ACE Release Notes - 02/20/2022

Below are the updates and fixes we will be pushing out to all of our customers. 

We can’t wait to deliver further improvements to you in the months ahead!

We are expecting the downtime for deploying this update to be ten to fifteen minutes.

All the best,

Your friends at The InterProse Corporation

Regulation F

Check out the "Take a Closer Look" section where we outline the eighth phase of new features and tools in ACE being rolled out with this release to help you manage Regulation F requirements.

Cool New Upgrades 

File Manager

Copying and pasting of files in the file manager has been simplified.

New Permissions/Permission Roles

• A new permission is available that can be used to enable or prevent users from removing accounts from a bundle. The new permission, ACCOUNT_BUNDLE_SAVE, has been injected into existing permission roles to maintain existing system permissions. To prevent users from being able to remove accounts from a bundle, the new permission can be removed from any permission role the users have where the permission now exists.

• A new permission is available to enable or prevent users from updating names in a demographic record. The new permission, DEMOGRAPHIC_NAME_UPDATE, has been injected into existing permission roles to maintain existing system permissions. To prevent users from being able to update names in a demographic record, the new permission can be removed from any permission role the users have where the permission now exists.

• A new permission role called Manage - Collection Cost is available to enable a user to manage a new collection service cost calculation feature. See the "Take a Closer Look" section below for more details related to the new feature.

Client Access Itemization

When client access users add new account itemization details without itemization transactions, the amount entered into "plus fees" will now result in automatically generated fee bucket itemization transactions which will be visible in the customer's application when viewing account itemization details.

Please note: expected behavior may vary depending on a customer's use or alteration of Compliance Itemization Mapping defaults in ACE.

Client Access Account Documents

Client access users can now be given the ability to load documents to new accounts they have entered.

Client Access Disputes

Dispute entry tools can now be made available to client access users. A client access user with this access can access "Disputes" from the left sidebar and enter a dispute record to the account. After saving the dispute record, the entered dispute will be visible from "Disputes" for the account in the customer's ACE application. 

Please note: it is important to always consider any action path workflow set up in an ACE application that might be triggered when a customer is being given access to collector level tools.

Mail Return Reasons

Mail return reasons are now available to view in address lists and in the account summary section.

First Party Letters

A new first party letter category has been added to the list of categories available for letter profiles in ACE.

Letter ETL Profile

A new letter ETL profile is available to be used when details related to sent letters need to be updated in ACE. The primary use case for this loader is the ability to load mail return data associated with a specific letter that was sent out of ACE.

Reassigned Phone Numbers

A new phone number status can now be applied to phone numbers in ACE.

Bundle Group Letters

Three additional fields are now available for bundle group letters.

• bundleGroup.clientAccountNumbers - will include each bundleGroup client account number with a comma between the account numbers.
  • Example: 12, 13, 14, 123456789
• bundleGroup.clientAccountNumbersMasked - will include only the last four characters of each bundleGroup client account number with a comma between the account numbers .
  • Example: 12, 13, 14, 6789
• bundleGroup.itemizationDateMostRecent - if the bundleGroup accounts have different itemization dates, only the most recent calendar date will be displayed when using this field for a letter.

Please note: client account numbers may contain a combination of letters and numbers.

Job Task ID

The job task ID# is now visible in the title bar of each job task set up for a job.

Wild Cards for Searchable Form Fields

Wild cards (* or %) can now be used when searching for data in indexed (searchable) form fields.

• The form fields must be set up as searchable to be visible in the accounts search tools.
• One or more wild cards can be used to replace one or more characters stored to that form field in an account.
• Accounts that contain the text adjacent to the wild card(s), in the same order, will be returned by the search.

Take a Closer Look 

Collection Service Cost Calculation

A new tool is available that customers can use to calculate costs associated with working accounts.

1. With the new permission role, Manage - Collection Costs, a user will be able to identify the value of specific work by entering costs under Setup -> Collection Costs.
2. There is a new trigger, onAfterCostsExceedBalance, that can be associated with a action path to fire if the total collection costs for an account exceeds the current balance of the account.
3. A new sidebar tool, "Collection Costs", will display the current collection costs and total accrued for the account.

Regulation F Development - Phase 8

The CFPB's 12 CFR Part 1006 (Regulation F) went into effect November 30, 2021. With that in mind, InterProse developed targeted features and tools in ACE to help customers better manage Regulation F requirements. Per documentation shared with customers September 25th and October 1st via email, the eighth and final phase of the originally scheduled ACE Regulation F development work will be released on February 20th as outlined in the details below.

As additional tools and features and updates are identified, we will continue to communicate any related content with our regular scheduled releases.

Thank you for your patience and your contribution of information as we focused so much attention on the challenges posed by Regulation F.

Need: Firewall restriction from campaign files

New tools are now available to restrict communication via one or more channels (letter, phone, email, text). The original firewall tools were limited to restricting letters. The new tools are available under Setup -> Compliance ->

• Firewall Rules - A firewall rule applies a firewall restriction to accounts selected based on a logic block
• Firewall Restrictions - A number of firewall restrictions, listed below, are available to configure and apply to accounts using a firewall rule
• Be on the lookout for future help content in ACE related to setting up and using new feature

Need: Model form template (email)

A new SAMPLE_VALIDATION_NOTICE email profile is now available in ACE mirroring the details in the Regulation F Model Validation Notice letter. The email notice includes tokens a consumer can use to be linked directly to three nodes in the ACE Virtual Agent. By default, new ACE customer applications will have the three nodes set up in the Virtual Agent, which allow a consumer receiving the email to link to options to

1. view details about the original credit grantor,
2. make a payment/set up a payment plan or
3. submit dispute details related to the account.

Please note: existing customers who would like to enable this workflow will need to have changes made to their virtual agent view editor and manage variables.

Be watching for new help content in ACE related to this topic.

Because the setup and management of this feature is advanced, assistance with managing virtual agent customization associated can be expected to require time and materials or the use of available support hours.

Need: Account attorney communication without using demographic

A new letter profile "Mail To Address" option is available that can be used to send a letter to an account attorney's address stored in ACE and associated with the consumer's account.

Need: A method to override 7 calls/contact attempts in 7 consecutive days when state requirements are more strict (example: Washington state allows no more than 3 calls/contact attempts in 7 days)

There is a new section in the State settings for "Contact Window Override".

• It's available via Setup -> States -> States.
• If the state associated with the primary demographic on an account matches a state with a contact window override in place the state contact window will supersede the default contact window.
• The default contact window setup is available via Setup -> Compliance -> Settings.

Need: Federal holiday default

Three years of federal holidays for the U.S. or for Canada will now be updated via a new job task. The holidays can be viewed in the bottom section of the company profile (Setup -> Company Profile). For other workflow impacts, a admin may modify the holiday schedule in their Company Profile, but the default U.S. and Canada federal holidays applied will continue to be considered by ACE when calculating the validation notice end date.

Making Things Right

- Fixed an issue where email addresses were being opted out due to case

- Fixed in window contacts so they update daily

- Fixed logic block SQL being cut short based on syntax

- Fixed report runner user notification for empty reports

- Fixed the ability to select contact and no contact call results

- Fixed phone ETL for loading of contact priority

- Fixed Sonnet notification updates

- Fixed view account attorneys without viewing account first

- Fixed debtBuckets.clientVisibleBalance for invoices

- Fixed duplicate document filename extension issue

- Fixed so triggers don't fire onPaymentPlanMove job task

- Fixed chargebacks so they appear as NSF instead of failure