(Archive) GOLD 17.03 March 2017

March 19, 2017

Welcome to "What's New" and the Training Center for New Navigation!  Let's Get Started!  

Choose the learning tools that fit your learning style.

I'm just logging in.  What should I do first?

Below are some recommendations for what to do on the first day.

  • Try a search for the task you usually do first thing.  Get some tips in the release summary.

    • Enter the a word or words in the Search field (words can be in any order)

    • If you usually go right to a particular menu, enter the short name (think: MNSERV) into the shortcut box

    • Try the Category button

  • Not finding a tool you are looking for?  Check your toolset. Get some tips in the release summary.

Watch the video: CU*BASE Tools!

Watch the video: CU*BASE Preferences

Watch the video: Adding a Tool as a Favorite

I'm a video learner.  

Below is a list of videos created to teach you about the new CU*BASE navigation.

Check out these video resources:

I like step by step instructions.  

Below is a list of Show Me the Steps Online Help topics created to teach you about the new CU*BASE navigation:

I am interested in a deeper look into the screens.

Below is a list of some new/updated help topics in the CU*BASE Online Help to teach you about the new CU*BASE navigation:

I would like to read more tips in the release summary.

Below is the text and PDF of the release summary written about the new CU*BASE navigation:

Interested in seeing the release summary with pictures?  Click here to view a PDF version.  

Below is the text of the summary with links:

All Employees – New Home Page

A New Day-to-Day Experience for CU*BASE Users and Much More!

The 17.03 release represents more than a pretty new home screen.  Under the hood is a completely new infrastructure on which the network can build for years to come.  

Beyond that we looked deep to provide a great user experience.  The new CU*BASE navigation mimics trends in the marketplace: the Google generation where searching is the norm and the “it’s me” public, that desires a customized experience set up the way they like it.

When evaluating the delivery of the new “tools” instead of “options/menu” experience, we researched better ways to assist both front-end users and employees concerned with the increasing emphasis on auditing and security.  

  • While analyzing the over 1,000 tools in our system we researched the top fifty most frequently-used options and made them the first fifty tools on the list.

  • These tools never change tool number, significantly assisting security officers with the implementation of new releases and for reference in release summaries and to keep our doc up to date.

  • The design of the home page allows you to sort your list the way you like and even to set up favorites with your own number, the way you like them.

  • We’ve added 90 new shortcuts on day one!  Access to the tool means access to the shortcut. Now there are shortcuts for “stop” (stop check payment), “skip” (skip a payment on a consumer loan) and “loanq” to access the loan queue, often referenced as MNLOAN #8.

  • The learning curve for new users will be faster in a way that is designed for both keyboard and mouse users.  Employees can see only the tools they use, or they can dig deeper to see ones to which they don’t have access.

  • There are all kinds of cool new tools for data analysis and auditors too, including embedded tools explaining program names.

Once you select a tool and leave the new Home Page, your experience will be the same as it is today.  For example, Tool #1: Teller Line Posting (Shortcut: teller) still takes you directly to the Teller Processing screen where you enter the account number to which you want to post a transaction.  

The CU*BASE Home Page - Designed for the “Search Generation”

With the 17.03 release the CU*BASE menu-driven navigation system is being replaced by the new Home Page.  From this entry screen you will find a faster and more intuitive search engine, and a shorter learning curve for new users.  Search by tool number, shortcut, and by the tool description (partial or full wording).  All the search and filter features are there – right when you log into CU*BASE.

This search mechanism is not exactly like the popularity-based Google search, but rather a more consistent tool with hard-coded key words to assist you with finding just what you need.  

  • Enter a tool number in the Tool # field to go directly to that tool.  

  • Enter a word or word phrase in the Search for field.  If you need to dig down deeper, use the Exact match to find the words in the exact order you type them, or use the Search long description to search a longer description that is also found by using the Information button.

    • For example, a search of the term “collateral” returns Tool 51: Miscellaneous Loan Maintenance (Shortcut: loanmisc), the tool used to edit collateral records on a loan, even though that word “collateral” is not found in the tool name.)  

  • Let us know if you have trouble getting a search to work as we can add keywords easily!

  • The Shortcut field allows you to enter not only shortcuts, but current short menu names as well, so enter MNSERV in this field to find all the options on the current Member Service menu.  

    • We have taken this release as a good time to update the old COMENT shortcut to the new COMMENT and the old TRAKR shortcut to the new TRACKERS. As noted before, be sure to check out the 90 new shortcuts, including “stop,” “skip,” and “loanq”).  

  • Filter by Type and Category to hone down your search further.  

    • Filter by “Reports” in Type and “G/L” in “Category” to find only the General Ledger reports.  (Category is our new way of grouping similar tools, for example, now use the new Auditing category to find tools currently on the Auditing Functions 1 (MNAUDT) and Auditing Functions 2 (MNAUD2) menus.)

  • Credit union custom tools will be listed alongside all of the tools.  To see only your credit union custom tools, use the Custom button.  Then click the button again to toggle back to view all your tools.

A Personalized Experience Based on Your Employee ID

Every time you log on to CU*BASE, you will be presented with a new Welcome window.  This is so CU*BASE knows who is using the workstation and can personalize your experience just for your access privileges and favorite settings.

Enter your Employee ID and password, and the Home Page will default to show only tools you to which you have access.  (More on seeing all the tools in a moment).

  • With the implementation of the 17.03 release your personalized settings (whether ProDOC launches when you access CU*BASE, whether auto security is activated, and even your color theme selection) are tied to your employee ID.  

  • This means that CU*BASE session will looks the same every time you log in, regardless of the computer you use!  

View Only Tools Assigned to You or Dig In to Change the Tools You See

The tools listed on your Home Page will change based on the button you select in the upper right hand side of the screen.

  • Want to see your custom list of tools?  Select My Favorite Tools. (Read more about how you can make your own list and how you can even make this your default setting in just a minute!)

  • Interested in seeing just the tools you have access to?  Make sure that All My Tools is selected.  This is the default at your first login.

  • The Recommended Tools feature gives you suggestions on what tools you might want to use based on your job description.  (There is more about setting up this feature in the security section of this document.)

  • Interested in learning more?  Select All Available Tools to see a list all tools available (minus a few we use for maintenance of the system).  If the tool name is shaded grey, this means the tool is not assigned to you.

Not seeing a tool you expect to see in your listing? Check the buttons covered in this section.  You may just be looking at the wrong toolset!

Activate ProDOC Launch and Auto Security on the “Preferences” Screen

At implementation of the 17.03 release you will need to activate the settings for ProDOC and auto security to launch at login.  No preferences will be converted to the new system.

To access the Preferences screen, click the large orange Preferences star in the top bar of the CU*BASE Home Page.

If you set up the Preferences screen to activate auto security and ProDOC to launch at login, after you enter your employee ID on the Welcome window, the auto security window will appear asking you to reenter your employee ID and password. (More details on auto security in the Security section of this document.)  

  • Remember, these settings are attached to your employee ID so these selections will follow you wherever you go so regardless of the computer you log into, your CU*BASE experience will be the same.  

Permanent Tool Numbers That Never Change – Even with a New Release

Security officers and documentation writers (and readers) will be excited that original tool numbers will never change.  Once documentation is written, it will keep the same number.  Once an employee is assigned a tool, it will always stay the same tool number.  When new tools are added, they will simply be given a number not in use.  

  • Tools #1-100 were numbered based on frequency of use.  When we analyzed five of our busiest credit unions, the top 50 list came out pretty much the same!  After the top fifty, the remaining tools were ordered more or less alphabetically by description, but are essentially randomly assigned and will not follow any pattern in the future.  The important thing to remember is that the numbers will never change, even as we change our software in the future.

"It’s Me” Approach Lets You Create Your Own Personalized Tool Listing

The new navigation lets you select your favorite tools and make your own custom listing.

  • Interested in having your tools listed in a specific order?  

  • Want to make a short list of the tools you use most frequently?  

  • Think it would be handy to assign your own number that is easier to remember to a tool you use frequently?

The My Favorite Tools version of the Home Page is designed with you in mind!

To make a tool a favorite click the Star icon to the right of the tool.   A window will appear allowing you to give it your own tool number.  To see your customized tool list, click on the My Favorite Tools button.  

  • When viewing the My Favorite Tools toolset on the Home Page, the label “My #” is used, since this is your own tool number.  If you are viewing a different toolset (for example All My Tools), the star next to the tool will be colored, to indicate you have selected it as a favorite.

While you are on your Preferences screen, you can even set the “My Favorite Tools” view to be your default when you login!

Learn More About the Tools Right From the Home Page

On the Home Page you can click on the Information button next to any tool to learn more about it on the About this Tool screen.  This can be especially handy if you don’t have access to a tool yet but want to learn more about it.  

The About This Tool screen includes a short description of the tool, the permanent tool number, and much, much more.  Be sure to check out this handy resource!

Additionally the large graphics on the Home Page will give you access to an introductory video and additional training materials.  Be sure to the Need Help? and Navigating the home page buttons for assistance once you log in!

Transition Materials Available in the Kitchen and Online Help

Interested in some additional assistance with the transition?  Check out the Kitchen page devoted to the new CU*BASE navigation https://www.cuanswers.com/resources/kitchen/revamping-the-cubase-menu-system/ and look in the Cross Reference Tools and Other Reference Materials sections.  There you will find:

FAQs About the New Menu System

 

Security/Auditing

There is one group that won’t need much cheerleading. Your security officers will definitely appreciate many new enhancements we have made to security features in CU*BASE, conversion reports, and so much more!

Easier Management of Employee Security

The first thing that your security officers will cheer about is the sunset of the employee security report with cryptic Ys and Ns (shown above) and the introduction of a new interactive dashboard.

Other things big ticket items to cheer include:

  • Releases will no longer change anyone’s security settings – as noted earlier tool #s and tool assignments are now permanent!

  • A “_NEWTOOLS” category will make it a breeze to see only the tools added in the most recent release.

  • Currently if a new option is assigned to a menu and the employee has access to a menu option, they are granted access to the new option.  This goes away with the 17.03 release and employees will only get access to a tool if it is assigned.

But that is far from all that your security officers will cheer about with this release.  Keep reading for more exciting employee security enhancements.

Streamlined Employee Security Screens with Many New Features

Before looking at the new things with 17.03, let’s first look at how we have made the existing tools even better.  First stop is the current Employee Security option on the Management/Active Beta Tests menu, now Tool #327: CU*BASE Employee Security (Shortcut: security).  

At first glance you can see we have added quite a few new features to both the entry Employee Security Maintenance and Employee Profile screens.

On the entry Employee Security Maintenance screen:

  • See all your comments and notes at a glance

  • Search for employee IDs by name

  • Jump to an ID in the list

  • Sort your list the way you like (using asterisks in end dates makes it easy to sort by this information)

  • Assign many tools to a single employee/Assign many employees to the same tool

  • View the primary vault (a plus sign indicates that additional vaults are assigned)

  • The Employee Security Maintenance screen even refreshes without your needing to exit and re-enter it!

New features on the Employee Profile screen include:

  • Record all employee start dates; then sort the entry list by this date.

  • As before, the Team feature (formerly called Job Category) still lets you create templates and copy settings from one ID to another.

  • Record the NMLSR# for all employees – ready for your next custom form updates!  (NOTE: NMLSR# won’t appear on forms until you make a change to your form and we re-program it.)

  • There is even a space for the employee email addresses for use with future CU*BASE tools (watch for the first enhancement coming in a future release).

Introducing a New Feature: Job Classifications

This will allow us to make recommendations to security officers about which tools should be assigned, based on job responsibilities (more on these in a moment...)

Easily Assign Tools with the Employee Security Dashboard

From the new Employee Security Dashboard, you can easily assign tools to one employee.  Now it is very easy to adjust your Teller templates or to add new tool to an employee who just took on new responsibilities! Filtering and sorting allow you to easily find just the tool you want to assign.

Now when you assign a tool to an employee, they automatically get access to the shortcut as well!

Tools to Learn More!

After you log into CU*BASE be sure to click the Navigating the home page button on the Home Page for the following step by step directions: (They are also linked to below.)

See Which Employees Are Assigned to a Tool (And How Many Employees)

These two new features are ones we are sure you will appreciate.  

Now right from the Employee Security Dashboard you can find out all employees who have access to a particular tool.  This will be very helpful in assisting you with proofing your work when adding a new tool to a group of members or to research which employees have access to a tool.  Just select the tool and then Show Assigned Employees and a window will appear with a list!  

  • You might find you have employees with access to full account adjustment when coded account adjustment will do, for example.  With this new dashboard it is very easy to make a change to access permissions.  

Interested in the total number of employees who have access to a tool?  Check out the Employee Security Dashboard for this information as well.  Find this analysis in the # Employees column.  

Audit Your Tool Assignments at 17.03 Release Implementation

Before the implementation of the release, we recommend you run your employee security reports as a record of the permissions granted to your employees.  On the day of the release, we will place an Employee Security Conversion Report in your HOLDxx output queue.  All existing permissions will be translated to the new structure for you to review.  Use this with the new Employee Security Dashboard and on demand report to more easily review your employee security and to find out who has access to which tool.  You may find a few that you want to adjust.  

  • If you want your conversion report routed to CU*Spy, you can move it to MONTHxx or another OUTQ that is archived.

New On Demand Report for Auditing Your Security Settings

In addition to the new Employee Security Dashboard, you will now have a new Assigned Tools Audit Report which is replacing the menu security report.  Access this on demand report by selecting Tool #357: Employee Security Audit Report, currently Employee Security Reports on the Audition Functions 2 (MNAUD2) menu.  With the redesign there are no more Ys and Ns!

Understanding the Changes to Auto Security

  • Remember that regardless of whether auto security is activated or not, CU*BASE still checks against access privileges to be sure you have access to an option when you select it.  When auto security is activated, it simply does not require you to enter your employee ID and password each time you select a tool.

At implementation of the 17.03 release, you employee ID will controls what tools you see on the home page and your preferences, not just security access.  If you then activate auto security by entering your employee ID and password on the Auto Security screen, you will not have to enter your employee ID and password each time you access an option to which you have permission granted.  

As mentioned earlier in this document, you can elect to launch the auto security screen each time you login by setting it as your preference on the Preferences screen.  If auto security is not activated, you will need to enter your employee ID and password each time you access a tool.  

With 17.03 release your Home Page will now indicate of the status of auto security.  If the Auto Security window does not automatically launch when you log in (for example the first time you log in) you can launch the window with the edit button.   This feature also allows you to turn off auto security which can be helpful, for example, when there are multiple people using the same workstation.  

  • Remember that Teller Posting also has workstation security and can be set up in your Workflow Controls to require a second entry of employee ID and password every time the feature is used.  Also remember that regardless of whether you use Auto Security or not, the tool list on the Home Page will still display according to the employee ID of the person who initially logged in.  If users share a workstation, unless their access privileges are identical this could cause confusion as to which tools are shown as accessible and which are not on the Home Page.

Beginning with the 17.03 release, all employees will be able to activate auto-security unless you deactivate it (for everyone) in CU*BASE Employee Security.  Refer to the “Auto Security” topic in CU*BASE Online Help for more information.

New Job Classification Feature

On the Home Page the Recommended Tools toolset button lets users see how their access privileges match up to the access recommended by our AuditLink security consultants.  There is also a similar feature to compared recommended tools to an employee’s actual tool assignments in the CU*BASE Employee Security feature already described.

This feature is completely optional.  In order for these recommendations to be visible, your security officers must first assign one of the standard job classification codes to each employee profile.  This can be done on the Employee Profile screen accessed via Tool #327: CU*BASE Employee Security (Shortcut: security).  Until this is done, employees who click the Recommended Tools button will see no tools listed.  

The Job Classification feature is just the first phase of what we hope will become a powerful feature for helping you audit and adjust your security policies based on job responsibilities.  The first step is getting employees assigned to the classifications, then we can start inventing more features that will use these recommendations in new ways.  We welcome your feedback and ideas about how this feature should evolve!

Audit Link Can Assist You with Your Security Audit

One of the most painstaking tasks a security officer performs is the review of all employee access points to the CU*BASE platform. In many cases it is just an issue of finding the dedicated time to sit down and review every menu option each employee has been granted and adjust according to job description, risk, and segregation of duty. AuditLink can help. AuditLink has performed reviews for credit unions for over 5 years and can help you systematically review, evaluate, and update your security with a constant theme of risk mitigation and employee efficiency. Depending upon the size of the credit union these sessions last between four and eight hours. No travel is required as they are completed via web conference.

Visit AuditLink online at: www.auditlinksuite.com to learn more about their offered products and services, or call 800-327-3478 and ask to speak with an AuditLink Advisor today!

Additional Account Security Added

Account Security Added to More Tools

Account security is an existing employee security feature that controls whether an employee can do maintenance, inquiry, or post to special accounts, such as employee accounts.  With this release we are adding the following 23 tools to account security.  All newly added tools follow the “Allow Maintenance” setting.  

These new tools include options that currently exist on the Update Functions 1 menu (MNUPDT), Update Functions 2 (MNUPDA), and the transaction reversal and transaction override options on the Member Account Adjustment Tools (MNADJ) menu.  (For your reference, the following tables includes both the current menu/option number and the corresponding new tool number.)

For a current overview of Insider/Employee Type codes, refer to this CU*BASE Online Help topic.

The following tools follow the "Allow Posting" setting:

The following tools follow the "Allow Maintenance" setting:

Sunset of a Few Outdated Features

Good-bye to WMail and WCalendar…and others

As announced already, we are sunsetting the WMail and WCalendar features with this release. With the availability of online and software tools designed for communication and scheduling, this moved seemed to be a timely one.  We also sunset the Employee Register report and a few other tools that had very low usage or were not relevant with the new architecture.

The new infrastructure we built to support the new navigation will give us better insight than ever into which other tools have outlived their usefulness.  In the coming months don’t be surprised to see many more functions pulled out of service, particularly old reports, as we continue to streamline CU*BASE tools for the way our credit unions work today.