New Features - 11-2 Build 4

Welcome to Collect! Version 11.2 Build 4. This latest version has many new features and functionality. There are also many optimizations and enhancements to existing features.

Combined Statement

Statement choices now include Combined Net/Gross. Flag your Client as Combined in the Client Settings and use the new CStatement report to print combined Net/Gross statements in your month end statement batch. The Combined Statement summarizes payment and commission details into separate categories so that you can easily see what was processed by your Agency and what was processed directly by your Client. The CStatement report is also available as a report sample online or you can request it from Collect! Technical Services.

Operator Security By Client #

This new Client # field in the Operator Security section of the Operator form enables you to restrict an operator to view only the accounts belonging to the particular client you set. This is very useful for quickly limiting the accounts an operator can see and it requires minimal setup. This also works with the client ownership system set by the 'Owned by client' in the Client form. If this Client owns other clients, the operator will be able to access those accounts as well.

Please refer to Help topic, Account Access Control for details.

Operator Locked Out By Default

This new switch in the Operator Security section of the Operator form enables you to lock this operator out of all the accounts in your database with one click. The only accounts that they can see will be accounts that belong to the operator and accounts that have been specifically granted through access control. This is an easy yet comprehensive way to apply account access control without having to set security on each account.

Please refer to Help topic, Account Access Control for details.

Browse Find By Enabled For Client Ownership

The Browse Find By functionality is now tied to a hierarchical client ownership system that allows you to use the "Owned by Client" in the Client form. This enables you to apply account access control while giving your Client users the ability to search for records using all the Browse Find By functions.

Clients and operators restricted to a particular Client # will be able to freely search for records in your database. However, they will only be able to find records within the Client # or client ownership hierarchy to which they belong. For instance, clients who own other clients will be able to see all records in their hierarchical tree, but no others.

This requires some setup. Please refer to Help topic, Enabling Your Clients to Browse for Records.

Electronic Payments Through Collect!

The EPP package has been added to the Demo database. Reports for uploading check and credit card payments are now shipped with Collect!. Import maps for updating Debtor records with EPP return files are also included. The complete package is also available at our Member Center website.

If you have not done so already, request your ID and Password from Technical Services so that you can access this Members Only area of Collect!'s website. Access is provided at no additional charge for clients with a current support agreement with Comtech.

EPP Package

Header And Footer Buttons

The Report Definition HEADER and FOOTER buttons will now display YELLOW if there is a Header or Footer on the report. This makes it easy to see if a report has a Header or Footer without actually having to select the buttons.

Tax And Commission Values

New hidden fields on the Debtor form enable you to directly access Tax and Commission Rate options in a report. The fields are @de.cr1, @de.cr2, @de.cr3 and @de.cr4 for the Commission Rates and @de.tr1, @de.tr2, @de.tr3 and @de.tr4 for the Tax Rates. You may need to REBUILD your Printable Information to access these fields.

Please refer to Help topic, Set Commission Rates and Tax Using @ EDIT - Debtor for more information.

Instant Operator Messaging

This handy feature allows you to display a custom message in either the Title Bar or the bottom Status Bar of every operator's Collect! screen.

Use Instant Operator Messaging to:

Send perks to your operator teams
Display staff reminders
Instantly alert hundreds of users to a strategic policy change
Stream news headlines or stock quotes
And much, much more!

Now the benefits of Messaging are available to every user. When you get your next license, this feature will be enabled at no extra cost to you.

Please refer to Help Topic, Set Operator Messages for details.

New Help Menu

Collect!'s Help menu is completely redesigned to give you fast access to the most useful topics for speeding your learning curve. View the Quick User's Guide, How To topics and Contents page to familiarize yourself with the system and learn how to use its features and functions. You can also download report libraries, training videos and 3rd party EDIs directly from the Help menu. Visit the Member Center or download the latest upgrade. Renew your current Collect! license or purchase a new one. The new Help menu comes alive with new links, new options and revamped pages to help you get the most out of Collect!.

Customize Quick Print

You can now use Quick Print to print any list in Collect! following your custom settings for the list view. This greatly enhances the functionality of Quick Print for speedy ad hoc reports. The possibilities are almost limitless. Output will be formatted with field order and size as set by you. Form tab order is used to print form fields.

The Member Center online training video Using Edit Search Criteria is an excellent introduction to Quick Print reports.

New Scheduler Tasks

Three new procedures are now available for scheduling through Collect!'s Task Scheduler. These enable you to run large processes at a time that is convenient to you and your system's workload as well as have important processes completed before your workers arrive each morning.

Run Batch Processes

You can now schedule batch processes with the Scheduler. This feature enables you to configure the Scheduler to process contacts previously scheduled. You can schedule multiple batch processing tasks and Collect! will perform them one after another according to your settings. This enables you to perform any functions that you would normally perform through the Batch Processing, Process Automatic Contacts screen.

Run Credit Bureau Reports

You can now schedule your credit bureau reporting to run with the Scheduler. Collect! will automatically perform all of the reporting functions according to your configuration.

Generate Statements

You can now generate your month end statements using the Scheduler. Many options are available for selecting the date range for transactions to include in your statements.

These tasks require some configuration. Please refer to Scheduler Task for details.

Scheduler In Tools Menu

The Task Scheduler is now available through the Tools menu. This enables administrative staff to access the Scheduler easily at any time without having to sign into Collect! as a Scheduler operator.

Optimized Lock Requests

New Instance Locking significantly reduces waiting time for your users when large volumes of data are being processed in multi user environments.

Optimized Signon

A new optimized loading procedure caches Collect!'s application forms when the first user signs on. This means all subsequent users are signed in with minimal waiting time because Collect! does not have to reload settings for each user. If a change is made to settings, the next user will see a bit of a delay as the forms are re-cached. When the last person logs out, all cached forms are freed. The cached forms are stored "per database". In other words, if one person logs into Masterdb, those forms will be cached for the Masterdb database. If another user logs into Demo, a Demo database cache will be compiled as well.

Web Host Session Memory

Web Host now uses Heap Memory for input and output packets. If the 80 KB allotted by default is not enough for your purposes, you can now configure how much you want to use based on a new setting in Database Preferences. The new Web Host Session Mem KB field holds a KB packet value that you can modify, if necessary. Web Host lets you know if packets are too large by writing to the Application Log.

Please refer to Database Preferences for details.

Load Debtors Across All Clients

This new switch in Import Options is useful if you have multiple accounts in your database with the same "Use as key" value and you want to ensure that Collect! imports the incoming data to the correct Client in your database. Switching this OFF ensures that Collect! only considers the Client or Client # specified.

Revised Sample Reports Database

All sample reports have been tested and revised as needed. Samples are in PDF format so that you can easily see what the output will be. These clear samples can also be used for troubleshooting your results. All reports shipped with Collect! have also been tested and revised. Complete report libraries of all revised reports are also available at our Member Center web site.

If you have not done so already, request your ID and Password from Technical Services so that you can access this Members Only area of Collect!'s website.

Report Libraries

Demonstration License

During the evaluation period, Collect! will use new functionality to let users know how much time remains in the demo license. You can easily purchase a license by selecting the ORDER NOW button at any time during the evaluation. This makes it very easy to keep on using Collect! seamlessly after your evaluation.

Request License

Collect! uses a new "License Remaining" field on the Welcome to Collect! screen to let users know how much time remains in their license. This only displays when there are seven days or fewer remaining. If your license expires, Collect! gives you the ability to renew your license with a new Request License form.

Optimizations

Enhancements were made to Financials, Report Writer, Display and Handling, Signon, Import/Export, Web Host, Credit Bureau Reporting, Network and Environment.

Upgrading To This Build

Please refer to Introduction To Collect! Version 11 for details about upgrading your existing Collect! system to take advantage of the features and optimizations in this latest release.