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Thurs, December 22, 2022 @2:00 pM

Collections MAX Holiday Newsletter
 
 
The Decca Software Company wants to wish everyone a Happy holiday this holiday season. 

This newsletter will give you updates and insights to what is going on with your Collections MAX Debt Collection software.

Al Coston is retiring!
Our good friend Al Coston is retiring this year.  Al has been a certified consultant for a number of years and has provided I.T. services for many of our mutual Collections MAX clients.  I want to give Al a big thank you for everything he has done and I wish him the very best in his retirement.

The Collections MAX Payment Portal has a new echeck system
I just integrated a brand new echeck system into the Collections MAX Payment Portal.  This echeck system has it’s own web portal as well.  The fees and costs are extremely low compared to the previous system and now anyone can get approved for an account quickly.  This echeck system will eventually be integrated into our other debt collection software titles.

I recently made a blog post about how echecks can help you get around merchant processing restrictions and reserves.  You can read about it at the url below.
https://www.collectionsmax.com/index.php/how-to-get-around-merchant-account-processing-limits-and-reserves

What is in the future for Collections MAX?
For most of this year I have been working on an online version of Collections MAX called Collections MAX Cloud.  While I cannot comment yet on the capabilities and functions I will tell you that it will look and feel just like the current software you are using but it will be filled with much more advanced features than what the current software is capable of.  It’s like Collections MAX on steroids!
After I can get the cloud version out I do plan on upgrading the current Collections MAX system for Windows with many features offered from the cloud version.  It shouldn’t take me as long this time around as many of the modules will be already built by then.

Happy Holidays!

Respectfully,
Frank Coukos
Senior Software Engineer and President
Decca Software Company

 

 

Tues, March 8th, 2022 @7:00 AM

Dear Collections MAX users,
I hope everyone is doing well and gearing up for tax season.  I have a few announcements to make in this newsletter about our software, services, and integrations.

New skiptracing website for Collections MAX
** THIS HAS BEEN DISCONTINUED **

Screen Pop Relay
Not too long ago I had a client contact me that wanted to use our screen pop web service to pop calls inside Collections MAX Professional that was coming in from a dialer.  A problem arose after seeing that their dialer could only send the phone number of the call to our screen pop webservice and it couldn’t send any of the required fields that we need (like the dbase.id) of the account.
What I did to fix this is I created a PHP script that acts like a relay where you can just send the PHP script a phone number and the script will find the account in the Collections MAX database and then relay all required information to our screen pop web service.  This opens up our screen pop webservice to many other types of future integrations like Caller ID pops and much more.  More information about this script and it’s download link can be found on the following webpage: https://www.collectionsmax.com/index.php/docs/screenpop-web-service/screen-pop-relay

Database Hosting
Did you know that we offer database hosting at extremely low rates?  We can take your Collections MAX database and put it in the cloud so that you can have remote collectors.  Our plans come with or without a VPN.  Starting at $25 per month you can find more about our database hosting at the following web page: https://www.collectionsmax.com/index.php/product/database-hosting

Things I have been working on….and the future of Collections MAX
After spending the bulk of my time during the pandemic creating Payment Runner (software that auto processes credit and debit card payments) I have been working on making a version of Collections MAX that is completely web based and cross platform.  This new system will be called Collections MAX Cloud.
Collections MAX Cloud will be a hosted version of our software for a low monthly price that will have all of our software products with much more advanced features that are currently available.  I can’t yet get into all the details and features of this new system but I can tell you that many of the advanced features that I plan on integrating into Collections MAX Cloud will eventually find it’s way into your current software.  At this point I have no plans to discontinue the current software you are using but to enhance it.  These future enhancements might take a while for me to deliver as building this new web based system will be taking up the majority of my development time for the remainder of this year and part of next year at least.

Respectfully,

Frank Coukos
Senior Software Engineer and President
Decca Software Company

 

 

Mon, September 28th, 2020 @ 7:00 AM

Collections MAX version 4.1 Released

Collections MAX version 4.1 has just been released.  With it I bring you some exciting news about this release as well as a new product and new payment processing options for the system.

Administrator, Professional and Collector will auto update in a few days or you can force a product update by going to your start menu and inside the product folder click on Check for Updates.

I hope everyone is staying safe during this pandemic.  This is what I have been working on for the last year and a half…

New Product

I am pleased to announce the newest member of our family.  Collections MAX Payment Runner.

Collections MAX Payment Runner was designed to make processing credit card payments EXTREMELY simple.  The software is all automatic and it currently supports 3 different gateways!  USA Epay, Authorize.NET and NMI.
Some of the things that this software can do is as follows:
 

  • You do not need to have a partner merchant account to use this software but Decca Payments customers can use this software for FREE as long as they are using their Decca Payments merchant account to process payments.
  • Direct integration with Windows Task Scheduler allows you to set up to two different times you want the system to automatically process your payments (like 7am before work and 7pm after).  You also have the option to manually run the software at any time.
  • Software automatically logs into your Collections MAX database and processes all of your post dates and new credit card payments.
  • Automatically handles all of your DECLINED payments.  Enterprise type feature that automatically reschedules the payment for 2 days ahead and sends the debtor (if email address is on file) an email informing them of the declined payment.  This gives the debtor time to either contact their bank or contact you for updated payment information.  Decline system lets you determine how many times a payment can be ran after the initial decline before the system marks the payment as REVERSED.  This feature alone can increase your revenue substantially.
  • Capability to notify both you and the debtor of expiring credit cards.  If there are extra credit card payments on file this software can send both an email to the debtor and notate it in it’s report.
  • A detailed report will be emailed to you when this software runs to show you exactly what was processed and what was declined.
  • Integration with Collections MAX Administrator 4.1 that gives you Payment Runner template options for debtors emails that include Last 4 digits of the customer credit card number, Rescheduled Payment Date, Declined Reason and the Credit Card Expiration Date.

See the product on our website and see a video demo of it by clicking here.

New Payment Company!

So I was getting a bit frustrated because my partners are not able to board as many companies as I would like for merchant accounts so I created a new company called Decca Payments.  I partnered with over 30 banks that specialize in high risk merchant accounts for BOTH debt buyers and collection agencies.  As a bonus, all of our customers will get free access to our new Payment Runner software as well as our future online payment portal all FREE of charge (as long as they process under our account).  If you need payment processing, or would like to use this Payment Runner software for FREE or just need an extra merchant account please feel free to call us at (800) 608-5618 or visit our website at https://www.deccapayments.com
 

Version 4.1 Features.

The biggest features in version 4.1 are as follows:

  1. Custom Reports.  For years I have heard people that need to build custom reports with this software.  Now it is a reality.  Collections MAX Administrator now has the ability to create and run custom Ad Hoc reports.  A You tube video tutorial will be out shortly.
  2. Credit Reporting via Data Linx LLC  I have partnered with Data Linx LLC to provide a Metro 2 Credit Reporting system in Collections MAX.  Both Administrator and Collector / Professional have credit reporting screen with drop down menu’s to make credit reporting very simple.  You will need a subscription with Data Linx LLC in order to report credit as the Excel file generated by Collections MAX needs to be converted to Metro2 by them.  Pricing of the subscription has yet to be determined.
  3. Payment Importing   Collections MAX Administrator now has the ability to import payments.

Other upgrades now include full punctuation retention of notes and importing accounts should have way less errors than before as I upgraded the MySQL driver.

I have also implemented MANY data validation routines in all software screens to double and triple check inputs before they are entered into the system.

 

Future Plans?

I am going to create a bulk phone number remover for the Collections MAX Update Utility and System Tools program.  This will allow you to remove phone numbers in bulk from a dialer.

Afterwards I plan on redoing Collections MAX Scheduler as a console program like I did with Payment Runner and then work on an online hosted payment portal that is compatible with Usa Epay, Authorize.NET and NMI.

God bless and stay safe!

Frank C. Coukos
Preseident and Senior Software Engineer
Decca Software Company

 

Mon, April 16th 7:00 AM
**Collections MAX Version 4 Released!

The Decca Software Company is proud to announce the release of Version 4 (V4) of our debt collection system. This was a culmination of 2.5 years of work and it definitely was worth the effort.

There are two dates you need to be aware of:
May 15, 2018 – is the date that USA Epay (our current credit card processing gateway) is changing over to TLS 1.2 which is a high strength SSL cypher. Version 3 WILL NOT BE ABLE to process credit cards after that date. So anybody who is processing credit cards using the software MUST update all software to version 4 in order to continue to process credit cards through the system by this date.

September 1, 2018 – is the date that Collections MAX Version 3 will expire. We must comply with PCI mandates that version 3 is not capable doing. After this date Version 3 software will no longer work.

In version 4 Windows XP and Windows Vista is not supported . The software will only support Windows 7 to Windows 10 and Microsoft Server versions of Windows Server 2008 R2 to Windows Server 2016.

In order to update your system to Version 4 you need to do the following.

1. Please backup your database using a MySQL backup tool like MySQL Workbench or other one click tools that you can find online. You only need to backup the collectionsmax database. There are plenty of tutorials online on how to backup a MySQL database….even on Youtube.

2. Also please disable any and all triggers or stored procedures that might break the update. If your database is NOT A STOCK VERSION 3 DATABASE please consider installing a stock version3 database and using a MySQL diff tool to make the changes needed to get the database to a stock one.

3. Download our V3 to V4 updater utility from this link here: https://s3.amazonaws.com/CollectionsMAXDownloads/products/collectionsmax/V4/Setup_Database_Updater-V3-toV4.V4.0.5.exe.
You can also find the V3 to V4 updater in our NEW WEBSITE in the Downloads / Utilities section or the downloads section of collectionsmaxlicenses.com

4. If your database is hosted online please upload the utility to the server itself and run it (unless the operating system is older than server 2008 r2). Run the utility regardless.

5. It could take up to 20 minutes for the update to run on some really large databases. This update adds significant performance indexes which are now used in the system.

6. If your update fails you can restore the database (that you backed up) and submit a ticket to our support. The V3 to V4 updater has a built in debugger that will help identify the problem.

7. You can uninstall version 3 software and then install all version 4 software. They will use the same license on the computer. A note to techs….you can have the Update Utility V3 and V4 both installed on the same computer. The new installer creates a Decca Software Company folder for programs where the old installers did not. Please also remember to update Collections MAX Scheduler.

PLEASE NOTE THAT ALL VERSION 4 SOFTWARE (like Collections MAX Professional) is located inside the downloads section of your license manager at https://www.collectionsmaxlicenses.com

Please DO NOT DOWNLOAD AND INSTALL COLLECTIONS MAX COLLECTOR FROM THIS WEBSITE IF YOU PAID FOR COLLECTIONS MAX PROFESSIONAL.

I have a patch available for the Client Access Module. Anybody who has a valid license to the module can request a patch for it that will work for the version 4 upgrade.
There are new icons for all our programs.

I want to thank both our consultants Dan Chamorro and Al Coston for their support during this time.

The new website has an easier ordering system and a shopping cart. We changed our main payment processor from Blue Snap to Stripe to make it a little easier to get orders approved. The portal at collectionsmaxlicenses.com will still use the Blue Snap payment processor until I can find enough time to change that over as well.

I am currently working on the documentation to version 4 and new videos. They will be posted online in the coming weeks.

Below is a change log to give you some insight on what this update does. I hope you enjoy this as much as I enjoyed building it for you.

Respectfully,

Frank Coukos
Senior Software Engineer and President
Decca Software Company

Collections MAX Version 4
—————————————–
######################## All Releases #################################################

Full screen support
High resolution monitor support.
Partial support for multiple monitors.
Errors and stacktraces are automatically sent to sentry.io for additional processing.

Pro and Admin have 2 screen size modes.
Default mode is full screen. Clicking the middle button on the top right of the main screen will set the program back to original size mode.

######################## Collections MAX Professional V4 ##################################

Beeper Number has been changed to Alternate Phone
Delinquency Date field added to system. Can be seen in M button (media file screen)
Birthdate field displays age of debtor if a date is found.
Timer displays how long the collector has been on the account.

Custom tab phone number type added

Browser tab old google searches removed.

### SEARCH ####

No More ALL search. There are now categories to search from. This helps reduce the load on systems.
ALl search was causing too many issues on large installations.

Delete phone number utility button to remove phone numbers system wide.
Faster log access due to forced indexes. System should be snappier moving between accounts.

Pending payments are encrypted at rest per new PCI compliance rules. The software can decrypt them in memory and process them or you can run a report in Admin / Payments / report to see the decrypted values.

Check routing numbers verified with database API from the internet (Routingnumbers.info)

New screenpop mode. This mode does not require a button to be pushed prior to starting screen pop mode. It will simply bring up the last account popped on the dialer. It is the best mode to use with dialers like TMAX.

New integrated click to dial setup system (settings). Uses Web URI’s for easy connection to soft phones. Can use Skype, tel, phone, and custom uri’s for integration.

New Atlas voice mail drop integration on cell phone field (in settings / click to dial)

Email can be sent using templates. Requires permissions to be setup in Administrator and email templates created in Letters and Emails in Admin as well.

Auto update system checks server every 5 days or can be manually invoked from the Programs menu.

#############################################################################################

################### Collections MAX Administrator ##########################################

### Payments ###

Payments can be marked as DECLINED
Email can be setup and Email receipts can be created in Letters and Email.
Ability to automatically email receipts on Post.
Fee Manager with fee settings so you do not have to split fees with your client. You can bill them for these fees instead.
Ability to reconcile reversed payments from a past date so they show up on current remittance reports.
The report button and the view button will decrypt any encrypted payment information up until the account has been posted.
Victory Payments ACH verify integration.

### LETTERS AND EMAIL ###

In Scheduled letters you can bypass scheduling letters for accounts that already had an email sent out to them.
Mail Merge and Export to Excel does not require Microsoft Office.
You can create email templates for the system and insert database fields easily. The TEST button populates the fields with random test data.
Pdf converter to convert your mail merge files to pdf. Microsoft Word is only needed to setup the mail merge fields.

### Assign Work ###

Dupes Scanner will prevent accounts that are tied together to be assigned to different collectors. The rule is the oldest account of the two will go to that collector.

### Import Accounts ####

Delinquency Date is in the Misc tab
New driver coded to deal with file names. New driver is used by default. Ability to revert to old driver.
When loading the file you have the ability to remove any blank trailing lines from the csv file automatically.

### Import CSV Data File ###

Ability to automate importing. When you go to import to database you can have the software move to the next screen automatically, close out Administrator and even email you when the import is complete.
New driver from Import mapping utility. Ability to revert to old driver.
Software will not allow you to import a csv file that has been opened in Excel. This causes MySQL date time errors so we blocked it.
Software will use step 4 of 5 to put all custom fields phone numbers in the phone log IF the fields are marked as a phone number in Utilities / Custom Collector Screen.

### REPORTS ####

Reports are now downloaded from the website directly.
Reports have been setup for future custom reporting with Collections MAX Administrator Enterprise
Reports take 5-10 seconds to load. You can now export reports directly to EXCEL and other formats.
Posted Remittance between Dates report modified to include fees.
Other fees list report created in Clients tab. This list breaks down the fees if using that feature in Admin / payments.

### UTILITIES ###

Routing # database fixed. It is now used as a backup in case the API goes down.
Backup and Restore Database Utility. Optional encryption / decryption for backups.
Rescue Center has been moved to Utilities.

Email Setup in Settings.
Victory Payment Integration setup

### CLIENTS AND PORTFOLIOS ###

You can change both the client and the portfolio name

### COLLECTORS AND MANAGERS ###

Managers need permissions setup before they can login.
You can control which areas managers can use in the Administrator.

Collector permissions can restrict accounts being pulled up in Search that is only assigned to them.
Pool mode allows accounts not assigned to be auto assigned to collector if payment is taken.
Email setup is part of the permissions system.

### DASHBOARDS ###

2 NEW Dashboards. 1 for the root user. And 1 for a manager that logs in. The manager dashboard will have data on all collectors assigned to him.
The root user gets a breakdown of the payments received.

### EXPORT ACCOUNTS ###

New TCN Dialer Integration.
Ability to export accounts quickly without EXCEL.
Ability to Export basic payment data quickly without EXCEL.

################### Collections MAX Scheduler ##########################################

In settings you can enable encryption of your backups.

You can also add email settings to have the scheduler email you when the backup is finished or if there is an error.

################### Collections MAX Client Access ##########################################

Patch to fix log for V4 available upon request with verified proof or purchase.

################### Collections MAX Update Utility ##########################################

Removed Custom fields to phone log utility as it is now integrated into Collections MAX Administrator (step 4 of 5)
Added Documents and Skip Info Utility. Import pdf, Microsoft Word, data, and text files in a batch. This tool makes it easy to attach media to your debtor’s accounts.

 



 

 

Wed, January 24th 8:15 AM

** Collections MAX January Newsletter
————————————————————
Dear Collections MAX user,

In or around April of 2018 we plan to release Version 4 of our system. This newsletter is to inform you about some important changes for the upcoming version.

Version 4 System Requirements
Version 4 will NOT SUPPORT Windows XP or Windows Vista. This is because the .net framework the new version uses is not supported on those outdated operating systems. So if you are using those operating systems please plan to upgrade. The software will support Windows 7, 8.1, and Windows 10.

Version 4 will also NOT SUPPORT Windows Server versions BELOW Windows Server 2008 R2. Again this is due to the .net framework. You will still be able to install the database on the older server operating systems but you won’t be able to run the software on it.

The reason we had to change the .net framework in version 4 is because the current software does not support TLS 1.2 that is being mandated by the PCI Data Security Council which goes into effect for everybody June 2018. USA EPAY will be changing over to TLS 1.2 (a stronger encryption protocol) on May 15, 2018. Anybody who processes payments using our software will need to change over to Version 4 before May 15, 2018. Version 4 with the upgraded framework fully supports TLS 1.2

Users that do not process payments through our system can wait until September 1, 2018 to upgrade.

End of life support for version3 and below
End of life for all versions below version 4 will be on September 1, 2018. We will be dropping support for older encryption ciphers on our websites in order to stay compliant which the current software does not support. Version 3 will stop working because it will no longer have the ability to communicate with our servers for license checks…etc.

Compatibility
Version 4 software is NOT COMPATIBLE with a Version 3 database. There were too many changes to the database schema and other tables was added. We have a Utility tool that makes it easy to upgrade to Version4 that you will simply run on your system.

New website coming!
A new modern website will be up in a few weeks. We are planning to drop Bluesnap as the main payment processor and integrate a Fast Spring store.

No more paid training will be offered
We are doing away with the paid training that is currently listed on the prices page of our website and I will be posting a ton of instructional videos on You tube which can be pulled up from a menu inside Collections MAX Administrator and on the new website.

Designed for Windows 10
Most users might not know but the original software and the software you are currently using was designed for Windows XP. Version 4 is designed for modern systems like Windows 10.

More to come
I will be sending out another newsletter in a few weeks after our beta test when the new software is ready…. so please stay tuned!

Respectfully,

Frank Coukos
Senior Software Engineer and President
Decca Software Company

Collections MAX