Appraisal Scope Solutions Update
January 12, 2023

This update improves the performance of Appraisal Scope while resolving issues to simplify and streamline your appraisal workflow. Additionally, new enhancements improve the experience of your clients, vendors, and staff. This includes refinements to the workflow when paying appraisers via ACH.

USER EXPERIENCE
The LPA Key Number field can be exposed in the Order Form by configuring the global Settings -> Options -> Order Form -> LPA Key Number visibility. Appraisal Scope will enforce the LPA Key as an alphanumeric string to reduce data entry errors, so it can no longer be saved with an empty space in the field.

The LPA Key Number was added to the Reports table. Producing reports with the LPA Key Number can be done by creating a report using the General -> Appraisal -> LPA Key Number value. Additionally, reports can be filtered by the LPA Key Number, which can be added as a column.

We corrected an issue that occurred when newly registered client users could reset their password before approval by a staff user. Newly registered client users must be approved before password recovery requests.

The Client Company setting Change file name when emailed provides options for customizing the name of the appraisal report file when delivered to your customer. In cases where the "Deliver as Link" setting was used in conjunction with unsupported characters in the file name (e.g. hyphens), an error would occur when opening the PDF.

We resolved this issue and updated the code to automatically correct the file name string so customers can download the PDF as expected. A new prompt will also appear beneath the Change file name when emailed field is to reinforce supported characters further.

We refined the Show Disabled users toggle to improve the experience for staff users searching for disabled client users within the Add Users tab. Pagination will work as expected when viewing active and disabled client users after twenty profiles are displayed.

We improved the user-controlled settings that notify appraisers when their license and/or E&O have expired. The Expired License and/or E&O Information reminder can be configured via the Settings -> Reminders tab by choosing which day of the month the expiration notice for the license or E&O (or both) will be sent to your appraisers. The dropdown options now include a last day of the month notification.

INTEGRATION ENHANCEMENTS
ACHWorks
Appraisal Scope's integration with ACHWorks makes paying vendors quick and easy. We made several improvements to assist staff users who pay appraisers via ACH.

The Pay Multi ACH button can submit a batch of transactions to ACHWorks simultaneously rather than manually submitting individually. We improved the UI found in the Appraiser Unpaid tab by displaying the Pay Multi ACH button inactive until the user chooses two or more transactions.

Users will be prompted if a single submission, or a batch of submissions, with a payment of $0, is being attempted. Appraisal Scope will provide immediate feedback via a pop-up message for various scenarios. For example, if doing a batch submission and one or more individual transactions are for $0, Appraisal Scope will notify the user to validate the payment amount(s) before resubmitting.

When an appraiser was paid for multiple orders within the same batch using the Pay Multi ACH button, we intentionally combine the payments into a single transaction for the total amount of all individual order payments. However, for the single combined transaction submitted to ACHWorks, only one of the individual order file numbers was present in the transaction’s Memo value. This created confusion within the ACHWorks transaction reporting because it gave the appearance that a single order was overpaid.

With this update, combined payments for a single appraiser within the same batch will send the word “Multi” as the Memo value in ACHWorks. This transparency will greatly improve the experience for staff users reviewing submissions within the ACHWorks console.

We added an "ACH Tracking ID" column to the available columns configuration within the Appraiser Paid view of the Accounting tab. This new column will expose each transaction's ACH [trace_id] value to improve visibility further. The header is disabled by default but can be configured for display using the Configure Accounting widget below the logout button.

PERFORMANCE IMPROVEMENTS
One of our goals is to improve the reliability and performance of the platform constantly. We continued optimizing the code that powers Appraisal Scope to support that goal. This update includes refactoring components of the platform to improve your workflow and support your team's efficiency.