Automated Reconciliation

Support to mark Cleared Payments and Disbursements as Reconciled has been added. A Reconciled transaction is no longer editable through the CMA.

There is a new Setting key: RECONCILE_ACCOUNTING_TRANSACTIONS_AFTER_N_DAY which is used to specify the number of days after which a Cleared Payment or Disbursement should be marked as Reconciled by the CMA’s daily job. To disable this job, set the value of the Setting key to 0.

Filters and columns have been added to the Payment and Disbursement reports. An R appears prior to the Status column for Payments and Disbursements when that transaction has been marked as Reconciled.

Extranet Packages

Video Overview of Extranet Packages

An Extranet Package is a collection Extranet Phases arranged in a specific order. It is used to provide a sequence of pages that are displayed to the Client through the Extranet.

New functionality has been added to allow simpler management of multiple Extranet Packages. Previously, Extranet Steps were defined either at the Agency or Company level. If multiple packages were desired, they would be combined into the existing extranet steps and a new start step would be selected by the User under the Client/Admin tab.

Extranet Packages simplifies this by creating system level packages similar to Document Transactions. Multiple Extranet Packages can be associated with either an Agency (so that they appear under the LMA Paperwork) or a Company so they appear in the Backend Paperwork.

Multiple Extranet Packages available in the LMA

New Feature: Client Referral Tracking

When adding a new Lead, there is a new field next to the Lead Source that facilitates stating the ClientID of the Client that referred this Client. In addition, there is a new report under LMA/Client Referrals that displays all Leads that have referred and have been referred by other Clients.

RPPS DMP File Format changes

The RPPS DMP File format has been updated work with the new Client Budget architecture. In addition, the Student Loan budget item is passed as a separate category. The computation of Total Debt to Income Percentage has been updated to be more accurate. Max repayment period for Hardship indicators A & C have been increased from 60 to 72 months to support Less than Full Balance indicators going live in October.

Creditor Page Changes

The Creditor fields are now grouped into different sections to make it easier to locate specific information. Fields have been added to track Creditor Policies/Benefits.

CSP Stats update in Client/Budget

A new CSP stats table to more accurately display number of enrolled CSP Clients for the month has been added to the Standard Budget. The table is automatically displayed when at least on account linked with the Client participates in CSP.

Changes to Fixed Payment Creditors

Creditors where payments are fixed, (i.e. Percent of Debt = No) such as Line of Credit and some Credit Union Loans now display the APR in the LMA. Previously, the APR was ignored and the value N/A was displayed in the Creditor table. Since some Loans apply an APR, it is more accurate for the Estimate table to display this APR.

When a Pre-Program APR is entered for a Creditor of this type, the Program APR is set to the same value so that the program estimates are accurate.

APRs of 0% can be entered as 0.

RPPS Trace and Batch numbers are Global

In order to prevent collisions of RPPS Trace numbers for Companies that share the same RPPSID, the RPPS Trace and Batch number fields have been moved from the Company table to the Settings table.

The new Settings fields are:
– RPPS_BATCH_NUMBER
– RPPS_TRACE_NUMBER

Import Return Files Changes

The process of importing RPPS and Check Return Files has undergone the changes described below.

RPPS Return Files are now processed system wide so that a return file only needs to be imported once even if multiple Companies share the same RPPSID.

When selecting File Type of RPPS Return File, the Company Select is no longer displayed as it is not needed. The History record associated with this file is associated with the 0 Company.

Check Return Files are now processed per Bank instead of per Company. After choosing File Type of Check Return File, a Bank Select box is displayed where Banks that have a Check Return File will be displayed along with their current check number.

Supported Check Return File types can be associated within the Bank record. Only Banks that are associated with a Check Return File Format are displayed int he Import Return Files page.

CERP Report

Updated: 2020.05.05

A new field have been added to the Creditor record:

  • Peregrin CreditorID (set manually)

The DMA / Client Creditors report has a new filter CERP Report. If set to Yes, only the CERP relevant columns are displayed in the report so that it can be exported and modified before uploading to Peregrin.

Prior to running the report, date filters and Hardship Indicators should be selected.

CERP Support

In order to support the Counselor Emergency Response Program (CERP), a new Hardship Indicator has been added to the CMA.

The three Virus Related Hardships (VRH) were already added as part of EMS support and are available under the Lead/Budget tab.

Steps required by the Agency

  • The hardship indicator should be added to participating Creditors using the DMA/Creditors view under the Hardship tab.
    Because this hardship is a deferral, all terms should be left at 0.
  • Add a new CERP Task with a due date of 45 days so that you can review the Client account prior to 60 days. Expire time should be set to 3888000 seconds.

To enroll a ClientCredit account in CERP:

This applies to 1b and 2b.

  1. change the Proposal Status to Queued
  2. change the Hardship Indicator to P: CERP
  3. remove the DMP BillerID to prevent the account from appearing in the RPPS DMP report
  4. create a CERP Task for the client to follow up prior to 60 days

Generating the Peregrin CSV file

Currently, the Peregrin CSV file should be populated manually as it may contain a mix of EMS and CERP proposals along with a reason code of 1a, 1b, 2a, or 2b, depending on whether this is an already enrolled Client.

As the file is populated, the ClientCredit Proposal status should be changed from Queued to Pending indicating that a response is pending from the Creditor.

To make it easier to identify which ClientCredit accounts are enrolled in a CERP product, the DMA/Client Creditors report has been modified as follows:
– added a Hardship Reason filter
– the Hardship Indicator filter now supports multi-select

EMS Support

This document outlines how to enable Extended Modification Solution (EMS) support in the CMA.

Add Hardship Indicator to Creditors

A new EMS Hardship Indicator with a value of “M” has been added to System Management/System Codes table:

This hardship indicator should be added to participating Creditors using the DMA/Creditors view under the Hardship tab. There, you can specify the individual Creditor terms specific to EMS.



New Client Hardship Reasons for COVID-19

In order to track Clients impacted by COVID-19, new Hardship Reasons have been added to the Hardship Reason Drop downs. These new reasons are mapped to existing RPPS codes 2 (Reduced income/unemployment) and 8 (Unexpected/Catastrophic Expenses)

Enroll a ClientCredit account in EMS

In order to enroll an existing Client’s account in EMS, edit the ClientCredit record in the DMA and
1. change the Proposal Status to Queued.
2. change the Hardship Indicator to M: EMS.
3. remove the DMP BillerID to prevent the account from appearing in the RPPS DMP report
4. update the Months Behind field to indicate current months behind in payment. (this field added 2020.03.30)
5. update the record (The CMA will automatically update the Program APR and new Monthly Payment. )

Tracking Charge Off Proposal Dates

The distributed EMS Calculator should be used to compute Charge Off dates.

A new Task called EMS Charge Off Proposal can be created using System Management/Task Management. This task can be created for Clients and linked to ClientCredit records to schedule when to transmit Charge Off Proposals for each ClientCredit account based on the date obtained from the EMS Calculator.

Identifying Clients enrolled in EMS

There are at least three methods that can be used to track Clients enrolled in EMS.

  1. If not using the Broker codes in the DMA, create a new Broker code under System Management/System Codes with a label such as EMS. Change the Client’s Broker code under the Client/Admin tab
  2. If using Broker codes for other purposes, create a new Agency and associate the Client with this EMS Agency
  3. If the above two options are used for other tracking purposes, you can create a Client Tag under System Management/System Codes. Client Tags are only displayed in the Client and DMA/All Clients views so its reporting capabilities are not as useful as using Brokers and Agencies.

Agreement/Extranet Package

The EMS Disclosure and Plan documents that need to be signed by Clients, can be added as Documents under System Management/Document Template Management.

The Documents can either be added as Extranet Steps using System Management/Extranet Phases and/or a printable package using System Management/Document Package Management (Document Transaction).

It is recommended that an ACH step is added to both the package and Extranet steps to get authorization for the new monthly payment amount.

CSP Multi-Tier Support

There is a new System Setting: IS_CSP_SUPPORTS_MULTIPLE_TIERS

If enabled:
– when sending a Lead package, the same tier is no longer required for CSP accounts
– any hardship indicator linked with the Creditor can be selected

Update CSP Stats

Stats for CSP Creditors displayed in the Standard Budget now include a total of Accepted Proposals with a first disbursement during the current month. This provides a more accurate percentage of accounts enrolled in a CSP Tier.

Creditor Disbursements via ACH

Disbursements to Creditors can be made via ACH instead of a check file. To enable ACH Disbursements:

  • Add a Bank record with the Creditor’s Bank ACH information
  • Update the Creditor record and link it with the new Bank
  • When this is done, a new drop down appears in the (DS) Check view that allows selection of Creditors with ACH disbursements.
  • Select the Creditor and generate an ACH file instead of a Check file