Introduction

We are excited to announce TurnKey Lender v7.12, featuring enhanced performance and efficiency boost and introducing numerous new features and functionalities designed to elevate user experience and system performance:

Major Efficiency Boost

The main effort and enhancement of this release is a significant improvement of the system’s performance and efficiency. Driven by major architectural changes and migration to a new framework, this update has not affected the flows, procedures, or UI elements but delivers substantial improvements in system performance and scalability. Faster response times and more efficient processing ensure a smoother and more responsive experience across the platform.

Our performance testing lead has confirmed considerable gains in processing speed and system responsiveness, underscoring the impact of these architectural changes. TurnKey Lender v7.12 is now more robust and efficient, ensuring that our users have access to the most advanced and efficient lending platform available.

More Efficient Excel Imports

As a part of the efficiency boost, the import process for XLS files has been improved by initiating imports with short requests providing users with a smooth and efficient experience even for large datasets.

We have also added a status bar where you can monitor the import status and progress, enhancing visibility and control over the process.

More Control Over Customer and Loan Details

We have introduced several key features designed to provide users with enhanced tools and functionalities for managing customer and loan details more effectively. These updates include improved validation processes, customizable flags, enhanced bank verification methods, and better tracking of payments. Below are the detailed descriptions of these significant enhancements:

Customer Details Change Approval

We have introduced a validation step for changes to customer details, requiring approval before modifications are applied. This enhancement ensures all changes are reviewed and validated, enhancing data integrity.

Custom Flags for Borrowers and Loans

Offering enhanced flexibility in categorizing and specifying loan and customer-related states, issues, or actions taken, this release allows administrators to add, edit, or delete custom flags, as well as modify parameters of built-in "system" flags.

This new functionality is accessible through a dedicated 'Flags' page under the 'Settings' section, where personal and loan flags can be managed efficiently.

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Flags are always visible next to the customer's name on all loan-related workspaces and on the 'Customer Management' page, providing clear and immediate insights into important statuses. Additionally, we support the export of flags to Excel reports and the import of customers and loans with at least one flag, streamlining data management and reporting processes.

Bank Account Verification Available at Any Moment

A new ‘Bank Verification’ button on the ‘Customer Management’ page enables customers to verify their bank accounts regardless of the status of their current loans. Once the verification report is successfully received, it is saved for the customer, their bank account list is updated, and any loans with the status ‘Bank account verification’ are seamlessly pushed forward in the process.

This feature includes several UI enhancements to guide customers through the verification process, ensuring clarity and ease of use. Additionally, notification and flag updates ensure that both customers and back-office users are well-informed about the verification status.

New Bank Verification Method via Plaid Micro-Deposits

We have introduced a new way to verify bank accounts through integration with Plaid — utilizing a feature called "micro-deposits." This method provides an alternative flow for bank account access confirmation, even for banks not supported by Plaid by default. When bank account access is requested, Plaid makes one small deposit of $0.01 to the account. The borrower must then check their account for this deposit and enter the associated 3-letter code to confirm ownership of the account. Once confirmed, the deposit is canceled, and the bank account is verified.

The feature is enabled in the configuration.

Tracking Undistributed Payments and Overpayments

Back-office users now can view undistributed payments directly in the UI, helping to identify variances between actual received repayments and their factual distribution. The undistributed amount, defined as the portion of the repayment that remains after distribution to the principal, interest, or fees, will be visible on the Transaction tab in the transaction details if it is greater than zero.

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The undistributed amount is also visible on the Customer's dashboard under the Transaction tab in the undistributed amount column.

Overpayments, defined as the sum of undistributed payments remaining after the closing of a loan, are now displayed in the Loan header for loans with a status of 'Repaid' if the overpaid amount is greater than zero. A new filter called "Overpaid" has been added to the loan status filter on the Archive workplace, enabling users to quickly locate loans with overpayments.

Additionally, merge fields and smart markers have been updated to include the total amount of overpayment for a loan and the undistributed amount of transactions, ensuring that all related system documents and notifications can reflect these new data points accurately.

Precision per Currency Values

A flexible currency precision setting has been added to accommodate different regional financial practices. Some regions may not require any decimal places in currency values, while others might need more than two. This feature, defined in Settings → Regional settings, allows specifying the number of decimal digits for currency values, ensuring compliance with local financial regulations and enhancing the accuracy of financial reports and documents.

Suspicious Phones Dictionary Update

To ensure consistency and prevent errors, we have removed the ability for users to manually enter IDs for suspicious phone dictionary items. When adding suspicious phone numbers, whether from Tools → Import → Suspicious Phones or from Settings → Application Process → Dictionaries → Suspicious phones, the system now automatically generates IDs. This change eliminates inconsistencies and errors that could arise from manual ID entry.

Improved Integrations with External Systems and Service Providers

We have made significant enhancements to our integrations with external systems and service providers, aimed at improving operational efficiency, flexibility, and reliability. These updates include the addition of a new payment provider, expanded SMS notification capabilities, simplified webhook configurations, enhanced API functionalities, improved decision rules for bank verifications, and an essential API migration. Below are the detailed descriptions of these key improvements:

New Payment Provider Integration - GoCardless

This release introduces the integration of GoCardless as a new payment provider in TurnKey Lender. GoCardless supports SEPA Core Direct Debit schemes, enabling efficient and secure repayments via bank accounts, specifically tailored for users in Spain and other SEPA-compliant regions.

The integration includes the setup of mandates on payer's bank accounts, which serve as authorization for fund withdrawals, as well as status updates, and payment transaction processing. Additionally, the system provides real-time notifications via webhooks for events like payment failures or customer-initiated mandate cancellations.

New SMS Notification Service

We have expanded our SMS notification capabilities and enabled integration with the Message Bird Engagement platform. What had long been supporting integrations with Message Bird Connectivity, which enables sending SMS notifications to users of different types. Now you can also use the capabilities of Message Bird Engagement, making TurnKey Lender a part of your service and marketing customer interaction and targeted communication strategy.

Simplified Webhook Configuration

We have added the capability to set up webhooks directly from the user interface, significantly simplifying the configuration process. Users without advanced technical knowledge can now easily configure webhooks for common system events such as loan status changes and successful payments.

This setting can be found under Settings → API → Webhooks, where you can select the specific events that will trigger the webhook.

Enhanced API for Multiple Loan Offers

We have enhanced our API endpoints to support the feature 'Multiple Loan Offers'.

• The endpoint Get Loan Offers has been improved to return a list of loan offers. Each loan offer in the response will now include a unique 'offerID', allowing for better tracking and selection of specific offers.

• A new path parameter, 'offerID', has been added to the endpoint Accept Loan Offer. This parameter allows users to specify which loan offer they are accepting, streamlining the process of offer selection and acceptance.

New Decisions Based on Illion Bank Verification

We have implemented new decision rules for Illion Bank Verification to enhance the accuracy and reliability of borrower assessments. The rules include checks on various financial metrics such as iTRS score, net income percentages, debt management values, and several other income and expenditure factors. For example, the system now verifies that the borrower's net income before and after discretionary expenses meets minimum required thresholds and that their spending on gambling or ATM withdrawals does not exceed set limits. These comprehensive checks help in making more informed lending decisions, thereby reducing risk and improving compliance with regulatory requirements.

Adobe EchoSign API Migration

We have migrated from the deprecated SOAP API to the modern REST API for Adobe EchoSign due to Adobe's disablement of the SOAP API. This update ensures continued functionality and support, enhancing the reliability of document management and preventing issues related to outdated APIs, as well as provides all the advantages of REST API over the SOAP API, including improved performance, greater flexibility, and enhanced security.

Enhanced Vendor-Management Functionality

One of the proficient TurnKey Lender features is Vendor Management, which supports retail loans for goods purchased. With this release, we have enhanced vendor functionality to improve data integrity and streamline processes. The introduction of unique vendor names prevents confusion and ensures accurate identification. The new shipment confirmation feature ties loans to actual deliveries, preventing premature activation. Additionally, the auto-registration of down payments simplifies transactions, and the Right to Cancel feature helps manage returns and refunds, ensuring compliance and enhancing customer trust.

Unique Vendor Names Requirement

To improve data integrity, we have enforced unique Vendor names across the system. Previously, duplicate names caused confusion and data management issues. This change ensures accurate identification of vendors, enhancing the reliability and consistency of vendor-related data.

Different Vendors can still have Stores with the same name, while all Store Names of one Vendor should be unique.

Shipment Confirmation

The Vendor Shipment Confirmation feature ensures that loans are activated only after the shipment of goods or the provision of services has been confirmed. This feature prevents premature loan activation, ensuring that loans are tied to actual deliveries and enhancing the reliability of disbursement processes.

Sale Cancelation

Reputable vendors understand the importance of providing their customers with a “cooling-off” period when they are entitled to return the goods and obtain their payment back. This practice is also often required by law.

However, it gets more complicated if the Customer has obtained a loan to pay for the goods. Our new Sale Cancellation feature will help both Lenders and Vendors to implement it in the process with a mere toggle.

Improved Report Builder Functionality

TurnKey Lender’s Report builder, now enhanced with smart markers and dynamic formulas, allows you to create comprehensive reports based on system information such as loan details, customer data, transactions, etc. These report templates can be crafted with basic Excel skills, making advanced technical knowledge unnecessary. For more details, visit How to work with Reports Builder.

Full Smart Markers List

Report Builder now provides the full list of Smart Markers available for your account. Click the “Export full list” button and obtain a comprehensive list of all available markers, complete with descriptions and usage guidelines.

As previously, you can search, view, and export markers directly from the interface, simplifying the process of creating and managing reports.

Dynamic Formulas Support

Newly introduced support for dynamic formulas in the XLS Report Builder allows you to include calculations like sums and averages directly within your reports. We’ve updated the report builder so that you can now insert these formulas into report templates and they will be automatically applied to the whole report upon export.

Dynamic formulas allow the following additional options:

• r - Current row number.

• 2, -1 - Offset to the current row number.

For example, in the formula below, we are using the Start Date of the Loan (column H) to calculate the Date of the Invoice.

Improved Accounting Functionality

This release had a significant focus on the stabilization of the TurnKey Lender’s Accounting functionality to enhance its robustness and reliability. By addressing several critical issues, this release ensures accurate financial reporting and seamless integration with accounting systems. These are some of the major fixes implemented

Accounting Report Amounts Calculations Refactored

The calculation of amounts for accounting reports has been refactored to ignore the time of day, considering all relevant transactions or cash flow items based on the report date. This change ensures that all transactions are accurately accounted for, regardless of the specific time they occurred, enhancing the precision of financial reports.

Journal Report Sums Corrected

An issue where journal reports were re-generated with incorrect sums has been fixed. Previously, transactions applied after the report generation were incorrectly added to existing reports. The fix ensures that journal reports maintain accurate sums based on the specified reporting period, preventing erroneous data inclusion.

Repayment Fee Included in Journals

The journal generation process has been corrected to include the repayment fee in the repaid amount. Previously, the repayment fee was not always correctly accounted for in the generated journal entries, potentially leading to discrepancies. Now, the journal reflects the total repayment amount, including the fee, ensuring accurate financial records.

Batch Calculations Logic Updated

The batch calculation logic has been updated to prevent overlapping periods. Now, the second and subsequent batches for the day reflect only the variance between the calculated amount for the day and the amount already sent. This ensures that the total amount for the day aligns with individual batch amounts, improving the accuracy of daily financial totals.

Handling Past Date Transactions Improved

The journal generation process has been corrected to exclude amounts if disbursements or repayments are applied to past dates. Previously, such transactions were sometimes incorrectly included in current journals, which could lead to inaccuracies. The fix ensures that journals reflect only the amounts relevant to the current reporting period, maintaining accurate and timely financial records.

Other Accounting Fixes

Along with the above-mentioned calculation improvements, we have also implemented several improvements related to the usability of the functionality:

• Added Confirmation Messages for Bulk Actions: A confirmation message is now displayed to back-office users when they click "Send All" or "Process All" for journals.

• Accounting Notifications Merge-fields Enabled: Merge-fields ‘Accounting_ErrorPeriod’ and 'Accounting_ErrorText' have been added to the notification system for accounting errors.

• UI and Usability Enhancements: Smaller UI and usability issues have been addressed, including updating filter default values, adding spaces in status values, and improving filter hints.

Other Improvements and Fixes

“BorrowerBankNumber” Merge Field Added

Using merge fields allows you to dynamically insert specific data into documents, ensuring their accuracy and personalization (Merge Fields. To enhance document accuracy and compliance with regional standards, a new merge field “BorrowerBankNumber” has been added. This includes, in particular, US Bank Routing Numbers the Financial Institution numbers for the US and Bank-State-Branch Numbers for Australia.

Payment Holiday Logic Fix

We have ensured that payment holidays are correctly re-applied with the same terms if preceding transactions are modified. Previously, payment holidays could be canceled if a transaction before the holiday was added (with a date in the past) or reversed, disrupting the schedules.

Medicover Expiry Date VerificationE

We have updated the format for the Medicare expiry date field: for “green” cards (standard Medicare cards for Australian citizens, permanent residents, New Zealand citizens living in Australia and Resident Return visa holders) expected fromat is set to DD-MM-YYYY, however, for the “blue” cards (for people who have applied for permanent residence or who hold a temporary visa) the year is not expected.