Spectra Utilities
Many of the menu items are covered in other articles as they relate to specific modules. The following will cover the Configuration File and Configuration File (Extras)
The Configuration File stores certain information for the system to use as defaults.
Enter your company name and address information. This information is system wide and will print on tenant statements, invoices, financial statements, and other various reports.
1. Financial Statements will print this name from the Configuration File automatically unless you choose the option when printing financial statements to "Override Heading".
2. Tenant Invoices and Statement will print this name and address unless you enter a different name and/or address in a building’s Remit To address field (Building – Accounting screen).
Enter the company name that you are "Doing Business As".
If you wish to print your company logo on tenant and owner reports, click on the "Print Logo and Address on Appropriate Reports" button
The Company Default Address screen will appear. If you wish to print your logo, click on the "Browse" button to find your company logo file. This is optional.
Enter your name, address, phone, fax, email, etc. in the box to the right of the logo screen. The text will not have any special formatting.
When you have entered all the text for your report headings, highlight your company name as you would if you were using Word® and then right click on your mouse. This will call up the options shown in this screen. Your most common selections will be "Font".
After you have made your modifications, preview one of your tenant statements or invoices.
You should check to make sure. If your company name wraps onto two lines, the reports may truncate some of your heading.
Select the currency symbol to be shown in the system, i.e. Dollar, Pounds Sterling, Euros.
If you will be emailing reports from within SPECTRA, select either Email Tenant/Owner Statements using Outlook or using SMTP Servers (Web-Mail service such as Outlook.com or Gmail.com)
If you select the Outlook option, you will be prompted by Outlook’s security feature to allow/disallow the emailing of each individual email?
Your email provider will provide these settings. Note: The Sender name must be in a specific format, e.g. accounting@gmail.com
To test your settings, click the email icon. This opens the Send Test email via SMTP window. Enter the Email Sender, the "To": address, include an attachment (optional), and enter the number of test emails to send. Once entered, click the email icon on the bottom of the window to send test emails.
You have the option to not print the suppliers’ account number on the top stub of the NEBS Laser check stubs. The default is to print the supplier account number, so you must edit the Configuration File if you do not want the supplier account numbers to print on the top stub of your NEBS Laser checks. This will only affect the placement Supplier name on the top stub.
This option is important if you use our Positive Pay module, as the bold font of the Payee names on the checks may make it difficult for the bank to read the Positive Pay file. You therefore have the option on the Configuration File to change the check payee names and addresses to uppercase without bolding.
If this default is not set on the Configuration File, you may select it on the individual reports.
Any screen that has the source document link will now have a scanner button on it.
1. Install the Scanner program on your workstation
2. Designate the scanned documents folder on the Configuration File.
3. Insert the document to be scanned in the automatic feeder of the scanner
4. Click on the Scan Document button on your Toolbar and "Select" your scanner. (If the "Sources" box is empty, a scanner has not been installed for use from your workstation.)
5. The system will scan the document and create a document in your Scanned Documents folder.
6. Click on the "View" button to see your scanned document.
The default format for telephone numbers is (xxx) xxx-xxxx, which doesn’t allow for international telephone numbers. If you will be entering international phone numbers, select this option to "unmask telephone numbers".
If you select this option, all company names, including buildings, tenants, suppliers, owners, prospects, and any other names, including contacts, will have the option to display international phone numbers.
Having selected this option, you will be prompted to "Unmask These Telephone Numbers". This prompt refers to the telephone numbers on the Configuration File only. Select this option only if the Configuration File will have any international telephone numbers.
Choose NSF from the dropdown list. In Regular Receipts, choose this Payment Type to handle NSF payments correctly.
Choose the Reverse Payment code from the dropdown list. When choosing this payment type in regular receipts, the program will use this code to change the screen so that a previously posted payment entered on the wrong tenant can be reversed.
Select the form of payment that most of your tenants use. This default will show in the payment type field of a regular receipt for a tenant and can be changed if needed on the receipt.
To avoid confusion for your tenants, you have the option to change the default payment type for pre-authorized payments (PAP) or postdated checks (PDC). Two fields were added in Release 7.1 to the Configuration File to enable you to select the appropriate Payment Code from your Accounting Control Codes.
Choose the accounting code that you have set up to record your late charges.
Select this option if you wish to prorate first and last month’s rent charges. Please refer to the Help Files – Index – Prorate Rent for more detailed instruction about this process.
This field is only used if you have custom programming done which is not distributed to any other clients. Otherwise, leave it blank.
Check this field if you want duplicate receipts printed out for each tenant in a receipts batch. If left unchecked, there will be a single printout for each tenant.
If an invoice is divided up among several buildings, the invoice will show as several different invoice numbers on the check stub. To have the invoice show combined into one entry on the check, select this company-wide option here.
Checking the enable cost code entry check box enables you to use the cost code feature of the program. Please see the help files for additional information on cost codes.
If your Security Deposit Bank is different from your Receipts Bank, any amount that is applied to the Tenant’s Receivable is left in the Security Deposit bank. Select this option to set your system up to automatically create a payable to the management company, so that this can be deposited into the Receipts Bank.
In addition to selecting this option, go to Find – Buildings – Accounting – Banking/Control screen – Supplier ID of Management Company and select the name to which these checks should be payable. i.e. Your company name.
When you complete the Deposit Refund, if you have applied part of the deposit refund to the tenant receivables, two invoices will show on the Select Invoices to Pay screen – one to the tenant and the other to the management company.
Select the default date range used when generating general ledger audit reports. By default, this option is set to 1 Year. Additional options are 90 days, 180 days, 2 years, or 3 years. The option selected in the configuration file will be used to display the list of general ledger audit reports.
For example, if 1 year is selected as the default option, when navigating to Building > Select a Report - General Ledger > Audit Reports, the audit list will display all batches from 1 year prior to the current system date.
Enter the tax ID numbers for the company name entered above.
When you are finished entering the information, click on the save button on the left side of the tool bar.
Click on the Close Window Button on the right side of the tool bar to return to the Main Menu.
Configuration file – Extras
Select this option if you would like the system to provide a warning message for over estimates and/or commitments during AP invoice data entry.
You can choose to format the commitment numbers with a certain number of digits.
Enter a default field or column label for a job, phase, or sub phase. The value that is typed in these fields will be placed on the button that is used to select the items to print and will also show as field headings on the selection screen once the button is clicked. These labels will be used in the Job Cost Navigation Helper.
When printing Job Cost reports and selecting to print selected Jobs/Phases/Sub Phases, you have the option of positioning the job selector box column. The column number can be 1 through 6. Entering a "1" in this field will put the selection box at the left of the screen. The default of "6" will result in the selector box showing at the right of the screen.
This feature allows you to control the time frame for the Auto Log-Out feature.
You may adjust the total time before shutdown, how quickly the warning appears, and how often the system checks these times. All values are set in minutes.
Access to these settings requires the Support Password of the Day.
Double click the link and enter the Support Password of the Day to set up or modify your company’s credentials for the RealPage Secure FTP Server.