This month's Release Notes email highlights changes focused on making your sales and servicing operations more streamlined and cost-efficient. For a comprehensive view of all the new features released, click the link at the end of this document. Get ready to elevate your journey with Forth!
What's New (9)
New Role Permission for Viewing ACH Credits
This feature updates permission settings ("View ACH Credits") to allow the viewing of ACH credit fees in the enrollment schedule plan within the CRM application, independent of the Accounting Tab access, so that I can efficiently support customers with accurate payment schedule information while maintaining restricted access to sensitive accounting data. The goal is to provide customer service representatives with the necessary data to support customer inquiries effectively; yet maintain data security by restricting access to sensitive accounting information. This feature is housed within the enrollments section of the permissions page. This permission should be enabled by default for all roles with access to the "Accounting" Tab in permissions. NOTE: This feature is gateway agnostic and only reflects what transaction types a user can see regardless of the gateway the consumer is enrolled in.
New Tag to Transmit Signed Contract/Gateway Authorization via Webhook
This new feature allows clients to transfer documents via Webhook uploaded in the "Signed Contract / Gateway Authorization" section on the Contact dashboard to the "Signed Contract / Gateway Authorization" section of a specified internal Forth account. We developed a new Webhook field method to enable copying documents from the "Signed Contract / Gateway Authorization" section to the same section of a designated Forth account, as specified by the {ACCTID}-{ID} value pair using the POST HTTP method.
Company Hierarchy for Servicing Submission Report
This new and easy-to-use feature allows affiliate users to view Servicing Submission reports that only include clients associated with their direct company and any sub-companies beneath it in their company hierarchy, ensuring that they access only the relevant and permissible data. With this feature, we implemented a "Filter By Company" dropdown menu on the servicing report interface. This dropdown will dynamically populate with options reflecting the organizational hierarchy, including an "All" companies option for parent company users, individual companies, and their respective sub-companies. The dropdown menu and the filtering functionalities adapt in real time to any changes in the organizational hierarchy, such as additions, removals, or company/sub-company restructurings. This update facilitates easy navigation and application of filters based on the company hierarchy. and aligns servicing report access with the company's hierarchy, ensuring users can only access data permitted by their role.
New Trigger Condition for Contact Form Name
This new feature provides a dropdown sequence for the "Intake Form" selection. When users select "Contact Created (Form)" or "Contact Updated (Form)" under "Event Name", they can further specify the condition under which this trigger should activate. Now you can select "Contact" and then "Intake Form" from a subsequent dropdown, with the option to set the condition to "equals", “Does Not Equals” etc. Afterward, another dropdown menu appears, listing all available intake forms related to the user's account. This will ensure that these triggers are only activated by submissions from specific intake forms.
Delete Enrollment Plan Permission
This new feature allows the ability to assign specific users permission to delete enrollment plans while preserving the integrity of compensation templates during plan modifications. We created a specific role permission for the deletion of enrollment plans, maintain compensation templates when enrollment plans are modified or deleted; and now provide a clear audit trail of enrollment plan deletions. The Enrollments tab now displays a new permission checkbox labeled "Delete Enrollment Plan". Only users with this permission can remove enrollment plans on the contact record without the compensation template reverting to its default settings. Every deletion of an enrollment plan is logged in the system audit trail, capturing the date, time, user, and description of the activity in a format consistent with other actions already logged.
Client Balance Forecaster
With this new feature, the Forth system now includes several improved functionalities with our enhanced Forecaster feature! Key Enhancements include:
Enhanced Payment Schedule Editing: Simplifies the management of payment dates and amounts through interactive views and drag-and-drop functionality.
Debt Settlement Scenarios Creation: Offers simulations for potential settlement payments over time, considering incoming debt amounts and historical settlement rates.
User Interface Updates: Our Enrollments Details page now features an updated "Forecast" tab with clear visual indicators, including interactive payment schedules and warnings for negative balances.
The benefits of this feature include clear warnings for potential negative balances when altering payment dates; a more streamlined payment management process allowing for bulk updates and balance forecasting; and support for managing multiple debt settlements with ease, reducing manual calculation efforts. These updates were designed to enhance your efficiency in managing payment schedules and debt settlements. Please see our video link for a comprehensive review of these features.
Send Clixsign Docs/Packages Via Trigger Through SMS
With this feature, we have created the capability to send Clixsign documents and document packages via triggers to support sending and receiving. We have updated the actions to contain options for “Generate and Send Package to Clixsign via SMS” and “Generate and Send Document to Clixsign via SMS”. One of the new triggers will generate and send a document package via SMS. The second new trigger will generate and send an individual document via SMS. The user must have the option to select the To number (inherit from Send SMS Trigger) where a number from the contact is specified and the “From Number” where numbers for the account are listed to be used (same as SMS trigger action). Users of this feature may specify primary and secondary signers, in addition to the message (SMS template) that gets sent. Benefits of this feature are: Enable SMS Delivery to introduce the ability to send Clixsign documents/packages via SMS; Improve Client Engagement to provide a more direct and accessible method for document delivery; and Enhance Operational Efficiency to streamline the process of sending contracts and important documents. NOTE: Using this depends on clients having a valid SMS integration (Twilio/Ytel).
Forth Credit 1.1
This new feature includes several large updates to the Forth Credit (powered by Spinwheel) system. The set of updates includes:
Pull Debts upon Receipt of “Completed” Status Webhook - We created a webhook to use Forth Credit's notifications to capture when liability/debt data and the PDF are available via API. When notification is complete, the system initiates a GET user event for liabilities, and PDF data, upon receipt of the "Completed" status.
Allow Sending Co-App Credit Request while Sending Applicant Request - Adds co-applicant credit pull support from the main applicant’s contact dashboard. Now, users can complete a co-applicant credit pull after a main applicant credit pull when using Forth Credit as the credit provider.
Company Access Controls for Forth Credit - Enables users to modify company access and other settings in the account related to Forth Credit. We added a page for Forth Credit to "Integration Settings", that can turn on the option to view and edit settings for a user with the permission “Add/Edit Integrations”.
Add Credit Score and Monthly Payment Information - Displays credit score and monthly payment information from Forth Credit onto the top right of the “Debts” subtab located within the contact dashboard of the CRM.
Credit Utilization Field - Displays credit utilization rates, allowing users to track credit utilization within the CRM to help measure the client’s financial health and current situation.
Update Identity Connect and Debt Connect Flows - This update allows easier consumer verification to perform credit pulls via Forth Credit. Users may launch the Identity Connect and or Debt Connect flows on the “Debts” tab on the contact dashboard via buttons titled “FORTH Credit Identity Verification” and "FORTH Credit KBA Verification". Credit Identify Connect texts the customer a link pre-populated with their phone number and date of birth asking to verify their phone number. On successful verification, the debts/liability information becomes available. Credit KBA Verification loads questions for the user to answer on behalf of the consumer. When questions are successfully answered, the debt information becomes available.
Pull Forth Credit via API - Adds the ability to initiate the FORTH Credit request via API, enabling notifications to be sent to a defined endpoint/webhook by the user to transact with other API endpoints.
Add Credit Repull Capabilities - Allows credit re-pulls via Forth Credit by using the DELETE function. Now, debts are updated according to creditor account number or debt account number, instead of needing to delete a debt and then adding it as a new debt upon each pull.
Copy Co-Applicant Debt Data to Main Applicant - Allows users to enable a setting that copies debts and the PDF document pulled in Forth Credit for a co-applicant to be copied to a main applicant. We created an Integration setting to do this via Yes/No radio buttons with No as the default. When enabled, pulled co-applicant debts are copied to the main applicant exactly as when pulled in for the co-applicant.
Allow Forth Credit Data Points to be Mapped to Debt Custom Fields - This enables the credit parsing tool to support mapping to custom debt fields in the CRM to a data point returned on a credit report. Companies can now maintain their code to handle fields we do not map to FORTH fields.
Update Tags to work with Forth Credit - With this update, we upgraded the {CREDIT_SCOREFACTORS} and {CREDIT_UTILIZATION} tags to work with the Forth Credit integration to take advantage of the credit score factors and utilization tags. These Tags now function within SMS Templates, Document Templates, and Email Templates, in conjunction with triggers and webhooks where applicable. Use of these tags assumes that credit has been pulled through Forth Credit.
Greater than Balance Refund Protection
With this update, we now protect you from the risk of refunds causing overdrawn accounts. The system now prevents the transaction from being created until the refund amount matches or is lower than the consumer’s available balance after all applicable fees are considered. Clients can now easily see the available refund amount for consumers. If a client refund is chosen from the “Type” dropdown menu, a link titled “Dropping client click here” for the Forth Pay client will become available on the Add/Edit Payment Pop-Up page. The available amount is now listed next to the “Amount” field. A breakdown of the fees and the calculation used appears if you hover over the blue information symbol. Clicking “Dropping client click here” will launch a process by which you can easily cancel the client refund. If you mistakenly assign an invalid processing date or try to issue more than the available amount of client refund, an error message will appear. NOTE: “Client Refund” has been removed from the Type dropdown menu for consumers without a balance or a negative balance. Finally, the scheduling of paper check refunds has been simplified. Now, if a user requests a client refund and the type is “check”, the disbursement fee is automatically assigned as $10.00. If the type is “check overnight” or “Check 2nd day”, the disbursement fee is automatically assigned as $25.00.
What's Improved (4)
Allow Zero Balance Creditors with MeridianLink and Xactus360
This update improved our MeridianLink and Xactus360 integrations to further empower our clients. We enhanced these integrations' settings, giving you the option to choose whether to include zero-balance debts in your consumer's credit report. Activating these settings is simple and seamlessly incorporates any existing zero-balance debts into the consumer's credit report, if applicable. This option provides additional insight into your consumer's financial status. The benefits of this update include the identification of potential charge-offs for a more informed decision-making process; as well as the replication of the robust capabilities of other integrated credit reporting tools. NOTE: To leverage this feature, configure your credit parsing tool to allow zero-balance debts.
New Creditor and Contact Address Fields in Ready to Settle Report
With this feature, users now have the "Ready to Settle" report including full address details of contact to comply with transaction data requirements. The customization interface for the "Ready to Settle" report now includes four new input fields labeled as "Street Address," "City," "State," and "Zip Code." When customizing the report view, the new fields should be visible and selectable in the 'Available Fields' section, allowing users to add them to the 'Selected Fields' section for display in the report. These extra fields and the information provided by them enhance data accuracy and completeness in the "Ready to Settle" report and to comply with financial transaction requirements for major creditors.
New Forth Pay Gateway Hold Reasons
This update enhances the categorization of consumer accounts for Forth Pay customers so that we can effectively manage and communicate various account statuses. These new hold reasons will be displayed on the hold reasons dropdown tab and are listed here:
- Graduated by DRSP: available when the DRSP graduates a client;
- Abandoned Funds: selectable when a consumer is on a Dropped with Balance list for 6 months or greater;
- Escheatment: selectable when consumer funds are escheated to the state where they reside.
These additional hold reasons, along with the existing hold reasons, when used are now logged on the History subtab of the contact. The benefits of this feature include enhancing the system’s ability to categorize clients' accounts effectively using hold reasons; and to enable accurate association of each hold reason with relevant client accounts ensuring proper tracking and communication. This modification applies to Forth Pay customers only.
Transfer Date Freeze on Account to Client Transfers
This update to the Account to Client Transfer function prevents the selection of a "Transfer Date" when scheduling a transfer. The Transfer Data is now viewable, but not editable. Users may now only select a "Recoup Date".
API Enhancements (4)
To access the new endpoints added to the Forth API, click below:
- Get Bank Account Details via API: Click Here
- Create a Bank Account via API: Click Here
- Update Bank Account via API: Click Here
- Add Sponsor Account via API: Click Here