offers presented et al
Organiser	Most relates to previous Organiser screen, rather than Power Organiser	Internet registrations enablement (Office, User Level) - will require user to apply offices on Power Organiser panel to display Set default Power Organisor for Company, Offices, Staff Determine properties included in Certificate Expiration panel
Particulars	DO NOT CHANGE
Pictures	DO NOT CHANGE
Programs / URLs	DO NOT CHANGE - Exceptions in Common Useage	Echosign details are entered here which are set per user Client Website link stored here (used on templates, portal feeds)
Properties	How properties are represented online / internally	Display Next Date vs Last Call, Number of days to next call, default status of new properties, InterOffice Referrals
Property Descriptions	Enhanced Property Descriptions (note - fields created here are not presented to portals)	Create additional marketing scree fields (upto 5)
Reports	Influence specific fields relating to reporting output
Sales Progression	Ability to define your own stages/checkpoints on Sales Progression
Searching	Options that determine general, applicant, property searches	Include / exclude archive
Security	DO NOT CHANGE
System	DO NOT CHANGE
Tenancy Renewals	Setup up your own Tenancy tenancy renewals checks
Trust Accounts	Applicable to Australian clients only

Our advice on Good Practice

Our advice and guidance here are based on many years of working with Agency Cloud with all our customers - which have seen many highs and also lows - we would like to offer the benefit of our experience to help you successfully take on the configuration of your own Agency Cloud environment.

Always determine what outcome/challenge you are trying to address before considering any change; avoid the desire to scour options to 'find something new'
We would always recommend that you start by looking to align configuration, on paper, to your business processes, policies and service levels before mapping to Agency Cloud Configuration
Nominate one person who will have responsibility for applying changes; ensure changes are managed formally and controlled (this also help our Support teams)
Consider the impact on your customers and - more importantly - your staff; how will the change be communicated and trained out - the adoption of change comes from understanding why and the value to be derived
Avoid the temptation to create a myriad of configuration options - complexity serves to confuse, rather than clarify and focus staff
Avoid reactive/unconsidered changes to configuration; change in haste repent at leisure as they say
If in doubt seek assistance - talk to Support or your Customer Success Manager and they will advise you
DO NOT REMOVE / DELETE ENTRIES FROM SYSTEM CONFIGURATION

ALWAYS VERIFY YOUR CHANGES BEFORE APPLYING TO ALL STAFF !!

Hint & Tips

These are a few tips that we find useful when dealing with configuration requests, queries or where things are going as expected.

Common Questions / Issues	Guidance
Unable to find what option/area you need ?	HandyConvenienr search box in Configuration - enter topic you are looking for in the highlighted area and the tabs that reference the search will be highlighted in yellow to you as shown below when searching for Applicant.
Changes do not appear to be taking effect ?	i) Always best for people to log out / in of Agency Cloud for changes to take effect ?
Changes still not taking effect ?	ii) Check the configuration at the Negotiator, then Office level as a previous configuration may have taken precedence
Need to identify a reference to a field ?	The Letter Template Editor is the quickest and most effective way to identify the programmatical reference to a field
Still don't know what the reference to a field is ?	i) Using the LTE to identify the structure used against the object you wish to reference ii) Download the Reapit Agency Cloud Data Dictionary; this will then highlight in most instances the field name you will require
Dont understand what a configuration option does ?	i) Hover over the item and where enabled a 'Hint / Explanation' will be provided ii) Raise a request via the specific Agency Cloud Configuration form

Getting started

Menu Item	Agency Cloud View
To access the configuration menu, click on top of the Side Bar on your name :->
To select Business Configuration Options select from menu :->
To select General Configuration options select item highlighted :->
Detailed System Configuration Menu - select the 'section' that you wish to review
Make an update - for it to take effect press 'Save' on the page your are on - Warning (be careful of making changes that impact Company Level)

Testing configuration changes

We would recommend that all configuration changes are verified/tested before they are deployed to all users or an office. Our advice is quite simplistic on this :

Apply changes against your own negotiator account
Log Out / In for them to take effect
Verify/Validate that the change performes as you expect

Need further assistance ?

Any advice or guidance that you may require must be raised via the Reapit Service Desk Portal - this directs your query to beyond our standard First Line Service Desk. The Service Desk is not positioned to handle configuration queries / issues that originate from the client directly due to the complexity; all support provided is based on a reasonable endeavours basis only and we do not offer Service Level expectations.

The link below is to the form on the Portal - please only use if you are the nominated Self Service Administrator and have a genuine query/issue that you cannot resolve yourself.

Disclaimer

Before making any changes with your Agency Cloud configuration ensure you have read through the guidance provided and that changes are verified. Correction of changes applied that impact the operation of Agency Cloud may incur a charge for our service team to address.

Reapit Agency Cloud - Configuration Overview

Overview

ALWAYS VERIFY YOUR CHANGES BEFORE APPLYING TO ALL STAFF !!

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