Our product development team is constantly innovating, to build a better Alto software experience.
Every time we've added a new feature, we've notified all our users within Alto itself utilising in product messaging.
However, for a full list of the changes on a monthly basis such as new features, any improvements or product fixes to our software, please see the relevant articles in our 2023 Release Notes section of the Help Centre.
This article includes:
- New features
- Improvements
-
Product fixes
- EPC tab not accessible for users who don't have Client Account permissions
- Spaces removed from email addresses upon import
- Excluded archived properties from the Critical Dates Not Set report
- Fixing edits for recurring Diary appointments
- Fixing recurring Diary appointments for the last of the month
- Fixing GDPR preferences link in client emails
- Fixing the market appraisal reports
- Date not populating in the SMS Messages Sent report
New features
To view a log of the latest new features within Alto:
- Sign in to Alto
- Click the ? icon in the bottom right corner of the screen
- Click Product updates
- A summary list of our Product updates display. Some new feature updates will include links that take you to the relevant page within Alto. Popup messaging and/or guides may then launch to provide you with more information on what's new
FocalAgent integration - 1st iteration
This new feature went live on 7th March.
The first iteration of our integration with FocalAgent is now live.
At relevant points on our property pages, we have prompts that an integration is available which take you to our marketplace where you can submit your details to FocalAgent.
When you sign-up to FocalAgent, you'll be provided with a branch ID in your account details. This can be entered into our marketplace to switch-on the integration for your branch without any support/developer admin.
Integrated branches will see FocalAgent order buttons on their properties. When clicked, this will auto-login to their FocalAgent account, pre-populating the property address and vendor/landlord details to reduce steps in the order process.
Where a property has a live order already in place, clicking on the FocalAgent button in Alto will take you to a status page where you can check the status of your photography order.
For more information on Producing winning visual content with FocalAgent, click here
Improvements
Improvements to the FocalAgent integration switch-on
This improvement went live on 30th March.
We’ve updated how the FocalAgent integration switch-on works in response to some feedback.
Now, you'll no longer hit an error page in scenarios where you (or a colleague) have already commenced the activation for your branch.
For more information on Producing winning visual content with FocalAgent, click here
Images added to the Listing Details API
This improvement went live on 29th March.
The Listing Details API has been extended to include photos, floorplans and virtual tours so that these can be consumed by the Listings Review page and by 3rd parties.
New import receipt format for Virgin Money
This improvement went live on 24th March.
If you bank with Virgin Money, there's now a format available allowing you to import receipts.
For more information on Import receipts, click here
Sorting your list of Stationery templates
This improvement went live on 15th March.
Within Letter & Stationery Templates, in addition to using the dropdown filters, we have introduced the ability for you to click the table headers to sort the list, i.e. by alphabetical order. This will help you to more easily find the stationery you're looking for.
Usability improvements for the Portal Publishing page
This improvement went live on 9th March.
We have now configured the Portal Publishing page so that it's available at additional ‘non-publishable’ statuses.
For more information on Uploading a property to the internet, click here
Product fixes
EPC tab not accessible for users who don't have Client Account permissions
This product fix went live on 30th March.
A permissions issue meant that if users didn't have access to Client Accounts, then inadvertently the proceeding EPC tab under Properties>Media was not accessible. This was preventing uploads of EPC documents and inputting EPC values.
This has now been fixed.
Spaces removed from email addresses upon import
This product fix went live on 23rd March.
Upon import, if the email addresses for contacts contained spaces before or after the address, this would cause errors in Alto.
A fix has been put in place so that any spaces before or after the email address field are removed.
Excluded archived properties from the Critical Dates Not Set report
This product fix went live on 20th March.
The Critical Dates Not Set report used to include critical dates for all properties, including archived properties. As a result of this, the report used to time out or prove unhelpful due to the amount of data from archived properties.
A fix has been put in place to exclude archived property data altogether from the report.
For more information on the Critical Dates Not Set report, click here
Fixing edits for recurring Diary appointments
This product fix went live on 20th March.
A fix has been put in place so that in rare instances, editing a single occurrence of a recurring Diary appointment no longer changes all other occurrences of that appointment series.
Fixing recurring Diary appointments for the last of the month
This product fix went live on 16th March.
A fix has been put in place for the creation/scheduling of recurring Diary appointments on the last day of the month.
Fixing GDPR preferences link in client emails
This product fix went live on 13th March.
All emails to contacts who are Clients should contain EmailClientFooter so that the recipient has the ability to amend their GDPR consent preferences within Alto.
We're aware that this functionality wasn't working and so email recipients didn't have the ability to alter their preferences.
This has now been fixed, and emails to contacts that are Clients will contain the link to manage preferences.
Fixing the market appraisal reports
This product fix went live on 9th March.
When running the Market Appraisals reports, the Report Columns for Booked and MA Date would occasionally swap data over with the incorrect column headers. This has now been fixed.
Date not populating in the SMS Messages Sent report
This product fix went live on 2nd March.
The SMS Messages Sent report had an issue where the date wasn't being populated for lots of the SMS records in the report. This has now been fixed.