Release Notes 02/16/2025

You can expect up to 30 minutes of downtime to deploy this release.

In This Issue

• Excel Files for ETL

• Nuvei/Payment Fallback Destination

• Payment Source

• Validation Notice Source

• Collapsible Sidebars

• Bundle Settings Primary Account

• Bundle Group Emails

• New User Profile Column

• Account Manager Worklist Note

• Form Updating

• Commission Tax

• System User Time Zone

• MMS Validation Notice

• ITMS Text Validation

• VA 2.0 Primary Demographic

• VA 2.0 Bundle Details

• VA 2.0 Default Profile

• VA 2.0 Custom Text

• VA 2.0 Verbiage Update

• Audit Logs

• Send Reports to Email

• Job Failure Notification

• API Forward Data

• TCN

• POP Email

Excel Files for ETL

ETL profiles can now process Microsoft Excel files (*.xls and *.xlsx) in the same way as CSV files.

For more information, see this article: Understanding the ETL Process in ACE.

Please note:

Files saved as "Strict Open XML Spreadsheet" (xlsx) are not supported.

Nuvei/Payment Fallback Destination

For customers using Nuvei, AMEX, Google Pay, and Apple Pay are not supported on No Cost to Biller (NCTB) payment destinations. To allow these payment methods in VA 2.0, a Fallback Payment Destination can now be configured. If a consumer attempts to pay using an unsupported method on an NCTB destination, they will be automatically redirected.

Payment Source

Payment Source population has been updated as follows:

When the contact most closely associated with a payment matches the following specifications, it will be recorded to have a Source Type of AMD_VM and a Source ID of the associated phone log ID.

• Source Type: DIALER_OUTBOUND

• Phone Result Contact Type: LEFT_MESSAGE

• Phone Contact Type: ANSWERING_MACHINE

Previously, OUTBOUND source type resulted in SOURCE = PHONE & SOURCE_ID = phone log ID. Now, DIALER_OUTBOUND and DIALER_MANUAL_DIAL will be represented the same way.

For more details, please review this article: Payment Source Tracking in ACE.

Validation Notice Source

A new field, validation_notice_sent_channel, has been added to the debt record.

It will be populated with the last of these communication channels used to deliver the validation notice: EMAIL, TXT_MSG, LETTER, VERBAL.

It is available to be queried in the debt table using the SQL Designer.

Please note:

If a validation notice is sent using a Letter profile via ELS email, the source will be recorded as "LETTER."

Collapsible Sidebars

ACE Page Sidebars can now be expanded and collapsed.

For more details, see the article: Navigating the ACE Home Page.

Please note:

The < arrow used to collapse fades when not hovering over it.

Bundle Settings Primary Account

There is a new “Primary Account Selection Method” available in Setup -> Accounts -> Bundling -> Bundle Settings. It is “Oldest Non-SOL Account."

When enabled, accounts with expired SOL dates will not be eligible to be chosen as the primary account and will be skipped during the primary account selection process.

Bundle Group Emails

Sending a bundle group email can now be done from the primary account in the bundle even if it is not eligible as a bundle group member.

Previously, the email had to be sent from an account that was an eligible member of a bundle group or the email would not be able to populate the bundle group data.

The preview of the bundle group email will be displayed only after selecting the Account Bundle Group to be used in the email.

New User Profile Column

A new column has been added to the User Profiles list to display the Dormant Date (the date a user profile became dormant). You can still search for dormant users by using an explicit dormancy date in the search field per this example: "dormantDate:2025-01-30."

Account Manager Worklist Note

When an exclusive worklist is reassigned due to an Account Manager action, a note is now recorded documenting the change.

Form Updating

We have updated the limitations to editing forms while another user is logged in and/or any job is running. Users are now permitted to edit forms and form fields with some exceptions, as described below.

While another user is logged into ACE or any job is running:

The following can be modified.

• Forms

  • Label

  • Description

  • Icon

  • Location

  • Number of Columns

  • Any/All Roles

  • Account View Visibility Logic

  • Custom Validation

• Form Fields

  • Misc1

  • Misc2

  • Label

  • Ui Label

  • Ui Label Style

  • Ui On Change

  • Tooltip

  • Field Visibility Role

  • Primary Key

  • Required

  • Hidden Display on Summary

  • Colspan

The following cannot be modified.

• Forms

  • Forms cannot be created, cloned or deleted

  • Form fields cannot be added to forms or deleted from forms

  • Allow Multiple Instances Per Type (cannot be modified after a form is created even when no other users are logged in and no jobs are running)

• Form Fields

  • Form field identifiers cannot be edited

  • The setting of the form field Searchable Boolean cannot be altered

  • Field type cannot be edited (cannot be modified after a form field is created even when no other users are logged in and no jobs are running)

Commission Tax

Commission Tax is no longer included in the Invoice Due Agency or Due Client amounts. It will only appear in the Tax Data if tax fields are configured.

For more details, see the article: Understanding Commission Tax in ACE.

Please note:

Customers using Commission Tax should review their invoices and update them as appropriate.

System Users Time Zone

When a customer's default time zone is updated, all system users will be automatically updated accordingly. This applies to admin users, job users, and super users, plus sample user profiles.

The default time zone is configured under Setup → Company Profile.

MMS Validation Notice

In November, 2024, we provided guidelines for using an email profile to send an MMS document as an image. See that in this article for details regarding that process: Creating a Validation Notice MMS.

When using the above mentioned process, urls that are represented by links in the email profile used will not be functional in an MMS message. Therefore, we are now providing a default MMS Validation Notice that includes the full urls.

The identifier for this profile is, "SAMPLE_VALIDATION_NOTICE_MMS."

ITMS Text Validation (AI Compliance Check)

ITMS Text Validation is no longer applied to messages in the “INFORMATION,” “OTHER,” and “CLIENT” categories. The body of text message profiles for the other categories will continue to be validated when attempting to save, displaying validation issues when applicable .

For more information, refer to the article: ITMS Setup in ACE.

VA 2.0 Primary Demographic

When Primary Demographic Priority 1 data (excluding the email address) is updated in ACE, the updated information will become the stored contact data for the consumer in VA 2.0.

VA 2.0 Bundle Details

Large bundles now load without error on the Bundle Details page. A new “Select All/None” option above “MAKE A PAYMENT” lets consumers quickly deselect all and then choose specific accounts to pay.

Please note:

Large bundles will continue to load until they are all listed. It may take a few moments.

VA 2.0 Default Profile

The DEFAULT preference (profile) in VA 2.0 can no longer be assigned client codes or be set to inactive.

• If a user attempts to assign a client code to the DEFAULT profile, an error message will be displayed, preventing the action.

• If a user attempts to set the DEFAULT profile to inactive, an error message will also be displayed.

VA 2.0 Custom Text

When cloning a VA 2.0 profile, the Custom Text File from the original profile is now retained. Previously, the new profile included the Custom Text file from the default VA 2.0 profile.

Please note:

The Default VA 2.0 profile cannot be cloned. Attempting to do so results in an error. Also, if a cloned profile hasn't been renamed, you can't clone it again without seeing a duplicate value error.

VA 2.0 Verbiage Update

The VA 2.0 verbiage on the "Forgot Password" and "Reset Password" screens have been updated to clarify that users receive an automatic login link instead of a password reset.

Audit Logs

There are two new Filter Options available in Audit Logs.

1. "HotkeyMacro" has been added. It can be used to identify action codes that have been created, deleted, or updated.

2. VirtualAgentPref has been added. It can be used to identify virtual agent profiles that have been created, deleted, or updated.

For more information on audit logs, see the article: “Tracking and Reviewing Audit Logs in ACE”.

Report Runner Job Task

The “Report Runner: Run as User” job task now includes a field for “Email to Addresses” so reports can be sent to email addresses that do not belong to ACE users. In addition, emailing reports in this way using this job task is updated as follows:

1. Reports created with an Output Format of HTML will now be delivered via email in-line now in addition to being attached so they can be downloaded.

2. If a report exceeds the size that is allowable in-line via email, the report will be delivered only as an attached file.

3. If a report exceeds the size that is allowable as an attachment via email, the Job will include this error: "[1] Report Runner: Run as User: Generated report document is too large to send via email." In addition, the admin user will receive an email regarding the failure.

Please note:

1. The Email Template used to send reports will not have the ${subject} field in context, so that template will need to have an explicit subject.

2. The Email Template will need the ${body} field to be included in the email Content in order to deliver the report in-line.

Job Notification Failures

Failed job notification emails now include the customer name in the subject line.

POP Email Job

The "Pops Email from Remote Server" job task now includes an option to delete emails from the inbox as they are retrieved. Additionally, the POP3 email job now distinguishes between "retrieved" emails and "processed" emails.

API Forward Data

Forward batch and forward vendor data is available via the api.

For more information, see the article: ACE API Documentation Overview.

TCN

Phone log matching to accounts has been optimized to more accurately associate TCN click-to-call phone logs to the correct account when the same phone number exists on multiple accounts.

For more details about TCN click-to-call, see this article: TCN Click to Call Agent Guide.

Fixed These:

• There was a scenario where text messaging was causing debt stats locking. That has been resolved.

• There was an error occurring when a consumer changed the payment amount after selecting the google pay method. This has been fixed.

• When > 1500 accounts in bundles available for bundle selector, there was a login failure. Behavior has been optimized and consumers are now able to log in and use bundle selector to access their accounts in that scenario.

• A scenario was discovered where consumers could exploit the “skip” option for modifying a payment plan in VA 2.0. This has been fixed.

• Inbound texts are now received even if a firewall restriction is in place restricting text messaging.

• When an ACE user attempts to go to an authenticated url before logging in, one that would take them to a specific account, for example, then they log in, ACE is attempting, unsuccessfully, to redirect them to that page. Now, the redirect will succeed in that situation and will not ask the user to lookup the account first.

• Nuvei ACH batches with transactions failed with NSF were showing a positive Deposit Balance. That has been fixed.

• Some ITMS vendor tracking times were not being populated. This has been fixed.

• When a text message was sent to a landline without immediately failing, but the message subsequently ended up being undeliverable, the onAfterTextMessageUnsuccessful trigger was not being initiated. That has been fixed.

• Archiving a large number of accounts in a single job run sometimes resulted in I/O error job failures.  This has been fixed.

• Rerun wasn’t working as expected when a scheduled plan payment failed. That has been fixed.

• Previously, users were taken to a different page when managing Unspread Transactions from an account vs from the Transactions → Unspread Transactions page. Now, when selecting “Unspread Transactions” from the sidebar, the user is now directed to a pending transactions page listing the unspread transactions and after selecting the pending transaction, the user is taken to the same page they would if they were selecting the transaction from a the Transactions → Unspread Transactions list.

• Amounts paid when netted out were not being included in invoice aging fields and totals. They are now.

• There was a scenario where an opt out confirmation email sent back to a consumer after the consumer submitted an opt out request via text would fail and the opt out for text messages would not be properly set on the phone demographic. This has been fixed.

• When an account had more than one opted-in email address but one of the email addresses was invalid and the send demographic email flow action was set to send to all opted-in email addresses, it was possible the validation notice return date would be set even though a validation notice was being sent to the valid email address. This has been fixed.

• There were some scenarios identified when an email was rejected before it could be sent and no failed email note was recorded. That has been fixed.

• After a failed payment in a payment plan, rerunning the payment was resulting in the payment landing in a closed or deposited batch. That has been fixed. In that scenario, an open batch will be used (and created if necessary).

• Customers on a custom branch are now able to view the correct Repository Branch.