Searchlight FAQs

A scheduler is a proactive event reminder which sets up a repeat action for Estate management. This may be for regular events such as rent reviews and rent demands or for one off events. Schedulers can be set at intervals in advance of a certain date.

An action is a reactive event which needs to be recorded for a user to complete. For example, a tenant calls in to say that a boiler is broken. A user can create an immediate action to assign to another user to undertake and complete.

Reactive commentary can be added to the Tenancy log at the bottom of the page. Information on the comments is under the Details section.

Navigate to the Tenancy tab on the left hand side of the screen. Click “+New Tenancy” in the black box below the page title. This will bring up a tab at the bottom of the screen which says “Create new Tenancy”. Continue by inputting the tenancy detail on each section and hit “Next”.

Look for an orange triangle on the property creation tab. This will highlight where more data is needed to enter into the property. Once completed, the orange triangle will disappear, and you can continue.

Click into the tenancy you wish to view. Within the tenancy tabs click on Rent Account and this will take you to the rent account page which sets out the previous rent demands dating back to the beginning of the tenancy.

In the Tenancies or Properties tab you will see there is a header across the top of the page stating Start Date, Annual Rent, Active etc. If you hover your mouse next to each of these headers a small grey arrow will appear. By clicking on this you can change the ordering of the information presented in front of you.

In the Properties tab, go to the box in the top right corner of the instance which has in grey lettering “Type here to search”. Enter the name of the property you wish to find and this will automatically filter the selection to reveal your property.

In the Properties tab, go to the box in the top right corner of the instance which has in grey lettering “Type here to search”. Go to the symbol to the right of this text, shaped like a funnel, and click on it. This will produce a filter options box called Applicable Filters where you can choose to filter by Estate, Portfolio and by Active Properties. Click into the Portfolio dropdown and select the Portfolio you want. This will filter or properties to select those in this portfolio.

This is a two part process.

Part 1: Select the tenancy you wish to amend. In the tenancy click on the Edit tab. This will show a summary of the tenancy and at the bottom of the page is a Rent heading. Enter the new rent in the box labelled Annual Rent and input the date that the rent was agreed in the Rent Agreed box.

Part 2: Click on the Schedulers tab. Find the rent demand scheduler and click into this. This will open the Edit tab in the scheduler. Navigate to the bottom header labelled Extras and here you will find a box which states Amount without tax. Depending on the frequency of rent demands you will need to enter the new rent here. If this is a monthly rent, divide the total rent by 12. If it is a quarterly rent, divide the total rent by four. Once this is complete, hit Save in the black box at the top of the page and return back to the tenancy. This will now issue rent demands at the revised figure.

Searchlight has been designed to flexibly fit with the individual user's monitor. This can be achieved by toggling on and off columns within the Tenancies and Properties tabs. In Tenancies, there is a box labelled Columns in the top right corner. Click into this and it will display a drop down of selectable features including Start Date, Annual Rent, Correspondence Address, Property Name and more. By ticking or unticking these items you can change the number of features displayed on your Tenancies and Properties tab to fit your computer screen.

Click on the Estates tab. There will be a list of the Estates if multiple or a single Estate is a single estate. Click into the Estate. This will bring up the Estate home page which has headed tabs including Portfolios, Edit, Actions. Click into the relevant portfolio. This will open an Edit tab. The Primary contact information can be found here and is editable. Once the new contact details are input, hit Save at the top of the page.

When you set your filters in the home screen or within a tenancy/property, the system will remember the filters that you have set. This has been created to improve user experience so that when you login the system retains the characteristics that you last set. As the system is being regularly update for bug fixes/new features, this can sometimes cause the instance to locate an old set of user characteristics. We recommend that you clear or reset the filters and this issue will resolve itself.

The error message will prompt you as to the issue. When entering an address, this must contain no more than three lines of content.

For example: The Post Yard, Bullen Street, Thorverton, Exeter, Devon will raise an error message. The Post Yard, Bullen Street, Thorverton is sufficient for this entry.