ACE Release Notes - 07/17/2022

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

In addition to this month's release details, we've continued to put work in place expected to improve the efficiency of ACE debt access.

Be sure to check out the new section near the bottom of the release notes called "In Case You Missed It". This section will only be included if there are relevant details to share.

Attention: We are expecting the downtime for deploying this update to take about 10 minutes to complete, but it could take a bit longer. Please consider this when deploying.

All the best,

Your friends at The InterProse Corporation

Cool New Upgrades 

Job Improvement

The following functions in ACE Jobs have been improved across the board.

• The ability to "Stop" jobs in progress.
• The ability to see incremental progress in the progress bar.

Please Note: Due to the wide variety of functions being performed in different job tasks the way progress is represented may vary and some jobs may complete too quickly to be stopped.

Vendor Error Messages

Payment vendor error messages will now be represented in a distinct color and with a special icon so they are easily distinguished.

IMPORTANT: if you see error messages like this, please reach out to the vendor directly and ask them for their guidance investigating the error.

Prevent Text Message Reply Use

Users can now be prevented from being able to use the "Reply" option for text messaging. To manage this option, a new permission, TEXT_MESSAGE_REPLY, has been added to all permission roles which also have the TEXT_MESSAGE_MANAGE permission. In order to prevent a user from using the "Reply" option, ensure that the user does not have a permission role with that permission in it. Please reach out to support if you have questions about managing permissions.

Take a Closer Look 

 Letter Profile Delivery Methods

As of this release a "Delivery Method" has been added to Letter Profile setup in ACE to provide greater flexibility related to how you send letters and emails. The delivery methods can be used as follows.

1. Email or Letter - All existing letter profiles set up with ELS/Email Template options will be defaulted to this delivery method and there will be no changes to their setup. This delivery method can be used to send a letter by email or to send a letter via local print pdf or letter vendor if the consumer does not have an opted in email address.
2. Letter Only - All existing letter profiles that do not have associated ELS/Email Template options in place will be defaulted to this delivery method and there will be no changes to their setup. This delivery method can only be used to identify letter profiles that won't have ELS/Email options available.
3. Email Only
   1. This delivery method can be used to identify letter profiles that will only allow the delivery of letter content via email and will only work with the ELS Type of "Email Template" and an Email (Profile) Template ID selected.
   2. The ELS Type of "File Attachment" is not available for use with the "Email Only" delivery method but can still be used with the "Email or Letter" delivery method.
   3. An email letter vendor needs to be created for use with this Email Only delivery method.

Please Note:

• "Include PDF Document" can be used with an ELS Type of "File Attachment" to send the consumer an attached PDF letter including other account documents or it can be used with an ELS Type of "Email Template" to send the consumer an email with account documents attached.
• Settings throughout ACE related to Email, ELS, Email profiles and opt in set up may impact the way letter profile emails function.

Invoice Delay

A number of days can now be set to delay invoicing of transactions entered for a specific payment destination. After “invoice delay days” is populated in a payment destination, when a payment is entered for that destination, an “invoiceable date” will be stored to the debt transaction.

Please Note: This feature can be particularly useful in order to prevent ACH transactions from being invoiced before they have had time to be settled or returned.

When viewing the listed transactions from the account sidebar or in the spread transactions of a payment, a "Invoiceable Date" column is also now available to be added for visibility.

Making Things Right

Fixes or enhancements have been applied in the following areas:

• Progress no longer shows in multiple server instances after a job fails on one
• Blank phone numbers are no longer created with manual account entry
• User profiles now save when "Generate API Key" is used to retain keys
• Trans search results agent name now exports as name instead of ID#
• The grouping for some ETL mappable fields has been updated
• Now able to create Pay N Seconds payment destination
• Header search functionality working for Account Attorneys now
• Dispute table fields are now available to use in email profiles
• Account fields are now available to use in Opt-In Request email profile
• Last letter sent and number are no longer being erroneously recorded for firewall restricted accounts - Please Note: if a user is unable to see certain note types (like FIREWALL notes), the user may need to set the view for the filtered note type to false and then to true again to make them visible

Release Patch

Last weekend, we published a patch to the June 16, 2022 monthly release. An article with the following information about the patch fixing this was published to the release notes.

Release Correction

On June 27th, an email update was sent out with a correction to the May 12, 2022 monthly release notes.

We indicated incorrectly, that as of July 1, 2022, medical debts would be excluded from Metro2 files if they are not at least 365 days from the "Date Opened" field.

Here is the correct information about this change.

As of July 1, 2022, medical debts will be excluded from the Metro2 files if they are not at least 365 days from the "Client Delinquency Date" stored in the Debt Information section of the account page. If nothing is stored in the "Client Delinquency Date" field, medical debts will be excluded from the Metro2 file if accounts are not at least 365 days from the "Assigned Date" stored in the Debt Information section of the account page.