Release Notes 11/17/2024

Deploy

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

In This Issue

• Validation Notice MMS

• SchemaSpy

• Status and Summary Demographic Details

• Send to Account

• Document Sidebar

• Payment Plan Source

• Document File Mask

• Historic Address ETL

• User Goal ETL

• Phone Locations

• Credit Card CVV

• External Payment Option

• Payment/Plan Redirect Options

• Commission Tax

• Alerts

• API Update

• Notes

Validation Notice MMS

When using the following new option, a message that would otherwise be delivered as an SMS text will be converted to MMS with an image representing the validation notice. The image can be zoomed in and out for clear viewing.

Placing ${email.EMAIL_VENDOR_IDENTIFIER.EMAIL_TEMPLATE_IDENTIFIER} in a text template will result in an MMS being sent instead of an SMS. For example:

${email.DEFAULT.SAMPLE_VALIDATION_NOTICE}

When using the following new option, a message that would otherwise be delivered as an SMS text will be converted to MMS with an image representing the validation notice that can be clearly viewed on the recipient's device by zooming in and out.

Please note:

A distinct email profile should be created for this purpose. The template should be updated to replace urls links with text. The links will not be functional in an MMS message. A sample template for this will be provided at a later date.

It is also important to test this process. Some fonts and formatting options may display poorly on phone devices.

This feature is only available with InterProse Text Message Service (ITMS).

SchemaSpy

SchemaSpy has been integrated to provide a clearer, more navigable view of our database schema.

This tool offers a visual representation of tables, relationships, and structures, allowing for easier analysis and understanding of the database's organization and connections.

Status and Summary Demographic Details

Demographic status change results and summary visibility to changes have been updated as follows:

1. When a phone number or email address is in the “VERIFIED” status, a green/white checkmark will show in the summary section

2. When a phone number is opted in for texting, the chat bubble that is shown is now green instead of black

3. When a consumer opts in a phone number for text, the phone number status will automatically update to “VERIFIED”

4. When a consumer opts in an email address, the email address status will automatically update to “VERIFIED”

5. When a consumer opts out an email address, the email address status is updated to “DO_NOT_CONTACT”

6. When a consumer opts out a phone number for texting, the phone number status is NOT updated to “DO_NOT_CONTACT”

Send to Account

A document in the File Manager can now be moved to an account by right clicking the file, selecting the "Send To Account" option, entering an Account number and selecting "Submit."

Only one document can be moved at a time and the document will no longer be in the original location. The state of the checkbox next to the file is not used.

Please note:  

In order to use this option, the user must have the "FILE_SAVE" permission which, by default, is part of the "Manage - Files" permission role.

Documents Sidebar

The Account Documents link has been moved up on the sidebar and now has a count showing how many documents are stored to the accounts page.

Payment Plan Source

Knowing the reason a consumer made a payment or set up a payment plan can be immensely useful. This is especially important in order to track the effectiveness of your campaigns.

In September we introduced fields to store the Email and Text Message Source of Payments and Payment Plans having been entered.

In October we added Direct as a Source.

This month we’ve expanded and refined the Source stored in ACE for Payments and Payment Plans based on a variety of common workflows.

To understand how source, source id (email, text, letter log ids, etc.) and source type values are being populated, please review the flow chart that can be found at Source Flowchart Article for additional details.

In the future, new reports using this data will be made available.

Document File Mask

When a document is uploaded to an account in ACE and the VA 2.0 profile’s “Document File Mask,” is the reason it will be VA Visible to consumers in the VA 2.0, a light green checkmark will be shown in the VA Visible column on the documents page.

If the reason the file is VA Visible is not the VA 2.0 profile’s “Document File Mask,” the checkmark will continue to be shown but it will not be a darker green.

If the file is not VA Visible, there will be no checkmark.

Please note: The “Document File Mask,” is case sensitive in relationship to the files being uploaded. It is also important to note that changes to the VA 2.0 profile’s “Document File Mask,” should be followed by a clearing of cache before testing behavior. (irregular results while testing if I did not clear cache first)

Please note:

• The “Document File Mask,” is case sensitive in relationship to the file types being uploaded (think .jpg vs .JPG).

• It is also important to note that changes to the VA 2.0 profile’s “Document File Mask,” should be followed by a clearing of cache before testing behavior. Failing to do so may cause irregular results.

Historic Address ETL

A historical option is now available when using the Address ETL Method. Using it is expected to improve performance for conversion purposes under circumstances where non demographic data may otherwise be eligible for propagation.

The following fields will not be propagated when "Historical" is set to true for the Address ETL load method.

• PrimaryCollectorID

• PrimaryCollectorExpireDate

• PrimaryCollectorMethod

• PrimaryCollectorName

• PrimaryCollectorUsername

• PrimaryCollectorUsername

• SecondaryCollectorID

• SecondaryCollectorExpireDate

• SecondaryCollectorMethod

• SecondaryCollectorName

• SecondaryCollectorUsername

• Score1

• Score2

• Score3

• Score4

• Score5

• DebtStatusCode

• AccountAttorneyID

• DoNotCall

• DoNotMail

• DoNotEmail

• DoNotTxt

• NextWorkDate

• NextWorkTime

• ImportantNote

• PostingNotes

• NextStep

• GroupIdentifier

• PromisedPaymentAmount

• PromisedPaymentDate

User Goal ETL

There is a new ETL Load Method that can be used to update User Goals.

Fields available to be used include:

1. User ID

2. Username

3. Month - standard date formats can be used but only the month or year will be used/loaded. For example the following formats will both load only month and year for the Goal Month and Year:

   1. YYYY-MM

   2. YYYY-MM-DD

4. Goal Amount

Please note:  

Failures of data to load when using this ETL Load Method can be viewed in ETL History Messages and will not be included in the Job Log Messages when data in the file cannot be loaded.

Phone Locations

Phone text opt in behavior has been updated as relates to recorded phone number locations as follows:

When a phone number is stored as a “Mobile” location and sent an opt in request, if it is not a mobile number, the location will be automatically updated to “Unknown”

When a phone number is stored as a “Unknown” location and sent an opt in request, if it is a mobile number, the location will be automatically updated to “Mobile”

Credit Card CVV

Credit Card payment and payment plan credentials now require that a CVV be entered in ACE and VA 2.0.

This should reduce your merchant processing fees.

External Payment Option

There is now an external payment option label and an external payment option link that can be used to redirect the consumer to a url outside of the VA 2.0.

The fields are available to be populated under “Payment Options.”

Once in place, these options define how a "Pay with" option will be labeled on the payment page a consumer sees in the VA 2.0 and the page that the consumer will be redirected to when using that option.

Payment/Plan Redirect Options

There are now two new fields in the VA Profile that, when populated with a url, will re-route the consumer to a page associated with the url

1. Payment Link Override → will reroute when a “Make a Payment” button is selected from the VA 2.0 Summary, Details or History pages

2. Payment Plan Link Override → will re-route when “Set up a payment plan” button is selected from the VA 2.0 Summary page

If no url is populated, Payment and Payment Plan options will continue to behave as before.

If the url does not function, the link will fail and/or the browser will display an error. In that event, the url used should be re-verified and corrected in the VA profile.

Commission Tax

A second commission tax rate is now available to be configured under Clients → Commission Tax and to be set in Client profile Preferences.

This will enable the feature to meet a Commission Tax calculation requirement in Canada.

For more details related to configuration of Commission Tax in ACE along with examples of how it is used, please review our updated article: Understanding Commission Tax in ACE.

Alerts

Chat alerts will now be displayed at the top of the alert list with the latest alert at the top.

Alert sound behavior has been updated as follows:

• After login, elapsed alerts will include notification sound.

• While still in ACE,

  • previous alerts won’t be repeated.

  • new alerts will include notification sound.

• Browser cache will retain alert history and will not repeat alerts for 8 hours

• Alert sounds will be repeated based on the behavior above only once within each 8 hour period based on the browser cache.

• After 8 hours the same elapsed alerts will be repeated.

API Update

API Documentation has been updated.

The two menu options, original (API Documentation) and (API 2 Documentation) have been replaced with the updated API documentation.

This update includes the ability to search for an account based on phone number.

Notes

Fields that are both included in context and included in an Action Code Note SET_VALUE string will now include the populated value from the field in the stored note.

Fixed These:

• Debt flags were not working correctly when used in logic blocks used as logic conditions in an action path. The logic condition from the action path was only considering the debt flag selection and not the other logic parameters. That has been fixed.

• A discrepancy was identified where switching between accounts and account pages was resulting in incorrect email logs being displayed and subsequently not having the correct status stored. That has been fixed.

• Accounts with a refunded overpayment record were not being archived as expected. This has been fixed.

• When a payment plan is auto adjusted to zero to prevent overpayment, the spreader was being removed and causing an error. This has been fixed.

• Email “Account Documents” were not downloading with the appropriate file type. That has been fixed.

• Duplicate accounts showed up in the bundle list for a specific scenario where protected accounts were part of a bundle but not permitted for the user. That has been fixed.

• In Logic Blocks, using “Return Primary Account Only,” previously worked for logic blocks (for example in job tasks) but not for logic conditions in action paths. Those now work in Action Paths. Please Note: CUSTOM logic used to isolate primary debts works in logic blocks but WILL NOT WORK in logic conditions for Action Paths.

• When using cancel from the email logs page, a user was being automatically logged out. That has been fixed and the user is now returned to the account page.

• The demographic_email_id was not being populated in the email_queue table for ELS emails being sent. It is now.

• Changing fields on the compliance page and save was resulting in an error. That has been fixed.