(Archive) GOLD 16.12 December 2016

December 4, 2016

CEO/Management

Enhancements to the CU*BASE Budgeting Tools

It’s been another year of development for the CU*BASE budgeting tools! As before, all of the changes outlined below are being released as part of our Active (Live) Beta initiative. Active beta allows us to get software out in the field more quickly and expand the testing process in a real-world environment. Your feedback will help us continue to refine and fine-tune these tools, so be sure to post your comments on the Kitchen page of our website.

Begin your projections after the calendar year has begun. We’re changing the restrictions so that you can now begin your asset and liability projections even after the budget year has begun, using your actual beginning-of-year balance from December month-end as your starting point.
You can use the new Budget Notes feature to attach free-form text to any G/L account in your budget. Use Notes to record the assumptions you used when calculating your budget figures (and projections, if you are using the modeling tools) so you can refer back to remember how you arrived at your figures. You’ll find buttons to access Notes on various screens used to calculate and save your budget data.
We’re also adding the ability to store multiple budgets, either for comparing budgets that use different assumptions, or for creating mid-year budget revisions. Referred to as the “budget archive,” this feature will let you store multiple copies of budgets for any year in a separate location (your “live” budget is still stored as part of the GLBALA file, as always).

As always, if you would like to work with an expert as you try the CU*BASE Budgeting tools for the first time, contact Keegan Daniel, VP Professional Services for Earnings Edge, at kdaniel@cuanswers.com.

“Losing the Love” Dashboard – A Tool to Predict Member Disengagement

Learn more: online help.

Tracking or understanding a member’s withdrawal from a relationship has been difficult to predict until now. With the new “Losing the Love” dashboard, you can evaluate your closed memberships for key indicators that signify when your member started going elsewhere for financial services. Now you can tell much earlier than when the loan is closed; for example you may find a touch point is when a member closes a checking account, cancels a debit card, or withdraws large amounts from savings over a few months.

Use the new Losing the Love/Mbr Patterns on the Management/Active Beta Tests menu (MNMGMT) to find these early patterns of disengagement on these members you lost, so you can take action on your current membership and retain the ones you have.

While this dashboard has already been in use in two credit union shops for the past several months, and is now being released to all CUs as a part of the CU*BASE Active Beta program. Active (live) beta allows us to get software out in the field more quickly by expanding the testing process into a real-world environment, in place of our more typical QC testing process. This means we need your help testing these tools! Your feedback will help us continue to refine and fine-tune the functionality, so let us know what you think!

Expanded “Full Data” Export for Credit Score History Analysis

Learn more: online help.

This enhancement was implemented as the result of an Idea form.

The Credit Score History Analysis dashboard allows you to analyze trends in credit score tiers by several filters (including loan category or loan type loan type). From our Idea Form program we received a suggestion to expand the export on this dashboard that currently only exports the accounts visible on the screen.

Beginning with the 16.12 release this export will include all accounts that fit the filters used on the dashboard. We are also adding the Excel, CSV and PDF exports as well. With these enhancements, this dashboard will become a much more useful tool for you, for example to identify trends in credit score tiers that indicate an increased risk in your loan portfolio.

Access this dashboard on the Management Analysis Dashboards 1 menu (MNMGMD).

Member Facing

Introducing Easy Access to Member Tax Forms

Learn more: Imaging Tax Forms brochure

Beginning in January you can display member tax forms online.

Once they are posted, members will find their tax statements under the new “Taxes” category in the “My Documents” area of It’s Me 247. Members will be quick to adopt this new feature since eStatements are posted in the same area.

Staff will also find it easy to research a member’s tax forms since they will access them the way they access the member’s eStatements. Once the employee uses the “Statements” button in CU*BASE Member Inquiry, they will simply select the new “Taxes” tab to find the member’s forms.

Tax statements will be loaded before the end of January, to coincide with when the printed forms are processed, and will include the following tax forms:

1098
1099-C
1099-R
5498
1098-E
1099-INT
1099-SA
5498-ESA
1099-A
1099-Q
5498-SA

NOTE: 1099-MISC forms will not be available online. You can elect to either display forms or not to display them, but it is not possible to display only certain forms. You cannot disable individual members from viewing their tax forms.

Who can use this service and how much does it cost?

Display of tax forms is available for all credit unions who use CU*Spy for their eStatements and in-house Release Managed Clients hosting their own in-house statements. A small fee of $500 per year is charged by the CU*Answers Imaging Solutions team to display the forms online. This fee is charged to all clients using this feature.

Have an in-house imaging server, but are not a Release Managed client? Sign up for Release Management today and we will waive the fee for the first year! Other options are also available. Contact Imaging Solutions for details at imaging@cuanswers.com.

Activation is a snap! Simply fill out and submit the form on the “Member Tax Forms: Frequently Asked Questions” website: https://www.cuanswers.com/products/imaging-solutions/member-tax-forms/

Collections

Add Additional Details About Loan After Time of Write-off/Charge-off

Learn more: Write-off/Charge-off Tools and online help.

The original thinking when developing the write-off/charge-off feature was that for auditing purposes, credit unions would want the data at the time of write-off to remain unchanged. Because of this, no method to edit the file containing the data was developed. With the increased use of the write-off/charge-off tool, it became apparent that there needed to be a way to add data to the file (and the dashboard and Inquiry screens) after the write-off or charge-off was completed.

Now after you have written off or charged off a loan via the write-off /charge-off loan tools, you are now able use the new Write-off/Charge-off Hist Maint on the Collections Functions menu (MNCOLL) and update information such as judgment date, bankruptcy date, or reason code. This not only gives you the flexibility to update incorrect data, but also allows you to enter data (to a limited number of fields) after the fact. Maybe, for example, you did not know the judgment date at the time of the write-off or charge-off. These changes are then recorded in a tracker and to the daily maintenance file.

Teller/Member Service

Print Several Teller/Member Service Reports to the Printer of Your Choice

Learn more: online help.

If you have ever wished you could print your teller closing report to a different printer, or even to your HOLDxx outq, now you can! When closing your teller drawer a new window will open allowing you to select your printer. Remember that if your credit union has deactivated these reports altogether via the Teller/Member Service Workflow Controls on the General Configuration 1 menu (MNCNFC), you won’t notice any difference, but if your tellers routinely print hard copies of their closing reports make sure they are aware that they’ll be seeing this new pop-up window from now on.

We added the functionality to select your own printer to the following screens:

Teller Drawer Close (as mentioned above)
Disburse Funds to Escrow Payee on the Extended Loan Processing (MNEXLN) menu
Loan Quoter

See Code Word When Serving Another Owner

Learn more: online help.

The Currently Serving feature allows you to set CU*BASE to assist the person in front of you. Currently when you assist a joint owner, the primary member’s code word is not available on the Verify Member screen.

Starting with the 16.12 release, we have redesigned the left panel of the Verify Member screen (used to confirm the identity from several places) and have added a code word section below the personal information. This area now shows the code word for everyone who comes to the teller line. (Remember this will be the code word for the membership being accessed, meaning it will show the same whether you are serving the primary member or a joint owner.)

Accounting/Back Office

Updated 1098 Form for 2016 (Available in January 2017)

The year-end Tax Form 1098 Mortgage Interest Statement for 2016 has additional reporting requirements, including mortgage principal balance at beginning of year, mortgage origination date, mortgage insurance premiums (if $600 or more) and the property address (if different from the Payer/Borrower’s address). In addition the form is being re-sized to 2-on-a-page rather than 3-on-a-page.

The new version of the tax form will be used when forms are produced during January 2017. Review your Year-end Processing Guide (see “What’s New for 2016?”) for more details about tax forms processing, including instructions for verifications you should be performing now, in preparation for year-end.