Release Notes

Monday, March 9, 2020

• We have had numerous requests to condense the Escrow Detail by File so that in most cases it would print on a single page. We've also been asked to change the page orientation from Landscape to Portrait.  Both of these changes have been made and we hope you find the new layout of the Escrow Detail by File to be more intuitive and easier to read!

Examiner Field

• We have added a new field called “Examiner”, which can be added under This Company or Settlement Agency, in the Rolodex.  You will then be able to select the Examiner when you create a file or under Maintain File/Misc Change.  Just like with the other business types, you will be able to email them, assign Events/Tasks, add Examiner to your Whiteboard and see who the Examiner is on the file from the File Summary page.

E-Closing DT User Interface Changes

• We have changed the display name of the documents in the Scanned/Saved changes are to show the title of the document and not the document name.
• Files with overdue events will now be marked on the Whiteboard with a Red background row color.

 

Monday, March 9, 2020

We have some exciting new features to tell you about! If you have questions about any of the new features, please feel free to reach out to Support and we will be more than happy to assist you!

1. For Shiny users, we made a change in how the document names in the “Saved Reports and Uploaded Documents” are being displayed. We now show the actual title of the Document and not file name.
2. In Shiny, if you had Events that were set up as Alert When Overdue, the Whiteboard wasn’t properly alerting you, by turning the line red on the Whiteboard. It will now make that file’s line red if an event tied to that file is overdue.
3. We hope you like the changes we made to the Escrow Detail by File Report! We changed it to Portrait instead of Landscape, made the Header two columns, removed the last column “Balance”, made the amounts line up better, and any Lender Net Funded items now get included in the top section where it calculates the Lender’s Expected Funds. This should hopefully make this report easier to read!
4. We have added a new field called “Examiner”, which can be added under This Company or Settlement Agency. You will then be able to select the Examiner when you create the file or under Maintain File/Misc Change. Just like with the other business types, you will be able to email them, assign Events/Tasks, add Examiner to your Whiteboard and see who the Examiner is on the file from the File Summary page.
5. We also added a new field on the Chain of Title Screen “Date Signed” to be able to add the Notary or Acknowledgement Date.
   

Bug Fixes/Internal

1. For Admin users, we have added in the File Sequence Number and the Company Sequence Number on the File Summary Page in Shiny, so we no longer have to change the Page Layouts from Shiny to Classic to get that information.
2. If a user didn’t have CPL Credentials entered in E-Closing Connect for Old Republic, they won’t see the Generate CPL or Closing Protection Letter Website Links. Previously they got a box that didn’t provide any information telling them that they didn’t have credentials.
3. The Dev team is still hard at work at many Integrations!
   • ATIDS
   • CATIC Title Search
   • ePN (which is in beta testing!)
   • ORT Policy Upload
   • Skyline Lien Search
   • Charles Jones

 

Wednesday, February 5, 2020

We have some exciting new features to tell you about! If you have questions about any of the new
features, please feel free to reach out to Support and we will be more than happy to assist you

1) As noted on our Release Notes icon on January 22nd, we made some enhancements to the Title
Policy page in regards to endorsements.

We have added some enhancements to the Title Policy Page, in regards to the Endorsements.
This was put in effect so that when you change the Commitment Effective Date, Jacket Type (for
some Underwriters) or the Underwriter, you will be notified that the Endorsement List has
changed. If you already had some endorsements checked off, making the above changes
causes the endorsement list to reload and unchecking previously checked endorsements. We
have added two additional alerts to the screen, so you know what endorsements had been
checked off and also a confirmation message when you try to update the screen.

 

Basically, the way this works is that when you change the Commitment Effective Date, Jacket
Type, or Underwriter, it will display your Old Endorsements like this below the current list of
endorsements:

Also, when you go to update the screen, whether you have checked the new endorsements off or
not, we put a message, asking if you wish to exit the screen. If you select Yes, all previous
endorsements will go away, and hopefully you have remembered to check off the new ones. If
you say No, it will keep you on the page. You will still get the warning message, but as long as
you are satisfied with the endorsements checked off, then you can click Yes.

2) You can now add an Insurance Agent to your Insurance Companies (Hazard, Mortgage or
Flood Insurance). This used to just be a field you would manually type the name, but now you
can add them in the Rolodex and have their name in the drop down, so you don’t have to type it
each time.

3) Here is an exciting new feature! Consolidated Wires! This will be useful for those who need to
combine wires from multiple files, like your Simplifile payments! This functions similarly to
Consolidated Checks. Within your files, click on the disbursements you wish to include in the
Consolidated Wire and change the payment method to Consolidated Check/Wire. Once you are
done, you can now go back to your Whiteboard and go to Escrow Accounting/Consolidated
Checks. Here you can check off all the items you wish to include in a wire (Please note, within
each file, the payee name has to be the same in order for them to be combined together in
Consolidated Check/Wire) and under the Bank Name, you will see a box that says “Make wire
transfer”. This will post the checked items as a wire. Once you post, the screen will refresh, so if
you need to post any others, or print a consolidated check you can.

Bug Fixes/Internal
1) There was an issue with the Forgot Password function. If you used the Forgot Password link
and went to use it again, then you would get a blank page, unless you used a different browser or
cleared your cookies/history/cache. We have implemented a fix so this doesn’t happen any
more.

2) Similar to the issue we fixed last Sprint with the leading spaces before the Borrower or Seller
Names, we have also implemented a fix for Lender/Corporation names as well (Basically,
anything entered in the Rolodex). Now, if you enter a space and then the name, when you leave
the field, the system will automatically remove the space.

3) Our Developers are still hard at work on integrations as well!

• ATIDS
• CATIC Title Search
• ePN
• ORT Search
• ORT Policy Upload
• Skyline Lien Search
• Charles Jones

 

Wednesday, January 22, 2020

When you change the Commitment Effective Date, Jacket Type, or Underwriter, it will display your Old Endorsements like this:

 

Below the list of Endorsements.

 

Also, when you go to update the screen, whether you have checked the new endorsements off or not, we put a message, asking if you wish to exit the screen.  If you select Yes, all previous endorsements will go away, and hopefully you have remembered to check off the new ones.  If you say No, it will keep you on the page.  You will still get the warning message, but as long as you are satisfied with the endorsements checked off, then you can click Yes.

 

 

 

Monday, January 6th 2020

 

We have some exciting new features to tell you about!  If you have questions about any of the new features, please feel free to reach out to Support and we will be more than happy to assist you!

• When emailing from the File Summary Page in Shiny, users were experiencing an issue where the attachments that were associated with that file, were sometimes not showing up as being available to attach to the email. This issue has been resolved.
• Shiny Users may have noticed when one of their Portal Users messaged them, they didn’t see the Messages Icon on their Whiteboard. This has been resolved, so now you will see an envelope next to the file you have a message that has not been read.
• The refresh icon on the Shiny Whiteboard now more accurately changes colors, indicating when you should refresh your Whiteboard to see any new changes.
• You will now be able to enter dollar amounts for your Seller’s ownership for 1099 documents! On the Primary Seller Screen, you will see two options: PCT and AMT.  Whichever option you choose, will dictate what fields you see for the Co-Sellers.  If you choose to enter AMT, you will want to fill in the dollar amount for the other Co-Sellers as well, just like you do for the %.  This will transfer over to the Form 1099-s, 1099 Summary and 1099 Submission.
• Some users in Shiny noticed, if they had the column Seller/Borrower, that it didn’t line up like Borrower/Seller. This has been resolved and so the formatting is consistent.
• In the Shiny View, you didn’t see any indication that a document you uploaded through the Drop Files button, had completed. The screen will now automatically refresh when the document has finished uploading, so you can see it in the file.
• We have made some improvements on the Reconciliation Feature, to allow users to use that for Daily Clearing, instead of using the Clear Bank Entries Screen. The benefit to this, is this that you can see your balances on the screen, to know if you are missing any items.  
• Some users were experiencing an issue when trying to change the Endorsement Charges for some underwriters. When the user would enter the new price and update the Title Policy Screen, it reverted the amount back to the original amount.  This has been resolved.  PLEASE NOTE, you still are unable to change % based endorsements, as these are calculated based on the % of the premium and cannot be changed, we will automatically recalculate the amounts.
• If your User Settings are set to allow you to edit File Summary Notes, users in Shiny may have noticed there was no Edit button. Now, if you click on a note, you can click Edit Note, and edit it and save changes.  If you need to delete the note, simply remove all information in the Note, and update and it will delete.
• If you enter a file number that doesn’t exist, in Shiny, you will now get a message that says “ No files were found searching for ‘______’. “

Monday, December 9th 2019

We have some exciting new features to tell you about!  If you have questions about any of the new features, please feel free to reach out to Support and we will be more than happy to assist you!

1)            We have made a couple of changes in regard to the Ernst Lookup Screen!

1. A) When you use the Ernst Lookup Screen; entering your numbers and answering questions, when you go back the screen, you will notice two things. The first is that the selections you made the last time will still show and the second is that it will display the last time you did a lookup.

1. B) If you use the Ernst Lookup Screen, then make changes to the Purchase Price or the Loan Amount, we will still alert you that you need to recalculate the Ernst Lookup, but we now will highlight the recording section on the HUD/CD in yellow. This will alert you that you made a change to the file that effects the recording calculations and you need to recalculate them in the Ernst Lookup screen.

2)            We have enhanced the Check Register Query to allow you to search Reference Numbers for posted receipts.  Previously, you could only search disbursements, but we have opened it up to allow you to search receipts as well!

3) We have added a new field to the Payoff Master and Payoff Information Screen, allowing you to enter an email address for your Payoff records.  This will allow you to easily email Payoff letters in Document Management, without having to search for and type in their email address each time.  There are two ways you can update/add the email address.  The first is as you are entering a new payoff, enter the email address and you will see a button to “Update Remit to Information” and this will update the Payoff Master Record for you, for future files.  The next is directly in the Payoff Master, which can be accessed by going from your Whiteboard to Back Office/Misc Menu and then Manage Payoff Master.

4) We have updated the Information Message on the Create File Screen, if you have a file already created, with a similar borrower name.  This informational message used to pop up once the file was already created, but this will give you the information before hand, so you can decide if you want to proceed with creating the file.  We have also improved the Property Search as well, so if you enter an address and zip code, and it matches another one on file, it will display a message as well.

5) The Search feature on the Whiteboard should show you a more relevant list then before. 

6) We are continuing to update Endorsements for various underwriters and states.  Please make sure you are using the Commitment Effective Date so that your current files aren’t effected by the changes.

7) We were made aware of a rule change for the CD, pertaining to when the AP table should be disclosed.  We have updated the CD, so the AP table will only appear when the Interest Type is a Balloon or 2-Step.

8) For users with The Fund, a division of the Underwriter, Old Republic National Title Co. we have updated the icons in Classic View for the BPO Whiteboard and Policy Payment Whiteboard. 

9) For users with The Fund, a division of the Underwriter, Old Republic National Title Co. we will now also remove any special characters from the file names before you upload them through the integration.

10) We have increased the size of the documents allowed for Drag and Drop Documents to 33MB!

11) We have limited the file extensions you are able to upload to a file to :-pdf, -txt, -doc, -docx, -png, -rtf, -gif, -jpegs, -tif, and -html .

 

Thursday, November 14th, 2019

We made an improvement to the Excess Deposit line on the CD so that the description can be modified without impacting Escrow Accounting or the ALTA Settlement Statement. In the past, modifying the description would have resulted in the ALTA Settlement Statement and Escrow Accounting screens to not properly account for the Excess Deposit.

Monday, November 11th, 2019

We have some exciting new features to tell you about!  If you have questions about any of the new features, please feel free to reach out to Support and we will be more than happy to assist you!

• Although we don’t recommend using Internet Explorer, as it is no longer being supported by Microsoft, we have updated the First American Policy Upload integration to allow you to load a policy from your Local File. We have also limited the types of files you can send over, to ensure the right file type gets uploaded.  The document types that are allowed are; .PDF, .DOC, .DOCX, and .RTF.
• We have updated the Branch Product Orders integration with The Fund, a division of the Underwriter, Old Republic National Title Co., to have the “need by date” show business days.
• For users with The Fund, a division of the Underwriter, Old Republic National Title Co, we have updated the File Summary Page to now show the Shipping Labels.
• We have added a new way to set your file numbers when you create your first file for the new year! When you go to Create File or Copy to New File, you will be given 3 options for file numbers:

1. a) Reset to 1 (this will start your file numbers to 2020-1)
2. b) Continue from current (if you ended 2019 with file 2019-123, your new file will be 2020-124)
3. c) Start at ____ (you can select what number you want them to start at, for instance, 2020-1000)

 

Please note that you can’t have numbers with preceding zeros, if you enter 001, we will start you at 2020-1. 

 

You can also call our support line and we can set this for you as well.

 

5)   We have completed the Fund Policy Upload Integration with The Fund, a division of the Underwriter, Old Republic National Title Co.  This will allow you to upload your Policies from your Local File, Scanned/Saved within your ECDT File or from Generate Documents.

6) We continue to update the Endorsement Lists in various States and with various Underwriters. Please make sure you are using the Commitment Effective Date Field, so that you get the proper list.

Monday, November 4th, 2019

We have added a new question in Lookup Ernst for MA ( Duke County Only): “ Is the buyer(s) eligible for the first-time home buyer exemption?” 

If it is YES/True, it will exempt the first $480,000 of the Estimated Value from the 2% Land Bank Tax. 

A NO answer applies the 2% tax to the whole Estimated Value.

Monday, October 7th, 2019

We have some exciting new features to tell you about!  If you have questions about any of the new features, please feel free to reach out to Support and we will be more than happy to assist you!

• We have renamed Clear Field Modified Flags to Clear Manual Entry, to help it be a little more intuitive as to how to clear out manual changes on the HUD and CD (lines in green).
• We have added the CPL fee to automatically populate to the HUD/CD if you generate a CPL with Old Republic in NC, via the integration.

Also, we are continuing to update the Endorsement Lists in E-Closing, so please make sure you are using Commitment Effective Dates, so that your current files aren't affected when the list gets updated.

Monday, August 26th 2019

In your Boilerplates, if you enter text and surround it with double square brackets, you will get fill-in areas on the Text Description Screen.  For example, if you want the Recording Date and Time in a boilerplate, in "Manage Boilerplates" put [[Date Recorded]] and [[Time Recorded]] like below:

A mortgage from <<Borrower_names_anded>>, recorded on [[Date Recorded]] at [[Time Recorded]].

Now, in a file, chose the Text Description you want it to go in (Insured Mortgage/Assignment), chose the Group you put the Boilerplate in, then chose the Boilerplate and the screen will look like this:

Simply type the date in the "Date Recorded" box and the "Time Recorded" box and hit tab, and the information will fill out as follows:

 

Monday, August 12th 2019

We have some exciting new features to tell you about! If you have questions about any of the new features, please feel free to reach out to Support and we will be more than happy to assist you!

• We have made a few updates to the Common Report that you can access in ReportWriter. We have added the ability to pull the status of the file. You can have it pull ALL, Active, Closed or Cancelled. You can also add that as one of the columns, so if you select “ALL”, then you can see the status of each file on the report. We have also added the ability to use the File ID (the automatic file number) or the Lookup Number (your custom file number). We have also added “Title Processor” to the list to chose from.
• We are continuing to update Endorsements for all underwriters and states. Please make sure you are using the Commitment Effective Date on the Title Policy Screen. We use that date to make updated rates and endorsements only effect files after a certain date. If you don’t enter a date, you will get the most up-to-date, which can cause changes in your current files.
•  If you enter Flood Insurance in to the Insurance Information Screen, we will now auto-populate it to Section G (1000), similar to how the Homeowner’s Insurance functions.
• On August 1 st , we released the new Stewart Jacket Integration. You can now generate Jackets, as well as CPLs directly in your E-Closing File.
• We have updated the Old Republic EZ-Jacket integration so that CPL fees will be sent to EZ-Jacket when CPL's are generated through E-Closing.
• You can now switch between Classic and "Shiny" without having to Log out and Log back in.

Thursday, July 11th 2019

We have some exciting new features to tell you about!  If you have questions about any of the new features, please feel free to reach out to Support and we will be more than happy to assist you!

• Under Whiteboard Setup, we have added an additional filter, “Use Attorney”. This functions the same way as “Use Team” or “Use Processor” but you can have it filter out by the attorney associated with the file.
• We have added the Payoff Description to the File Summary Screen, so you can see at a glance what each payoff record is for.
• In the Text Message and Email users get informing them they have an unread message in the portal, it now references the file number and the street address.
• We will now alert users with The Fund, a division of the Underwriter, Old Republic National Title Co., if when entering a Lookup number, if any characters you are trying to use aren’t accepted. That field only accepts alphanumeric characters, dashes, underscores and periods.
• When using Checklists, if your event has a Schedule Completion based on the Close Date, if you update the Close Date in the file, and the event hasn’t been completed yet, we will update the Scheduled Completion Date automatically for you.
• Great news! When using the CATIC integration, when you void a CPL, it will now void it on CATIC’s side as well.  Previously, it would be voided in E-Closing, but you would still have to log on to CATIC’s site and void it there as well.  Now, with the click of a button, it will be voided on both sides!
• As members of The Fund, a division of the Underwriter, Old Republic National Title Co., you will have stock boilerplates to help fill out your Commitment and Policies that will be updated yearly. These boilerplates will not be allowed to be changed, and will be marked with (Read Only) next to the name.  You can view them, but are not allowed to make changes to them.  You will be able to create your own boilerplates, which won’t be effected by the yearly updates, however.

Finally, we continue to stress the importance of secure communication through our Closing Portal. If you haven't tried it out we would highly encourage you to do so and to start using the closing portal for all closing related communication.  There has been an increase in targeted phishing attacks aimed at consumers, realtors and settlement agents. Secure encrypted communication, like what is provided through the Closing Portal, is an easy way to protect yourself and your clients.  If you have any questions about the Closing Portal we have resources available in our help desk and you are always welcomed to call us for support.

Monday, June 10th 2019

We have some exciting new features to tell you about!  If you have questions about any of the new features, please feel free to reach out to Support and we will be more than happy to assist you!

• When generating CPLs with First American, some states have multiple covered parties options; Lender, Buyer/Borrower and/or Seller. With this change, each CPL you generate, will generate a CPL charge (if one is charged in your state) for each CPL.  The Lender and Buyer/Borrower will show in Section C of the CD (the 1100 Section on the HUD and GFE HUD) and the Seller fee will show in Section H of the CD (1110 Section on the HUD and GFE HUD)
• We have added a new error message on the Financial Information Screen. If your file is a REFI and you don’t have a Lender selected, we will let you know this and that we can’t calculate the various dates. To resolve, please go to Maintain File/Lender Information and select a Lender from the list.  This way we will be able to calculate the Rescission, Disbursement, First Payment Date and Maturity Dates.
• We are continuing to work on updating the Endorsement prices in all states for all underwriters. It is very important that you use the Commitment Effective Date on all of your files, as we load new rates and endorsements based on this date (with very few exceptions).  If you do not have a date entered here, the latest list will appear, which will uncheck all previously selected endorsements.  We are making these changes as part of enhancements to some integrations, and also to make sure the latest list of endorsements is available.

Thursday, June 6th 2019

• When you generate a CPL for CATIC files using the integration in MA, a $25 CPL charge will now appear on your Settlement Statement, effective June 1st.

Friday, May 3rd 2019

We have some exciting new features to tell you about!  If you have questions about any of the new features, please feel free to reach out to Support and we will be more than happy to assist you!

• For clients with The Fund, a division of the Underwriter, Old Republic National Title, on the Title Policy Screen, in the Prior Policy Section, instead of the Underwriter field being fillable, you can simply select from an Underwriter already in your Rolodex.
• We have added an informational message to the Title Policy Screen as well. In the Prior Policy Section, we added the note “This data is just informational and is not used in policy calculations.”  This was to help with some confusion when entering information for the Prior Policy.  As always, if you need to provide a discount on the policy, please be sure to enter it at the top of the page, where the Premiums get entered.
• We have updated the NH DRA forms, CD-57-P and CD-57-S to generate additional forms if there are more than two Purchasers (P) or Sellers (S).