Software Release - 2023R3 - v3.23.03

Modified on Tue, 6 Feb at 1:35 PM

Overview

This release guide documents the changes made to the iPro CRM Software during the third release of 2023

Reminder: All clients have the ability to view all software changes on their staging site (IPROSTAGE), prior to deployment on the live site.

i.e. clientdomain(com).iprostage.com

(com) is the extension of domain .co.uk, .net, .info, etc...

Deployment Process

Deployment of the updated software is by client request raising a ticket with the support desk or via an email to support@ipro-software.com.

Deployment will be scheduled within an agreed time window. If you wish to change the time which has been agreed, please contact the support desk to arrange a suitable alternative. ,

Enhancements

Rentals United

The integration with Rentals United has been enhanced too allow you to do more from within iPro [6340,6341, 6342]
- You can now create a Rentals United account from the Channel Manager page in iPro
- When editing the settings for an existing RU account you can update your contact information
- You can configure the settings for the OTA's from within iPro using the new Distribution tab on the Channel Manager page without having to log into Rentals United
- If you delete yourRentals United account from iPro then the Rentals United account will be closed. Accounts with any OTA's will remain, but will no longer be connected to iPro.
Only mandatory extras that have a Channel Mapping will be added to new bookings from Rentals United. Extras set to "Not included with sales channel bookings" will not be added, even if if they are mandatory [6458]

Quantity Extras [6419]

We've looked at how our customers are using the Quantity Pricing feature for extras and have noticed that there are some issues with how it works, along with some confusion as to how it's supposed to work. To resolve this we've split the feature into two new pricing options with some clarification as to exactly how the prices will be calculated. If you're using this feature then you should review your extras to make sure you're using the correct option.
Amount Per Item (Stacked) allows you to enter an individual price for each extra as its quantity increases, with the prices being added together. For example, you could have an extra where you specify the price for the first item is £10, then £5 for the second and £5 for the third. If the guest orders one of the extra they are charged £10, but if they want two of them they get charged £15, and then £20 if they want three.
Amount Per Item (by Quantity) allows you to specify different prices as the quantity increases, but using an "up to" value in the quantity. For example, you could have a quantity of up to 5 charged at £10 each, then the quantity of up to 15 charged at £5 each. So the first five of the extra that the guest orders would be charged at £10 each, with the sixth to fifteenth charged at £5 each.

Websites

For customers that are using an iPro website we've made some enhancements to both the design of the sites and the technology they are using.
These updates cover most pages, including the home page, content pages, search results and property pages
Page load time has improved, with the pages loading more quickly and content being populated after the initial page load
This update isn't enabled by default, so you will need to contact support if you want to use this feature. Otherwise you'll remain on the existing website design.
OG Tagging has been improved, so when you post a link to a page on your site on various social media platforms the preview will look better

API

A number of API calls have been updated to support brands. The Properties, Property Detail, Property All, Property Detail Events, Property Search Events and bookings APIs now all return additional fields containing the brand ID and name. The brand ID can also be used as a parameter when using the Properties, Property Search, Property Search Lite, Property Enquiries and Bookings APIs to restrict the data that's returned to the properties or bookings with the associated brand. You can also include the brand ID as a parameter when creating a booking or enquiry [6385]

Automatic Security Deposits with Trust Payments [6444, 6514]

The ability to automatically collect and refund security deposits has been extended to work with Trust Payments

If the "Automatically capture and release security deposit" switch is turned on in the Trust Payments payment provider node in the CMS then the feature will be activated.
On the due date of the security deposit the amount will be automatically placed on hold on the card used by the guest on the most recent payment on the booking
The hold will be automatically released 8 days after checkout unless you have clicked the Refund Security Deposit button in the booking to either manually refund the money or retain it
As the money is placed on hold rather than being cleared immediately the refund is implemented by cancelling the hold rather than a refund, so there wont be any payment fees for the transaction.
If you retain some of the money from the security deposit the card will only be charged the amount you're retaining, so you only pay card fees for the amount you're charging the guest, not the full amount of the security deposit.
If the guest didn't pay the rental by card (or if it was processed using a different payment provider) then you can still use the functionality by calling the guest and taking the payment over the phone. When paying the security deposit in the back office select the option to place the payment on hold rather than to process the payment. This will add the payment as a hold rather than a normal transaction which will be automatically cancelled 8 days after checkout unless you intervene.

Rebuild and repair schedules [6449]

We've added the ability for you to automatically rebuild the payment schedules on a booking as well as reallocate payments to the schedules. This is useful if you've made changes to a booking that have resulted in the schedules either not updating as expected, or if payments haven't been allocated to the correct schedule.
When you save a booking a number of checks are performed to see if there are any errors with the booking financials, such as the payment schedules not adding up to the total cost of the booking. If there is an issue, in addition to being given a warning you now have two new options to fix any issues automatically.
A new "Repair Payment Schedules" button is now displayed above the schedules on a booking giving you access to the repair feature at any time.
The ability to edit the price of an extra has been turned back on. If editing the price of an extra is likely to result in issues with the payment schedules you're given the option to decide how you want the schedules to be updated.
When repairing the schedules there are two options
- You can completely remove all of the payment schedules, create new payment schedules and reallocate all existing payments to the new schedules in a single operation. This will result in the default schedules being created according to the rules you have set up regarding the value of the deposit and due dates. If the balance of a booking has been partly paid the value of the deposit will be set to the amount already paid, so the deposit schedule is fully paid and the balance is pending. Payments will be allocated to the new schedules in the standard order (initial deposit, payable on order extras, in list price extras, deposit, balance, any other extras and then the security deposit).
- If you have customised the schedules on a booking, such as creating separate schedules to allow the guest to pay in instalments, then the above method will remove any customisations you've made. In this case you may want to use the second option which will not make any changes to the payment schedules, but instead just reallocate the payments. This will fix any issues with payments being allocated to the wrong schedule, or if a change has left a schedule overpaid, but will not change any custom schedules you've added.

Other Changes

We have made some changes to what controls the OTA Mark Up extra configuration, its now being controlled by the configuration of that extra in your list of Extras in the booking system. If you are VAT registered you will need to turn the switch "Taxable?" to "Yes"
When creating a custom extra it's now possible to indicate that if it should be visible to the guest, included in the list price of the booking or payable on order in the same way as regular extras. It's also possible to specify a group for the custom extra so that it can be included when using the {holidayExtrasSummary:Group:GroupName} email token [6418]
There have been some updates to the layout of the Agency Income Detail report to make it clearer, which includes the addition of the status of each booking (Active or Cancelled). If you believe that any of the data in the report is incorrect it's now possible to force it to recalculate by selecting the entry and select Recalculate Income Data from the Actions menu. [6497]
The following tokens now work in Property Manager emails (those sent in relation to bills, tasks and statements) [6521]
- {companyWebsite}
- {companyPhone}
- {company}
- {companyAddress}
- {logo}
- {logoSquare}
A new financial report is available called Booking Breakdown. This report shows additional details of the extras on a booking. Any extras that have been configured as Itemised Extras will appear as a separate column on this report, with all other extras combined into the "Guest Extras" column [6527]
When an email is sent into iPRO that is not a reply to an outgoing email a enquiry is automatically created. If the sender can be matched to an existing enquiry then the email is appended to that enquiry instead of creating a new one. If you are receiving multiple different enquiries from the same address, such as enquiries forwarded from a partner, you will want each email to create a new enquiry. This can be achieved by creating a contact record with the email address and turning on the new "Create a new enquiry for every email" switch at the bottom of the right hand side of the page.

Bugs Fixed

The amount payable to the owner is initially calculated incorrectly when adding a discount during the process of creating a booking via the back office [6399]
When using the active dates feature for extras the price is calculated incorrectly when the booking starts or ends on the same dates when the extra [6412]
Mandatory extras that have been removed from a booking are incorrectly added back if a guest orders an optional extra via the guest portal [6311]
The Security Deposit retained report doesn't show all entries [6409]
The Create Update Contact API could be used to update the contact records of users, which could break the user account. User account management should be done via the UI, attempting to do this via the API will now be rejected [6324]
The security deposit refund report only includes bookings where the security deposit has been fully paid and not those that are either underpaid or overpaid [5124]
Export to Excel and csv options don't include all the columns for the Contact and Marketing reports [6406]
Owner balance not updated when paying via the Owner Payments Due report [6459]
Owner Payments Due report doesn't show negative payments [6460]
Owner Payments Due report can't be filtered by brand [6460]
Statement brand filter is filtering based on the brand of the property when it should be the brand of the booking [6435]
The search results page may initially show an incorrect price where no rates are available [6271] or an incorrect number on nights for 14 or 21 night breaks [6232] when searching dates more than a year in advance.
Property Search and Property Search Lite APIs return properties if searching for dates that should be blocked because they are too close to the current date [6494]
Automated Booking tags aren't being updated immediately when a payment is made via a pay now link [6506]
Percentage based extras are reset to zero when editing an old booking for dates in the past where the rates have since been removed [6585]