Introduction

Rent Roll Manager Server is the database manager for the Rent Roll Manager property management software. Its purpose is to provide a means of keeping the database active for Rent Roll Manager clients. It provides utilities such as user security management, database backup and restore, year end closing and connection management.
This program needs to be kept up and running to allow network enabled Rent Roll Manager clients to connect to the central database.

Security

Clicking on the Security button opens up the Security dialog.

The only user that’s able to connect to Rent Roll Manager Server is the Administrator. The Administrator cannot login to a client application, because he is already logged in to Rent Roll Manager Server. The first user must be created on the server side and if this first user has rights to the security function, he may add other users from client applications.

Once the dialog opens for the first time, the only user is the Administrator. The Administrator has permissions to all the functions and this is why the functions list is disabled. You cannot reduce permissions on the Administrator. Once you create a new user by clicking the Add button, the functions list is enabled and you can allow any combinations of functions to this new user. Upon saving the user, you are asked to provide his password. This password can be changed by the user later upon login. If a user loses his password, you can reset his password using the Reset Password button.
Be aware that if you lose the Administrator password, there is no way of logging back into Rent Roll Manager Server.

Logged in Users

Clicking on the Logged in Users button opens up the Logged in Users dialog.

Here, you will see a list of currently logged in users with their user name and the time and date of their last login.

Backup/Restore

It is a good idea to do backups as often as possible. Rent Roll Manager makes this task easy by including a utility that does just this. It can also be integrated in your Preferences as a useful reminder when exiting the application.

Click on the Backup Database button. The utility will open a File Chooser dialog to ask you where to store your backup. Preferably, you should use a floppy disk or another media device such as a USB drive or another computer from a network connection. The location that you choose will be saved for future use and you will not have to navigate to it every time. Click on the Choose Directory button. The backup will be saved to the media that you choose as a zip file. The file name will consist of the current timestamp in the following form:

ProprioBU_YYYY_MM_DD_MMMMMM.zip
where
YYYY is the year
MM is the month
DD is the day
MMMMMM is the time in milliseconds

This information is useful if you ever want to do a restore.
The utility should give you either a success message or an error message when problems occur such as corrupted media or the disk being full.

Doing the restore is also as easy. Care must be taken to make sure you are not replacing valuable data.
Restoring a database will completely overwrite your current database.
A warning message is issued when you click Restore Database. Responding Yes will open a File Chooser that will point to your saved backup location. You can then choose the proper restore file based on the explanation given above on backup filenames. Click on Choose Restore File after selecting it. If the restore file is not in the proper format, it will issue an error message and your current database will remain intact. If it is successful, it will issue a success message and your current database will be replaced by the one stored in the restore file.

Restore Database from Version 3.0:
Restoring a database from version 3.0 is accomplished by clicking the button. The procedure is the same as above and is very straightforward.
On the network version, the restore from version 3.0 can only be done using the server program.

Restore Database from Version 2.0:
Restoring a database from Rent Roll Manager version 2.0 is accomplished the same way as above but you are presented with a warning.

The following have to be dealt with manually (some using the client application):

• The lease start and end dates will disappear.
  In version 2.0, you had to add the lease separately from the recurring charges. Version 3.0 and 4.0 automatically considers the recurring charge itself as being the lease as long as the account specified is the rent account. After the restore is done, make sure you go in all the rental recurring charges and re-save the charge with the proper rent account as specified in the preferences. Once re-saved the recurring charge becomes the lease. One way to do this is to go to the income screen and click the See List button on the Recurring Charges section. You will get all the existing recurring charges. You can also do it from the tenant screen, one tenant at a time.
• The building and unit pictures will have to be reloaded. In version 2.0, the pictures were saved as files but in version 3.0 and 4.0, they are saved within the database.
• The preferences will need to be redefined. Some of the preferences are now saved in the database as opposed to being saved in the ini file. Simply go to the preferences dialog and check your preferences.

Year End Closing

The Year End Closing archives expenses and incomes, except non-completed payments, until the closing date of your choice. Recurring data is also adjusted as well as work orders.
Click on the Year End Closing button. You will have two opportunities to cancel the procedure. You are first presented with a confirmation message explaining what a Year End Closing is and asking you if you want to continue. Clicking Yes will bring you to Choose Backup Directory dialog giving you a chance to backup your Production database first. You will then be brought to a dialog asking you for the closing date. If you click cancel, nothing will happen. Clicking OK will start the archiving process and then the Production database’s expenses, incomes, recurring data and work orders will be reinitialized accordingly. Once this is done, a success message is displayed and you are reconnected to your Production database minus the archived aforementioned data.

Preferences

To access the Preferences dialog, click on the Preferences button. You will be presented with the Preferences dialog. Once set, your settings are saved and some are shown on the status bar.

The Preferences dialog is separated in four sections called Reminders, Regional, Rents.

The Reminders consists of a Backups at Logout checkbox. Checking Backups at Logout means that you will be presented with the Backup file chooser every time you exit the application.

In the Regional section, you can set your Currency preferences. The currency can be any one to three characters you wish to put and is not limited to $. It is used for display purposes on screens and in reports.

The Rents section allows Rent Indexation as it is enforced in some jurisdictions. When this percentage is higher than 0%, the rents are automatically indexed by the percentage that you indicate here. During the recurring charge postings, the rent charges are increased by x% along with the rental value of the unit in question at the lease anniversary date. Therefore, the lease start dates must also be indicated. If the percentage is changed periodically, make sure to post all incomes and print invoices before modifying it. It is also very important to specify the Rent Account to let Rent Roll Manager index the rents and not some other income account.

Some functions are displayed in red, which indicates preferences that applies to all users and are not only personal preferences.

Status Bar

The status bar displays some useful information about your data and preferences. The Refresh Status Bar button is simply used to refresh the building and unit statistics on the status bar to reflect client changes to the database.

Help

Clicking the About button displays information about Rent Roll Manager Server like the complete release number.
Clicking the Help button displays this help dialog. This help dialog can also be accessed from everywhere by pressing the F1 key and is context sensitive.
Clicking the Licence Agreement button displays the agreement you accept by using Rent Roll Manager Server.

Dates

All dates in Rent Roll Manager are added using a box and an icon:

These boxes are either empty or filled with a date. Clicking the icon opens a drop down calendar dialog that lets you pick the date. Months are specified in a drop down list, years in a text box and the day using a select button.

Click a day button to pick the date, Cancel to cancel and Reset to empty the date box. Upon first opening this dialog, the calendar is set to either today’s date if no date is shown in the box or the actual date shown in the box.

Alt-C lets you open the calendar dialog on the current screen.

Sortable Lists

In most lists, there are some column headers highlighted in green. This means that these columns are sortable. Clicking on a green column header will sort the list by this column in ascending alphabetical order. Shift-clicking will sort the list in descending alphabetical order. The column widths can be resized by clicking and dragging between two columns headers.

Quitting

To quit Rent Roll Manager Server, click on the Quit button or simply click on the upper right X of the main window. You will get a confirmation message. Select Yes to shutdown Rent Roll Manager Server or No to do nothing. Depending on your backup reminder preference, you may get a file chooser dialog that lets you backup your Production database before leaving.
Be aware that when you exit Rent Roll Manager Server, all client users will be disconnected from the database.