We would like to advise our clients that Comtech's office will be closed and not accepting Member Services requests on:

Monday, August 6, 2007 - In lieu of B.C. Day

As you know, as a member you may now sign on to our new support portal and submit tickets to our technicians and then review the status of your requests. If this is simply a support question, please take a minute and submit a ticket by logging on to our Extended Support Site at the following link:

https://collectsoftware.cc/

If you have an emergency, for example, your Collect! system is down and you require assistance, please call 250-391-0466 and leave a message with your name, a brief description of your emergency and phone number you can be reached at, then someone will get back to you as soon as possible.

Have a safe and happy Holiday weekend!

Just sign on to http://www.collect.org/support and click on the link to "Training Videos". These videos can then be viewed at your convenience.

These great videos are also available on a Training CD. If you wish more information, please contact our administrative staff at 800-661-6722.

Operator Locked out by Default
This new switch in the Operator Security section of the Operator form enables you to lock this operator out of all the accounts in your database with one click. The only accounts that they can see will be accounts that belong to the operator and accounts that have been specifically granted through access control. This is an easy yet comprehensive way to apply account access control without having to set security on each account.
Please refer to Help topic, Account Access Control for details.

Browse Find by Enabled for Client Ownership
The Browse Find By functionality is now tied to a hierarchical client ownership system that allows you to use the "Owned by Client" in the Client form. This enables you to apply account access control while giving your Client users the ability to search for records using all the Browse Find By functions.

Clients and operators restricted to a particular Client # will be able to freely search for records in your database. However, they will only be able to find records within the Client # or client ownership hierarchy to which they belong. For instance, clients who own other clients will be able to see all records in their hierarchical tree, but no others. This requires some setup. Please refer to Help topic, Enabling your Clients to Browse for Records for details.

New Help Menu
Collect!'s Help menu is completely redesigned to give you fast access to the most useful topics for speeding your learning curve. View the Quick User's Guide, How To topics and Contents page to familiarize yourself with the system and learn how to use its features and functions. You can also download report libraries, training videos and 3rd party EDIs directly from the Help menu. Visit the Member Services center or download the latest upgrade. Renew your current Collect! license or purchase a new one. The new Help menu comes alive with new links, new options and revamped pages to help you get the most out of Collect!.

New Scheduler Tasks
Three new procedures are now available for scheduling through Collect!'s Task Scheduler. These enable you to run large processes at a time that is convenient to you and your system's workload. Have important processes completed before your workers arrive each morning!

Run Batch Processes
You can now schedule batch processes with the Scheduler. This feature enables you to configure the Scheduler to process contacts previously scheduled. You can schedule multiple batch processing tasks and Collect! will perform them one after another as per your settings. This enables you to perform any functions that you would normally perform through the Batch Processing, Process Automatic Contacts screen.

Run Credit Bureau Reports
You can now schedule your credit bureau reporting to run with the Scheduler. Collect! will automatically perform all of the reporting functions according to your configuation.

Generate Statements
You can now generate your month end statements using the Scheduler. Many options are available for selecting the date range for transactions to include in your statements. These tasks require some configuration. Please refer to Scheduler Task for details.

Scheduler in Tool Menu
The Task Scheduler is now available through the Tools menu. This enables administrative staff to access the Scheduler easily at any time without having to sign into Collect! as a Scheduler operator.

Electronic Payments through Collect!
The EPP package has been added to the Demo database. Reports for uploading check and credit card payments are now shipped with Collect!. Import maps for updating Debtor records with EPP return files are also included. The complete package is also available at our Member Center web site.

Combined Statement
Statement choices now include Combined Net/Gross. Flag your Client as Combined in the Client Settings and use the new CStatement report to print combined Net/Gross statements in your month end statement batch. The Combined Statement summarizes payment and commission details into separate categories so that you can easily see what was processed by your Agency and what was processed directly by your Client. The CStatement report is also available as a report sample online or you can request it from Collect! Member Services.

Header and Footer Buttons
The Report Definition HEADER and FOOTER buttons will now display YELLOW if there is a Header or Footer on the report. This makes it easy to see if a report has a Header or Footer without actually having to select the buttons.

Tax and Commission Values
New hidden fields on the Debtor form enable you to directly access Tax and Commission Rate options in a report. You may need to REBUILD your Printable Information to access these fields.

Instant Operator Messaging
This handy feature allows you to display a custom message in either the Title Bar or the bottom Status Bar of every operator's Collect! screen. Now the benefits of Messaging are available to every user. When you get your next license, this feature will be enabled at no extra cost to you. Please refer to Help Topic, Set Operator Messages for details.

Optimized Lock Requests
New Instance Locking significantly reduces waiting time for your users when large volumes of data are being processed in multi user environments.

Optimized Signon
A new optimized loading procedure caches Collect!'s application forms when the first user signs on. This means all subsequent users are signed in with minimal waiting time because Collect! does not have to reload settings for each user. If a change is made to settings, the next user will see a bit of a delay as the forms are re-cached. When the last person logs out, all cached forms are freed. The cached forms are stored "per database". In other words, if one person logs into Master, those forms will be cached for the Master database. If another user logs into Demo, a Demo database cache will be compiled as well.

Webhost Session Memory
Web Host now uses Heap Memory for input and output packets. If the 80 KB allotted by default is not enough for your purposes, you can now configure how much you want to use based on a new setting in Database Preferences. The new Web Host Session Mem KB field holds a KB packet value that you can modify, if necessary. Web Host lets you know if any received packets are too large by writing to the Application Log.

Load Debtors Across all Clients
This new switch in Import Options enables you to process all clients when importing data. You can switch this ON to have Collect! consider all your clients for correct matches to the incoming data. This is very useful for transaction imports, for instance, where payments from many different debtors might be listed for multiple clients in your database.

Revised Sample Reports Database
All sample reports have been tested and revised as needed. Samples are in PDF format so that you can easily see what the output will be. These clear samples can also be used for troubleshooting your results. All reports shipped with Collect! have also been tested and revised. Complete report libraries of all revised reports are also available at our Member Center web site. Note: If you have not done so already, request your ID and Password from Member Services so that you can access this Members Only area of Collect!'s web site. Report Libraries

Demonstration License
During the evaluation period, Collect! will use new functionality to let users know how much time remains in the demo license. You can easily purchase a license by selecting the ORDER NOW button at any time during the evaluation. This makes it very easy to keep on using Collect! seamlessly after your evaluation.

Request a License
Collect! uses a new "License Remaining" field on the Welcome to Collect! screen to let users know how much time remains in their license. This only displays when there are seven days or fewer remaining. If your license expires, Collect! gives you the ability to renew your license with a new Request License form.

Automation and Integration Spell More Collections for Collect! Users

Automated payment channels have gained focus in recent years due to their ability to meet consumer demands for simplicity and flexibility as well as reduce costs to the biller. Much of the driving force behind these trends has centered on Electronic Payments and their ability to shorten the receivables lifecycle. Whether it be through a website or automated IVR payment channel, consumers want diversity when it comes to payment options, method of payment, as well as control over frequency and timing. Billers and collectors demand faster payment notification, expedited access to funds and efficiency gains through automation. How much can automated payment channels impact your organization's profits? Most agencies experience a receivables growth in upwards of 20%% and efficiency gains of 70%% or more.

Through the Collect! / EPP payment interface you can:
* Accept Checking and Credit/Debit Card Payments
* Re-present NSF Returns Automatically
* Establish Automatic Payment Plans
* Get a Real-Time Payment Approvals

What does automation mean to your organization? EPP's experience and partnership with Comtech alleviates the need to manually apply payments and ensures that funds are transferred in an accelerated manner. For a free evaluation of your current practices or for a demonstration on how to eliminate manual payment posting using the Collect! solution, please contact EPP at please contact EPP at (877) 377-2677 or visit our web site at http://www.expresspayments.com.