ACE Release Notes - 5/09/2021

Hi (oops, I don't have your first name in our database!),

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

New Feature! - CFPB Compliant ELS Functionality

With the recent CFPB changes, it was determined that electronic letters (ELS) must contain the primary contents of a letter within the main body of an email instead of within an attached document. As a response ACE has expanded our ELS functionality to meet this need. Please see the 'Take a Closer Look' Section for details.

Cool New Upgrades

Electronic Letter Service

Special thanks to Credit Management Corporation for suggesting this feature.

Data reference use in ELS Subject Lines:

When working in ELS subject fields (ELS settings within a letter template), it is now possible to use our data reference format ('${tableName.fieldName}') to pull consumer account information into the subject line. Previously this field only accepted plain text input.

Transactions

Posting Transactions to Suspended Accounts:

When posting a transaction to a bundle that contains accounts in the suspended status code group, the account selector will automatically  exclude those accounts from receiving a part of the payment. 

ETL Profiles

Additional Fields:

The NTBF(Not to Be found) date field associated with legal cases is now available via ETL. We have also added the miscellaneous fields directly associated with addresses and phone numbers to ETL.

Letters

Addition of Deceased Table:

The deceased database table and all of its contained fields have been made available for use via letter templates. 

Custom Forms

Special thanks to Best Foot Forward Solutions Services for suggesting these form improvements.

Cloning Custom Forms and Form Fields:

It is now possible to clone an existing form or form field within ACE. Please see the 'Take a closer look' section for details.

Statute of Limitations

Special thanks to John Brown at Creditor Advocates Inc for suggesting the following SOL improvements.

Our Statute of limitations module has undergone numerous enhancements. Our goal is increasing ease and making it possible to automate even more specific scenarios that can occur when working with SOL rules.

Account Type:

The new Account Type feature can be used to identify subsets of accounts within a state that might have different SOL rules. These account types can be created under States>SOL Account Types. Account Types consist of an identifier and a label. Once created the account type needs to assigned in two locations, within the SOL rule you want to apply only to this account type, and the accounts you want affected by the SOL rule. You can also apply the account type at the client level instead of the account level (the SOL client type specification will affect all accounts under the client, but if an account level type is also set it will override the client level specification). 

As an example, we created the following account types:

If we navigate to a state profile (setup>states) and assign these account types to an SOL rule, only accounts that are also marked with that SOL account type will have the rule applied. In the example below, only accounts of type Medical Debt within the state of OR will have an SOL of 5 years applied:

Again, keep in mind this rule will only apply if the relevant accounts also have the account type specified in the SOL account type field under the debt information screen:

Account Field Function:

Our SOL ruleset now has the option to specify an override on what date the SOL is calculated from:

By default, our system will set an SOL date the specified number of years out from the client delinquency date or the account assigned date. If a date field is specified in the account field option, it will override the default and instead populate the SOL date based on that value.

Payment Revival Changes:

The “Payment Revival” option has been replaced with three options as follows.

• “Payment Revival - Before SOL” - Select this option if a payment posted prior to the SOL Date resets the age
• “Payment Revival - After SOL” - Select this option if a payment posted to after the SOL Date resets the age
• “Extinguish Account After SOL” - If this option is checked and the ‘onStatuteOfLimitationsDateElapsed’ trigger is active, on the SOL date the onStatuteOfLimitationsExtinguish trigger will fire any associated workflow

Take a Closer Look 

Cloning custom forms and form fields

It is now possible to clone an exact copy of an existing form or form field within ACE. To clone a form, use the new clone button located at the bottom left of the form configuration window under setup>forms:

When pressed, the system will prompt you for an identifier for the new form:

It is important to note, that once the identifier of the clone form is set it cannot be changed. After selecting 'ok' you will be moved to the new form, at that point you can continue to edit it like any other form:

It is a similar process to clone fields. Navigate to the field you wish to clone, press clone, specify an identifier and press 'Ok':

The result will be an exact copy of the field within the same form as the cloned field:

CFPB Complaint Email Overview

With our additional features for CFPB compliance several existing sections have been expanded upon. ELS sending is still controlled primarily from the letter profile, but email profiles (under setup>email) can now be linked to letter profiles directly. These email profiles have been upgraded to accept a more advanced form of HTML email formatting design. The next sections will review how to set up the new email method and where to build your email templates.

Selecting ELS method:
ACE can still send letters using its current settings (attaching a PDF copy of the letter to an email with a specified subject/body), the already existing system will not change. However, Two send methods are available now from your letter templates, 'file attachment' and 'email template':

If the user selects file attachment you will be presented with our familiar email interface:

Using this method will result in the traditional functionality of a specified email subject/body and a document attached containing a copy of the generated letter template.

Email template is the new method, Selecting email template will prompt you to select a template that exists in your setup>email>profiles section:

Any email template you have on your system under setup>emails>profiles will be selectable from the drop down menu shown above, a profile will have to be built for each letter template you wish to send via email using the new method.

If email template is selected and a email profile is specified, that email profile will be sent in place of the letter template (if the consumer has an opted in email address). 

Building an Email Profile:

Navigate to setup>emails>profiles and select new, you will be presented with the following view:

• The identifier specifies the name you will see for the profile in the 'Email Template ID' field.
• The subject Field will contain the subject line for the email when it is sent.
• The template field is optional and allows you to upload a text document containing HTML formatting for the body of the email.

Once the identifier and subject line are added and applied, the view will transform slightly, the window will now have HTML template and preview windows:

HTML Template Window:

The HTML template window is where the email body is designed, if you uploaded a template document any HTML within the file will be imported into the window. The template field accepts the HTML email format along side our standard data field referencing format('${tableName.fieldName}'). As an example, if you wanted the email to populate with the first name of the consumer you would use $(primaryDemographic.firstName}.

It is possible to use our loop functionalities within the email body, you may be familiar with loops from our letter profiles. Simply specify the desired loop from the available drop down menu and the system will insert the necessary formatting for the information to be passed into your email.

Loop being selected from dropdown menu:

Resulting HTML generated by the selection:

Additional data fields can be added to the loops, any fields specified between the loop statements (<ACTIVE_bundle_loop> in the example above) will be included:

Preview Window:

The preview window, located below the HTML Template window will update with a live view of your written HTML. As you input formatting or add loops it will display what the result would look like in an email:

Making Things Right

- Repay ACH transactions failures will now display the provider error message.

- Fixed a bug with unusual characters in an address field causing it to error.

- Fixed an issue with parsing names loaded using the unified names field via ETL.

- Fixed an issue that caused the service fee bucket to display the same with every payment in a plan regardless of payment amount.

- Fixed an issue where the 'doing business as' field had a different character limit when uploaded via ETL

- Fixed an issue that prevented addresses merging from new bundle members to the primary account when the accounts were added using the pending bundle feature.

Join the ACE User Forum in Slack^® Today!

Recently, InterProse chose to partner with AccountsRecovery.net to leverage their FREE industry Slack workspace offered to the ARM industry. We saw this as an opportunity to not only bring a modern user forum format, but also encourage our customers to engage more in the in the excellent resources AccountsRecovery.net provides its readers and content sponsors. 

Just like all of the webinars provided through AR.net, there are no costs associated with this Slack application and the forum is run by ACE users, for ACE users. Click the link below and ask Mike Gibb or Aaron Reiter through the Slack platform to add you to the private #InterProse channel!

https://join.slack.com/t/accountsrecovery/shared_invite/zt-pp092dyp-vWeN0hgyegRfGuThN7x6GQ