Configuration Help Videos

On the right hand side of the menu bar, click on Master Configuration. This opens a dropdown menu. Click on System Configuration. This opens a menu to the left. Click on Colour Schemes.

This opens a page that shows colour scheme options for the Skin or the overall look of the system at the top. Details of the skin types can be found in our User Guide, section 1.1. To change the skin, select an option from the dropdown menu.

Further down, there are colour options for the bookings made on CloudView, so that you can easily distinguish between paid and unpaid customers, and between provisional and final bookings statuses. This same colour scheme is also used for the inventory graph found on the home page and in the inventory reports.

To change a colour, click on the current colour. This will open a colour selector. Click on your desired colour. If you have changed the type of colour selector using the four choices at bottom of the selector, you will need to click Apply to select your colour.

On the right of the colour selector there are dropdowns to select the font colour used to identify the guest’s booking on CloudView. The options are black or white. Click on the dropdown to make a selection.

Once you have decided on your colour schemes, Press Submit to confirm.

You will receive the message Successfully Updated.

Once a new page is opened the changes will take effect.

You have now successfully changed the colour scheme.

Default accounts will have already been created for you. The names of these accounts and their categories can be found in the User Guide, section 1.2

Firstly, you will need to create a Finance Category.

On the right hand side of the menu bar, click on Master Configuration. This opens a dropdown menu. Click on Finance Masters. This opens a new menu on the left. Click on Finance Categories.

This shows a list of the Categories that are parents to the Sub-categories and are grandparents to the Accounts that have been created previously.

To add a new Finance Category, click on Add New Finance Category on the top left corner of the grid.

This opens an Add / Edit Finance Category window. Here, you can type the name of the category. Press Insert to confirm. The new category will now appear in the list.

To edit an existing category, click on the pencil-edit icon on the left-hand-side of the category name. This will open an Add / Edit Finance Category window. Here, you can edit the name of the category. Press update to confirm.

The Internal Name is used to describe categories that are linked to other functions in the system. For example, only accounts assigned to Current Assets will appear in the Current Assets section of the Balance Sheet.

Secondly, you will need to add a Finance Sub-category.

On the right hand side of the menu bar, click on Master Configuration again. This opens a drop down menu, click on Finance Masters. This opens a new menu on the left. Click on Finance Sub-Categories.

This shows a list of the parent Sub-categories that are the child records of the Finance Categories and are the parent records of the Accounts that have been created previously.

To add a new Finance Sub-category, click on Add New Sub-category on the top left corner of the grid.

This will open an Add / Edit Finance Sub-Categories window. Here, you can type the name of the category, and then choose a parent Finance Category from the dropdown list. Press Insert to confirm. The new Sub-category will now appear in the list.

To edit an existing Sub-category, click on the pencil-edit icon on the left-hand-side of the Sub-category name. This opens an Add / Edit Finance Sub-categories window. Here, you can edit the name of the sub-category, and its associated parent Finance Category using the dropdown list. Press update to confirm.

The Internal Name is used to describe categories that are linked to other functions in the system. For example, only accounts assigned to the Agent sub-category will appear in the Commission section of the booking details.

Finally, to create an Account, on the right hand side of the menu bar, click on Master Configuration. This opens a dropdown menu. Click on Finance Masters. This opens a new menu on the left. Click on Accounts.

This shows a collapsed list of all the existing Accounts organised by their parent Finance Sub-category. To see the individual accounts in a sub-category, click on the arrow on the left of the sub-category name. This will expand the list of accounts nested within that sub-category.

To add a new Account, click on Add New Account on the top left corner of the grid.

This opens an Add / Edit Accounts page. Here, you can choose the parent Sub-category, type in the name of the Account and any other relevant details.

If you are setting up a Landlord or Agent Account, you have the option of assigning a commission amount to the landlord or agent. This can either be taken from the gross or net charge of a guest’s stay, or a flat rate for every booking.

To link a landlord to a property, you will need to do add the landlord information to the property details. For more details, please watch the video How to Add or Edit Properties, or refer to our user guide, section 1.3b.

A feature of the ALAVEX system is that Agent and Landlord Accounts can be viewed from the frontend website. To enable this feature, you will need to assign a log in email address and password to the ledger. For more information, please see our user guide, section 12.4.

Press Submit to confirm. The new Account will now appear in the list.

To edit an existing Account, click on the pencil-edit icon on the left-hand-side of the Account name. This will open an Add / Edit Accounts page. Here, you can edit the Account details.

The Internal Name is used to describe Accounts that are linked to other functions in the system. For example, if you change the name of the Sales account, it will not change its function; it will still be used to show sales.

You can view the transactions associated to a particular account by clicking on Ledger.

Press Submit to confirm.

You have now successfully created or edited an Account.

A default tax of 20% will already be created for you, equivalent to the standard rate of VAT in the UK. The system also accommodates flexible tax rates.

On the right hand side of the menu bar, click on Master Configuration. This opens a dropdown menu. Click on Finance Masters. This opens a new menu on the left. Click on Tax.

This shows a list of existing tax percentages that you can use in the system.

To create a new tax percentage, click on Add New Tax Percentage on the top left hand corner of the grid.

This opens an Add / Edit Tax Percentage window. Here, you can type the percentage amount you require, a description of the tax and allocate it to an Account. This last step requires a relevant Account to have been created previously. To see details on how to do this please watch the video How to Add or Edit Accounts or see the User Guide, section 1.2d.

Press Insert to confirm. The new tax percentage will now appear in the list.

To edit an existing tax percentage, click on the pencil-edit icon on the left-hand-side of the tax percentage. This opens an Add / Edit Tax Percentage window. Here, you can edit the tax percentage, the description and the associated Account.  Press Update to confirm.

You have now successfully added or edited a tax percentage.

On the right hand side of the menu bar, click on Master Configuration. This opens a drop down menu, click on Finance Masters. This opens a new menu on the left, click on Direct Debits.

This shows a list of all the Direct Debit transactions that have already been created.

To create a new direct debit, click on Add New Record on the top left hand corner of the grid.

This opens an Add / Edit Direct Debits page. Here, you can set up the details of regular transactions. You can type the name of the direct debit in the Title field; choose whether the transaction will be a debit or credit by selecting the appropriate button for Transaction type. Cash / Bank is the account in is where the payment will originate from and Account Name is the account the payment will go to. Fill in the other details as required.

Press Save to confirm. The new direct debit will now appear in the list.

To edit an existing direct debit, click on the pencil-edit icon on the left-hand-side of the Account Title. This opens an Add / Edit Direct Debits page. Here, you can edit the direct debit details. Press Save to confirm or Delete to remove.

Repeat this procedure as appropriate.

These Direct Debits will not create transactions automatically. When you make a transaction and select a Direct Debit all the relevant information will be entered in the form automatically, as a remembered transaction. This can be used to speed up the accounting process.

To see how to make direct debit transactions please watch the video How to Create or Amend Expense Entries or refer to our User Guide section 10.2.

You have now successfully added or edited a direct debit.

If you want to maintain full financial control of your business and prevent changes to historical data, then you need to be able to lock your records. You can do this by following the steps laid out in this video.

On the right hand side of the menu bar, click on Master Configuration. This opens a dropdown menu. Click on System Configuration. This opens a new menu on the left. Click on Lock Records.

This opens a page that shows the Lock Records options. Here, there are two options. The first is Default Lock Days. This is the number of days in the past that Managers and Desk Service staff can amend entries that they have made. To change this, type the number of days that you want records to be editable by Manager and Desk Service staff into the box. The second option is Lock Records Until. No users will be able to make changes to records created before this date in the system. To change this date, click on the calendar icon on the right of the date and select the appropriate date.

This page can only be changed if you have administrative rights. For more information about users, please see the video How to Add or Edit Users or refer to our user guide, section 1.4a.

Once you have made your changes, press Submit to confirm.

You have now successfully locked your records. You will not be able to add, edit, or delete records from before the date you selected in Lock Records Until.

If you need to update any property details or add a new property to your ALAVEX portfolio, you can follow the simple steps laid out in this video.

If you want to allocate your properties to different areas or zones, then you will first need to create a new zone. This step is optional, as a default zone has already been created for you.

On the right hand side of the menu bar, click on Master Configuration. This opens a drop down menu. Click on Property Masters. This opens a new menu on the left. Click on Zone. This shows a list of all the zones already created.

New zones can be added by clicking on Add New Zone on the top left corner of the grid. This opens an Add / Edit Zone window. Here, you can type the name of the zone. Press Insert to confirm. The zone will now appear in the list.

To edit an existing zone, click on the pencil-edit icon on the left-hand-side of the zone name. This opens an Add / Edit Zone window. Here, you can edit the name of the zone. Press Update to confirm.

Once you have created all the zones you need. You can proceed to creating properties.

On the right hand side of the menu bar, click on Master Configuration. This opens a drop down menu. Click on Property Masters. This opens a new menu on the left. Click on Properties.

This shows a list of all your properties added to your ALAVEX system.

To add new properties, click on Add New Property on the top left corner of the grid.

This opens the Details and Locations page for a new property.

Here, you can enter your property details, such as the name and address of your accommodation. More details on what each field does can be found in the user guide, section 1.3b. It is here where you can assign a landlord to a property. For more details about Landlord Accounts, please watch the video How to Set Up Accounts or see our User Guide, section 1.2c.

Tick Is Active if you want this property to appear on your website. If you want it to be highlighted on your website, tick Is Featured.

Press Next to confirm and move onto the next page.

This opens the Images page for your property. This section is optional, the images uploaded here can be used on your front-end website and / or can be used as a way to store all your property images.

To add a new image, click on Add New Image on the top left. This will open an Upload Images window. Browse the images on your computer using the browse button. Select your desired image and press open to select. Enter a title for your image and choose whether you want the image to be active and or featured.

Press Upload to confirm. The image will then appear on the page.

To edit an existing image, click on the Image, an Upload Images window will open. Here, you can edit the details of the image. Press Upload to confirm.

Once you have uploaded all the images, press Next. This opens the Header and Footer page for your property.

On this page, you can configure how the header and footer for this property will appear on emails and .pdf files produced by the ALAVEX system. Fill in the header and footer as appropriate and press save at the bottom of the page to confirm.

You have now created a new property in full. This property will now appear in the Properties page.

To edit an existing property, click on the pencil-edit icon on the left hand side of the property name. This opens the Details and Locations page for that property and you can then amend any of the property details, images and / or header and footer settings.

You have now successfully added or edited a property.

Firstly, you will need to create the Room Types that you require.

On the right hand side of the menu bar, click on Master Configuration. This opens a drop down menu. Click on Property Masters. This opens a new menu on the left. Click on Room Types. This shows a list of all the different room types, organised by property.

To add a new room type, click on Add New Room Type on the top left corner of the grid. This will open an Add / Edit Room Types page. Here, you can select the name of the property for the room type, type a name for the room type. This room type refers to an individual accommodation unit and, therefore, can be used to identify anything from a Single Room to an 8 Bedroom Villa.

Here, you can add any room details that you want to appear on your website and assign the Rack Rate, Extra Person Rate or Extra Bed Rate for the room. These will be used as the base price for the room and extra facilities. For more information on how to add other facilities, such as breakfast rates, please watch the video How to Add or Edit Room Services, or see our User Guide, section 1.6a. Press Submit to confirm.

This new room type will now appear in the list.

To edit an existing room type, click on the pencil-edit icon on the left hand side of the room type. This opens an Add / Edit Room Types page. Here, you can edit the details of the room type. Press Submit to confirm.

Secondly, you will need to add the rooms.

On the right hand side of the menu bar, click on Master Configuration. This opens a dropdown menu. Click on Property Masters. This opens a new menu on the left. Click on Rooms. This shows a list of all the rooms, organised by property.

To add a new room, click on Add New Room on the top left corner of the grid. This opens an Add / Edit Room page. Here, you can select the property and room type from the drop down list. Then, you can type the name of the room in the Room # field. Sort Order defines the sequence in which the rooms appear in CloudView. Press Submit to confirm.

To edit an existing room, click on the pencil-edit icon on the left hand side of the room number. This opens an Add / Edit Room page. Here, you can edit the details of the room. Press Submit to confirm.

Repeat this procedure for as many rooms as you require. For more information, please see our User Guide, sections 1.3c-d.

You have now successfully created or edited your rooms.

On the right hand side of the menu bar, click on Master Configuration. This opens a drop down menu. Click on System Configuration. This opens a new menu on the left Click on Manage Users.

This opens a page that lists all the users on your ALAVEX system.

To add a new user, click on Add New User on the top left corner of the grid. This opens an Add / Edit Users page. Here, you can add the new user’s details, such as their name, their username and password for logging into the system, their email address and assign them an administrative role. For more information on administrative roles and the optional fields see our User Guide, section 1.4a.

To activate the user, tick Is Active. Press Submit to confirm.

To edit an existing user, click on the pencil-edit icon on the left hand side of the username. This opens an Add / Edit Users page. Here, you can edit the user’s details. Press submit to confirm.

If a user has been blocked, due to too many incorrect login attempts, an administrative user can unlock the user in the following way.

On the right hand side of the menu bar, click on Master Configuration. This opens a drop down menu. Click on System Configuration. This opens a new menu on the left. Click on Manage Users.

Click on the pencil-edit icon on the left of the user that has been blocked. This will open an Add / Edit Users page containing the user’s details. Ensure all details are correct and Is Active is selected. Then press Save and Unlock. This will unblock the user and allow them to log in with their correct user name and password. For more information on blocked users, refer to our User Guide, section 1.4b

If you want to add a Landlord or Agent User ID, so that your landlords and agents can keep a track of their accounts, please see the video on How to Add or Edit Accounts or How Landlords and Agents can View their Accounts or refer to our User Guide, section 1.2c or 12.4.

You have now successfully added or edited a user.

On the top left of the page, click on your name. This opens an Add / Edit Users page. Here, you can amend your details, including uploading a picture and customising your dashboard to your preferred CloudView. This will display the inventory graph, outstandings, RevPAR about properties in that CloudView on your Dashboard, so you can see the properties that are most important to you. For example, managers for a particular zone will want to see the properties they are in charge of. Press Submit to confirm.

For more information on what each field can be used for, please see our User Guide, section 1.4.

You have now successfully customised your user details.

The first types of correspondence format are those specific to each property.

On the right hand side of the menu bar, click on Master Configuration. This opens a drop down menu. Click on Email Templates. This opens a new menu on the left. Click on Email Formats (Property).

This shows a list of all available emails formats for each property. There are five types: a Booking Confirmation Email, a Check In Form, an Invoice, a Request Reviews Email and a Residential Agreement.

We have created templates for you, which you can choose to use if you wish.

To edit a correspondence format, click on the pencil-edit icon on the left hand side of the format that you wish to edit. This opens an Edit Format page with the property name and email type written at the top of the page. You can edit the Subject and Content of the correspondence.

If you wish to have fields in the text that are variable, such as the Customer’s name and other booking details, they can be entered using the relevant hash tags listed at the bottom of the page. For example, customer names can be inserted into the content by typing hash hash first name hash hash. When you send this email or print the appropriate form the system will automatically enter the relevant customer name instead of the hash tag.

Once you have finished editing, press Save to confirm.

You have now successfully edited your property correspondence formats.

The second types of correspondence format are those that are not specific to the property.

On the right hand side of the menu bar, click on Master Configuration. This opens a drop down menu. Click on Email Templates. This opens a new menu on the left. Click on Email Formats (Template).

This shows a list of all available email formats. There are 3 additional types: a Company Quotation, a Forgot Password email and a New User email.

We have created templates for you, which you can choose to use if you wish.

To edit a correspondence format, click on the pencil-edit icon on the left hand side of the format that you wish to edit. This opens an Edit Format page with the email type written at the top of the page. You can edit the Subject and Content of the correspondence. You can customise the correspondence in the same way as described earlier.

Once you have finished editing, press Save to confirm.

Each format works in the same way. So you can edit the other formats using the same procedure. For more details on each format, please see our User Guide, section 1.5.

You have now successfully edited your correspondence formats.

To set up correspondence details for Quotation and for Review Thank You messages on your customer website, please watch the video How to Manage your Website Content, or refer to our User Guide, section 1.6c.

On the right hand side of the menu bar, click on Master Configuration. This opens a dropdown menu. Click on System Configuration. This opens a new menu on the left. Click on Room Service Master. This shows a list of room services that have already been created.

To add a new service, click on Add New Service in the top left corner of the grid. This will open an Add / Edit Service window. Here, you can type the name of the service, the rate and allocate it a tax percentage. For more details on how to create tax percentages, please watch the video How to Add or Edit Tax Percentages or refer to our User Guide, section 1.2d.

Press Insert to confirm. The new room service will now appear in the list.

To edit a pre-existing service, click on the pencil-edit icon on the left of the service name. This opens an Add / Edit Service window. Here, you can edit the name, rate and allocated tax percentage of the service. Press Update to confirm.

You have now successfully added or edited a room service.

On the right hand side of the menu bar, click on Master Configuration. This will open a drop down menu, click on Web Masters. This will open a new menu on the left, click on Manage Web Service.

This will open a page that lists your web services. If you do not have any web services, then this list will be empty.

For more information about web services, see our User Guide, section 1.6b.

To edit your web service, click on the pencil-edit icon on the left of the web service. This will open the Add / Edit Web Services page. Here, you can choose to change the domain & type of web service.

You will need to choose which properties will appear on your website. Click on Add New Record on the top left hand corner of the grid. This will open a Web Services window. Here, you can choose which property and which rates will feature on the website. Press submit to confirm. For more information on how to create new rates or special offers watch the video How to Manage Room Rates and Offers or take a look at our User Guide, section 6.

Repeat this until you have added all the properties that you want to appear.

Click on the pencil-edit icon on the left of the property name to edit the property you have added.

You have now successfully added your properties to a web service.

If you want to highlight your properties on your website, they will need to be “Featured.” You can change this setting by clicking on Master Configuration. This will open a dropdown menu. Click on Property Masters. This will open a menu on the left. Click on Properties. This lists your property portfolio.

Click on the pencil-edit icon next to the property you want to feature on your customer website. This opens a Details & Locations page for the property. Navigate to the bottom of this page. Click on Is Featured. This will set this property to be highlighted on your customer website. Ensure Is Active is ticked, or the property will not appear on your website.

On the right hand side of the menu bar, click on Master Configuration. This opens a dropdown menu. Click on Web Masters. This opens a new menu on the left. Click on Manage Web Contents.

This opens a Website Content Management page. Here, you can amend any details on your customer website, for example text on the Home page, Corporate Solutions page and the About Us page. You can add or edit text by clicking on the down arrow on the left of the relevant section.

This opens a text field. Here, you can add words, pictures, links and edit the formatting of your content by using the toolbars at the top of the text box. For more information about each section, please see our User Guide, section 1.6c.

To change outgoing email addresses for quotations, navigate to the Quotation and Email Configuration section at the bottom of the page. Here, you can type the new default email address in the Quotation Email-ID, Quotation CC and BCC for all emails going out of the system. To add multiple email addresses, separate each address with a comma.

Here, you can also amend the message that appears after an enquiry form is submitted from your customer website.

Click Save to confirm.

You can optimise each of your properties on search engines by clicking on Master Configuration on the right hand side of the menu bar. This opens a dropdown menu. Click on Property Masters. This opens a new menu to the left. Click on Properties.

This opens a list of all your properties.

You can add titles, keywords and descriptions by clicking the pencil-edit icon on the left of the property name. This opens a Details & Locations page for your property. At the bottom of the page, there is a Search Engine Optimisation section. Click on the down arrow. Here, you can enter your search engine optimisation details.

Click Next to confirm.

For more information about adding search engine optimisation keywords to your properties, please refer to our User Guide, section 1.3b.

You have now successfully managed your website content.

On the right hand side of the menu bar, click on Master Configuration. This opens a drop down menu. Click on System Configuration. This opens a new menu on the left. Click on Manage Analytic Parameters.

This shows a list of all options, which have already been created for the bespoke report facility. There are 3 parameters, which can be used for reporting. An unlimited number of options can be assigned to each parameter.

To add a new option, click on Add New Parameter on the top left corner of the grid. This opens an Add / Edit Analytic Parameter page. Here, you can type the name of the option and assign it a parameter category. Press Submit to confirm.

Repeat this procedure to add as many options as you require for each category.

To edit an existing option, click on the pencil-edit icon on the left of the option name. This opens an Add / Edit Analytic Parameter page. Here, you can edit the name and parameter. Press submit to confirm.

Once you have set up your parameters, they can be used to find out more information about your customers or get more information from your bookings. To see how these parameters can be used please see the videos How to Add or Edit Customer Information, How to Edit Booking Details or How to View Analytic Reports. Alternatively, you can take a look at our User Guide, sections 3.2c, 4.1b or 5.3c

You have now successfully set up your bespoke analytic reports.

On the right hand side of the menu bar, click on Master Configuration. This opens a dropdown menu. Click on System Configuration. This opens a menu to the left. Click on Manual Booking Status.

This opens a Manage Manual Status page. This lists all of the booking statuses that have already been created.

To create a new booking status, click on Add New Status on the top left hand corner of the grid. This opens an Add / Edit Status window. Here, you can type the name of the status that you require. Press Insert to confirm, or Cancel to reject the new status. The new status will now appear in the list.

Repeat this procedure for each status.

To edit an existing status, click on the pencil-edit icon on the left of the Status. This opens an Add / Edit Status window. Here, you can change the name of the status. Press Update to confirm, or Cancel to reject the change.

To delete an existing status, click on the delete icon on the right of the status. You will have to confirm that you want to delete the record by pressing OK on the window that pops up.

You have now successfully set up your manual booking status. For more details on how to assign a status to a booking or add the status to a correspondence, please watch the video How to Edit Booking Details or How to Amend Email and Print Templates or refer to our User Guide, section 3.2c or 1.5.

On the menu bar, click the tab called CloudView.

This opens a CloudView Masters page, which shows a list of all CloudViews that have already been created, either automatically or manually. A CloudView can contain all or a selection of your properties and room types. It can be used to create bookings quickly and easily, using the Quick Reservation. CloudView can also be used to filter searches, wherever there is a CloudView dropdown option, such as on the dashboard. For more information about making bookings in CloudView, please watch the video How to Make a Reservation using CloudView, or see our User Guide, section 3.1c.

To create a new CloudView, click on Add New Record on the top left corner of the grid. This opens an Add / Edit CloudView Master page. Here, you can type the name of the CloudView and the default dates you want it to display. Press Save to continue.

This adds a CloudView Master Details section to the bottom of the page. Here, you can select the property and room types you want to add to your CloudView. Sort Order defines the sequence that the room types appear in CloudView. Click Save to confirm and add more properties and room types. This room type will then appear in a list at the bottom of the page. If you do not want to add any more room types to the CloudView, press Save and Close.

To edit an existing CloudView, click on the pencil-edit icon on the left of the CloudView title. This opens an Add / Edit CloudView Master page. Here, you can edit the CloudView title and default dates by clicking on the edit button. You can add more properties and room types to the CloudView in the CloudView Master Details section.

To edit room types that have already been added to a CloudView, click on the pencil-edit icon on the left of the property and room type that you want to edit in the list at the bottom of the Add / Edit CloudView Master page. The details of this room type will appear above, in the CloudView Master Details section. Here, you can change the property, room type and sort order.

Press Save to continue editing the CloudView or press Save and Close if you have finished editing the CloudView.

If the CloudView Master you are editing is not automatically generated by the system. You will be able to delete room types from it. Click on the red-cross icon on the right of the room type you want to remove and confirm by pressing OK in the pop up window that appears. You will only be able to delete a CloudView once you have deleted the rooms that have been added to it.

You have now successfully created or amended your CloudView.