Release Notes for ACE 10/10/2021

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 first phase of new features and tools in ACE being released to help you manage Regulation F requirements.

Admin users, be watching for invitations to attend informative webinars in the days following each release with Regulation F development. The webinars will also be recorded and stored in ACE help for future reference.

Cool New Upgrades

Credit Reporting

1. Accounts with a primary demographic age, per the date of birth, under eighteen will now be automatically blocked from credit reporting.
2. There is no longer a need to select Metro2 when setting up a credit reporting vendor. Metro2 is now the default credit reporting file type in ACE.
3. Credit reporting file name formatting will now include the name of each credit bureau being reported to and file naming will be updated automatically to match that format. For example: METRO2-CUSTOMER-OUT.* will be something like METRO2-EXPERIAN-CUSTOMER-OUT.* - Please note: customers may need to rename file masks for document transfer to tasks. If your admin has not received notification on this topic, please reach out to support to make sure we have the correct admin for communication.
4. A company name will now be reported in the J2 Segment of the Metro2 file in place of first and last name along with the NCOA code of "W" per the following.

• Under Setup -> Vendors -> Credit Reporting -> selected vendor Export Information "Report Company Name" Boolean is set to true (checked)
• The account primary demographics must have a populated name AND a populated company name

ETL History

The speed to load ETL history has been improved.

ETL import (delta) messages will no longer be retained for more than a year, but the history record will still be retained and visible showing the file name and ETL Import Profile used.

Insurance Table Lookups

The speed of looking up insurance data has been improved.

File Manager

Sub-folders in the file manager can now be deleted by a user with the permission to remove folders.

SQL Letter Loops for LibreOffice Letter Templates

🚧 advanced feature - use with caution 🚧

Use case example: you need a list of bundled accounts in a specific status with calculated values representing specific settlement options. A custom letter loop can be written by your administrative staff or InterProse support (at time & materials) so the current data is available on demand in a local print letter.

Custom letter loop reports can now be set up using the SQL Designer, downloaded as csv files, registered as LibreOffice databases and accessed as data sources to for LibreOffice local print letter templates.

For more information regarding this feature, advanced users with SQL familiarity and ACE letter profile set up can review the new help file document titled, "SQL Letter Loops (for local print letter templates)".

This new feature provides a method to present multiple rows of data associated with a consumer account in a table. There are a few letter loops available to local print letters by default. An active bundle loop is one example. The new feature is only to be considered when a default letter loop does not meet the need.

Please Note - SQL Designer Report Letter Loop data is not available for letter vendor files

Please reach out to support if you would like to request InterProse develop custom SQL Letter Loops for you at time & materials.

Take a Closer Look

Regulation F Development Development - Phase 1

The CFPB's 12 CFR Part 1006 (Regulation F) has a version that will go into effect November 30, 2021. With that in mind, InterProse is developing 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 first phase of this development work will be released on October 10th as outlined in the details below.

Please note: There are new permission roles associated with this development that may need to be modified for administrative and management users as you work through the new tools and features. They include, "Manage - Account Validation Notice Fields" and "Manage - Itemization Fields". These two permission roles are applied to admin and job users by default.

Need: A method to identify letter, text and email profile by use case

A required category is now available to be set for each letter, email and text profile set up in ACE. Existing profiles will be defaulted to "OTHER".

Need: To be able to store itemization transactions

• Transactions the client applied to the debt between the itemization date and the assignment date; can be itemized/included in the "Itemization Transactions" section of the Itemization page accessible from the account sidebar.
• A new ETL Load Method of "Itemization Transactions" will be available for use to load itemization transactions associated with accounts between the Itemization Date and the Assignment Date which are available in a loadable file with the associated data. A copy of the layout will be available in ACE help by searching for "ETL Import - Itemization Transaction Layout" after the release and can be downloaded using the link there.

Need: To be able to store a selected itemization date and itemization balances per the model form validation notice requirements

• The screenshot above shows the Itemization page where the itemization date, itemization source and balance as of the itemization date can be entered manually at the account level.
• Pending Interest reflects any interest not yet serialized in ACE.
• If the Itemization Current Balance does not match the Account Current Balance, a red alert displaying "Itemization Mismatch" will be displayed. In the example shown, one of two things is incorrect. Either the $15.00 fee in the itemization transactions does not belong OR the balance as of itemization date is off by $15.00. (When I applied the corrected balance to $990.00, the alert went away, meaning the $15.00 was applied AFTER the itemization date, but BEFORE the account was assigned for collections)
• If a default Itemization Date Source is identified in the client profile it will be used for new accounts loaded unless an itemization data source is loaded with the accounts. The itemization date source options listed are limited to the options permitted for Itemization Date use per Regulation F.

Need: A place to store the itemization creditor name

If data is not loaded or entered/updated to the Itemization page (see screenshot above), the itemization creditor name will be populated as follows.

• If the collection type is debt buyer (OC), the ACE customer's (agency's) company name will be used
• If the collection type is not debt buyer, the original credit grantor company name will be used
• If there is no original credit grantor populated, the client's name will be used

Need: A description of the itemized debt for the validation notice

A default "Itemization Description" is now available to be stored in the client profiles.

Need: A validation notice end date

When the last letter in the "Validation Notice" category is sent on an account, the "Validation Notice End Date" which was presented on the letter will be stored to the account.

The Validation Notice End Date is calculated in ACE based on a 30 (calendar) day window plus a Validation Notice buffer period. The buffer period is based on business days. It doesn't include weekends and holidays. Please note the following.

• Under Setup -> System, you can adjust your Validation Notice Letter Buffer and Validation Notice Email Buffer; the default buffer will be 5
• Customers must go to Setup -> Company Profile and enter all holidays that must be considered for the buffer period including federal holidays; InterProse plans to develop a default set of federal holidays to apply to the buffer in the future, but it is not available at this time; the section these need to be entered in is called, "Holidays/Non Work Days" and it is at the bottom of the Company Profile page

Need: To be able to store the validation notice sent date per validation period

When the last letter in the "Validation Notice" category is sent on an account, the "Validation Notice Sent Date" will be stored to the account (see the screenshot above).

Need: Do not text option on account page

There is now a "Do Not Txt" option available for use in the Debt Information section of the ACE account page.

Need: A model form template

A sample model form template per Regulation F is now available for local print letters. A copy of it can be located in ACE help by searching for Sample Model Validation Notice Template and downloaded to be copied. 

You will need to copy it to a new LibreOffice template and modify it as appropriate for your company's needs and per your legal team's guidance. The LibreOffice template includes comments related to data represented in the model validation notice. You should be able to safely keep the comments in the template without them showing up on the generated letters and doing so may be helpful to anyone updating the template in the future.

The letter profile set up requires the "Validation Notice" category to be selected in order for the validation notice dates to be populated to the letter and stored in ACE correctly when the notice is scheduled.

Interest will now be serialized (based on interest settings in ACE) when the validation notice is scheduled.

Making Things Right

- The Legal Case Court Date Age field now correctly reflects the age based on the Legal Case Court Date when placed in the account summary section

- The "Accounts Documents: Transfer From" job task now checks for duplicate file names and does not load documents already transferred

- The onBeforePaymentPlanInsert trigger now correctly propagates primary agent across bundles

- Sessions will now expire as expected

- The Assignment History Analysis Report will now correctly run from a job