2014-04 Black Manta Release Notes

Overview

The Black Manta release is continuing the phased approach of turning up a new customer portal for clients. While there are limited front-end changes being made available at this point, the backbone of the new portal is taking shape nicely.

Additionally, Precision used this time to integrate the Help links directly into the TBS system's Help menu, open up access to some handy Custom Fields that can help manage an account internally as well as tackle some outstanding bugs and enhancements that have been in the pipeline.

 

General TBS - Enhancements & Bug Fixes

 

Integrated Help Links - Now in TBS!

Within the TBS system, additional Help links are available based on the section of the system currently being viewed. The Help links will provide quick access to key topics that pertain to the current module being worked.

The addition of these links are designed to help clients quickly answer questions and gain access to support information as well as make it easier for new TBS users to become more acclimated to the screens and field definitions more easily.

 

 

10911 - Enabling Custom Fields for All Clients

Precision is working to make all TBS fields and features available to all clients. Previously, a tab called Custom Fields was setup for a few clients and showed them a handful of fields requested over the years. The fields are mainly informational, but can provide great value when used in reporting or other internal processes.

Therefore, with this release, a new tab will be available for all clients. This new tab, "Custom Fields" can be found on the Customer, Account Settings tab. All fields will be shown for all clients.

These fields on this tab are generally informational only and serve as a place to capture details that may not fit inside of other existing modules. They can be very useful for making internal decisions regarding financial assessments of accounts as well as determining their preferences for marketing communications. While most fields are informational, there are some that do have some process impacts in TBS:

  1. Password Questions / Answers - There are 2 password questions / answers that is used by the TBS Login Page "Forgot Password" and "New User" processes to ensure the identity of the user trying to change a password.
    1. Note: The available question can be maintained in the DropDown list "PasswordQuestion" on "CustomFields". A few sample have been setup as part of the release process.
  2. Waive Late Fees - If set to "Yes", then no Finance Charges (Late Fees) will be applied to the account.
  3. ACH - If clients have the "SPEC_CheckCustomFieldsToAllowACHsForCustomers" appsetting flag set, then this field is used to allow / disallow ACH processing on the account.
  4. EmailOptOut - If clients have the "ShowGeneralOptOut" appsetting flag set, then this field is used to show an Alert message on the Customer screen when the account is first accessed.

The "Customers" permissions module is used to control access to the tab. Please be sure to work with your Precision Account Manager on any of the application settings if you desire to use functionality listed in #3 or #4 above.

8991- Flex Report Menu - Report Options are now in the menu

The Reports - Flex Reports menu has been updated to now allow quick and direct access to the Report Groups and reports within those groups.

9607 - Transaction Posting: Show Invoice# in Unpaid Charges/Debits dropdown

We updated the Invoice Dropdown list on the Transaction Posting page to include a Reference Number. The reference number is either the CheckNumber (on Payments) or the Invoice Number (on Charges).

10835 - Miscellaneous Charges: Taxable Override option now available

Miscellaneous Charges are used to automatically apply certain types of fees to an account based on a set of criteria. Examples of these fees include: Paper Invoice Fee, Regulatory Recovery Fee, Telecom Infrastructure Fee (TIF) and many others.

Generally these fees are setup system wide and automatically apply to accounts depending on their Base. However, users can "override" these fees at the account level using the Products->Misc Charges tab.

On the master Miscellaneous Charge record, the charge is flagged as Taxable or not. This was not previously able to be changed at the customer level. Going forward however, when doing an override, users now have the option to override the "Taxable" setting on a Misc Charge. The valid settings for the Taxable Override are:

  1. No Override - The Misc Charge will tax as per the system wide Misc Charge setting
  2. Taxable - This Misc Charge will be taxed
  3. Not Taxable - This Misc Charge will NOT be taxed

10602 - Custom Links Implementation & New "Links" Menu

TBS now has the ability to support "Custom Links" in the Menu and TBS Site Footer (new feature in Aquaman release). This tool can be used to show links to any external urls such as Terms and Agreements, Client specific Help documentation, links to carrier sites, etc. These links can be maintained using the tools found under Utilities->Administration->Custom Links.

Users can add:

  • URL of the desired link
  • Title to displayed in the menu or footer
  • ToolTip - text to display if the link is being hovered over
  • Target - Specify the browser window to use of the link: _Blank will open a new tab/window; _Self will open in the existing window; _Parent will open in the existing parent window; _Top will open in the existing top level window.
  • Location - specify the TBS Location to display the link: Footer will display the link in the footer of each TBS page;
    • HelpMenu will display the link at the bottom of the TBS Help Menu;
    • ServicesMenu will display the link in the Customer Portal Services menu (pending new Customer Portal);
    • CustomLinkMenu will display the link in a TBS Link Menu (new)
  • Base - The link can be associated with a single base.
    • Note: Leaving this field blank associates the link with ALL bases.
  • Agent, Customer, Internal User Visibility - indicates the type of user than will see the link.

New "Links" Menu:

Custom Links in the new Footer

Custom Links Admin Tools

9945 - Days Late Notification (use CustomerAlerts_ShowDaysLate)

Internal users currently see a red warning notification near the top of the page if a customer is more than X days late (where X is defined by the CustomerAlerts_ShowDaysLate Application Setting).

The Customer Portal now shows a similar red warning notification based on the same Application Setting

10167 - Bug: Legacy Open Order report Development

Bug Fix: Recent changes to Status / Workflow caused some Legacy Order reports to fail. These issues have been corrected.

10378 - Fix Bug: Reminder Date / User in Comments

Fixed a minor bug where the reminder would not appear to the user if the remind date was set for the current date.

Integrated Products - Enhancements & Bug Fixes

9164 - Add PICC & Toll Free Storage Fees to Integrated Product

A "Surcharge" field has been added to "Voice" type Integrated Products. This field is used to apply PICC or Toll Free Storage (TFS) Fee amount for the product.

All Traditional Product rules for applying PICC/TFS remain in tact. Specifically, the GracePeriodForPICCandTFStorage AppSetting is honored (applies a grace period before applying the initial fee regardless of product status). The fee is only applied when the Product Status is 'Active', 'Provisioning Complete' or 'Blocked'. The fees appear in the Taxes & Fees portion of the invoice/invoice viewer.

The amount will automatically be populated based on the Service Type selection. Please work with your account manager to setup default PICC/TFS amounts for each Service Type.

Other TBS Changes include:

1. The "Total Charges" summary at the top of the Product Screen will reflect these values based the applicable billing rules.

2. The Toll Free Storage Fee amount has been removed from Account Settings->Invoicing Tab.

10905 - Bug Fix: Include EFax and EFaxUsage when Importing Billing Transaction

The new EFax Integrated Product charges and usage were not being included in the usage breakdown on the Billing Transactions. This caused a validation check to fail and prevented these transactions from being created. This bug has been corrected. EFax / EFax usage is now included in the Transaction.Usage revenue bucket.

10157 - Bug: Status Workflow issue with 'Apply to Product Descendants' checkbox Development

Fixed a minor bug with Order Level Status Workflow.

We corrected a system error that occurred when applying order workflow to products that have no children but 'Apply to Product Descendants' is checked.

API Integrations - Enhancements & Bug Fixes

9076 - Enable 911 - ForceCSZ option

The Integrated Product Integration with Enable 911 now supports the "ForceCSZ" option (Force City-State-Zip provisioning).

From the Enable 911 documentation:

City-State-Zip provisioning is implemented when a location cannot be validated as a “Full” or a “Preferred Full” address. If only the city, state, and zip-code pass validation, then the address will be accepted as a CSZ entry. This functionality increases the total number of locations that may be provisioned, which ensures that 911 service can be maintained for the maximum amount of users.

However, this functionality should be used sparingly, and a “Full Preferred” address should be validated whenever possible. CSZ can be used in any of the following operations: validate, add and update.

In TBS, this option can be set on the Location Record by checking the "Force City-State-Zip" Checkbox

9086 - Enable 911 - Changing Physical Location issues

TBS has an integration with Enable 911 and our Integrated Product. The following minor bugs have been corrected:

  • Replicating a product with the E911 Network resource would, in some cases, cause the replicated products to show an error when the system tried to add the lines to 911.
  • Changing a Physical Location on a line with E911 would sometimes cause a "duplicate" address error returned from Enable 911.

 

11256 - VZ Wireless Updates

To see the Wireless Orders tab, Wholesale accounts now require Product.Add rights and at least 1 wireless product is on the account.

Wholesale accounts are no longer able to add products from the worklist.

Adding wireless products now will be created with your company's wireless defaults.

This will streamline the addition of wireless products and ensure the right users see the right products.

Yes, there are some security changes. To see the Wireless Orders tab, Wholesale accounts now require Product.Add rights and at least 1 wireless product is on the account.

Wholesale accounts are no longer able to add products from the worklist.