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 Release Notes sections of the Help Centre.
New features
To view a log of the latest new features within Alto:
- Sign in to Alto
- Click the Alto 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
Title documents - Land Registry title checks
This new feature went live on 8th June.
You can now carry out Land Registry title checks to confirm you're dealing with the legal owners of a property, in line with compliance guidelines. The checks are powered by our integration with Thirdfort and are available for freehold and leasehold properties in England and Wales.
Title documents - the Register (ownership and legal details) and the Title plan (boundary map) - provide a reliable way to verify ownership directly against official HM Land Registry records, rather than relying on uploaded mortgage statements or utility documents.
With this update:
- A Title documents section is available on the Post-appraisal tab of our property workflow
- You can check which documents are available for a property address, then order the ones you need
- Documents are retrieved from HM Land Registry via Thirdfort, usually within around 5 minutes
- Title documents are stored against the property record for future reference, and activity is recorded on the property Timeline
Land Registry title checks operate on a usage-based model, charged at £7+VAT per document. You're charged per document when it's successfully retrieved, not when you place the order, and these are billed by Alto monthly in arrears. Title documents can only be ordered between 06:00 and 23:00.
For more information, see Conducting Land Registry title checks.
Note
Land Registry title checks first need to be enabled before the Title documents section becomes visible. For the full process, see Enabling Land Registry title checks within Keyflo.
Improvements
Analytics - Move in date added to the lettings model
This improvement went live on 25th June.
As part of our Analytics functionality, we've added a Move in date attribute to the lettings model.
Alto could already report on the start date of the current tenancy term. Following your feedback since the Renters' Rights Act, the new Move in date attribute shows the start date of the tenancy's first term, so you can report on when the tenant first moved in.
The attribute is available when creating custom reports and in Alto IQ queries.
Rightmove Enhanced Letting Applicant Leads
This improvement went live on 18th June.
We've updated how lettings leads from Rightmove are processed. Where you receive lettings leads via Rightmove's Enhanced Lead feature, the full enhanced lead information is now captured on the lead and stored on the contact record in Alto.
This gives you at-a-glance detail about the applicant and their viewing request, so you can decide whether to progress the lead without needing to qualify it from scratch.
For more information, see Dashboard - Enquiries widget (and portal leads).
Analytics - Applicant matching area added to the client model
This improvement went live on 11th June.
As part of our Analytics functionality, we've added an Area attribute to the client model. This shows an applicant's selected matching areas, so you can report on the areas an applicant is interested in.
You can also use Alto IQ to find applicants for a particular area - for example, by asking it to show all applicants whose area contains a given place name.
Link to contacts from the BACS Payment Update screen
This improvement went live on 10th June.
Based on your feedback, contact names in the Insufficient Bank Details section of BACS Payment Update are now clickable.
Previously, when bank details were insufficient you couldn't open the related record directly from this screen, meaning you had to leave the page and search for the record manually. You can now click a contact's name to open their record directly, add the missing bank details, and save, before returning to complete the payment.
For more information, see Making payments via BACS.
E-Sign - Better visibility of attachments
This improvement went live on 10th June.
We've improved how attachments are shown on the Timeline and from eSignatures on the Home screen side menu, giving you clearer visibility of what was sent and agreed.
You can now see:
- Whether an envelope contained attachments
- What the attachments were
- Which signers have agreed the attachments
This gives you a clearer picture of which clients have agreed attachments, and makes Timeline entries easier to follow when an envelope includes them.
For more information, see New and improved E-Sign and Managing E-Sign documents from the home screen.
Contact notes top tab
This improvement went live on 8th June.
Based on your feedback, we've added a dedicated Contact Notes top tab to the contact record, giving contact notes more room and removing the need to scroll within a small notes field.
- Click Contacts on the main navigation bar
-
Select the relevant contact from Recent & Favourite Contacts
- Alternatively, find the contact using the Search Contacts bar in the top right
- Click Contact on the side menu
- Click the Contact Notes top tab
With this update:
- A Contact Notes tab is available on the contact record
- The tab displays the full contents of the contact notes on a single screen, without a scroll bar