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Home → Releases → ResRequest → ResRequest Announcements (Centauri Release)
1.1. ResRequest Announcements (Centauri Release)
We want to keep giving you a great product
Here are our latest features and updates.
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Document setting for ESD machines
| Version 6.19.0 & 7.3.0 |
| Posted on 8 Sep 2017 |
ESD machines in Zimbabwe require that the tax table displayed on financial documents has a specific alignment. We have created a setting that allows the generated Tax Invoice PDF's to be aligned correctly so the ESD machine can scan the tax.
As a user, the only difference you will see is that the Tax descriptions on the Tax invoice, which are normally aligned to the left, will be aligned to the right once the setting is applied.
Do you have multiple properties in your system, one in Zimbabwe and one in East Africa?
That’s not a problem. This setting is applied at invoicing unit level and your properties will be set up with separate invoicing units so financial documents set up for different machines in East Africa will be unaffected.
If you have a property operating in Zimbabwe and need this change, please contact our Support team and request that this setting be applied to your ResRequest system.
Auto scroll during booking
| Version 7.2.12 |
| Posted on 14 Aug 2017 |
If you offer public bookings on your ResRequest booking page, we have added an automatic scroll after creating an itinerary so your customers may easily move onto step 2 of the booking process.
If you have a really long availability calendar this will be really useful for first time bookers and if you don’t, the scroll won’t affect your customers at all.
Statutory fields
| Version 7.2.0 |
| Posted on 14 Aug 2017 |
We realise that regulations governing the display of statutory information on financial documents vary between countries and sometimes even within a country. The variation can be both in the number of statutory fields required and in their naming.
The statutory details also have to be presented for both the invoicing unit issuing the document and for the customer to whom the document is addressed.
We have added 3 statutory fields at both invoicing unit level and contact level, with customisable labels.
Record the invoicing unit statutory field numbers and labels on the Business structure editing screen and record the the contact statutory field number on the Contact screen for customers. These will then reflect on your Reservations and Financial documents, your Business structure reports and your Extras Quick Entry transaction confirmation screen.
For a better understanding of how to edit and use these fields, watch our quick video tutorial on New Statutory fields in ResRequest.
Replace a contact enhancements
| Version 6.18.3 & 7.2.0 |
| Posted on 11 July 2017 |
Since you all loved the replace contact functionality so much we've added more enhancements to improve this great feature. Now, instead of just transferring the booking links, additional information will move from the from (replaced) contact to the to (remaining) contact.
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CRM Events
The events of the from contact will merge with the events of the to contact. Duplicates can be deleted manually. -
Agent rate types
Any rates unique to Agent contacts will be moved from the from contact to the to contact but the default rate will remain to that of the to contact. -
Phone numbers
Non-duplicate numbers will be copied across but the default will be set to that of the to contact. -
Linked contacts
Any unique linked contacts will be copied across to the to contact.
We hope you enjoy these new enhancements and this encourages you to clean out your contact lists and remove any duplicate contacts.
Replace a contact
| Version 6.17.0 |
| Posted on 10 Dec 2016 |
Do you have loads of duplicate contacts in your ResRequest system? Deleting contacts isn't so simple once the contact has been used on a reservation so we've decided to give you additional functionality to replace a contact with another contact — this means all the relevant links (for reservations and financial folios) of the replaced contact will transfer to the remaining contact.
Find the contact that you would like to replace in the Contact module, then select the replace contact icon (top right) to find the contact you would like to replace it with — all the links from the initial contact will be transferred to this contact.
Some important things to note are that both from, removed contact, and to, remaining contact, must be of the same type (organisation / individual) and same set of roles (agent / guest / user). Property contacts may not be replaced — these are saved for each property on the business structure.
Clean up your contact lists with this great and easy-to-use new feature.
Property Server Telephone Reporting
| Version 6.16.0 |
| Posted on 25 Oct 2016
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If you are using a ResRequest Property offline server and have interfaced to a Telephone Management system, then this enhancement will be of interest to you — a column for the reservation number has been added to the Telephone report. Now you can navigate to each reservation that has been allocated a room and charged with a telephone bill directly from this report. If the telephone charge (in the form of an Extra) is deleted from the reservation it will still appear on the report but will have an exclamation icon alongside the Res #. We hope this makes your reporting experience easier!
Data Transfer Reporting
| Version 6.15.0 |
| Posted on 25 Oct 2016 |
Consistent Data transfers are crucial for keeping your offline and online environments updated at all times. The Data transfer report allows you to report on your transfers so you can ensure they are occurring as expected. We've made some enhancements to this report to include a date range and a source filter to select a specific transfer environment.
We hope you enjoy the additional features to this report!
Tax Group on Extras
| Version 6.15.0 |
| Posted on 25 Oct 2016
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We know that a lot of you would like to have more flexibility in setting up your extras. So, we've added this great new functionality allowing you to select a Tax Group for your Extras — now you can choose between applying a Tax Rate or Group. This is really useful if some of your extras qualify for multiple Tax Rates e.g. VAT and Tourism Levy. Now your financial and Tax reports can show the Tax breakdown on Extras as well as your Tax Invoice and Proforma documentation.
There are a lot more great additions to Extras in the pipeline so keep watching this space!
Allocations Summary Report
| Version 6.15.0 |
| Posted on 25 Oct 2016
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If you use Allocations you will be thrilled with these enhancements to the Allocations Summary Report. The Property and Accommodation filters have been combined into one filter (like many of our other reports) and we've added an Allocation filter so you can pull a report for specific Allocations.
Enjoy a cleaner look as the report now suppresses Accommodation types that have no allocation and easily review the Allocation Total which is now shown in a column at the bottom.
If you would like to use Allocations or want to know more, please contact our Support Centre for further information.
Building on Block Bookings
| Version 6.15.0 |
| Posted on 25 Oct 2016
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Are you using Block Bookings? If so, you will need to make note of these changes. If not, perhaps you should consider using Blocks.
We've added some fields to the Block Template report such as the Block abbreviation and a Date range so you can refine your Block Template searches.
A filter has also been added to the Find Reservation screen so reservation searches can now include Block Template criteria.
Now you can also track Block Bookings in the Audit Trail! Even if a reservation is unlinked from a block template at a later stage, the record of its creation as a Block will show in the Audit trail.
If you are interesting in using Block Booking functionality please contact our Support Centre for more information.
*'Block booking' is a term that is used to describe accommodation space that has been allocated (reserved) for a specific agent before reservations have been made. Blocks have a set itinerary (usually multi-property) with set arrival and departure dates. Reservations are then drawn down from that allocated number of rooms.
Batch to Evolution
| Version 6.14.0 |
| Posted on 18 May 2016 |
We have refined our connection to Sage Evolution's accounting system so you can send your batches from ResRequest to Sage Evolution seamlessly.
We want to make accounting easy for you!
Where's that Special?
| Version 6.14.0 |
| Posted on 18 May 2016 |
Have you ever changed an itinerary line with a Special applied to it? It probably happens more than you think...this may also mean a Special is automatically applied, removed or changed and the problem is you don't realise it's happening! So we've introduced this Specials popup so you are never left in the dark again.
This new popup notifies you about the automatic changes applied - just click 'Ok' or 'Enter' to acknowledge the change and continue editing your reservation with better knowledge going forward.
Block or Allocation?
| Version 6.14.0 |
| Posted on 18 May 2016 |
We have refined the Occupancy Calendar popup to differentiate between Allocations and Block Bookings. The type of booking is also a link so you can now link through for more details.
This new functionality makes tracking your Allocations and Block Booking reservations super easy!
Out with the old
| Version 6.12.0 |
| Posted on 24 March 2016 |
Is your ResRequest system bogged down with years of data that you never use anymore? Well, we've introduced Archiving to take care of this, allowing you to store old data in an archive system and work with current data on your live system.
You can access archive systems from your live system by selecting the new archive icon on the red menu bar and have both archive and live system open concurrently. Archive systems are purely for viewing purposes and no data may be edited or deleted.
There are a few visuals to remind you that you're in the archive system, take a look:
If you're interested in using this great new tool please contact us and we'll get you archived!
Please note there are additional costs for the use of this functionality, contact us for details.
Cancellations aren't so bad!
| Version 6.11.0 |
| Posted on 8 Feb 2016 |
Getting cancellations is never great for business...but if you knew of other pending bookings that could replace those cancellations, you could fill up that vacancy again in a flash.
We've now added functionality to help you do just that! If a reservation status is changed to Quotation, Waitlisted or Cancelled, a popup shows you waitlisted reservations for the same accommodation type and dates. This gives you the option of confirming another booking straight away! So next time you have to cancel a booking, don't worry, confirming another one could be a click away.
Pay now!
| Version 6.10.0 |
| Posted on 3 Nov 2015 |
Online credit card payments are now integrated in ResRequest making management of your debtors and cash flow processes so much simpler.
Initiating online credit card payments enable your agents, guests and staff to pay a deposit or settle accounts by credit card. To pay deposits simply email your customer a link to your ResRequest ‘Pay now’ web page and, for your staff to process credit card payments, simply opt to pay by credit card as the booking is made or as the guest checks out.
Get those payments rolling in!
| If you would like to use this great feature for public payments, please email us and we will get it set up for you. Please note that there is a standard 2 hour support charge if you would like these public pages customised to reflect your website. |
Want to know more? Take a look at our Credit card user guides.
Edit your rate components easily
| Version 6.10.0 |
| Posted on 3 Nov 2015 |
Having your rates set up in ResRequest is vital for your business to function efficiently and we're always making tweaks to ensure things are easier for you. Now you can edit your components directly from your 'Rate Components' screen simply by selecting the component from the Code Table. Previously you could only edit your components from your 'Rate Edit' screen.
Any changes to component setup on the 'Rate Components' screen will create the default settings for those components.
We hope you enjoy this extra functionality when setting up your rates!
Access all your Profile Reports from a central location
| Version 6.10.0 |
| Posted on 3 Nov 2015 |
Instead of accessing your report profiles from each individual report, you can now access all of them from one page in the system. Take a look at how easily it is to navigate through the All Profiles page under Reports.
FAR out!
| Version 6.9.2 |
| Posted on 28 Sept 2015 |
We've spiced up your Day and Folio Financial Analysis Report (FAR) with some great new enhancements. Take a look so you can use all the latest tricks when working with this dynamic report.
Output options
Both the Folio and Day reports now offer the orientation option under your Display options, allowing you to swap the axis display. This means that group data, which currently shows horizontally as rows, can be displayed vertically as columns.
The Output and Filter options may be differentiated with headings and much of the wording in the 'Display options' filter has been changed. These changes were made to accommodate the new axis swapping functionality but don't worry, these 'Display options' still function in the same.
We have also introduced the option to show results per day to your 'Display options' giving you more detailed reporting results.
Note: The daily columns on the Day report give a pro rata presentation of daily value, e.g. $300 over 3 days will show $100 on each day. The daily columns on the Folio report present the full value on the folio (invoice) date. This concept also applies to the Reservation Count field - on the Folio report the reservation will be counted only on the folio date, whereas on the Day report it will be counted on every day that it is in house, or on which it has an extra or a payment.
Amount owing
We've changed the wording of ‘Include by balance’ to ‘Filter by amount owing’. This filter occurs under both Res filters and Folio filters on the Folio report and only under ‘Res filters’ on the Day report.
New Group and Field options
When you add 'Reservation count' as an output field, any reservation that contains any record (reservation / itinerary / extra / payment) that satisfies all of the filter criteria (including Revenue and Folio filters) will be included in the reservation count. Previously, the count included all reservation that met the Date and Reservation filters alone.
We've added a Field called RevPar to the FAR Day report. This stands for 'Revenue per available room', which is calculated as Revenue / Number of available rooms. This differs from Yield in that it is dividing by available rooms rather than by occupied rooms. RevPAR can be calculated either against Accommodation revenue alone, or against the sum of Accommodation and Extras revenue.
'Arrival date' and 'Departure date' have been added as Group options but they also remain as Field options.
Folio report
We've added a new filter called 'Filter commission override' to the Overrides section on the 'Res filters'.
A reservation may be identified as having a commission override when the chargeable amount has not actually been changed:
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If the agent’s default commission % was changed subsequent to the creation of the reservation.
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If the rates on the reservation are non-commissionable.
For those who are familiar with these override options, please note that 'Filter variance override' has been changed to 'Filter component override'.
Split Accommodation by Property
'Split accommodation' under Financial details now offers a Property split. This fix will split the Revenue Accommodation field into all the properties that make up the total.
Number of Properties / Nights / Pax
We've improved functionality in the 'Res filters' filter so you can be more specific when selecting the number of properties / nights or pax.
We hope these nifty enhancements make your FAR reporting experience that much easier and helps you to achieve the results you're after.
Posting to Accounts just got even easier!
| Version 6.9.0 |
| Posted on 31 August 2015 |
We know that the financial interface is an integral part of your business and we’ve added some features to help in integrating ResRequest with your accounting system.
Transaction report
We've added a Report Type option to the Ledger Transactions report screen so you can either list ‘Transactions’ or ‘Check codes’. The Date Range filters will now be disabled unless ‘Unallocated' is selected under the Batch Filter.
A pair of check box filters has been added within this report type: All mapped - only includes transactions on which all transaction items have a GL code mapping and Mappings missing - only includes those transactions on which at least one item has a blank GL code. If neither check box is ticked, the report behaves as if both have been ticked.
Check codes report
This new report provides a facility to check and change mapping between posting items and ledger codes. The report presents the number of transactions referencing each revenue item and shows the GL Code to which it is currently mapped. This is the mapping as in the Setup screens - it is not necessarily the code as mapped on the underlying transaction items. To apply the new mapping to the underlying transactions, just tick the checkbox on the relevant row(s) and click on the Regenerate transactions button.
Transaction detail pop-up screen
This screen is accessible from the Transaction report, Check Codes report and from the Reservation > Financial > Invoices screen. It now offers the ability to change the GL code mapping on any transaction item. This edit functionality is only available to users who have update rights on the “Financial: GL Batch” access function. This editing will only affect the specific transaction item being edited and will have no effect on mappings or on future transactions.
Date on voids
The invoice date on voids now defaults to the current date, that is the date on which the void happened. A date override cannot be before the original invoice date. Future dated voiding will be allowed as per the invoice settings.
Credit note date
- Credit note functionality has been amended to use the same rules as for voids.
- The wording “Default invoice date” has been changed to “Original invoice date” to avoid confusion with the invoice where “Default invoice date” means the arrival or departure date.
- The default selection for a credit note has been changed to “Specified invoice date” with today’s date populated.
Date on Deposit Reversal
Deposit Reversal transactions now inherit the same ledger date as the invoice that triggered the reversal. (They previously carried the same date as the original deposit.)
Debtor report
The Date Range filters are now disabled unless ‘Unallocated’ is selected under the Batch Filter. This is because the date range filters are superfluous, and can be contradictory, when you are filtering for specific batches.
Financial Interface Setup screens
- Revenue centres tab - the positions of the Code column has been moved before the Name column, to match the order used in the GL Codes screen.
- The Search buttons on all of the Setup screens now work without having to place an * at each end of the search string.
Folio/Invoice report: balance options
Under Advanced Options, the balance options have been converted from radio buttons to check boxes. So now it's really easy to exclude TBA’s.
We hope you enjoy all these new tweaks to your financial interface!
Customise your document headers
| Version 6.9.0 |
| Posted on 28 August 2015 |
Have you ever wanted to control which of your company details are displayed on Reservation Documents? Well now you can - we've added parameters on the Defaults > Documentation screen allowing you to control what details display on your Res. docs.
By using these parameters you can choose to hide or show the Reservation Office details (left), the website URL field (left), the logo (centre) and the Invoicing Unit details (right) on the Reservation Summary, the Proforma and the Itinerary Summary (Note: this does not apply to Invoices).
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If the system default is selected for the Reservation Office details, the system retrieves the contact details from the contact identified under the Reservations Office Link on the Defaults > System Administration screen. For the logo section, the system looks up the business structure hierarchy until it finds an image. If no image is found at any level then the default image is used. If the first shared parent option is selected, the system retrieves the details from the lowest entry on the Business Structure that is a common ancestor to all properties reflected on the document e.g. See image: if Mara and Beach Lodge are in the Res. summary doc, their 'first shared parent' is African Savannahs and so its invoicing details will be used. This works in a similar fashion for the logo. |
If you're not sure how to set up your business structure to get the results you want - don't worry. We can set up your business structure for you so all you have to do is edit the given parameters at will!
Create your rates with ease
| Version 6.7.9 |
| Posted on 28 August 2015 |
We've added new functionality to the rates module to make working with rates that much easier! Take a look at what we've added...
On the Rate period filter, we've added a button: 'Show Past Periods' / 'Hide past periods'. This means that rates from past dates will be hidden by default and you have the option to show old rates by toggling the button. So for those of you with hundreds of rates - it's just getting easier to manage them.
On the Rate type filter we've added a similar button: 'Show inactive rates' / 'Hide inactive rates'. This enhancement hides the inactive rates by default while giving you the option to show inactive rates by toggling the button.
In the Rate edit screen, you can now select the rate period dates to see the exact date range of the rate period.
In the Amounts tab of the Rates edit screen you can now apply the value of 'none' to the quantities. Just type '=none' into the formula box and apply it to a Rate group.
We hope you enjoy these added features and they will make your life easier when working with rates in future.
Quick ways to move extras to different invoicing units
| Version 6.6.0. |
| Posted on 14 May 2015 |
We have added a few features to make sure that cross invoicing is better controlled and works better for you. These features ensure that property specific extras are not allocated to the folio of another invoicing unit.
A user access setting has been added in the User Access screen so that a user without cross invoicing rights it not able to select a folio in a different invoicing unit. Take a look:
NOTE: by default this option is ENABLED, which means nothing will change unless this option is disabled by your administrator.
What other screens are effected?
Add extra screen
1. If cross invoicing is not allowed, the list of available folios include only those folios linked to the Invoicing Unit of the property specified on the Extra.
NOTE: for non-property specific extras, the list is not filtered.
2. If cross invoicing is enabled, an unfiltered list of folios is displayed. If you select a folio that links to a different Invoicing Unit from the property specified on the extra, a warning message is displayed: "Are you sure you want to charge from a different Invoicing Unit?".
Extras quick entry screen
If the 'Staying at' property selection is changed, the 'Purchasing from' selection is automatically set to match. Only if cross invoicing is enabled can you change the 'Purchasing from' property.
Rooming calendar > Add extra screen
If cross invoicing is not enabled, the system does not permit 'Property' and 'Purchasing from' to be set to properties in different invoicing units.
It's as easy as changing one toggle in your User Access!
Your provisional expiry report's even more powerful!
| Version 6.2 and 6.5 |
| Posted on 28 April 2015 |
We've spiced up the Provisional expiry report with some extra features so you can pull extra information from your reports (Reports > Reservation > Provisional Expiry).
Three new fields have been added under 'more' in the report filter options:
- Booking creation date
- Last amended date
- Most recent date when the status is set to provisional
These options are specific to the List Report and won't appear if you pull other reports.
The List Report has been enhanced with:
- The three dates specific to each booking appear in the report after the Expiry Date.
- A scroll bar at the bottom of the report accommodates the extra fields.
NOTE: these enhancements are available for users on version 6.2 and those that upgrade from 6.5 - enjoy your new functionality!
A booking plugin for your website
Posted on 16 March 2015
We are super excited to release an online booking plugin for your website, ResNova.
ResNova is a customisable booking plugin that feeds your availability from ResRequest to your website. We've developed two versions of ResNova - one for a standard HTML website and a second plugin for our WordPress fans.
Here's what ResNova looks like..
(Images: Tongabezi Lodge, Zambia & Remote Africa Safaris, Zambia)
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Our early adopters Great Plains are innovators from saving rhinos to new technology. They quickly asked to be first in line to test drive our plugin on their WordPress site. We love how their site integrates the plugin and matches their stunning branding. |
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If you'd like to use our plugin the next step is to contact us and sign up as a beta user. We'll do all the back end stuff and then we'll point your web designer to our plugin setups.
And there's more in the pipeline..
ResNova currently supports credit card payments through PayGate SA and we're planning to add more vendors to this list. We are also aiming to release a version of ResNova that supports multiple ResRequest customers so you can easily display your neighbour's availability with yours to make booking circuits super easy for the trade.
Show your customer pictures when they book
| Version 6.3 |
| Posted on 16 March 2015 |
Our version of vegging out in a Google-Pod is scrolling through photos of all the gorgeous lodges we work with. We thought it would be a great idea to develop a way that your online trade customers could see the same pictures from your availability calendar - so this week we snuck in this awesome little feature...
To show this new picture carousel just upload photos of your property and rooms from your online ResRequest server and you'll get some great visuals on your calendar. If you're not sure how to do this, take a look at our tutorial on how to upload images and room descriptions onto your ResRequest system.
These photos are also available through our API so if you're using ResNova or designing your own booking page for online bookings, you can grab these pictures from ResRequest.
In the pipeline... We're planning to add a Google map with your lodge co-ordinates to make it even easier for the trade to book their circuits with you.
Let's do the timezone toggle
| Version 6.3.2 |
| Posted on 16 March 2015 |
Sometimes you need to understand what time your team made changes when you're in a totally different timezone to them. To help you do that we've implemented a timezone-toggle that let's you change ResRequest's audit trails to your timezone, or your team's timezone.
We added this for you to help you work with ResRequest and not worry about counting out the 24 hour clock after battling the red eye flight. Here's how to use it. Look for the clock on your shortcut bar. Click that and you'll see the timezone you're set up with.
You'll also find the timezone clock in your important audit screens so you can toggle time, anytime!
"Hey guys, we're launching a special!"
| Version 6.2 |
| Posted on 16 March 2015 |
Sometimes someone in marketing comes up with a great idea, "A rate discount to incentivise travel". It could be discounting the last night of stay, or discounting one itinerary leg when the booking travels across properties. So idea in hand, the marketing team call a meeting and enthusiastically tell their reservation's team about their special rate, but they're met with blank stares.
We understand the blank stares because we know how much work changing rates can be. That was - until our new Special-rates module was released.
To help your marketing team get the smiles they deserve we've created a Specials modules to easily apply discounted pricing. Now you can create specials, automatically apply them to bookings and check how your special's performing.
Here's how easy it is to add a special...
Setup your specials using discount combinations based on pax, number of rooms and more.
The option to add a special even pops up when you're making a booking (left) or you can go back and add it to an existing booking (right).
Your system administrator can also sleep easy at night because we've made sure that it's all access controlled.
Want to know how to set up Specials and apply them to booking? Take a look at our Specials user guide.
Please note that this module is a Beta release and may only be used on versions: 6.7.14; 6.9.5; 6.10.1.
Availability is sorted with pre-booked blocks
| Version 6.1.0 |
| Posted on 16 March 2015 |
If you're running big pre-booked group bookings and you offer package deals, then block bookings is the ideal feature to manage your availability.
Block bookings let you create and save itineraries that can be repeated and linked to one or many agents. If you don't use them - we've got that sorted - they'll expire just like a provisional booking. If management want to know how your blocks are performing - just point them to our simple 'Allocation' reports.
Welcome to Centauri
| Version 6.0.0 |
We were excited to introduce our latest release, Centauri, on the 22nd of September 2014. Named after the brightest star in the southern constellation of Centauris, Alpha Centauri.
This release is our production release of more then 30 features released since version 5.26.0+, including POS interfaces, audit trails, financial interfaces and lots more.
Centauri includes our most visual makeover to date. We hope you'll love it as much as we do!
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If you'd like more help on any of these features, please email us and we'll help get you set up.
Visit our Changelogs Index for details of hotfixes available in this version.