01/15/2023 ACE Release Notes; in this issue...

Validation Columns

Letter Column

Vendor Tracking

Text Alert Delay

Text Opt In / Opt Out

Freeform Text Messages

Additional Email Fields

Users UI Templates

onAfterELSOptOut

Text Message Send/Edit

Notes for New Primary Bundle Member

Net Remit Age

-- Followed by "Behind the Scenes" and "Fixed It" --

Be sure to review discoveries and developments "Behind the Scenes" where you'll find details of particular interest to ACE administrators

Each month we add new features to the ACE application, make improvements to existing features and fix problems that have been identified.

We didn't deploy a release in December 2022, so you'll see quite a bit of work delivered this month!

Deploying: we expect up to an hour of downtime to deploy this release.

Account Modified Errors have been interfering with your efficient workflow for a while now. Our development team has been hard at work trying to find a solution and it's arrived! 

These errors occurred when ACE was trying to prevent records from being overwritten while more than one person or automated workflow activity looked like it might interfere with another.

To resolve the problem, the development team set things up so that ACE will be able to recognize and simultaneously save actions to the same account that are not going to be in conflict.

Account Modified Errors will still occur occasionally to legitimately prevent simultaneous changes to the same data on the same account that might conflict.

You can expect a dramatic reduction in the errors moving forward.

Please Note: the existing behavior related to user entry of transactions and adjustments is not impacted by this change.  Multiple users can post the same or different amounts at the same time without seeing an error.

To improve data loading efficiency a new Boolean option is available for ETL Imports called Multithreading. You can expect data loading to be twice as fast when using the Multithreading option which it is currently available for use with the following ETL Load Methods.

1. Clients
2. Insurance Companies
3. Account Flags
4. Bankruptcy
5. Notes (Account)
6. Deceased
7. Disputes
8. Email Logs
9. Conversion Transactions (Transactions Load Method with Conversion = true)
10. Text Message Logs
11. Phone Logs
12. Letters
13. Legal Cases
14. Itemization Transactions

When the Multithreading Boolean for the above identified ETL Load Methods is set to true, data will automatically be loaded in concurrent threads. The number of Maximum ETL Threads that will be used automatically can be set under the Setup - System page and is optimally set between 10 and 30.

Please Note: The order of the data being loaded using this option is not explicit. Therefore if data being loaded is dependent on previous data being loaded from the same file, multithreading should not be used.

Validation Columns

Validation Notice Sent and End dates are now available to be displayed in the Bundle section of the Account page.

Letter Column

A column in the Letter Log is now available to display the Letter Vendor used for the letter.

Text Alert Delay

The text message supervisor alert delay is now available to be set in minute increments instead of hours.

Freeform Text Messages

An agent can now have the option to do any of the following actions if they have the TEXT_MESSAGE_CUSTOMIZE permission in a permission role assigned to their user profile.

• Use a text message template they have permission to
• Alter a template text message
• Freeform type a text message

Vendor Tracking

Vendor Tracking fields can now be viewed in Email Logs and can be loaded via the Email Log ETL Load Method.

Net Remit Age

There is now an option to "Restrict Past Due Remit By Terms" that can be set on an Invoice Profile. It is only visible as an option if "Include past Due On Remit" is already set to true.

When "Restrict Past Due Remit By Terms" is set to true, an invoice will not net out past due owing balances until the remit terms set on the client profile have been met.

Text Opt In / Opt Out

The following changes have been made to make text opting in and text opting out processes more clear. These columns are available to be displayed in the Phones section of an Account or Demographics page.

• When a consumer's phone number is opted out for text messages:
  • the prior opt in date is cleared out
  • the new opt out date is set
• If a consumer's phone number is opted in again for text messages:
  • the prior opt out date is cleared out
  • the new opt in date is set

Additional Email Fields

 The following have been added to the list of available fields for Email templates.

1. ${customerFooterInfo}
2. ${companyName}
3. ${host}
4. ${customerID}
5. ${today}

6. ${yesterday}
7. ${tomorrow}
8. ${currentMonth}
9. ${currentUser.firstName} <-- (or any user field)
10. ${document.label} <-- (and other document fields)

Users UI Templates

There is a new core report that can be used to list all users who have a particular User Interface (UI) Template applied to their user profiles.

There is also an option to find any user profiles without a UI Template identified by selecting "NONE" from the drop down.

The report can be found at Reports - Users - Users UI Templates.

onAfterELSOptOut

There is a now a new onAfterELSOptOut trigger available to be set up and used to perform other actions via Action Path Workflow.

Text Message Send/Edit

It's now possible to limit which ACE text messaging templates an agent has access to use for text messages to a consumer.

In the set up for a Text Message Profile, if the new "Send Role ID" field is left blank, it will be available to use by any agent with permission to send text messages. If it is populated, only agents with a matching Permission Role in their User Profile will be able to see it and use it.

The "Edit Role ID" is used in the same manner to distinguish the ability to edit a specific template in the vendor Text Message templates.

Notes for New Primary Bundle Member

Now when the Primary Bundle Member account changes, there will be notes reflected for the account it was changed from and the account it was changed to.

Behind the Scenes - Opt In/Opt Out Email URLs

The opt in and opt out URLs used by default in ACE Email templates have been updated. We now auto-generate the URLs using the tags below. Any email templates that were set up to use the original urls will be automatically updated with the tags identified here.

• ${demographicEmail.optInUrl}

• ${demographicEmail.optOutUrl}

Please Note: If you have altered the original default opt in or opt out URLs used in an email templates in ACE, please update them to reflect the appropriate field tags identified above.

Behind the Scenes - System Efficiency

Data is now loaded only in association with triggers that are active. This is expected to reduce system load and improve overall efficiency.

Behind the Scenes - Flow Action SQL Fields

A flow_action table with the following fields is now available for use in the SQL Designer and can be found for reference under Help - Layout - SQL Views.

This data can be used to help find root action paths and search for flow action properties. 

• flow_action_id
• parent_action_id
• true_action_id
• false_action_id
• type class_id

•  class_name
• action_order
• customer_id label
• description
• create_date

• created_by
• last_update
• last_updated_by
• user_action  

Behind the Scenes - API Documentation Update

A settlement plan example has been added to the API Documentation available in the Help menu.

Behind the Scenes - Action Path and Logic Links

The Workflow: Action Path Job Task now includes links to the Logic Block and Action Path objects selected in it.

Behind the Scenes - Action Paths

For administrators who regularly set up Action Paths, action labels now identify the object or objects selected when an action is added to an action path.

Please Note: If labels are manually modified when the action is set up, this new default behavior will not occur.

In the example below, the Letter selected to be sent when the action path fires is using Letter Profile ID #583 and the Letter Output Vendor #382.

• A problem where settlement transactions were creating overpayments instead of settlements was fixed.
• Zero dollar forward commission amounts can now be loaded with forward payments.
• The onAfterLetterRestriction trigger is now working firing as expected.
  Different formats of phone numbers can now be searched for in the text message manager.
• The ETL field layout is now available from the Help menu for the new ETL Account Forms Load Method.
• Demographic Type customized labels have been fixed so they are visible again in demographics, vendors and client access.
• A problem with an unselected debt Id column showing up in an Inventory Designer report has been fixed.
• Some payment reminders were not being scheduled as expected and are now.
• The Preferred Contact Method is no longer required when updating payment plans.
• The ages and averages that were not calculating correctly in ACE Core history and history analysis reports have been fixed.
• The debtStats table has been added to the letter data source so the fields in it are now available for letters.
• Phone ETL no longer overrides location type with "UNKNOWN" if the location is set in ACE and one is not mapped in the file.
• A correction has been made to the calculation of the assigned age field in the Forwards table.
• Supervisors are now alerted after the text vendor delay of any text messages when an associated primary agent is not logged in.
• Fixed some lists and drop down lists so they can show more than 25 records (CommissionRates, Attorneys, AccountAttorneys, Courts, InsuranceCompanies, PaymentDestinations, Authentications, CustomerHolidays).
• In the File Manager list, popup words no longer obscure the state of each file.
• Someauthorize.neterror codes that were mapped as system failure have been corrected.
• Accounts searches, logic block status code searches and VA logins are now case insensitive.
• The ${host} tag is now in available for Opt In emails.
• The TEXT_MESSAGE_CUSTOMIZE and TEXT_MESSAGE_REPLY permissions were added to the "Manage - Text Messaging Agent" Permission Role by default.
• Column headers are now sortable in the Text Msg Profile section of the Text Message Manager page.
• Payment trans data was not being correctly represented in transaction letters for payments spread to multiple bundle members and is now.
• Bundle current balance was not always being correctly represented in letters and is now.
• ACE text templates now only show up in relationship to the text message vendor associated with text messages being responded to.
• Last Updated and Last Updated By are now no longer being updated when a Job runs and are only being updated when something changes in a Job Task or the Job.
• Zero dollar client receivables are no longer displayed on invoices and in client ledger.
• Action Path's now update when a start letter series action needs to check whether or not a debt has an active letter series.
• LiveVox contact update now recalculates bundle balance. Interest bearing account bundle balances may expire and be inaccurate between contact updates.
• Account notes now show a previous worklist when an exclusive worklist changes. If changes are made at the same time to more than one non-exclusive worklist, only one non-exclusive worklist related to the change will be identified in the notes.
• A greater number of accounts can now be listed in the Bundle section of the Account page; the ability to show over 1500 has been verified.
• Users in ACE can now receive a reset (temporary) password via email whether or not the ACE application has a registered Email Host. To reset a password, select "Did you forget your password?" and follow the instructions.