Welcome to the second issue of the Power of Nine eNewsletter. The goal of this free newsletter is to provide TEA users with tips and tricks on using TEA IX as well as news and other information about TEA IX. Please feel free to forward it to your co-workers, or let them know that they can access it from the TEA IX website.
What's New !
Next Generation has reached an important time in the evolution and, as a result, we are poised to make some positive changes in both our corporate identity and our product offerings. We realize that diversification will enable us to expand our market opportunities, and for this reason, you will see the development of a new Client Relationship Management (CRM) system as well as various other specific products and modules centered around the TEA program. In addition, we have decided to enhance our corporate identity to better reflect our products, culture and vision for the future.
The company will now be known as CommonGoals Software, as our new logo illustrates.
This new identity will allow us to secure North American trademarks for our company and encompass all the new product branding activities slated for 2005. Eventually, we may even rename TEA using the CommonGoals identity. This transition may have a bigger impact on current customers and we suspect that you may always refer to our product as TEA. New customers may get to know the product as CommonGoals Microenterprise (CGM), or something along those lines. We have not finalized all of our intentions regarding product branding, but felt we should advise you of the change.
We welcome your feedback on our new logo and identity and hope that you can provide this with an objective view without the emotional attachment of our previous identity. Developing a name and identity suitable to the entire team at Next Generation was a significant internal undertaking. In the end, we feel confident about our new identity and what the future holds for TEA and our new products to come.
Next Generation has had a great fiscal year and we would like to thank each and everyone one of you for your continued support throughout our journey!
TEA IX Updates
ACH Manager - Banking Power for Microenterprise!
The ACH (Automated Clearing House) Manager has been an option in TEA since the release of version 9.09. Several clients are using this feature to process Pre-Authorized Payments (PAPs) and the module is now available for purchase. The ACH Manager allows you to process PAPs directly in TEA by creating an ACH Batch, similar to the accounting batch (Batch Manager), and allowing you to export the file directly to any bank using Internet protocol.
For those who currently process PAPs using software provided from the bank, this will no longer be required. However, you will need to ensure that your Internet banking account has PAP capabilities. If you are interested in this banking solution, please contact us and we will provide additional details. The ACH Manager add-on module is currently priced at $500.00 (USD).
Version 9.12
We are getting ready to release version 9.12 in the next quarter and we have made some exciting new changes to the software:
Social Purpose - Ability to track social economic information for a loan. The Social Purpose feature has been specifically designed for organizations involved in construction lending & housing projects and is available to US customers in version 9.12. Please contact our Support Team for activation information.
Admin Module - List Definitions (Drop-Downs) can now be set in either alphabetical order or set manually.
Enhanced TEA Reporting - You can now specify the report title from the report selection area, change the default report title of the report, and specify the default report that appears in the Layout drop down.
Enhanced Transaction Processing - Allows you to view the breakdown of payments prior to posting, customize the application of the payment, maximize the screen, recalculate all Scheduled Payments based on current information, and save Grid Settings.
Loan Status - This section has been modified to include new optional status selections including, bankrupt, collections, legal action, pre-application. The most significant change affects terminology, whereby an Approved Loan will now be recorded as a Closed Deal.
Enhanced Participation Lending - Enhanced to allow the creation of Participation loans completely from within the Loan Module. Several new Participation views and reports have also been added. Please contact our Sales Team for pricing and activation details.
Use of Funds - Added new field in Loan to track Secondary Use of Funds (to be used in conjunction with existing Primary Use of Funds field).
Household Income - Ability to historically track HUD and HHS for low-income families in addition to Household Income, Household size and whether the client is a TANF recipient. Available to US customers in version 9.12. Please contact our Support Team for activation information.
Escrow Feature - Added new Loan Transaction and related functionality for Escrow Accounts. This add-on module allows you to create an account to which the borrower pays monthly installments for property taxes, insurance and special assessments, and from which you can disburse sums as they become due. Please contact our Sales Team for pricing and activation details.
There are several other fixes and enhancements in addition to several new reports related to the new modules and features outlined above.
TEA IX Tool Kit
This new tool kit includes a program called DBUtils that allows organizations to repair and index their data files without going through the Admin Module.
Also part of the TEA IX Tool Kit is a program called Send2Support that allows organizations to send their data directly to our Support team. This is a simple process and instructions will be posted in the Resource Centre on the TEA Web site in the near future. Please note that this should only be used once you have called our Support team and they have indicated that your data is required. At that point, they will issue you a password so you can send the data to us.
Training
The CommonGoals Training Team travels to cities throughout North America on a regular basis to provide in-person training. They provide general workshops open to all users, and also provide closed sessions for staff of various organizations.
In addition to training users in person (on-site), The CommonGoals Training Team can train users over the Internet. Online training is time and cost efficient for users and organizations, especially for follow-up training sessions or for new staff additions. On-site training is normally recommended for initial training and configuration of the system, but for all subsequent sessions, Internet training is an excellent alternative. Internet sessions can run anywhere from 60 to 480 minutes depending on the number of participants, level of competency, and format of the session.
Please check our Upcoming Training dates on the TEA Web site, or call Customer Care at 1-800-354-5152 to book your training session today!
Feature Suggestions and Recommendations
In our last issue, we requested your assistance in using our Product Feature Suggestion Form, available on the TEA IX Web site, to submit all suggestions and recommendations for program functionality and improvements.
We would like to thank all users who have used the form and submitted suggestions and recommendations. We hope that all TEA users will make use of this tool in the future. Please remember that while we guarantee that we will consider all of the suggestions submitted to us, we cannot guarantee that all requests will be implemented in future versions of the software.
QuickHelp
Do you offer multiple Loan Types?
TEA supports various types of loan products including Line of Credit, Demand, Equity, Guarantee and Term.
To change an individual loan to reflect a new loan type, enter the Main loan tab, click Edit | Change Loan Type. You will notice that for several loan types, a new section will be added to the primary Loan tree menu (i.e., if you change a loan to Guarantee, a new branch will appear in the tree structure called Guarantee Details). This has specific information regarding Guarantee type loans. Each loan type has specific nuances and information required to manage it and therefore a new branch is created when you change loan types to reflect the specific information required for that loan type.
Existing Loan - Need to create a new Amortization Schedule?
Are you toggling back and forth between the Transactions and the Amortization Workshop to determine the balance forward amounts for principal, interest, fees and insurance?
If you said Yes, then you should use the Bring Forward Wizard, which can be accessed in the Amortization Schedule by selecting Amortization Workshop | Wizards | Bring Forward Wizard. This feature automatically creates bring-forward scripts for each of the above categories based on the last transaction entered in TEA. This saves a great deal of time when rescheduling or refinancing a current loan.
For customer service or technical questions regarding TEA IX, please visit the TEA Support page on the web. You must use your assigned Username and Password to access the Support area. If you have lost or misplaced your login information, you may contact TEA Support and we will email this information to you.
As always, if you have any feedback regarding this newsletter, please email your comments to us. We hope you have enjoyed this issue of the Power of Nine eNewsletter.
Best regards,
The TEA Support Team
Power of Nine
eNewsletter for TEA IX
November 01, 2003
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What's New ! |
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TEA IX Updates |
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Training |
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Feature Suggestions and Recommendations |
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QuickHelp |